CLS with new NTG 2.5 Comand unit + H/K Amplifier & Sub Amp.

Mcobinad

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 27, 2011
Messages
1,066
Reaction score
13
Location
Milton Keynes
Your Mercedes
W219 Designo Black paint, R500 W251, CL600 W216
Yes, I guess I am now part of the NTG 2.5 comand convoy. The NTG 2.5 comand unit is finally fitted to my CLS with other additional items like IPod Media Interface, NTG 2.5 Tv tuner & the latest Map disk update.

I travelled to Lightwater for the upgrade and Richard & Mark took the car apart. Yes, they took out everything in the car to wire up the cables. I took pictures while this upgrade was going on and it was an absolute pleasure to watch these guys in action. They really know their stuff and I cannot recommend them enough. Is the upgrade worth? Well, this response is totally subjective. To me, it's ****** worth every dime invested into it but like I always say "One man's meat is another man's poison". I guess, some would really like to do the upgrade but the cost might put them off.

The NTG 1 parts would be made redundant as they are not compatible with NTG 2.5 parts. Here is a list of the parts that I purchased for the conversion:


1) Mercedes-Benz NTG 2.5 Comand unit + Gps Antenna

2) Mercedes-Benz NTG 2.5 HK Amplifier

3) Mercedes-Benz NTG 2.5 Sub-Amplifier

4) Mercedes-Benz Ipod Interface

5) Mercedes-Benz NTG 2.5 Tv tuner

6) Map disk update

7) Mercedes-Benz Comand NTG 2.5 manual

8) WCM-DVD module for NTG 2.5

9) Bluetooth-Antenna for NTG 2.5

10) Microphone extension cable NTG 2.5

11) W211/219 sound harness NTG 2.5 (code 810)

12) Mercedes-Benz storage tray

13) Labour charge


All the parts + labour (including coding) cost me = £4050.00

I have available all the NTG 1 parts that came off my car and they are up for sale. Here are few pictures of the car during upgrade and after upgrade.

Enjoy!!!!!!!!!


DSC04360.jpg

DSC04271.jpg

DSC04270.jpg

DSC04279.jpg

DSC04308.jpg

DSC04312.jpg

DSC04335.jpg

DSC04327.jpg

DSC04328.jpg

DSC04330.jpg

DSC04334.jpg

DSC04339.jpg

DSC04340.jpg

DSC04342.jpg

DSC04343.jpg

DSC04358.jpg

DSC04345.jpg

DSC04348.jpg

DSC04351.jpg

DSC04352.jpg

DSC04353.jpg
 

whitenemesis

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 21, 2006
Messages
17,978
Reaction score
40
Your Mercedes
CLS55 AMG '05
Just love watching these guys work! Great handfuls of cabling, trim panels scattered everywhere...

And it all goes back together as if it had never been touched, class!

No one does it better!!
64d39509.gif


Will be interested in how well the digital TV performs, keep us updated?
 

turbopete

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2009
Messages
14,209
Reaction score
331
Age
48
Location
Spennymoor
Your Mercedes
2017 '17' Ford Mondeo 2.0TDCi ST Line X 180 (sorry)
did your car have HK originally?

if you feel it ws worth the money, then its a great investment. but at £4k i can understand why many people deem a HK/BOSE upgrade at an excessive cost! id LOVE to upgrade my car to BOSE or HK (whichever was fitted at the time) but the costs really would be too prohibitive for me.

great job though!
 
OP
Mcobinad

Mcobinad

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 27, 2011
Messages
1,066
Reaction score
13
Location
Milton Keynes
Your Mercedes
W219 Designo Black paint, R500 W251, CL600 W216
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #4
Before:


DSC04266.jpg

DSC04267.jpg



After:


DSC04367.jpg

DSC04365.jpg

DSC04372.jpg

DSC04373.jpg

DSC04369.jpg

DSC04374.jpg



Types of routes:


DSC04375.jpg

DSC04376.jpg

DSC04377.jpg

DSC04378.jpg

DSC04380.jpg

DSC04381.jpg


The Junction split is so wonderful on the new unit. The bird eye view mode is great. Am loving it. :)
 
OP
Mcobinad

Mcobinad

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 27, 2011
Messages
1,066
Reaction score
13
Location
Milton Keynes
Your Mercedes
W219 Designo Black paint, R500 W251, CL600 W216
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #6
Latest 2012 Map update disk!

Due to time constraint, Mark gave me the map update disk to take home and do it myself. The update took me an 1h45 and the car has to be at a stand still position to carry out the update.

2012 update Map version:

DSC04389.jpg

DSC04390.jpg


:)
 

peterwhayward

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 4, 2011
Messages
865
Reaction score
6
Location
grays essex
Your Mercedes
E240 classic est 2000 2.4
Wow you certainly dont mind spending the money on your beautiful CLS.Its a great car and as you say, to you its worth every penny.......good on yer. Enjoy:)
 

S.Speed

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2009
Messages
5,066
Reaction score
13
Location
Lancashire
Your Mercedes
Older Citroen Now :-(
I too can vouch for Comand online as I had a NTG 2.5 retro fitted..

