bentleymp21

Wondering if anyone here has installed or has had experience with the Dension gateway 500s?

Or other products that allow for usb and music from iPhones with the stock headunit.

Does it work well? Do you recommend it? So on and so forth. Whatever you can share would be greatly helpful.


Thank you

bbirdwell

Eh...mine works. If something better were out there, I'd buy it.
Issues:
-for ~15 minutes after startup, severe(!) noise at 930 KHz. Impossible to listen to one of my favorite AM talk shows in the morning.
-on occasion, will not skip to next or previous song. I have to power down the radio and power up to re-set the system.


That's the worst of it. Not perfect, but an improvement on the stock system. Understand, one of my priorities was keeping the interior looking as stock as possible. Last thing I wanted was one of those hideous LED-laden, TRON-looking, generic plug-in systems in my car no matter how capable it was.


YMMV.

bentleymp21

"Eh" - Gotta love it when that's the opener lol

Really appreciative the feedback thank you.

Are you able to control music directly from your iPhone? Apps like Spotify and Pandora and such?

bentleymp21

Yup I agree maintaining the factory headunit and complete stock look is priority.

Dr Matt

I have the Dennison 500s BT.

The unit has to mount in the trunk next to the other components because the fiber optic cables with it are really short. Bluetooth works good, depending on where my phone is in the car. It does not work in my back pocket.

About 1/2 the time when I get in the car it does not automatically connect and start playing so I have to go to settings in my phone and select it to connect.

I have tried multiple USB extension cables and by the time I add a long enough one to plug in the phone in when I'm in the drivers seat it does not play consistently so I just play it through the bluetooth connection all the time. If I want to leave my phone in the trunk it works fine plugged into the unit, but who wants to keep putting their phone in the trunk every time you drive the car?

It is very nice to be able to use my Iphone for music and calls and I have no problem with noise like bbirdwell.

I'm going to put a complete system in my car in January so I'll have mine for sale after that if you are in no hurry to buy one.

gslse21b

I mounted the 500bt behind the head unit then just looped the fiber cable at the cd changer ..

Dr Matt

Didn't know you could do that. I installed it per the instructions which forced me to put it in the trunk.

leodangelo

I have mine in the trunk as well and would really like to have it up behind the head unit so I could use the built-in mic as well as plug my phone in directly. Could you elaborate on how you have your fiber ring setup? I tried changing the order of components on the ring but never got it to work.

Thanks in advance,

-LeoD

BTW) OP, I really like my gateway. Other than replacing the entire system this is the only way to go IMHO. I've had no issues with mine and really enjoy it.

gslse21b

plug 1 (closest to the power wires)is in series with the headunit . plug 2 has a looped fiber optic . the trunk cd changer is unplugged and replaced by a loop also .. microphone and usb expander is mounted under the glovebox

gslse21b

dension 500sbt

Dr Matt

Nice. I agree with you leodangelo, the gateway is awesome for anyone who does not want to do an entire system. Using gslse21b's routing system so it could be up front would make it much better than having it in the trunk like mine.