[MDA III, XDA III, PDA2k, 9090 Accessories] anthonyeeles:
Installation

Well, installed it on Saturday - a professional looking, wires-hidden install took less than an hour - quite impressed as i'm not a 'Pro'

The kit comes with everything needed to install it, so as long as you know which wire is which in your car audio harness, you should be ok.

I purchased a spare ISO harness (£10) and chopped into that sitting inside, rather than cramped into my car. It also means if i change cars it's easy to move the car kit without taking wires from the car. The instructions aren't really much cop... But there is a chart detailing which wire on the wiring loom should be connected to which on your car audio leads.

It uses your ignition switched ACC circuit to turn on and off the power to your device, so you won't discharge your car battery if you leave your XDA in the charger. If you don't have an ignition controlled ACC circuit or you don't want it controlled like that, just connect both the 12v and ignition sense leads to your BATT lead on your car audio (put a switch in the ignition sense lead on the car kit if you want to control it yourself.

The kit uses your drivers side car speaker (or which ever one you want). You simply split the pair of cables between your head unit and speakers and the control box sits 'between' them. An external speaker is available but not included (despite what expansys' site said for ages) They can sell you the speaker but they don't stock it.

The microphone has a fairly stiff wire so it's easy to pass it through the headlining in your car to hide it. It's not as 'discrete' a microphone as the "bump" ones that come with Nokia car kits - think Tie-Clip mic and you're on the right track. It more than makes up for it's looks in pick up and echo reduction though.

I hide the fairly chunky control box behind the glovebox in my VX Vectra. It's about 2 foot from there to the back of the head unit and there is cable on the loom to spare. There's about a yard of cable from box to cradle as well. Watch out - the box gets quite warm when powered up, so be careful where you place it.

The cradle itself comes with backing plate connected to the cradle by a ball and socket connector that doesn't budge when tightened. however the backing plate can only move through fairly small angles, so for certain cars you'll need right angle brackets or custom made mounting points to put it on.

Sound Quality

The Sound quality on this is excellent. . There's no echo, no hiss, and the tones are natural unlike the usual tinny or dead car kit speakers. There is a car kit speaker for it seperately if you don't want to use your existing car speakers.

The kit doesn't have any problems powering my aftermarket 70W front speakers either - full volume is TOO loud (no distortion though).

The microphone is excellent. there's no need for the usual 'shouting' down the mic so the caller can hear you. On the motorway at '70' mph (!) i can talk softly and the caller hears me perfectly.

No echo or feedback and there wasn't any Dut-Dutde-Dut-Dutde-Dut pickup either (you know what I mean - the interference the phone signal makes)

GPS

The system provides a female PS2 port for GPS connection & external powering. Be warned! The PS2 port is the 'wrong way round' for Rikaline, Holux, Fortuna etc PS2 GPS mice. Expansys list the adaptor cable (female to female PS2 lead) as one of the accessories for the device, but don't regularly stock it.

I bought a Fortuna U2 PS2 GPS mouse - cheapest one they stock - and it's excellent. TomTom 5 accepts it as a TomTom branded wired GPS and cold start to readings on 7 Satellites was about 35 seconds. Perhaps it comes preloaded with some Epheremis data? I dunno. If i drive from home to work (50 miles) with everything switched off and then plug it in, tom tom takes maybe 5 seconds to notice the change. So far it seems spot on. MPH is out by 2 MPH compared to my speedo, but think that's my speedo :)

Audio Out & Telemute

The car kit has a telemute cord that you attach to the telemute wire on your head unit or car loom. In my case the head unit mutes the sound to the speakers completely and the car kit 'takes over' the front speaker.

As far as I can see the car kit notices the sound coming out of the XDA and mutes the radio then - theres no telemute signal coming from the XDA. The mute lasts for about 10 seconds AFTER the sound has finished. So when you first press TALK on the phone, the car kit mutes, but if the call hasn't connected and given you a ringing tone 10 seconds later, the kit 'demutes' the stereo. As soon as the car kit starts playing the ringing tone the stereo mutes again. A bit annoying when connection takes a while. The ten second pause in my stereo just because i've recieved a text message gets irritating, but not too much.

The downside for me is that the device plays everything the XDA2s outputs. TomTom, phone, WMA, notifications, the lot, and therefore mutes the stereo while this is going on, so i can't use the headphone socket to play MP3 into the Aux In on my stereo. I'm sure, however that i can figure out some way to 'switch' the wires into a WMA mode where telemute and speaker leads are disconnected. I'd have to switch it back for calls though...

Summary

Excellent car kit , let down slightly by the telemute and audio out function, but fantastic sound quality and nice connections. 8/10. Considering the opposition, there's no contest.

Fortuna U2 GPS seems an excellent receiver, made all the better by the £50 price tag...

Pics later in the week

Links (on Expansys)

Car Kit: http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=122685

Extra Speaker: http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=124130

Fortuna U2 GPS: http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=108897

PS2 Adapter cable: http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=122674