Metra kit is out
02-01-2009, 12:19 PM
#851
I zoom therefore I am.
Just a few points:
1. The corksport finish isn't a slightly closer match to the stock piano black finish.. it's an exact match to the piano black finish. After having seen the metra in person I was shocked at how badly it looked.
2. Being able to put my name, a funny saying, a slogan, etc in the stock display wasn't something that interested me.
3. The "gaps" that people refer to often on the corksport kit are brackets that are finished in matte black. The material in the gaps matches the textured black plastic used in the rest of the cabin. Yes you can see them but it still makes the whole install look stock. This is one point that I agree with the metra users but to me it wasn't a big deal and now i've grown to like the look
4. I'm glad there is more then one option for a dash replacement. Choice is a good thing with our cars. I just felt the need to post because I think some new people might not even know there is another option out there.
1. The corksport finish isn't a slightly closer match to the stock piano black finish.. it's an exact match to the piano black finish. After having seen the metra in person I was shocked at how badly it looked.
2. Being able to put my name, a funny saying, a slogan, etc in the stock display wasn't something that interested me.
3. The "gaps" that people refer to often on the corksport kit are brackets that are finished in matte black. The material in the gaps matches the textured black plastic used in the rest of the cabin. Yes you can see them but it still makes the whole install look stock. This is one point that I agree with the metra users but to me it wasn't a big deal and now i've grown to like the look
4. I'm glad there is more then one option for a dash replacement. Choice is a good thing with our cars. I just felt the need to post because I think some new people might not even know there is another option out there.
02-01-2009, 04:05 PM
#852
Rotarydude
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Was the audio pilot thing on the old bose system controlled from the amp, or from the HU itself? I swear sometimes when I accelerate away from a stop sign the music gets louder, and gets a little quieter when just idling, which is what the auto volume control on the old Bose HU was doing...
I've been meaning to redo my ground for a while now, but it's been way too cold outside for a while (no garage). Installed in early November, probably won't touch it again until April, lol.
I've been meaning to redo my ground for a while now, but it's been way too cold outside for a while (no garage). Installed in early November, probably won't touch it again until April, lol.
The Audio Pilot was off before I swapped in the new headunit. Doesn't seem like there's much we can do about it with the exception of swapping in the stock headunit again (PIA)... If anything it will encourage me to save more money so I can afford to swap out the rest of the bose pieces sooner.
02-01-2009, 04:17 PM
#853
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Hey Ralphy were you able to determine if your system was doing it or not? I'm just noticing it now on my system... At first I thought it was just me since I just swapped out the head unit, but now I'm pretty convinced mine is doing it. I've been thumbing through my Kenwood manual (DDX712) to see if there's something like that as a "feature" that I can disable, but haven't found anything...
The Audio Pilot was off before I swapped in the new headunit. Doesn't seem like there's much we can do about it with the exception of swapping in the stock headunit again (PIA)... If anything it will encourage me to save more money so I can afford to swap out the rest of the bose pieces sooner.
The Audio Pilot was off before I swapped in the new headunit. Doesn't seem like there's much we can do about it with the exception of swapping in the stock headunit again (PIA)... If anything it will encourage me to save more money so I can afford to swap out the rest of the bose pieces sooner.
I still need to go and swap back to RCAs and hopefully fix my ground problem, though. I'm hoping to figure something out then (when it warms up a little more).
02-01-2009, 06:23 PM
#854
1. The corksport finish isn't a slightly closer match to the stock piano black finish.. it's an exact match to the piano black finish. After having seen the metra in person I was shocked at how badly it looked.
Horseshit man, Metra modeled their kit after my hand fabbed one, take a look at the attached pic and tell me it looks terrible compared to those cheesy pieces of abs that stare at you everday from yours, maybe the paint isn't perfect, but you can't tell me the kanatech kit is a perfect match unless they're using the same people Mazda uses to paint them, and mine deifintely looks WAY more stock than yours.
2. Being able to put my name, a funny saying, a slogan, etc in the stock display wasn't something that interested me.
So if the kanatech had it you wouldn't use it? c'mon man, give me a break.
