OK, goin' long here....
Well, if I had a way to put in an XM Commander, where it looked good, I would be satisfied w/that. That's what I did w/the Concours and the Riviera. I can get the dash kit painted if necessary.
In the Concours it has the 11 speaker system. I had an under-the-ashtray fiberglass pod made that fit the XM Commander display, they painted it buttercream to match the interior, and bolted it to the ashtray. It looks sweet and matches PERFECTLY. The system is otherwise stock.
In the Riviera, I had the 4 disc slide out CD storage compartment removed, a fiberglass insert made to fit and painted to match, and the XM Commander display goes in there. It too looks as factory as you can get for an add on display. I did put in a small (appx 12" square 1 speaker sub) to supplement the terrible "Concert Sound II". It helps, but doesn't sound wonderful even with.
Both are wired FM Modulated, and are controlled independently from the HU -- either by the display buttons or IR RC. Both look as close to factory as you can get. I've had people (admittedly that don't know much about car audio) think they were factory just based on the quality of the install.
Coming to the ETC...before even buying the car, I've been trying to figure out how to get XM in it. The IDIOTS at Terk left on their website an XM Direct adapter that was supposed to operate through RDS to display the XM info, and an RF remote to control the tuner. That would have been ideal -- EXCEPT FOR THE FACT THAT THE FOOLS NEVER ACTUALLY PRODUCED IT! I thought it might have been discontinued, and I might have to get in off eBay or through a distributor or something...but no. "We never made that..." was the lame answer I got.
The problem w/an XM Commander is that I don't want to stick something onto or otherwise cover the Zebrano. The only cubbyhole anywhere is the popdown sunglass case -- and even if they could put it up there, I really don't want to screw around w/the headliner.
The sound quality of the stock Bose is acceptable. Let's put it this way -- if that HU was XM compatible or if that RDS thing miraculously was invented -- I wouldn't change anything.
However, it does sound strange at times -- and it's sounded the same on every ETC I've test driven, using the latest Maroon 5 CD and the latest Kanye CD as testers. I don't know if it's bass distortion or the Bose processing, or what, but some songs have a very strange bass note. I think that would be much more noticeable on CD though, than on XM -- and the vast majority of my listening is XM.
My Alpine is the 9820XM (I think that's the number), which actually has the XM tuner built into the HU -- it was the first one that had that (not sure if others came along after). I'm assuming there's a wiring harness that makes the door chimes, steering wheel controls, etc. work just like the factory HU. I don't want stuff to not work just b/c I switch stereos.
The Alpine is underpowered on its own -- I never put in an external amp in the RM. Can it use the Bose amp, or would it need to be replaced? (I'm not even sure how the Bose is amp'ed -- is it in the HU? A central AMP but not in the HU? Or individual speaker amps?)
Also, I can't do a sub as big as the one you have. I need the trunk space, but I also don't need that much bass. I could do one maybe a third the size of yours, or maybe a little bigger if I need an external amp. Will the Bose door and deck speakers suffice, especially if I get a sub?
Will the Seville HU that is XM compatible fit in the Eldo? There is that other Sirius thread going, but never really knew if that would apply to an Eldo or not.
If I'm going to go aftermarket, I'd just as soon use the HU I've got. Considering how good yours looks, it alleviates a lot of my concerns. What other options do you see?
THANKS!
