Anyone replaced NBT with NBT Evo?

[JW911]

Just curious. I quite fancy the full CarPlay experience in my 2014 F06 but I’d like to keep it pretty standard and make sure the audio is still top quality (not through the aux port). I’m not moving to a later car as it’s still on 26000 miles.

I see there are a few units available on the Bay of E, which come with coding to the vehicle. Obviously I’d need to retain the service history on the unit.

Any top tips please?

Edited by JW911 on Tuesday 14th May 13:57

[roadie]

I've heard good things of Mr12volt units.

[JW911]

Not heard of that. I’ll investigate.

Anyone with any experience of either this or swapping out the lot, feel free to contribute

[xtruss]

Ive had one of these for a couple of years in my F36
https://droiduk.com/product/mmi-box/
No problem with it at all, and you can switch between the bmw standard display and android auto / carplay.
My car has HK and you do have to select aux as the source sound, but the quality is spot on.
It takes a little time fanning about and tweaking settings, but once done, its been rock solid.

[rottenegg]

It's nice to have it all OEM BMW but retrofitting newer ID6 HUs and screens can be expensive and needs coding.

In my 2016 F30, I opted instead to replace the lame 6.5" screen with an 8.8" screen and go with an Integrated Audio MMI box.

Everything is seamless and all the steering wheel buttons work and uses the BMW microphone.

You only know the MMI is there when you hit the Media button and then CarPlay/Android takes over.

[d_a_n1979]

Last post on this thread over on Bimmperpost:

https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t...

Worth a read

[rottenegg]

A few ebay sellers are doing full Harman ID6 NBT Evo touch screen setups for about a grand, but it's all different voltages and wifi antennas etc, voltage regulator harnesses etc are required, plus coding, so it's not an afternoon job.

An MMI box is the easiest and cheapest way into Carplay land, and in some cases better than OEM as the audio circuitry is higher quality with proper equalisers etc.

[JW911]

Thanks. I may go down the MMI route then.

[Ed.Neumann]

The mr12volt had high end DSP sound which is sent over optical/most.

Meant to sound better than without it, I guess wireless carplay is over wifi and so can be lossless.

[Mr Happy]

I've just fitted a Mr12volt box to my F20 M135i. The sound quality is way better than the previous andream box I used to have in there, and the installation is way easier due to the length of the supplied LVDS cables.

The only complaint I have really is that the steering integration is to move the cursor in the Carplay screen, rather than just change tracks etc. and I've so far been unable to update the MCU in my box to the newest version (which fixes a couple of issues with missed button presses in Carplay when using the idrive to command it).

Siri works fine with the OEM mic - with the new NBT boxes you don't need an external mic, which makes it even more 'factory' in appearance.

Overall a solid 7/10 for me - the sound quality is the main benefit and it has it in spades.

Worth noting, you will need to code the TV input functionality, but Mr12Volt supply an enet cable and software to do so. I did mine using Bimmercode as I already had it, but if not you'll either need a laptop or other means of coding the car. It's only one FDL to code (TVM_VARIENTEN) and takes seconds to do.

[rottenegg]

Yeah thats the thing with MMI boxes, they're not quite OEM in usability and some of them cause an awful echo on phone calls using the BMW mic.

Mr12Volt doesn't support the single DIN Magnetti Marelli entry and entry_NAV either, so the only option for that HU is the Integtated Audio MMi-1000, which is pretty steep at £465.

That's where the ID6 conversion comes in, as just the HU with coding and lifetime Apple/Android FSC code and VIN matched can be had for £600ish.

But then if you have BMW extended warranty, you will have no cover on the infotainment. Not even VO coding it can get around that.