3. The "gaps" that people refer to often on the corksport kit are brackets that are finished in matte black. The material in the gaps matches the textured black plastic used in the rest of the cabin. Yes you can see them but it still makes the whole install look stock. This is one point that I agree with the metra users but to me it wasn't a big deal and now i've grown to like the look
This is the point I'm trying to make, if you pay over 400-500 for a piece of plastic and a tiny box, shouldn't your deck fit perfect? How can you say it looks stock, it straight up doesn't, to me it looks like they f-ed up the mold and were to cheap to correct it.
4. I'm glad there is more then one option for a dash replacement. Choice is a good thing with our cars. I just felt the need to post because I think some new people might not even know there is another option out there.
riiiiight, I'm beginning to think you're trying to reason your purchase, c'mon dude, people already know there are options, why steer them towards the most expensive one? Why not just leave well enough alone already, prior to Metra taking the plunge we were very limited, it was either 5-600 bucks for the kanatech, or even more to custom fab something and relocate the radio, or you could mount something on top of the dash but then you were stuck with the oem radio still in place, none of those were cost effective where now you can put a radio in your car for a lot less. What is it with corksport owners, if you don't like the metra and are happy with your setup, great! awesome! why waste your time in a thread about a product that is "terrible" etc.?
I'm done with this, I got the same round of **** when I first posted about the development of this kit and it gets old, I tried to give our community an alternative and it happened, if you really think spending the extra 3-400 bucks just because the finish might be off a hair then more power to you, keep in mind you can have a better fitting kit for much less, even if you decide to have it professionally painted it will still cost less, and still look better, and still offer more features as well. /done
Horseshit man, Metra modeled their kit after my hand fabbed one, take a look at the attached pic and tell me it looks terrible compared to those cheesy pieces of abs that stare at you everday from yours, maybe the paint isn't perfect, but you can't tell me the kanatech kit is a perfect match unless they're using the same people Mazda uses to paint them, and mine deifintely looks WAY more stock than yours.
2. Being able to put my name, a funny saying, a slogan, etc in the stock display wasn't something that interested me.
So if the kanatech had it you wouldn't use it? c'mon man, give me a break.
3. The "gaps" that people refer to often on the corksport kit are brackets that are finished in matte black. The material in the gaps matches the textured black plastic used in the rest of the cabin. Yes you can see them but it still makes the whole install look stock. This is one point that I agree with the metra users but to me it wasn't a big deal and now i've grown to like the look
This is the point I'm trying to make, if you pay over 400-500 for a piece of plastic and a tiny box, shouldn't your deck fit perfect? How can you say it looks stock, it straight up doesn't, to me it looks like they f-ed up the mold and were to cheap to correct it.
4. I'm glad there is more then one option for a dash replacement. Choice is a good thing with our cars. I just felt the need to post because I think some new people might not even know there is another option out there.
riiiiight, I'm beginning to think you're trying to reason your purchase, c'mon dude, people already know there are options, why steer them towards the most expensive one? Why not just leave well enough alone already, prior to Metra taking the plunge we were very limited, it was either 5-600 bucks for the kanatech, or even more to custom fab something and relocate the radio, or you could mount something on top of the dash but then you were stuck with the oem radio still in place, none of those were cost effective where now you can put a radio in your car for a lot less. What is it with corksport owners, if you don't like the metra and are happy with your setup, great! awesome! why waste your time in a thread about a product that is "terrible" etc.?
I'm done with this, I got the same round of **** when I first posted about the development of this kit and it gets old, I tried to give our community an alternative and it happened, if you really think spending the extra 3-400 bucks just because the finish might be off a hair then more power to you, keep in mind you can have a better fitting kit for much less, even if you decide to have it professionally painted it will still cost less, and still look better, and still offer more features as well. /done
02-01-2009, 07:19 PM
#856
I zoom therefore I am.
I realize you're a die hard metra guy and that's fine. But don't feel every mention of an alternate kit is somehow bashing on yours.I'm sorry you feel that the finish on the metra kit as it stands is ok. I've seen one in person and it's far from it. I've also read the posts in these forums from other metra buyers who have had issues with it. I didn't have to sand and repaint my "piece of plastic". I'm not breaking new ground calling it sub par.
Does the metra kit fit an after market radio with no need for "wings", yes it does. Metra has done a vastly superior job of fitting their unit to after market HU's then Corksport/Kantech. You make sure to drive this point home often so I'll start driving home my "the metra kits piano black finish does not match the stock piano black finish" point.
