Soundgate Adaptor for XM or Sirius

[jkemmerly]

Has anyone here used a Soundgate adaptor to tie into either XM or Sirius tuners that allow total control of the satellite tuner using a factory head unit? The specific part numbers that I am looking at are for a BMW. For the Kenwood Sirius tuner you use a KBMWSIR and for a Pioneer XM tuner you use a PIOBMW1. The tech support of Soundgate is telling me that I can control all functions of the sat tuner using my stock 2001 M3 head unit. Soundgate has told me that they started shipping these products at the beginning of the year. These parts will mean not having to use the FM modulator and also will not have to use a separate sat tuner control. Sounds like a very simple, very clean install. Just mount tuner, tie into existing wiring for an aux CD changer with the new Soundgate adaptor and you end up sending 100% digital signal to the stock head unit and have total control of tuner using the CD buttons on the BMW head unit. Limiting factor is how much my radio is capable of displaying text. On my M3 I will only be able to display around 10 characters, however on my wife’s 5 series I will have all text displayed. I am looking for feedback from people who have used their equipment for controlling the tuner and what their experience has been using the interface.

[jkemmerly]

I wanted to give an update and display some pictures of the install of the Soundgate KBMWSIR adaptor for use in my 2001M3. It really could not have been easier. I just used the existing wiring for the Aux CD changer that I found in the trunk and hooked them up to the new adaptor. Ran power from the battery to the Kenwood tuner and mounted the antenna on the rear window deck. I have complete control of the new Sirius tuner using my factory BMW head unit plus the steering wheel radio controls also work for volume and channel selection. It operates just as advertised except that I can only see on my display the Sirius Channel number without any extra text. This really is a non issue for what the upside is when compared to mounting a separate tuner control and FM modulator. The complete install only took around 2 hours. I managed to use the space in the truck where normally the spare tire would go. Seemed like a good place to mount the components and totally hide the install. There seems to be enough free air space that over-heating the turner is not a factor. I am going to install a thermocouple on the tuner to double check the temperature rise on tuner body however I have just come back from a 1 hour drive and when I checked for heat is was non-existent. Anyone thinking of installing satellite radio should look into this adaptor. I ordered it directly from Soundgate and the cost was around $130 delivered to my door. Soundgate also has another adaptor like this one for use on the Pioneer XM system.

http://photos.yahoo.com/jkemmerly