REVIEW: Dension Gateway Lite BT ★★★★☆

[ajmuir]

Product Dension Gateway Lite BT
Model No. GBL3TO1
Price ~£109
Rating ★★★★☆

Hi everyone, I wanted to do something a little different and share my experience with a product that adds MP3 / Phone connectivity to the existing head-unit. I understand this is not the way everyone wants to go, with new double-DIN units from the likes of JVC often being a cheaper way to go - and a more integrated solution. However, for those of you in the "absolutely no skill with car audio" and "would like to keep the look of the existing head-unit" camps - I can recommend the Dension Gateway Lite BT.

The unit comes with everything you need and requires no disassembly of the existing radio / car trim in order to retrofit. The cables supplied are fully compatible with the facelift Toyota 58806 (aka. fisher price) head-unit, no converters required. To fit, you will need to remove a cable that is already connected to the bottom-left of the radio (as you look at it), this is the CD changer socket and regardless of whether your car has one fitted, there will be a cable occupying this 12 pin port. The cable is accessible from the passenger foot-well without having to remove the radio, simply depress the tab on the top of the connector and pull away from the socket (pictured bottom-right in the image below).



Once removed, connect the short Dension-supplied cable (female end) to the cable now hanging loose from the car's loom. This converts the wide 12 pin cable to a square 12 pin (male) version. With the Gateway Lite in hand, now connect the black connector to the socket on the unit. The cable coming off the unit now has 2 ends - a female (square) end and a male (wide) 12 pin connector. The wide connector plugs back into the radio, the square one connects with the car loom.



And that's it! It will take you longer to hide the cables that it does to fit.

You can now play music wirelessly from your phone using Bluetooth if your handset supports A2DP, as well as using a USB pen or even a hard drive. The unit also fully supports the iPhone/iPod with a (ludicrously priced) dock connector available.

When using the USB pen or dock connector the Toyota head-unit will display track information despite the Dension website saying this unit is a 'non-text' model. Unfortunately text display is not available via A2DP.

I've chosen to rely solely on the A2DP route so have hidden the unit behind the cup holders, but if you wanted access to the USB port on the Dension - a cheap USB extension lead to the glove box would do the trick. You would need to mount the unit somewhere in the glove box itself if you want to use a dock connector as the supplied cable is rather short.

Overall, I'm really pleased with the functionality this device offers in addition to the ease of installation for a complete novice like me.

I've given it 4 stars as the price really is too high for what it does.

[cbf]

Thanks for taking the time to do the review - seems like a very handy piece of kit for those wishing to keep the stock HU, but it's far too expensive, as you said

[Anonymous]

Handy review, left me wondering whether there is any way to use this interface to get DAB through the stock headunit. Is there any DAB options for it?

[ajmuir]

Sadly not, the Dension DAB bolt-on only works with their Gateway Pro product line.

If you have unlimited data on your phone, apps like TuneIn Radio, iPlayer Radio and Spotify work great via A2DP though.