I do have one question for you. What is the price point that you should spend on a kit that is released with firmware issues? 100, 200, 300? There comes a point where money spent on initial puchase vs time spent fixing issues becomes a problem. I'm glad to see that metra is getting out firmware updates (not so pleased with how much they charge for their cable), but this is something that only benefits people who buy a metra kit with the new firmware.. not the first batch of people who have to come here and wait for a cable to be sent.
Having said that it's really cool to see how this forum is truly helping each other out. To those people who made the cable purchase and then took the time and effort to send it around to others... kudos. You are the kind of people that make this forum a valuable resource to everyone.
If you had actually bothered to read my post you'll see that I didn't bash on Metra and actually made the comment that having choices is a good thing. The metra kit came out and gave not only another option for buyers but one with extra features (custom text).
02-01-2009, 09:05 PM
#857
Gets the WORST mpg
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Hey Ralphy were you able to determine if your system was doing it or not? I'm just noticing it now on my system... At first I thought it was just me since I just swapped out the head unit, but now I'm pretty convinced mine is doing it. I've been thumbing through my Kenwood manual (DDX712) to see if there's something like that as a "feature" that I can disable, but haven't found anything...
The Audio Pilot was off before I swapped in the new headunit. Doesn't seem like there's much we can do about it with the exception of swapping in the stock headunit again (PIA)... If anything it will encourage me to save more money so I can afford to swap out the rest of the bose pieces sooner.
The Audio Pilot was off before I swapped in the new headunit. Doesn't seem like there's much we can do about it with the exception of swapping in the stock headunit again (PIA)... If anything it will encourage me to save more money so I can afford to swap out the rest of the bose pieces sooner.
And for everybody who is putting entries in this thread about the Corksport kit, This thread is titled "METRA kit is out" not "CORKSPORT..." So go start another thread about the differences of the Corksport vs Metra cause the rest of us in here want to talk about our Metra kits and not argue with the rest of the corksport kit people.
Last edited by limpbozkit; 02-02-2009 at 01:14 PM.
02-01-2009, 10:11 PM
#858
They made me buy my RX8.
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Ok limpbozkit has it also. So I guess this may be a Kenwood issue then?
I've been wondering about some of the problems I've been having with my setup, if they're not more coming from the HU than the car. Like the little bit of white noise I get through the speakers, which should be due to me not using the RCA's... I get more white noise when it's warmer outside... that one is confusing me. That white noise and the slight volume changes are the only problems I'm having. I'm only really concerned with fixing the white noise issue.
What concerns me is if I switch to RCA's and still get some white noise out, does that mean my stereo is the culprit and it's either a) broken or b) low quality? My wife's (much cheaper) Kenwood has none of these issues, so I'm more lead to believe the issues arise from mating the kenwood with the Bose system.
Canary your photo looks sweet. Looks like a photo you'd see in an '8 brochure or something (except that it's not stock
Just one more item to point out: the kanatech did also have FW issues when it first came out. I've seen plenty of threads with people w/o heat or A/C also. I honestly don't think one or the other is better. My final opinion is that both have major flaws and serious, serious room for improvement. The fitment issue vs the price is what turned me off of kanatech, but to each his own. In the end, we're all getting screwed, cause I'll be honest: $180-$200 is still way too much to be paying for this stuff
cheers
I've been wondering about some of the problems I've been having with my setup, if they're not more coming from the HU than the car. Like the little bit of white noise I get through the speakers, which should be due to me not using the RCA's... I get more white noise when it's warmer outside... that one is confusing me. That white noise and the slight volume changes are the only problems I'm having. I'm only really concerned with fixing the white noise issue.
What concerns me is if I switch to RCA's and still get some white noise out, does that mean my stereo is the culprit and it's either a) broken or b) low quality? My wife's (much cheaper) Kenwood has none of these issues, so I'm more lead to believe the issues arise from mating the kenwood with the Bose system.
Canary your photo looks sweet. Looks like a photo you'd see in an '8 brochure or something (except that it's not stock
Just one more item to point out: the kanatech did also have FW issues when it first came out. I've seen plenty of threads with people w/o heat or A/C also. I honestly don't think one or the other is better. My final opinion is that both have major flaws and serious, serious room for improvement. The fitment issue vs the price is what turned me off of kanatech, but to each his own. In the end, we're all getting screwed, cause I'll be honest: $180-$200 is still way too much to be paying for this stuff
cheers
02-02-2009, 02:45 AM
#859
Rotarydude
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Yep I'm on board with raphy3 and InfiniFC. I use a USB flash drive to listen to MP3's on my Kenwood stereo and I notice it more when I have the volume turned down low to be on the phone or talk to someone and you can definately tell when it gets louder. It really doesn't bother me enough to worry about it. It is a very minor volume change but noticeable. I'm just glad I'm not the only one who notices this.
