Firstly - many thanks to Eric from bumper plugs (where I bought the dension 500 gateway and bluetooth) - he has been a great help.

IMO this most certainly needs to be installed by a professional and even the porsche dealer techs are not that savvy on this. My install was onto 2 cars. 997 TT and Cayenne. On the 997TT it was for ipod and bluetooth and on the Cayenne, for ipod, bluetooth and satellite (sirius) through the aux.

I soon realized from eric that in the case of my 997TT - it required you to have the PCM set to "see" a CD changer -even though I didnt have one. I had a porsche tech do that of course. At the same time - I had them do the install of the unit.

The problem with porsche was that even though the unit worked - the install was very sloppy. Mainly because they were not used to the device and/ microphone positioning and even left out the aux cable - which means I could not reset the unit. They placed the unit behind the head unit on the car.

I know a excellent auto tech at best buy - and he came around to my house to do the cayenne and tidy up the mess porsche made. From this point onwards - the install was very smooth and tidy.

Some key points to the install though.
1. microphone. contrary to the manual - the best position is the factory position of the mike - in the 997 its above the steering column just under the little grills - in the cayenne - near the dome light behind the grills.
2. the best place to place the GW500 is to the right of the head unit behind the panel near the passenger footwell. This I had done on the cayenne - but the porsche tech had placed it behind the head unit - which is somewhat hard to get to.
3. ensure you have easy access to the aux control unit and the usb wire. You will need this for upgrades and some adv. configuration. I have mine tucked behind the carpet in the passenger footwell.
4. if your installing satellite into the aux - ensure you mount the antenna underneath the plastic by the wipers. That way - a. you cannot see it and b. because its behind plastic -still gets a signal. I put the control panel of the satellite next to the steering wheel - just fitted and gives a clean line.

Usability -

This is where it gets interesting. The manuals are definitely confusing and in some cases completely wrong. Once you get used to navigation though through the cd changer - it gets better. Still - very clunky IMO though. On first install - my ipod track names were not displayed. This required me to run not in ipod UI mode but ipod GW mode. This was a lot better. Here is what I do not like about it though -

1. ipod searching. clunky at best. so best to come up with some playlists and use those instead.
2. I cannot, for the life in me, configure the unit to +select (a configuration option that requires flipping of the aux switch). It seems to revert back to +paging. But because my right **** on the PCM works - it seems that it actually took the setting +select to get it to work - just doesnt display it. wierd - quirky.
3. the address book. horrible to navigate. in my case I go into the address index and cannot really get out of it easily. I do have instructions for this - but they dont work. kind of renders it pretty useless and very slow to operate. fortunately I have an iphone - so easy for me to dial - but definitely the worse part of the unit.
4. echo. this is annoying. It occurs to the other caller. its caused by feedback from them speaking and the voice coming through your speakers. To make it better - best to put mike in the stock position of the telephone module -as described above. also you will need to turn down your speakers. In the cayenne - its much less obvious - than my 997. the latter having lots less cabin space. Dension and eric state there is a fix underway. But when ? no sure.
5. I am very happy with the satellite installed via the aux - but switching sources is a bit of a pain. especially in ipod gateway mode. clunky again. I am actually glad the satellite is operated on a separate device to pcm - coz when your dealing with lots of stations or lots of tracks - pcm is useless.

Overall - I think the dension is the best all in one unit out there - and its a good price. I am not happy with the usability though - for sure. Also - try to avoid porsche dealers from installing it !! - unless they have done it before. Once I had my personal auto tech do it from best buy - all was lots better.

The ipod does sound awesome though - once I get to what I want to play :-)

Hope this helps people.

 

Honest appraisal. Eric is great, the unit is okay.