I REALLY love the interior of you car.. Stunning...
Have you tried the Blutooth phone yet??
It really is as good as a hard wired phone.. My car is hard wired as well (it was when I bought it)..

How does the sound system perform now?
Do you rate it better than your old one??

P.S Dont forget you can sell your map update disc on easily..
 
OP
Mcobinad

Mcobinad

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 27, 2011
Messages
1,066
Reaction score
13
Location
Milton Keynes
Your Mercedes
W219 Designo Black paint, R500 W251, CL600 W216
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #10
Bass/Treble functions not terrific on new H/K amp!!!!

I too can vouch for Comand online as I had a NTG 2.5 retro fitted..

I REALLY love the interior of you car.. Stunning...
Have you tried the Blutooth phone yet??
It really is as good as a hard wired phone.. My car is hard wired as well (it was when I bought it)..

How does the sound system perform now?
Do you rate it better than your old one??

P.S Dont forget you can sell your map update disc on easily..

Hello Simon,

You really motivated me to undertake this task. It involved alot financially but am really pleased if not for anything but the high quality Satnav to match the nice interior of my car. The old NTG 1 Nav was a big let down on my car because everything seemed alright except that the Satnav looked dated.

That said, I have not been able to get the Tv to show image on the screen despite it being fitted the same day as the NTG 2.5 comand unit. You can hear background noises and people talking but no visual image. I called Mark to explain the situation and he would be having the car back soon to fix this issue.

For now, I have not seen a big difference between my old Harman Kardon Amplifier and the new H/K amp fitted. I noticed the old one had a nice quality bass. It was really deep and the sound was terrific. The new one is really refined, the clarity of music is on point but it's really lacking bass and treble. I configured the H/K thereby activating the Logic 7 on surround to boost up the bass quality, honestly, the Logic 7 did not improve the bass. I was worried as I have read through the manual which I bought off comandonline and I can't see any other thing I can do to this effect. I called Mark to explain this situation and he will be having the car back soon to verify certain settings. I checked certain forums online and discovered that the new Harman kardon amplifier output is 450 watts while my old H/K amplifier had 350 watts. Why is the bass lacking then?

I have Bose acoustic at home, this sound system never stops to put a great smile on my face when I listen to real classical & country music. The Bose bass is unbeatable. When I listen to music files on my Ipod via Harman Kardon, the quality output is not great but I discovered that the bass is slightly higher when I play audio formatted MP3 files with higher bit rates. The bass output improved but not great.

I know you don't have Harman kardon to compare this, so for now, I can't seem to get hold of someone with similar H/K amplifier to compare the results. I guess, I hope to wait until Mark takes the car in for closer verification.

This issue aside, the unit is really fantastic and I love the screen split feature. While on my way back from Lightwater, I never stopped admiring the rich 3D pictures. I really love it. :)
 

SSR S500

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2009
Messages
481
Reaction score
0
Location
London
Your Mercedes
S500/2002/V8
Alot of money but well worth it if you intend on keeping the car. Looks good
 

MERCSPORT

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2011
Messages
738
Reaction score
0
Location
Bedford
Your Mercedes
2009 CLS 350 CDI Grand Edition
Very nice Mr. Dyke ;)

Your car is a true rare gem!

I am sure you will get these small niggles rectified, dont worry the newer Harman Kardon once rectified, you should notice an improvement (or I thought so anyway lol)

My car does not have it, but my cousin changes his mercs every 3 years, and that's always on the option list, so I personally noticed that...

ZEE
 
OP
Mcobinad

Mcobinad

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 27, 2011
Messages
1,066
Reaction score
13
Location
Milton Keynes
Your Mercedes
W219 Designo Black paint, R500 W251, CL600 W216
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #13
Harman Kardon Bass Update!!!!

I drove the car back to Lightwater today and Mark was able to hook the car up to talk to star. The Harman Kardon configuration has been sorted out but Mark made it clear to me that even if the new Harman Kardon Amplifier's output is 450 watts versus 350 watts on the old NTG 1 H/K, the difference in wattage output between the two would be insignificant.

Though, it's still clear that the new H/K Amp was really ameliorated. It sounds so much better now. The clarity is fabulous and the bass is on point. Also, it's important to know that the bit rate of a music file would determine the level at which deeper bass would play in. I recorded a music and I would post it up on Youtube at my free time. I think I expected too much from the newly fitted H/K Amp and also I constantly compare "Bose" to "Harman Kardon". Don't know why I do that. Probably, because I had Bose in my ex A8 and the sound beat Harman Kardon hands down.

The Tv image problem has been sorted out as well. It only needed a small cable to wire up the image. When I purchased cables for the Comand NTG 2.5 upgrade, I did not buy this particular cable for the Tv, I guess, I did not precise to the vendor that I had Tv option in my car, otherwise he would have sold that to me as well. Anyway, it's all good now.

