Questions on GA9201B with DSP

[wayneawh]

Hi,

I recently bought a GA9201B unit for my 2000 540i.
https://www.*****.com/Android-Car-GP...VD-Player.html

Since the car has the DSP option so I purchased the A0582 extension harness.

But I could not find the 17/40 pin connector in the trunk. I even took out the spare tire and removed both the AMP and CD but there connection is nowhere to be found...

Can someone give me some advice?

Thanks.
Wayne


This is what it looks like in the trunk.
IMG_20190412_0925440.jpg


DSP on the radio.
IMG_20190412_0926085.jpg

[Jaaap]

Your images don't work for me. They make me login to gooogle first.

Edit: yes they work now.

[wayneawh]

Your images don't work for me. They make me login to gooogle first.

I have fixed the images. See if that works now?

[RosieE39]

The radio unit is behind the flap with the tape/cd player.
You don’t need the extension harness.

[edjack]

Your link is bogus.

[masbury]

That's because he bought and linked to an E O N O N which the server flags with a security warning *****

[texasbmw530i]

Speaking of the E O N O N units. I purchased one for my E39 over 2 years ago and it has worked perfectly .. no problems at all.

Full of great features. Super sound, an amazing GPS and fantastic display. The best $300 I've ever spent on a car upgrade. It looks
absolutely like it came off the BMW assembly line. The only negative thing I can say about it is the mounting brackets. They took a
bit of modifying to get the unit to fit perfectly, but it's was well worth it.

I still don't get the server blacklisting this product line. What other things have they blacklisted ? Seems a little fishy to me. Let the
forum members do their own research and make their own purchasing decisions.

[DennisCooper]

Hi,

Texasbmw530i - You are one of the 'lucky' ones ! When they were sponsors on this forum, many members purchased and a lot of them began to experience issues/problems, some from day 1 others over time. When asking for support, it was little to non existent. As more and more owners reported issues it got to the point it looked embarrassing so they were either asked to leave or were removed. A short while later, they appeared on the other big USA BMW forum and became sponsors. many members purchased and a lot of them began to experience issues/problems, some from day 1 others over time. When asking for support, it was little to non existent. As more and more owners reported issues it got to the point it looked embarrassing so they were either asked to leave or were removed. A short while later, they appeared on they also appeared on the UK centric M3cutters forum and became sponsors. many members purchased and a lot of them began to experience issues/problems, some from day 1 others over time. When asking for support, it was little to non existent. As more and more owners reported issues it got to the point it looked embarrassing so they were either asked to leave or were removed.

I think you can see the pattern here!

There's a relative handful like yourself who got units that worked fully and properly from day 1 out of the box and continued to do so over time.

So there's nothing fishy or untoward as you put it.

Currently they're over on the E46 Fanatics forum and from the various posts which are most up to date and current, you can see many members with issues and niggles and more who have fully working units, so anyone purchasing hopefully will see that forum in searches and as you say make up their own mind. Personally, I think they need to be a max of $99 USD retail with importers getting them in bulk shipments of perhaps 25-50 units at $59 with all costs. I say this as they use generic/cheap tablet internal electronics and components. Whilst a couple of their units 'look like' the OEM 16:9 monitor, they similarly use cheaper grade materials as well in order to bring prices down in terms of manufacture.

Wayneawh - I wish you good luck with your unit once you get it installed and working. Have a search around this and other forums for threads where there were some workarounds from perhaps 7-10 years ago on how to fit an aftermarket unit and clunkily make it work with the DSP amplifier. If you want to make life easier, I'd say remove the old DSP speakers and amp and use the on board amplifier to power aftermarket speakers instead - if anything the inbuilt amplifier to the unit is more powerful than the old DSP amp anyway!

Cheers, Dennis!

[texasbmw530i]

Dennis ....

While I have no dog in this fight and am in no way associated with E O N O N or their products I can only speak from my own experience, which as I
mentioned was extremely positive.

You state that "There's a relative handful like yourself who got units that worked fully and properly from day 1 out of the box and continued to do
so over time." May I ask how you know that ? How did you get those statistics to state that so categorically ? They appear to be a large company that
has most likely sold thousands of units for many different types of vehicles.

I do agree that the units come with practically no instructions included but they have full instructions available on line. As far as tech help I had two
questions on the wiring which I called about and received a call back the next day with full details.

