My Dynavin N7 Review

[vlksdragon]

As much as I love the M5, one of my strongest initial complaints was the stock M-Audio system. Frankly, it's absolutely terrible, so I looked into a number of different options. Given my criteria of adding bluetooth phone capability, not deviating too much from the stock look, USB connection for music and initial integration with the stock dsp but with the ability to expand away from dsp in the future, it seemed like the Dynavin N7 unit was the obvious choice.

I did have some hesitation due to my experience with and preference for established car audio names, but Jeff's (J&T Distributing) reputation for support pushed me to take the chance.

Here are my observations and critiques:

Sales and Support:

There's nothing to be said that hasn't been said before regarding Jeff's stellar sales support and ship times. It's as good as their reputation suggests.

Installation:

I have plenty of experience installing custom systems, but overall the install for the N7 would be fairly easy even for a beginner. Outside of figuring out how to disassemble the E39 interior, getting the unit to lock into the mounting bracket was the hardest part (as others have experienced). The plug and play harness options made everything fairly easy, although I did have some issues with some loose connections in one of the adapter harnesses causing some loss in sound.

All in all, it took me about 4 hours of install time, much of which was taken up researching interior disassembly videos on youtube. Installation was more time-consuming than difficult.

Setup and Usage:

While the manual certainly has some language issues, the unit and interface is fairly intuitive to setup and use. I don't have any experience with the N6, but overall the display is crisp with good resolution and little glare, and the menus are easily understood, if a little outdated.

Audio

I was quite shocked at the improvement in audio quality while still using the stock dsp and speakers, but perhaps this is just an indication of how bad the stock unit really is. While it's still far from high-end sound, it was a substantial improvement, and I look forward to eliminating the stock dsp and speakers when it's time.

The quality of the bluetooth audio and phone calls also seem to be good with no complaints about the phone microphone.

Things I Don't Like:

• This may be operator error, but whenever the unit turns on, it doesn't revert to it's previous volume setting. Rather there seems to be a default volume.
• No fader control when you are using factory dsp.
• Music data text, especially for radio, could be larger.
• I did lose sound once, and it required restarting the car. This was only once, but hopefully it doesn't portend future problems.
• The lack of OBC integration is disappointing. Hopefully that will change with future firmware updates.

It remains to be seen how long term reliability and support is, but otherwise it has been a great upgrade from the stock HU with modern features and a fairly easy install, and I would recommend it.

[edjack]

You may wish to browse these Stereo topics, but they are dated: http://www.bmwtips.com/tipsntricks/

[amancuso]

I find the stock M-Audio system superb. Granted the head unit is antiquated, but it does have the latest 2015 nav software, bluetooth phone, aux in and satellite radio.

[777300ER]

OBC functions will never happen on a dynavin unit in our cars. Too bad. At least there is the Reisler interface.

[geargrinder]

I find the stock M-Audio system superb. Granted the head unit is antiquated, but it does have the latest 2015 nav software, bluetooth phone, aux in and satellite radio.

Always funny how people have radically different opinions on the same audio setups.
Vlksdragon don't take this personally, this isn't pointed at you although you take the opposite view to a-man and somewhat lesser degree to myself.

I'm an audio-fan and hobbyist for sure, but at same time mostly a skeptic...
And IMO there's a huge segment of the audio (car and otherwise) scene that are radically non-objective, and are just deeply dug into:
- Anything 'stock' or 'base' or even inexpensive sounds like sh17, and I don't even have to listen to it to determine that, because my mind's made up, but of course if and when I do listen to it yes! Of course my expectations are met! I KNEW it was gonna be crap and it was!
- Any mods / aftermarket parts I do sound amazing and are just a massive step change in sound.

While some people are for sure more discerning than others, I'm not a huge believer in 'golden ears' who tend to be morons who are convinced of their own specialness and who are mainly fantasizing things out of thin air and suffering from absolutely massive placebo effects and confirmation bias. For sure if you are more discerning and pay attention, you may be more sensitive and aware than your normal person. Some people have more high-end hearing loss than others also... But when you reach a certain point, these special-ear wankers start to become just wankers who are makin' stuff up. Oh and constantly subconsiously making the volume-quality error (i.e. 99% of the time something played a little louder sounds better, and the audiophools add-new-component, crank-it-up-little-more for the listening test, and... "ZOMGSOMUCHBETTER!") One should try to be an objective realist and open to the idea that while pricetags and brands and effort mostly correlates to improvements, there are exceptions to those rules as well, in both directions (fancy new bling that sounds mediocre, and 'stock' stuff that is surprisingly good), most audiophools are rigidly not this, although they always rigoursly claim to be 'objective'.

Bringing the general down to the specifics of the case... My view is...

The E39 base audio stuff is OK. Not as bad as its made out, but def not great, so... 'just OK'.
The "look cheap to the elitist who needs to see fancy bling" speakers are really not that bad. But factory config has location problems that cause poor sound stage.
The headunits are mediocre, but, if they are fed a good quality signal - using the CD player or Aux - and you're using out-board amplification, they seem to pass through pretty well...
The factory outboard amps are always underpowered and that's a real problem. (base or DSP).
The DSP amps are more problematic for other specific reasons (bad crossover points and cut-offs specifically for the sub).
Despite the factory cheap-looking speakers being actually pretty decent, that doesn't rule out speaker improvements making a difference. They aren't the main bottleneck, but, they can be improved.
All the audio setups are a PITA to upgrade unfortunately, due mainly to the factory 10-way systems, but worse w/ the DSP not sending 4 channels to the back.

The M-Audio setup indeed sounds really surprisingly pretty good to me, so I tend to agree w/ A-man, however I've pointedly-listened to only a couple of cars, and one def had speaker upgrades, and the other I don't know if it did or not.

[computiNATEor]

OBC functions will never happen on a dynavin unit in our cars. Too bad. At least there is the Reisler interface.

Right, but you can get an Android head unit that will work with the factory OBC.