My E34 I-BUS RADIO?

[SaintCornelius]

I had just recently purchased my first BMW after many years of saving money and just drooling over driving my friends. Its a Black 94 530i, bought 3 months ago and i have been in the process of rebuilding the injured parts on it. I have been having most of my trouble with the radio. Now i have been gone through 2 radios already, and I dont feel like paying the $700-800 dollar radio. But i found out by my local BMW dealer (Greg) that i need a I-BUS radio. How can i figure out the difference between the I-BUS E-34 and the non-I-BUS radio?
Thanks

 

[bahnstormer]

wait, u went through 2 radios? what do u mean?

your 94 should have either an alpine or a pioneer radio, look on ebay they are very cheap like 200, not 800.

 

[SaintCornelius]

Yeah i have bought two altogether from salvage yard and ebay. I am trying to get one off of ebay again but is there a way i can tell what is I-BUS or what exactly I-BUS is?

 

[bahnstormer]

here ya go

http://www.openbmw.org/bus/

 

[Heezyo2o]

If you are spending 200 or so a stock BMW radio that is like 10 years old, your wasting your money. My radio died recently at which time I upgraged with an aftermarket head unit. I can say without a doubt that the sound is greatly improved, I just with my radio had died sooner. Good SQ or sound quality headunit can be foung be the likes of Eclipse, Nakamichi and Alpine. The only accesories that are required is an antenna adaptor and a harness which attaches the head unit to the wiring in your car. Car shops may insist that you bypass the stock amp, but this is an unnecessary cost. My car and many others sound fine with the stock amp.

One warning though. This car audio stuff is addictive, and I just added new speakers, with a couple of amps and a sub on the way.

92 525i
04 545 on the way