took this from elitecaraudio.com forum...
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Just got mine installed yesterday. For reference I have a 2002 BMW 325i with the following:
* Factory Head Unit
* Navone Engineering LOC (replaced by 3Sixty.2)
* Phoenix Gold Tantrum 3-way X-over (replaced by 3Sixty.2)
* DLS Iridium 6.3 Components (factory locations)
* Sundown Audio SAX-100.4 (prototype)
* Stereo Integrity Mag D2 12" Subwoofer (sealed)
* Sundown Audio SAZ-1500D
* ~50 ft^2 of sound dampening so far (Peel & Seal and Edead V1SE2, with Second Skin Damplifier and Edead V3 on the way)
* 5 cans of expanding foam in the trunk cavities and probably 4-5 rolls of aluminum tape to make 100% sure my deadener stays put (so far, more to come here as well)
What can I say? Compared to what it sounds like now front stage sounded like an AM radio before. Considering I've got DLS Iridium 6.3 components up front that is saying something. The RF unit is worth it's weight in gold, EASILY. It is the best piece of processing equipment I've ever purchased, period!
The time alignment is spot on and did wonders for my sound stage. Just measure the distance and enter the difference, bam, thats it. Easy as can be. My stage is almost spot on in front of the driver with factory locations! The staging is about 90% as good as my old car that had kick panels.
I was also finally able to change the crossover frequency on the transition between the midrange and midbass to 2.5 khz like I wanted. This takes strain off of the midrange and raises the stage in my car. I am not 100% sure why this so, but regardless it sound infinitely better crossed here than 350 Hz like the DLS passives do, and 500 Hz as I had it before the RF unit.
The level adjustment let me tune them all in after some calculation to get their amplitudes all equal as well. This is critical since the factory locations aren't even close to even distance, and time alignment doesn't touch amplitude.
And what about the EQ? Well, independant R & L EQ kicks butt, as you all know. I was finally able to compensate for most of the weirdness caused by the factory midrange location being below the door handle and blocking alot of response on the drivers side. Difference was incredible.
It also boosted my subwoofer performance as well, although not quite as much as it did for the front stage. The crossover is great in the 3Sixty.2 and I can adjust it WHILE listening so I got the frequency, slope, and overlap JUST right now.
Setup is easy... I told it to EQ my factory signal, although it didn't do much since my car has actual "signal level" inputs to the factory amp, which I tapped into -- they are nearly flat as is, as the "before and after" graph showed me. This feature would be GREAT for those who have wacky factory head unit output response.
The interface on the Smart Phones is great. I have a Sprint PPC-6700 phone with Windows Mobile. If you go on the RF site they have beta software for Windows based PDAs and it has worked flawlessly for me. Huge props to RF here, even the 0.3 beta software works right! Adjusting stuff in real time while listening is where it's at -- I had to run to the trunk to adjust before since I have the factory HU and external gear doing all the work.
This product gets a 10 out of 10. This is where car audio is going folks. With all the new integrated stuff in new cars a unit like this will allow you to have all the features you want AND retain all factory functions. Total win/win situation. It's easily worth the price tag if you are serious about audio.
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can't wait to get my 3sixty.2 installed when i'm gonna upgrade my system... bought it a few hours ago, but unfortunately my next upgrading project will start within the next 1 or 2 mths... *sigh*
