Kenwood Sirius using Soundgate KNGM1V6

hutchyx · January 21, 2005

In my 2004 Tahoe I have the am/fm/xm/6-disc cd changer head unit (and OnStar) yet I really prefer Sirius over XM. I do have a Kenwood KTC-SR903 Sirius tuner that I want to connect to the stock HU. I found the Soundgate KNGM1V6 which looks like it will work for what I want to do. Anyone have any experience with this Soundgate unit? Will I be able to run XM and Sirius?

Any help is appreciated.

sincitymedic · January 25, 2005

Soundgate has been very helpful in some of my car audios needs......they tech support is great. I give them a thumbs-up.

endo · January 31, 2005

Soundgate has been very helpful in some of my car audios needs......they tech support is great. I give them a thumbs-up.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'll second their tech support, they are very helpful. I did have problems with the kit that I was not able to solve though. Notably, there was a minor alternator whine and the unit would randomly drop presets, every three days or so. They informed me this was due to a bad ground. I had the entire works tied in off the factory cigarette lighter wires though, so I was left somewhat confused.

My major beef with the Soundgate piece though is that they are not able to store presets using the "factory method", and thus, even though you wind up with two Sirius "bands", you only get 6 presets. And the "Prog" button on the steering wheel controls did not work, due to a known limitation. I believe either PAC or PIE makes a competing adapter that I would look into, as I believe they offered the use of all 12 presets (and possibly the steering wheel control prog button as well).

BTW, if you're looking for a place to put the Sirius box, check out the pics in my sig (this system was in my old truck, an '03 Chevy).

hutchyx · January 31, 2005

Thanks for the info. My Soundgate unit is scheduled to be delivered today.

Is the cigarette lighter the best place to grab power for the Soundgate unit or should I look somewhere else?

For the steering wheel controls - is it only the "Prog" button that doesn't work? Do the Vol and Seek still function normally?

Thanks!

endo · February 3, 2005

Thanks for the info. My Soundgate unit is scheduled to be delivered today.

Is the cigarette lighter the best place to grab power for the Soundgate unit or should I look somewhere else?

For the steering wheel controls - is it only the "Prog" button that doesn't work? Do the Vol and Seek still function normally?

Thanks!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

They have a specific place where they would prefer that you ground the unit. I believe it is discussed in the instructions...I think it was the driver side kick panel. I believe my kit was also an early version and they have since corrected some of the issues so you will likely have better luck than I did.

The volume and seek controls work as expected.

Good luck!

hutchyx · February 13, 2005

i finally got a chance to install my SoundGate unit today. My biggest problem was trying to disconnect the XM tuner - the little blue button like thing was really throwing me off - I had kept pushing on the button and couldn't seem to get the cable disconnected. Eventually I pulled the blue piece straight out and then found the little black tab behind that. Once I squeezed the little black tab the wires into the XM connector were finally disconnected.