|
If it simply won't do it, then you could always do what I did and buy a cheap behringer USB DAC and an OTG cable and go OTG > DAC > Aux in, but then you lose the ability to charge while listening which is kind of balls with a phone (I use an 8" tablet so not a biggie). Honestly, by this point you really need to consider whether you can even tell the difference in sound quality between Bluetooth and and the head unit's on board DAC, given the source is already a lossy compressed stream. To be honest in my lexus with its spiffy premium system and my Samsung S5, I can't. I really do wish there were better options for Android users. iOS just don't do it for me.
|
# ? Oct 2, 2016 12:42 |
|
|
# ? Jun 5, 2024 20:17 |
|
Did you try the android USB setting? Cause you have one option that says memory and the other that says app control and I wonder if that'd change how it works.
|
# ? Oct 2, 2016 15:32 |
|
powderific posted:Did you try the android USB setting? Cause you have one option that says memory and the other that says app control and I wonder if that'd change how it works. My understanding is that the app control is for the pioneer ARC app
|
# ? Oct 3, 2016 22:44 |
|
played with my stereo a little more today, realized that HD radio isn't working as it's only giving me static, I don't even know if there's a way to use a non-HD tuner but I'm wondering if I connected something up wrong or missed an antenna wire or something. Also curious if there's a way on Pioneer head units to disable sources. I don't really want to scroll past Aux, Pandora, App, etc. sources if I'm never going to use them and plan to stick to Bluetooth, Radio, CD.
|
# ? Oct 5, 2016 01:34 |
|
VW is gonna buy back my 2010 Golf TDI so I'm starting to look at my car options. I want Android Auto but the list of cars that come stock with Android Auto is pretty underwhelming, and i would prefer to buy used. I'm having trouble figuring out what my aftermarket options are. Any suggestions for an android auto stereo with a big touchscreen that would let me control Spotify and Google Maps?
|
# ? Oct 7, 2016 17:00 |
|
Hashtag Banterzone posted:VW is gonna buy back my 2010 Golf TDI so I'm starting to look at my car options. I want Android Auto but the list of cars that come stock with Android Auto is pretty underwhelming, and i would prefer to buy used. My Pioneer double-din does this but it's a couple years old now (AVH4000NEX). My big gripe with it is (for my iOS phone) I need to have the phone physically plugged in to actually use those features which I basically never want to do.
|
# ? Oct 7, 2016 17:31 |
|
MMD3 posted:played with my stereo a little more today, realized that HD radio isn't working as it's only giving me static, I don't even know if there's a way to use a non-HD tuner but I'm wondering if I connected something up wrong or missed an antenna wire or something. At least on mine (2013 or 2014 model), yes. It's buried under the system menu, IIRC.
|
# ? Oct 9, 2016 05:57 |
|
So my AVH4000nex head unit and my rockford fosgate rx100d amp both have settings for crossover control. Is it better to do this at the head unit or the amp? Is it better to adjust the bass 'boost' stuff on the head unit or with the 'punch' dial on the amp? Thanks.
|
# ? Oct 9, 2016 17:03 |
|
VelociBacon posted:So my AVH4000nex head unit and my rockford fosgate rx100d amp both have settings for crossover control. Is it better to do this at the head unit or the amp? Is it better to adjust the bass 'boost' stuff on the head unit or with the 'punch' dial on the amp? Thanks. Generally, an amp will have a better crossover built in than a head unit but not always. Check the specs on both crossovers to see which has a higher slope ie: 24 db per octave would be excellent.
|
# ? Oct 9, 2016 23:17 |
|
I can set the slope on my head unit.
|
# ? Oct 9, 2016 23:40 |
|
VelociBacon posted:Is it better to adjust the bass 'boost' stuff on the head unit or with the 'punch' dial on the amp? Thanks. The punch dial is a weird thing to have as what most will describe as punch in an audio type manner will be the short, sharp kick in the chest that comes from a drum kick at about 60-70hz. So what that dial is suggesting to me is that all it does is bang up the EQ around that range. I suppose it's there for those that don't have any sort of EQ on their head unit though.
