Ok a more specific question that wasn't addressed in my other BMW threads...
Do any of you have an XM radio on your BMW?
MY GW buddy also has a 2015 R1200GS Adventure with the Navigator GPS. Apparently there's no hardwire input to it for a 'Media' Player. I see a button on the touchscreen though.
He has an inexpensive XM radio but has no problem with getting another if it's compatible with the Navigator. The goal is to be able to hear the XM the GPS and phone through his Sena 20S. (Intercomms are a given.)
At this point I'm thinking maybe a BT dongle for the current XM to feed the Navigator. And where's the best and/or easiest place to get 12V (switched and unswitched) for the XM?
Lots of potential answers. I'll caveat this reply with 1) I don't have a BMW Navigator, 2) I don't have a GS. 3) XM is very poor audio quality and I don't use it (I let it lapse after the free 1 year expired)
For my RT:
>> It has XM built in, along with a USB port for reading music off a USB drive (my favorite way to listen). The ability to play my music via a USB drive is very cool and MUCH better audio quality than you get from Sirius. It is by far the best way to listen to music, IMO, as it is always available, never dependent on cell or satellite signals.
>> As Gerhard mentions, you can buy a $100 dongle for Andriod or iOS devices that lets you play and control music via the phone (such as Amazon music streaming, via the wonderwheel). The dongle plugs onto the USB port and the 3.5mm jack, concurrently, and does some proprietary management on the CanBus system to allow that 3.5mm jack to work. I've not bought the dongle to see if the phone music streaming works. It is my experience that the 3.5mm input jack does not work--it supposedly ONLY works with the BMW dongle, and then ONLY if it is connected to an Android or iOS device. Lame.
>> Short of hacking the bikes audio system (soldering into the bikes wire harness), no you can't get an external XM receiver online.
>>The GPS-Ready package on mine to which I've mounted a Zumo 660 (I'm not wiling to spend the ridiculous money on BMW's Navigator) doesn't allow the physical space to connect into the Zumo's jacks. So you can't get audio out nor audio in to the Zumo to a 3.5mm jack. The Navigator is the same size as the Zumo, and I expect it has the same problem in that you can't connect to the 3.5mm jacks.
>> I pair my phone to my Zumo, my Sena 20S to the bike, and the GPS is direct wired into the bike audio system via the GPS-Ready package.
>> I have my music in my Zumo and can play into the BMW audio system from the Zumo (and hear it via Bluetooth), but it is monaural. Perplexing.
>> I use sound isolating earbuds plugged directly into my Sena 20S mount on the helmet--far superior audio quality than using the Sena 20S helmet speakers.
>> Audio volume is NOT level between the various devices, and there's no way to correct that. One device blasts you at full volume, while another is quiet.
>> I bought a 3.5mm inline volume adjustor, and put it in series with my earbuds. That way, I can adjust overall volume, toning down the BLAST of audio I would get when I swap to certain devices on the audio system. Lame.
>> The whole audio system is very promising and great when it works. But it is also frustrating, and I literally have to stop and reboot the bike on some occasions, not others.