So it is what it is,

Dennis (also)

[DennisCooper]

Hi Texasbmw530i,

I'll give you a little more insight;

Back in 2009, I was at the SEMA show in Las Vegas which is an industry level event and had a good look around. When it came to car audio, a section had some Chinese exhibitors and I spoke to them to find out more. Some key questions and I guess the main one was when I asked about if they had audio grade quality internals/components to which the answer in a round about way was 'no'. At that point I decided to continue looking around the show and wouldn't be interested in becoming a UK representative to sell these units. Over the years since then, various businesses in the UK did import them and a few of them I visited and spoke to at events and shows here. I got excellent information on how the businesses were finding them for sales and then returns and warranty repairs etc. I didn't meet/know them all but there's been perhaps 5/6 or so since 2010'ish. Each and every one of those either went out of business or dropped them from their product line up. Within the industry, the UK's well known, prestigious and experienced car audio dealers/installers all would say they'd not stock them nor fit units people brought into them to fit due to low quality and reliability and then them having to waste time and money most likely within a short few months when customers came back complaining the reason their unit wasn't working anymore was due to them messing up the installation.

Over the years, the forums as mentioned above, had many threads on how to fit them in amongst all the 'issues/problems' threads. A lot more information about them also came out and what you'll find now is that there's perhaps 3/4 factories somewhere in Shenzen probably, that pump these units out en masse. Middle man 'brand' names then buy them in batches, install a software skin, put on a logo and market them on ebay/amazon and of course, the BMW forums. 'Brands' like E ono n, pumpkin, Erisin, Hualingan, doogee, xtrons (who's represenatives I met at CES 2010) and many other Chinese sounding brands are all middle man resellers in this way. Some are larger resellers compared to others, one of the UK's businesses that imported such units around 2010/11 I met and spoke with as they were based a 45 minute drive away. Aside from their Car Audio and electronics business they did other products imported from China and spoke fluent Mandarin and visited China 2/3 times a year - they weren't Chinese by ethnicity either. They 'discovered' that the brand they were importing were a bunch of people perhaps 10 or so in rooms they rented in a shared businerss building - they thought they were indeed in their own warehouse/manufacturing facility. Maybe 'E no no' do now manufacture their own units, but I personally doubt it. They've perhaps grown over the last 5+ years for sure, but I'd suspect they're not as 'large' as they make out to be.

If you combine industry level contacts and discussion, talk to independent importers and dealers, look on the forums, talk to people at car shows/events, there's a fairly clear pattern. Perhaps the unit's in the last couple years have had more reliable units go out - only those middle man resellers in China know the 'actual' sales figures - but there's no one in the sector that values reliability, quality and performance that stocks/sells these units. No one wants to spend thousands of Dollars/Pounds buying a batch of units with high return/failure rates and/or warranty repairs etc. None of the resellers offer an importer a solid warranty/repairs guarantee, so 100% of the risk is with the importer.

The day I find a chinese reseller/manufacturer that offers a dealer/importer a SOLID dealer backup and support channel, I'll consider selling them, but only if they improve the quality of their internal electronics/components to reduce chances of issues. And that's where the problem lies, in order to do that, they'd have to heavily invest in every aspect to increase quality massively and that's just simply way too expensive for the 3/4 actual manufacturers of the physical units themselves.

As I say, you've been one of the relative 'few' who've had/got a longer lasting, fully working unit. You also got some support as well. Many others didn't get either of those and still don't (take a look at some of the recent purchasers on E46 fanatics) I'm coming from the Industry level and a business perspective and due to all the above (and technical aspects etc) I decided to design, create and manufacture my own solution.

Cheers, Dennis!

[Jaaap]

Thanks for the insight, Dennis.
It's exactly the same with every other product from China: great specs, poor quality, poor support unless you can still revoke payment.
Chinese products are only good if the quality control is done outside China by a reputable brand.

[wayneawh]

Didn't expect this thread to go this deep. Yes I did ask for support from e o non and they are a bit slow on response but they did reply eventually. (2 days later after I sent the inquiries ) I just sent my car to the shop to get the rear bushing and sway bar links fixed so I don't have the car to check the install. Probably next Wednesday or Thursday I can work on it.

Thanks for the reply!
Ps: well I paid thru PayPal so I am not totally doomed if the unit didn't work. PayPal should have most of my a$$ covered.

[texasbmw530i]

Wayneawh ....

I think you'll love your new unit. It takes a bit of work to channel the wiring to the backup camera, the GPS antenna, and the microphone (which I installed between the little grill on the overhead) but no matter what brand of unit you purchase you'll have to do this anyway. As I previously mentioned it takes some modifying to get the two mounting brackets to fit properly, but i eventually got a perfect fit.

Please give us some feedback on your experience.

[wayneawh]

Ahh... I took couple hours yesterday to remove the MID and the tape player.
However, all those work were useless since the unit won't boot up!

Is the something wrong on the wiring it seems like the unit couldn't get any power from the harness?

So sad right now..
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