Hey everyone, I'm new to this forum; I searched and couldn't find what I was looking for, so I appologize if this has been covered else where. I'm looking to put a double din nav system in my C5, and I'm trying to decide between the Pioneer Z2 & D3, the Kenwood 7100, and the Alpine W205 with a Blackbird II. Just wondering if anyone has had any experience with the Blackbird II yet? Also, can anyone in S. Texas recommend a good custom audio shop in the Corpus Christi area? Thanks!

 

I have the IVA-W205 and the blackbird1 with the dock. I have had the blackbird 1 since jan and just put the hu in in June. I am very pleased with my setup and the ipod is totaly awesome! I did the install myself. Very time consuming. The blackbird works very well considering it just needs power and the antenna.

 

My Blackbird II is sitting here on my desk, just arrived today. I won't have a chance until the weekend to install the GPS antenna on the W205 and try it docked so I'm going to try it hanging from the windshield on the way home tonight to see how it works. Hoping to like it enough after a while that I put a 205 in my C6 as well. The head I like, the NAV part, well I guess I'll find out.

 

Thanks Guys, keep me posted on the Blackbird II...

 

Any updates?

 

Yeah, been living with it for a couple of months now. Overall I'm pretty pleased. I still prefer Garmin's software vs the Blackbird but I also prefer Alpine over Kenwood. The Blackbird is good enough that I can live with it and I'll put a W205 in my C6 as well now. I'll compare and contrast it with the 2 units I'm most familiar with - Garmin NuVi and stock C6.

As far as the route guidance goes, I'd say it's probably equal to the Garmin and far superior to the stock. It re-routes much better than stock, not insisting on the u-turns that the stock insists on you doing to get back on it's route practically every time.

Searching destinations, again much better than stock to find things like restaurants, gas stations etc because it finds things "near" you without having to jump through the hoops the stock will. However it's not as simple as the Garmin, requiring a few more button presses. Also while the Alpine throws a lawyer nag on you the first time you go to input at least it lets you search, unlike stock. Garmin makes you acknowledge a lawyer nag at every startup.

Graphics wise for those to whom it matters.. the Blackbird is probably a bit prettier. It is WindowsCE-based and it shows. When you use the 3D view (my preference) it shows a blue sky and clouds during the day and at night a sky full of stars. The routes and guidance are clearly marked. So for appearance slight edge to the Blackbird, for actual use, I'd say they're the same. The stock system is WAY behind both having nowhere near the resolution of either therefore making turn markings kind of vague and difficult to figure out at complicated intersections sometimes.

Stock has no bluetooth so no comparison on it, but here is where the Garmin absolutely kills the Blackbird, unfortunately. The NuVi I had synchs up with the phone very quickly, voice dialing works through it, the placed, received, missed calls are organized by most recent, etc. The Blackbird is slightly slower to synch the phone contacts but it sorts the calls lists alpha-numerically (number vs name in your contacts), which makes absolutely no sense when all you want to do is press 2 buttons to call back the person that just called you. However the voice dialing from my Moto phone working via that connection on the NuVi is really what makes it the hands-down winner for the phone connection. FYI - the separate Alpine Bluetooth module works almost exactly the same way(I used it briefly).

As I stated above, the overall experience is good enough that I'll stick with Alpine because I have a preference for their audio performance and install another 205.