|
# ? Oct 10, 2016 12:30 |
|
One advantage of setting crossover settings on the amp is that they'll survive a battery disconnect. Not a huge deal but setting everything up again on your head unit after you disconnect the battery can be annoying.
|
# ? Oct 10, 2016 16:29 |
|
That's a good point re: battery disconnect. The punch thing, I actually thought the same about which frequencies it should boost but looking at the chart it peaks the standard deviation curve around 50hz.
|
# ? Oct 10, 2016 20:20 |
|
MMD3 posted:played with my stereo a little more today, realized that HD radio isn't working as it's only giving me static, I don't even know if there's a way to use a non-HD tuner but I'm wondering if I connected something up wrong or missed an antenna wire or something. HD works over the same antenna jack. Keep in mind that HD radio is a lot more touchy though so if you don't have a really good antenna that could be giving you problems. If you aren't tuning HD though it should kick down to standard FM, so if you're not getting that you either don't have the antenna plugged in or there's something wrong with it.
|
# ? Oct 11, 2016 02:46 |
|
Hi guys, I picked up a '97 Lexus LX450 (Land Cruiser) as a winter vehicle that has an ancient and half-dead OEM system in it right now. After doing some reading re: what will fit, I just ordered door speakers for the truck, but the OEM double din head unit is also pretty awful. So I ask you - I have an iphone, I'd like to be able to sync it for bluetooth calls and probably music playback and maybe even the fancy screen mirroring if it's available. Is any of that available via the iphone on one of these Chinese Android double DINs that are all over Amazon and ebay? Curious what you guys think the right path forward would be, thanks.
|
# ? Oct 26, 2016 02:16 |
|
Tremek posted:Hi guys, I picked up a '97 Lexus LX450 (Land Cruiser) as a winter vehicle that has an ancient and half-dead OEM system in it right now. After doing some reading re: what will fit, I just ordered door speakers for the truck, but the OEM double din head unit is also pretty awful. I'd go with the Pioneer AVH-4200NEX personally. I haven't heard many good things about Chinese Android headunits.
|
# ? Oct 26, 2016 06:02 |
|
Hmm, appreciate the suggestion but that would increase the value of the truck by 25% all on its own, and it commits the cardinal sin of not having a rotary volume knob. I'll keep digging... Looks like reviews are indicating a lot of the Chinese stuff is getting better, and there are apps to do screen mirroring even with an iphone... Might experiment and/or take the poorly-thought out plunge.
|
# ? Oct 27, 2016 15:45 |
|
Tremek posted:Hmm, appreciate the suggestion but that would increase the value of the truck by 25% all on its own, and it commits the cardinal sin of not having a rotary volume knob. I'll keep digging... Looks like reviews are indicating a lot of the Chinese stuff is getting better, and there are apps to do screen mirroring even with an iphone... Might experiment and/or take the poorly-thought out plunge. I have heard one can get good results from these Chinese Android units if one of willing to root the headunit to run aftermarket software and such. I have no experience with them personally. If you decide to experiment please report back with you experiences.
|
# ? Oct 27, 2016 16:16 |
|
Rooting aside, those Chinese head units have very poor build quality. My recent one had screen protector film I could not remove under the bezel, horrible mic quality. And even worse FM reception. Google showed me 'easy' fixes by cutting solder traces on the motherboard. But the last straw was the latest update that removed the dimming option in the firmware,and borked the GPS which was 59% of using it in the first place. I bought mine on Amazon so returning it was a non issue. Try it and I hope you get a good one, but mine was a lemon.
|
# ? Oct 29, 2016 01:25 |
|
I have decided to finally replace my current Pioneer head unit with one that has Bluetooth. I need an aux in and Bluetooth that will work with an Android phone on a 1U head unit. Keen to keep it cheap but if there is a reason to spend a bit more I'm okay with that. My car is a 2002 Toyota/Lexus IS300 wagon which has stock rear speakers (think they are 6x9s?) and low range (but not stock) Pioneer front speakers (the ones with the tweeters separate), got a guy to put those and the head unit in when I bought the car 7 years ago. If I do this myself do I need a special tool? Apart from getting the old unit out it should all just be plug and go right?