Here are few pictures I took on my way to Lightwater. The Satnav is really great. The 7 digit post-code entry is wonderful and Linguatronic is my favourite. I will try to put up a cockney rhyming accent and see if the Linguatronic understands. :lol::lol:


DSC04399.jpg

DSC04400.jpg

DSC04391.jpg

DSC04396.jpg

DSC04401.jpg

DSC04417.jpg

DSC04409.jpg

DSC04419.jpg


Thanks for viewing!!!!!!!
thumbs_up_smiley.gif
 

S.Speed

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2009
Messages
5,066
Reaction score
13
Location
Lancashire
Your Mercedes
Older Citroen Now :-(
Motorway information

Mcobinad..
If you are at all like me then you will eventually find the "Motorway information" ****** annoying..
It can be switched off..(See page 60 of the manual)..

As you say the split screen and zoom in on junctions is a very useful feature..

I am really glad you have upgraded to this..

Well done.
 
OP
Mcobinad

Mcobinad

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 27, 2011
Messages
1,066
Reaction score
13
Location
Milton Keynes
Your Mercedes
W219 Designo Black paint, R500 W251, CL600 W216
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #15
Simon,

One feature I did not see in operation is the congestion zone. I thought you would get an indication of red cars queuing during heavy traffic. There was heavy congestion today between M1 & M25 and the comand unit did not show the affected zone. I have ticked all of the options that I would like to see on the comand unit but this one is completely missing. Do you have any idea as to where I can activate this option if it is atall available? :)
 

S.Speed

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2009
Messages
5,066
Reaction score
13
Location
Lancashire
Your Mercedes
Older Citroen Now :-(
Simon,

One feature I did not see in operation is the congestion zone. I thought you would get an indication of red cars queuing during heavy traffic. There was heavy congestion today between M1 & M25 and the comand unit did not show the affected zone. I have ticked all of the options that I would like to see on the comand unit but this one is completely missing. Do you have any idea as to where I can activate this option if it is atall available? :)

I have to be honest and say I know nothing about the congestion charge display (Thank God)..
I know mine does show queues of cars when there is congestion ahead..
I can only think that maybe you need to preset "Dynamic Mode" for the route guidance..

Are you aware that your COMAND looks like the rare multi CD version ???
 
OP
Mcobinad

Mcobinad

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 27, 2011
Messages
1,066
Reaction score
13
Location
Milton Keynes
Your Mercedes
W219 Designo Black paint, R500 W251, CL600 W216
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #17
Are you aware that your COMAND looks like the rare multi CD version ???

Yes, I do know that my Comand unit is a multi 6 DVD loader. I deliberately went for a 6 DVD loader instead of a single Comand unit because I could load as many DVDs as possible on the drive. Although, it was more expensive than the single DVD Comand but that is the price you pay to have an extra.


When you listen to music on your non H/K stereo, which music file sounds better? The music on a CD or the one from your Ipod? I believe music bit rate is higher on formatted MP3 music on CDs than Ipod. Also, I read somewhere on the manual that the Comand does not support ID3-Tag. On my Ipod, I have loads of album art work from various artists. Could this be the reason why music files from my Ipod have lower bit rate?

As always Simon, thanks for your anticipated answers. I will play around with the Comand to discover more options.
 

S.Speed

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2009
Messages
5,066
Reaction score
13
Location
Lancashire
Your Mercedes
Older Citroen Now :-(
Firstly I always use "apple lossless" on my iPod.
The mp3's that I use for my car are ALWAYS recorded at the highest bitrate. (320kbps).
The Comand unit displays the title of the song and also shows folders.
For example I have a folder called "queen" and within that folder are 5 other folders with various Queen albums.

Album artwork is unfortunately NOT displayed on the Comand screen.
 
Last edited:

Alps

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 26, 2003
Messages
700
Reaction score
80
Location
london\Essex
Your Mercedes
2019 E63s S213, SOLD - 2013 Weistec E63 AMG, SOLD - 2004 E55 (x2)
excellent write up for an worthwhile upgrade, as our cars get older the upgrade does get more expensive in proportion to what the car is worth.

Its still a top upgrade if you can source the parts cheaply enough

well done!
 
OP
Mcobinad

Mcobinad

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 27, 2011
Messages
1,066
Reaction score
13
Location
Milton Keynes
Your Mercedes
W219 Designo Black paint, R500 W251, CL600 W216
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #20
excellent write up for an worthwhile upgrade, as our cars get older the upgrade does get more expensive in proportion to what the car is worth.

+1.

You see we are looking at keeping the car in the family. We would not sell her on. Whatever upgrade we do to the W219 is still well worth it in the end even if the cost of the upgrades will slowly grow to be more than the car's worth.

I very much agree with your point. :)
 

AIB understand your special Mercedes deserves a special insurance policy. We have a refreshing attitude to insuring high performance, modified, imported or classic and vintage cars and deal with the UK’s leading insurers. We offer discounts for length of ownership, where the vehicle is kept overnight and limiting the mileage and can also cater for those clients who need higher mileage and business use. To obtain a quotation please call the team on 02380 268351 or visit us atAIB Insurance
Top Bottom