I agree that it isn't a huge issue, but definitely something worth noting for future metra / kenwood owners setup in this fashion.
02-02-2009, 02:55 AM
#860
Rotarydude
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Ok limpbozkit has it also. So I guess this may be a Kenwood issue then?
I've been wondering about some of the problems I've been having with my setup, if they're not more coming from the HU than the car. Like the little bit of white noise I get through the speakers, which should be due to me not using the RCA's... I get more white noise when it's warmer outside... that one is confusing me. That white noise and the slight volume changes are the only problems I'm having. I'm only really concerned with fixing the white noise issue.
What concerns me is if I switch to RCA's and still get some white noise out, does that mean my stereo is the culprit and it's either a) broken or b) low quality? My wife's (much cheaper) Kenwood has none of these issues, so I'm more lead to believe the issues arise from mating the kenwood with the Bose system.
cheers
I've been wondering about some of the problems I've been having with my setup, if they're not more coming from the HU than the car. Like the little bit of white noise I get through the speakers, which should be due to me not using the RCA's... I get more white noise when it's warmer outside... that one is confusing me. That white noise and the slight volume changes are the only problems I'm having. I'm only really concerned with fixing the white noise issue.
What concerns me is if I switch to RCA's and still get some white noise out, does that mean my stereo is the culprit and it's either a) broken or b) low quality? My wife's (much cheaper) Kenwood has none of these issues, so I'm more lead to believe the issues arise from mating the kenwood with the Bose system.
cheers
When I first got the entire HU installed and dialed in, everything was working like a champ. No white noise feedback, volume level changes etc... Today, in addition to the volume changes it seems that the bass level changes as well... Not sure if that's just me tripping or what... I gotta read through my Kenwood Instructional Novel...
I updated the firmware for the axxess box before I installed it but it looks like my clock is still advancing 10 min in a weeks duration.
Anyone else experience this even after the update?
02-02-2009, 08:13 AM
#861
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@ raphy3, InfiniFC and limpbozkit, I am having the same issues with mine. I only notice the volume increase when it is set very low. I am using an older model Kenwood eXcelon KDC-X859 with no SWI jack. I do have the iPod and sirius add ons though. I am also not using the RCA cables for the speaker connections. I thought that would be the fix for the issue, but have not yet tried it. Are any of you having this issue and using the RCA cables? For a semi-fix, I adjusted the volume offset to -4 and it seemes to help out a lot, but it is still slightly there and noticeable when my stereo is on really low.
02-02-2009, 12:26 PM
#862
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@ raphy3, InfiniFC and limpbozkit, I am having the same issues with mine. I only notice the volume increase when it is set very low. I am using an older model Kenwood eXcelon KDC-X859 with no SWI jack. I do have the iPod and sirius add ons though. I am also not using the RCA cables for the speaker connections. I thought that would be the fix for the issue, but have not yet tried it. Are any of you having this issue and using the RCA cables? For a semi-fix, I adjusted the volume offset to -4 and it seemes to help out a lot, but it is still slightly there and noticeable when my stereo is on really low.
I'm using the RCA cables on my setup. I tweaked my stereo last night, and so far so good in regards to the level changes. But I still get the white noise, and alternator whine.
02-02-2009, 01:47 PM
#863
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I am SO SORRY I made a mistake in my typing! I have a SONY CDX-GT920U (See pic on page 31) not a Kenwood. I do not have any steering wheel control adapter, and I spliced my wires into RCA wires and am running my setup through the Pre-amp outs. I don't ever hear any alternator whine or any noise unless I am sitting in the car with compete silence and turn the cd player volume to 0 there is a VERY FAINT static but so quiet you can't hear it if the car is running. RCA cables is the way to go if you have BOSE.