|
# ? Oct 29, 2016 21:51 |
|
If you stick with Pioneer, it should be plug and play. Pretty sure they haven't changed their harnesses for at least a decade. If you go with a different brand, you'll need to wire it to the car - hopefully whoever put it in used an adapter harness and didn't chop the factory plug off. I believe all of Pioneer's current single DIN units, except for one, has Bluetooth. I'd stick with one with physical radio preset buttons if you listen to the radio much. I don't think you'll need anything beyond a socket+wrench set and a screwdriver, but Lexus interiors tend to require quite a bit of disassembly to get to the radio, so budget a couple of hours. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 03:11 on Oct 30, 2016 |
# ? Oct 30, 2016 03:08 |
|
Yu-Gi-Ho! posted:If you stick with Pioneer, it should be plug and play. Pretty sure they haven't changed their harnesses for at least a decade. If you go with a different brand, you'll need to wire it to the car - hopefully whoever put it in used an adapter harness and didn't chop the factory plug off. Thanks! Pioneer MVH-X385BT looks like the business for me then.
|
# ? Oct 30, 2016 04:15 |
|
I just ordered a https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GZM838C/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 for my $25 minivan. Super curious how it works.
|
# ? Oct 30, 2016 06:33 |
|
First time poster here. To preface, I'm terrible when it comes to understanding much of anything about car audio installs, so I need some serious help. Basic info: * I drive a 2005 Ford 500 * I've an aftermarket head unit, a JVC Bluetooth player from Crutchfield. * I have a sub in a box I got for free that is sitting in the trunk, it works * I haven't replaced any of my speakers, so that stuff is all stock. Now, I'm generally a very broke individual, but that didn't mean I like to deal with piss poor sound. Recently I received a stone free stuff: a sub and a set of speakers (Kenwood kfc-6982ie). The sub was attached to a speed boat at one point, but seems to work rather drat well (the speaker and box are in great condition, but the amp that's attached to it is half dead apparently; note: not sure if it's an amp honestly, I can attach a pic if need be). My problem though is the speakers. At first I was going to just put the free 6x9's in the rear deck because I have room to cut holes and mount them there, but apparently my head unit only supports 4 speakers as it is. I would have loved to put them in the front or rear door, but they're too big (I think I can fit at max 6x8's). I read that there are adapters to make them fit, but these things are very deep, at least three times deeper than my stock speakers, and no matter what they won't fit in the door or be able to have the stock plastic fit over it which is a big issue as I'm not exactly technically proficient when it comes to shaving car parts down. Is there anything I can do to install these? Put them in their own boxes on the floor of the back seat and disconnect the rear door speakers? Install them in the rear deck position and somehow wire it past the rear door speakers? I really have no idea what to do. Any ideas would be appreciated.
|
# ? Nov 4, 2016 07:18 |
|
You can split the rear channel to power both your rear door speakers and your new 6x9 in the rear deck in parallel, but I doubt that will sound much better than stock. Aftermarket 6x9s are though enough to power for the deck when alone. You could alternatively see if there is any life in the amp powering the boat sub, and using it to power the 6x9s since you already have a sub. What your setup seems to need the most is some decent front speakers, so I would probably consider selling your new stuff to buy some 6X8s that will actually fit. Speaker spacers and new boxes aren't free either.
|
# ? Nov 4, 2016 11:08 |
|
Humbug posted:You can split the rear channel to power both your rear door speakers and your new 6x9 in the rear deck in parallel, but I doubt that will sound much better than stock. Aftermarket 6x9s are though enough to power for the deck when alone. You could alternatively see if there is any life in the amp powering the boat sub, and using it to power the 6x9s since you already have a sub. What your setup seems to need the most is some decent front speakers, so I would probably consider selling your new stuff to buy some 6X8s that will actually fit. Speaker spacers and new boxes aren't free either. The amp attached to the sub has no life if I remember correctly. The initial idea was to hook up the rear deck to it, but the tech who looked at it said it was a no go. Any way for me to check myself though? Not to be crude, but it was a best buy tech who was fired a few weeks later, so I'm not sure I trust his opinion. Attaching a new amp to the sub might be best, but it's something I can't afford. Truthfully I mentioned I don't even know if it's an amp attached. I can post a pic if necessary. If love to sell the stuff for new front speakers, but the box looks like utter poo poo despite everything still being in the packaging and untouched. As a buyer I would beware of someone tried selling me these speakers. Any online guides for doing the splitting you can recommend? How on earth can it power both sets of speakers?
