About RSNAV — and What to Expect Before You Buy
RSNAV is a small product planning and design firm based in Montreal, Quebec. We plan, design and specify our systems, and we sell them directly. Our exclusive manufacturing partner, AINAVI (Shenzhen), builds, ships and handles hardware fulfilment for every order. Software, and tuning come from us.
This page is deliberately blunt. We would rather you buy with clear eyes than be disappointed later.
1. Can I buy this on AliExpress?
No. RSNAV-spec units are sold only on rsnav.com — that is the whole point of our exclusive agreement with AINAVI. You may find units elsewhere that look similar; they are not built to our hardware or software specification, and we cannot support or update them.
2. What actually makes an RSNAV unit different?
Each product description is the honest, detailed answer — please read it. In short: continuous software updates, and hardware customised for the car rather than adapted to it, with audio being where we put most of our effort.
3. Is this a plug-and-play product?
Not really, and we would rather say so up front. An RSNAV system is not the best ready-to-use product on the market. It is the best tool for someone willing to explore and find their own sweet spot. So the most important question is what you want. If the answer is "plug it in and never think about it again," this is probably not the product for you. Expect to spend real time in the settings — audio, video, cameras, power behaviour — to make it work well for your car and your taste. Owners who enjoy that get a lot out of these systems. Owners who don't, often don't.
4. I've seen complaints about RSNAV's customer support.
That's fair, and we won't pretend otherwise. There are two structural reasons:
- Small-batch, made-to-order production. The factory assembles our units between its priority batches, so lead times are long compared with an off-the-shelf, warehouse product.
- RSNAV is effectively a one-person operation. The same person does product planning, design and engineering, and also answers some of support mail while mostly handled by AINAVI customer support team. Engineering usually takes most of the day, and replies can be slow.
On Facebook: the RSNAV-related groups are not run by us and we have no control over them. There was a serious falling-out with some group administrators, and since then the discussion there mixes genuine owner feedback with opinion shaped by that dispute. Read it — but read it knowing that. If you need an actual answer, email us directly; that reaches us, forum threads don't.
5. Some basics aren't right — volume bar, microphone, power sequencing. Why?
- Volume bar. On most 2010s Audi MMI systems the volume level is simply not published in a form an aftermarket device can read. No aftermarket product can display it reliably — this is not an RSNAV-specific defect.
- Microphone and echo. 3G MMI systems add unavoidable latency. You hear it as echo on calls, and see it as audio lagging the picture when watching video. Raising microphone sensitivity makes the echo worse, so we keep the mic deliberately conservative. For phone calls we recommend using the car's original Bluetooth; the S5 also offers several settings so you can pick your own compromise. Again, this is a limitation of the platform, not of one product
Our recent Kickstarter project for the MOST Audio Gateway was designed specifically to bypass these legacy analog constraints—eliminating mic echo, AV sync lag, and delivering a pure, audiophile-grade digital audio pathway without requiring full aftermarket sound system replacements. While the crowdfunding campaign did not reach its target, development remains active, and we intend to bring this solution to market in small batches.
- Power sequencing. The power MCU firmware is owned by a third party and we do not have full source access, so some of this behaviour is not ours to fix today. We are actively working with the code owner to take over maintenance of that firmware; once we do, these issues can finally be closed out properly.
Where we're heading
Our engineering focus is now on the Virtual Cockpit for B8, C7 and D4. The S5 line remains supported and will keep receiving software updates for years to come — but if you are weighing an RSNAV purchase today, it's only fair that you know where our energy is going.
— Daniel Daehyun Kim, RSNAV