02-02-2009, 05:10 PM
#864
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everyone including davey's rx8, if your amb temp does not show, you may be able to fix this by not taking everything apart, i forgot when you hold down the mode button if gives you options like set clock, and set text, etc, there is an option to have the amb temp on or off, check to see if you have it on or off, it is more likely to be off, turn it on and it will come on, i did that today and now mine works fine so try it out and let me know, i mentioned davey's rx8 because in the last page he said his does not show either.
02-02-2009, 08:28 PM
#865
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I am SO SORRY I made a mistake in my typing! I have a SONY CDX-GT920U (See pic on page 31) not a Kenwood. I do not have any steering wheel control adapter, and I spliced my wires into RCA wires and am running my setup through the Pre-amp outs. I don't ever hear any alternator whine or any noise unless I am sitting in the car with compete silence and turn the cd player volume to 0 there is a VERY FAINT static but so quiet you can't hear it if the car is running. RCA cables is the way to go if you have BOSE.
02-03-2009, 06:51 PM
#867
everyone including davey's rx8, if your amb temp does not show, you may be able to fix this by not taking everything apart, i forgot when you hold down the mode button if gives you options like set clock, and set text, etc, there is an option to have the amb temp on or off, check to see if you have it on or off, it is more likely to be off, turn it on and it will come on, i did that today and now mine works fine so try it out and let me know, i mentioned davey's rx8 because in the last page he said his does not show either.
02-03-2009, 07:26 PM
#868
Registered User
i have a solution, if you guys still have your old radio, just take out the back circuit board, and have that stuffed in a place, u will get your display and a/c, like how your car was oem.. just run the new radio with just the wiring, its been done before, and it works
02-03-2009, 08:43 PM
#869
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daveys rx8 maybe you should get it pro installed lol, you seem to be the only one with all these problems, i to had the hvac problem, i did the solder as well as many other users on here and it fixed the hvac problem well i didnt solder my self my technician did it, i work at a shop so he did it free, but yeah i would reccomend getting it done professionally maybe you are just not doing the install and soldering correctly.
02-04-2009, 01:02 PM
#870
daveys rx8 maybe you should get it pro installed lol, you seem to be the only one with all these problems, i to had the hvac problem, i did the solder as well as many other users on here and it fixed the hvac problem well i didnt solder my self my technician did it, i work at a shop so he did it free, but yeah i would reccomend getting it done professionally maybe you are just not doing the install and soldering correctly.
The problem is that these parts are crap.
02-04-2009, 02:09 PM
#872
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your installer must suck then or maybe he was new lol, and the parts aren't crap, they work fine for me and everyone else, your the only one with the problem lol, have you tried taking it to your installer and asking him to fix it? or take it to a different shop? maybe the installer didnt know about the bose amp wire to tap into for audio so he did some troubleshooting and messed something up? who knows, i didnt even have it done at an audio shop my tech and i did it and when it came to no audio he looked at the wiring diagram on our computer and figured it out on his own others had that issue as well so i told them how to do it, maybe your installer didnt know that, who knows, all im saying is no one else has these issues except you, so only thing i can think of is the install went bad, do you have single din or double din? i may be going to double din so i might be selling my single din if anyone is interested
02-04-2009, 08:15 PM
#874
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lol i am full of it? i am the ONLY one that seems to be trying to help YOU so chillax lol, and how would i know you didnt have a bose amp? i am not a mind reader, it was just a suggestion, all i am trying to say is, YOUR the only one having all these issues no one else has any of these issues except for the hvac problem which is very common for our cars, the solder fixes the problem, if it didnt fix the problem for you then who ever did the solder job did a BAD job, there is a whole thread on the hvac problem.
so either the install went bad, or YOU just so happen to be the ONLY person who got a bad kit, which i doubt espescially since you say you have version 1.4 firmware or maybe even you just think you have 1.4 maybe you really dont, maybe the update went bad and it didnt actually give you the 1.4 update that happened to me with the 1.1 update, so my suggestion to you, take to another shop to see if everything was done correctly, or call metra to see if you can get a different kit, or put your oem radio back in and give up all together.
so either the install went bad, or YOU just so happen to be the ONLY person who got a bad kit, which i doubt espescially since you say you have version 1.4 firmware or maybe even you just think you have 1.4 maybe you really dont, maybe the update went bad and it didnt actually give you the 1.4 update that happened to me with the 1.1 update, so my suggestion to you, take to another shop to see if everything was done correctly, or call metra to see if you can get a different kit, or put your oem radio back in and give up all together.