|
# ? Nov 5, 2016 04:50 |
|
The short version is you'd wire 2 speakers to each rear channel. But most head units are only rated down to 4 ohms, and most car audio speakers are 4 ohms. If you wire them in parallel (that is, all of the + wires together, all of the - wires together), you'd wind up dropping that to 2 ohms, which the stereo probably wouldn't be terribly happy about. It would also require running a lot more wire. If you wired them in series - that is, positive from the stereo to the first speaker's positive connection, negative connection from that speaker to the next speaker's positive connection, and the negative from that last speaker to the stereo's negative connection, you'd wind up with 8 ohms, which will cut the power output on that channel in half. Some amps are designed to handle 2 ohm loads. But you really don't need to put an amp on rear speakers before you put an amp on the fronts or any subs. Honestly, I would keep the sub+box in storage until you can afford an amp for it, if you know the amp is dead. Throw your money at some new front speakers, forget about the rears for now. The rears should be the last part of a car stereo setup you worry about in general, unless you're building a party bus, limo, or something to compete in an IASCA event (and uh, at that point, you're going to be spending more on audio equipment than the vehicle itself). You could maybe test the amp by hooking up both the positive and remote wires to +12V and the negative wire to -12V and seeing if the lights on it come on, that would at least tell you if it can power on. Maybe hook up an MP3 player or phone to it with a 3.5mm -> RCA adapter and connect some speakers to it, but you'd have to test it at a low volume unless you have it hooked up to a car battery. Go ahead and throw in a picture of the amp or amp-like device, and I'm sure we can tell you what it actually is. It would be helpful if you also get a picture showing any wires or terminals on it. Amps pretty much always have all of that stuff on one side, and adjustments will generally be on that same side or on the opposite side. Some have adjustments on the top. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 05:46 on Nov 5, 2016 |
# ? Nov 5, 2016 05:28 |
|
Are the speakers in Miata seats easily replaceable? Also, is having the speakers right next to your head even worthwile or is a gimmicky thing that only works in theory?
|
# ? Nov 8, 2016 04:49 |
|
The Door Frame posted:Also, is having the speakers right next to your head even worthwile or is a gimmicky thing that only works in theory? Works great (for headphones). It's dumb as hell for cars. Some convertibles do it because otherwise to hear the music over wind noise you'd have to have everything cranked to an obnoxious level.
|
# ? Nov 8, 2016 04:56 |
|
Yu-Gi-Ho! posted:
For the first gen IS, you will need a Phillips head, 10mm socket and a 6” or so extension, and something to pry the HVAC vent assembly up with. I use a trim removal tool but a taped flathead screwdriver or a butter knife would do. Good vids all over YouTube.
|
# ? Nov 8, 2016 08:36 |
|
VelociBacon posted:Works great (for headphones). It's dumb as hell for cars. Some convertibles do it because otherwise to hear the music over wind noise you'd have to have everything cranked to an obnoxious level. ...except it's not dumb as hell. (sorry for effortposting, it's been a while since I typed anything like this up) Cars are always compromised when it comes to audio, they're generally the worst environment to listen to music in outside of I dunno, a nuclear weapons test site. Engine noise, exhaust noise, air noise, tyres on the road noise, other cars... EVERYTHING gets between the listener and the music they're playing. The environment constantly changes too, sitting in traffic is a vastly different experience than going 75mph on the motorway with the windows or roof down. Add to that the placement of the speakers is always poo poo, you want tweeters pointed at your ears because high end is the most likely to get bounced off the car interior and arrive at your ears indirectly and delayed which makes things sound crappy. That's all just basic sound physics. Car designers work on the concept of making the car interior look pretty, they then hand off their design to the audio department and tell them they can put speakers here, here and here but that they can't be seen nor can they be too big but they need to be loud and they need to play lots of bass. OEM car audio is just one massive compromise and despite certain people's thoughts on the matter, putting the speakers next to your ears is actually a fairly decent solution to the problem. Ideally they'd be high quality drivers with decent midrange but you can't get big sound out of small drivers without a large cabinet and you also can't get the extension. Also ideally you'd combine them with a fair sized sub. If your seat speakers could do down to 100hz with authority then you could place the sub anywhere in the car as below 100hz isn't locatable as in you theoretically shouldn't be able to pinpoint where the low end is coming from. If you have to force the sub to cover more of the bass frequency range (100hz upwards to say 200hz) then you want it front and centre as you'll be able to tell where the sound's being kicked out from. Putting speakers in the headrest would be best in something like a rally bucket seat where it wraps around your head, direct sound to your earholes (y'know, how you listen to things) with no reflection points would mean it's the purest possible sound. This is why headphones sound really nice, they fire soundwaves directly into your lugholes with little outside contamination from the world. I'm not suggesting an MX5/Miata's standard speakers are any good but the idea of putting music where it's needed directly into your ears rather than bouncing it around the car interior before it arrives at your eardrum at different points (delay/latency) is a fine idea. The human ear is pretty sensitive to higher frequencies and midrange as strangely enough this is where the human voice tends to sit and over however many millions of years we've evolved, our ears have become quite sensitive to this range. When you add delay/latency to this range by bouncing it around a car interior you notice it pretty easily as you're hardwired to do so due to your ape brain, it sounds lovely so remove the delay/latency and it's instantly clearer. Direct sound >>>>>>>>>>> indirect sound all day every day. If you want to test the theory of how environment messes with audio clarity in terms of delay/latency put on a pair of headphones in a quiet room. Sound good? Now listen to a speaker in your living room, still sounds good, right? Now take that speaker into a tiled bathroom and play it at the same volume. The sound is now bouncing all over the loving place and is a lot less clear and generally terrible sounding, it's getting to your ear at different times from different places in the room and that's why it sounds like poo poo. If you've got the speaker pointed right at you then turn it away from you and point it at a wall, you're now getting only reflected sound at different times so any clarity you had from hearing direct sound first is now gone and all you're hearing is reflected sound, which is the worst thing in the world. In the audio world, putting speakers in the right places is the best thing you can do for sound quality, everything else comes way down the list. Olympic Mathlete fucked around with this message at 10:27 on Nov 8, 2016 |
# ? Nov 8, 2016 10:25 |
|
So what I'm gathering is that they're only worthwhile if I pull out the original midrange speakers and put in tweeters because the higher range stuff is what needs clear directional input, which is difficult to hear with the top down and only door speakers, but I'd definitely also need a centrally placed subwoofer and not just regular, midrange door speakers due to the same directional input problems. Is that accurate or am I not quite understanding what's written?
|
# ? Nov 8, 2016 11:44 |
|
In an ideal situation you'd have some speakers in the headrest that were capable of 20,000 - 100hz at decent volume and you'd place a sub to do 100hz downwards wherever you could find space for it. 100hz and down is the point where the human ear can't differentiate where sound is coming from so you can place subs wherever, anything above that becomes a matter of placing a speaker in direct line of sight to your ears. I don't honestly know what the set up is in a Miata with those particular headrest speakers, I'd imagine they do most of the top end (due to being particularly tiny) with the lower end stuff fed only to the door speakers which are more capable of handling it. It may be that simply replacing the headrest speakers along with the door ones gets you a better quality of sound due to the drivers being better quality and more capable. If you want bass though you'd need a sub somewhere in the car. *fakedit: just had a google, the headrest drivers are tiny and wedged behind an inch of foam and virtually non-perforated material on the seat which will be absorbing the vast majority of anything put out by the speakers. You could replace the tiny drivers, get some open celled acoustic foam instead of the thick stuff already in there and that would help a lot for not much cash. Maybe replace the door drivers if you're feeling flush and play around with the crossover frequencies if you have such an option on the head unit to get it balanced better.
|
# ? Nov 8, 2016 12:08 |
|
I wasn't trying to say that a car/truck/van is the ideal acoustic environment. Headrest speakers are bunk because they're small and can't be properly balanced with the rest of the audio for the size limitations mentioned above. Yes you can throw some tweeters in there and have a hosed up soundscape because they're directly beside your ears while the rest of your range is coming from the door panels and possibly trunk. Best bang for buck for a miata is going to be replacing whatever is in the doors. Also for what it's worth I set my sub to an 80hz LPF and my other speakers to a 100hz HPF with slopes making up the inbetween. 100hz on a subwoofer is absolutely locatable sound to my (not professional) ear but that could be just my installation. VelociBacon fucked around with this message at 12:35 on Nov 8, 2016 |
# ? Nov 8, 2016 12:33 |
|
VelociBacon posted:Also for what it's worth I set my sub to an 80hz LPF and my other speakers to a 100hz HPF with slopes making up the inbetween. 100hz on a subwoofer is absolutely locatable sound to my (not professional) ear but that could be just my installation. Phase/delay/balance are all things which affect something like this. And I know you weren't saying a car is ideal, I just wanted to ramble it seems and clear up a few misconceptions about sound...
|
# ? Nov 8, 2016 13:03 |
|
The Door Frame posted:Are the speakers in Miata seats easily replaceable? What generation of Miata? My NB LS doesn't have headrest speakers but does have an upgraded set of 2-way speakers in the doors, can hear everything quite well with the top down. edit: Speaking of Miatas, I put the Pioneer MVH-X580BS in mine and I'm going to need to pull it out as you can't see it AT ALL with the top down. Any recommendation for a single- or double-din deck with good bluetooth / iPhone functionality and has very good visibility in direct sunlight? DEUCE SLUICE fucked around with this message at 19:41 on Nov 8, 2016 |
# ? Nov 8, 2016 19:25 |
|
DEUCE SLUICE posted:What generation of Miata? NA's had them as an option, I believe, and even ones without them are supposed to have mounting inserts in the foam of the head rest. That is, if MX-5 forums are to be believed, which isn't the most reliable source. According to them, you can unzip the headrest and find the mounting things in about 30 seconds, so I'll just thoroughly inspect before I buy I'm looking at just grabbing a pair and mounting them in an oooolllld roadster, since they're comfortable enough and the leather ones have a stylish, retro look that fits most eras of car design post 1960. Top up or down, old cars have pretty aggressive road noise, so I wanted to make sure that the speaker-seat idea actually worked in real life before I started to trawl Craigslist for seats and eBay for speaker components. Plus, people like to replace them for bucket-er bucket seats, so they're usually not hard to find on the cheap even if the speakers are a gimmick
|
# ? Nov 8, 2016 21:41 |
|
Hi friends I apologize in advance if this kind of talk is taboo... but I am putting together a list of stuff for a first time system and it's all budget stuff because I don't need anything crazy just stable and better than Ford's 1989 audio standards. Would love any advice or opinions on my selections. This is the list of stuff I was comfortable with the prices for: http://pastebin.com/Dd2rHhty I used some of crutchfield's information documentation to make the choices to make sure the RMS and Ohms line up or fall within acceptable range. (based on my understanding anyway) I realize at such low prices nothing is gonna blow anyone out of the water, but this stuff IS going into a single cab truck from 1989 so it really doesn't have to pump out ridiculous levels of sound. If I had a measuring stick to go by, I would hope that this stuff would at the least sound as good as the base MACH system I used to have in my v6 new edge Mustang. And also better than the current sound system in the truck. Which is older than me. And broken.
|
# ? Dec 2, 2016 08:09 |
|
Razzled posted:Hi friends I apologize in advance if this kind of talk is taboo... but I am putting together a list of stuff for a first time system and it's all budget stuff because I don't need anything crazy just stable and better than Ford's 1989 audio standards. Would love any advice or opinions on my selections. So in my opinion for this kind of thing I wouldn't spend money on a speaker amp. Either let the head unit drive the speakers at it's 25RMS or spend the extra money you'd otherwise spend on the amp on a nicer deck. You'll also need an amp for the sub - I don't see it in your pastebin. That amp you linked is not capable of driving a sub and 2 speakers.
|
# ? Dec 2, 2016 10:03 |
|
|
# ? Jun 5, 2024 20:17 |
|
VelociBacon posted:That amp you linked is not capable of driving a sub and 2 speakers.
|
# ? Dec 2, 2016 10:55 |