Ask Us About Car Audio, Part 4: Gasp Harder

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > Ask Us About Car Audio, Part 4: Gasp Harder

blk: Dec 19, 2009; .

Has anyone seen a preview for CES 2013?

# ¿ Dec 5, 2012 23:45

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# ¿ May 5, 2024 18:40

blk: Dec 19, 2009; .

So Pioneer's AppRadio 2 is $150 on Crutchfield now. I've heard great things and I've heard awful things. I have an iPhone4 and will be switching to Android later this year. Any thoughts on this headunit?

# ¿ Feb 6, 2013 19:02

blk: Dec 19, 2009; .

Molten Llama posted:

That's the AppRadio, not the AppRadio 2. Don't be confused by Pioneer's bizarre model numbering system. The DA-02 is the AppRadio; the DA-100 is the AppRadio 2.

If it works with what devices you have right now, and what you plan to buy (the AppRadio does not have Android support), and has the features you need for the audio you want, then awesome. But it's priced that way because it's pretty barebones and Pioneer's basically given a giant "gently caress you" to AppRadio owners with regard to continued support.

Ah, gotcha - thanks!

# ¿ Feb 6, 2013 23:16

blk: Dec 19, 2009; .

Does anyone have an inside line on Alpine? I noticed they're finally updating their non-touchscreen single DIN headunits to have variable color. I'm trying to find out if they're bringing out a double DIN that does the same. Last year's is still around http://www.crutchfield.com/p_500W235BT/Alpine-CDE-W235BT.html and only does blue in the states (international gets variable color). Piddling little poo poo like this actually matters to me; I like my cluster to match my center stack.

# ¿ May 11, 2013 21:01

blk: Dec 19, 2009; .

I'm wondering if I can put an inductive charging pad in one of my DIN pockets. Googling yields talk of doing this but no hand-holding instructions, which I probably need. Anyone have a link handy?

# ¿ Jun 14, 2013 17:28

blk: Dec 19, 2009; .

My iPhone's on the way out so I just ordered a Nexus 4. I've been meaning to switch to a bluetooth head unit as well, and have been eyeing the AppRadio 3 in hopes that a new version of ARLiberator will come out soon to handle it. That said, it sounds like the Nex4 and AppRadio 3 (and previously, 2) have an assortment of bluetooth issues. Anyone have experience with this?

# ¿ Aug 5, 2013 06:27

blk: Dec 19, 2009; .

Has anyone used this guy? http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Car/CD-Receivers/DEH-X9500BHS

I noticed some of the newer Pioneers feel cheap and flimsy on the face/buttons - wondering if this one does as well since it's higher end. I can't find it locally.

# ¿ Aug 15, 2013 00:18

blk: Dec 19, 2009; .

some texas redneck posted:

I had the 9400 BT for about a year, which was its immediate predecessor.

Yes, it felt cheap and plasticy (in fact, it didn't even come with a case for the faceplate, which pissed me off - I always removed it when parking since I lived in dorms at the time), and in typical Pioneer fashion, the user interface was poo poo. The remote wouldn't even work out of the box - the battery was completely dead, despite it being a new model at the time.

Also, the X9500 isn't high end, at all - it's 1 step above their very basic stuff (the basic stuff is stuff you'd find in Wal-Mart - some Wal-Marts even sell the 9400 and 9500). It has some higher end features, but it's still a relatively cheap head unit. Nothing wrong with cheap, as long as you know it's cheap. But today's name brand cheap head units are leaps and bounds ahead of yesterday's middle of the road stuff, and the day before yesterday's top of the line. I still have some mid 90s issues of various car audio magazines, the X9500 blows everything in their high end roundup away by miles (and for thousands less), even if you don't factor in today's convenience stuff (like BT). I think the 9500 puts out either 2V or 3V on the RCA preouts, while the higher end Clarion I had in the mid 90s probably put out about 0.5V.

That said, the only real gripe I had (once I got used to the menus) was there's no dimmer wire on a lot of Pioneer head units; it had a toggle in the user settings to dim it. It sounded great, and had plenty of options. A new battery got the remote working, I'm guessing it shipped with a defective battery (it still had the plastic thing you yank out to "activate" the remote). Also, it absolutely hated doing the Bluetooth game with my Nexus 4 - it would do A2DP streaming fine, but if I enabled phone call streaming, both the phone and head unit would lock up constantly. I blame that on both LG's lovely BT implementation and Pioneer's lovely BT implementation.

FWIW, I paid $120 for the 9400 a year and a half ago (and sold it for ... half? in SA-Mart this spring). I'd expect the 9500 to be in the $100-130 range by now for new, if not cheaper.

Thanks. I bought the Alpine CDE-147BT recently and like it OK except for the fact that it doesn't fully change color to match the rest of the interior. It's advertised as doing so:

But in reality the square source button is frosted blue acrylic, and it stays blue unless it is the absolute pitch black dead of night, when the colored LED behind it doesn't have any reflections to overpower. It really irritates me since I like my illumination to match. I also don't seem to be able to control Pandora on my Android phone from the headunit over BT, but that may be my error, I need to read the manual.

I'm going to compare to the Pioneer and see if it does better. The rest of the car audio is stock and I'm going to keep it that way, so I don't have high terribly high standards there. Just needs to sound OK, have good BT/phone compatibility and blend in with the rest of the instruments and stack.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2013 02:19

blk: Dec 19, 2009; .

Person Dyslexic posted:

Hey all, I am a total rookie when it comes to installing my own car stereo but I just picked up a 2010 Corolla SE and would very much like to try my hand at giving it a few upgrades. Right now the entire system sound like rear end and I'm thinking I'd like to bring it up to par one piece at a time. Any advice on a decent head unit for this car? I don't want to break the bank and am really only concerned with ensuring that the unit blends fairly smoothly with the dash; no gaping holes between things and whatnot. I currently have a box with two older JL 12 inch subs that still sound drat good, some older kicker 6x9's and couple of decent amps to power them, but for now I really just want to focus on the head unit. If I manage to successfully install that without blowing anything up I'll try the other things.

So long story short, what are some good mid-level head units around 150 to 250 out there and should I know anything in particular before attempting this on my own? Any beginner guides on installing them that you know of would be greatly appreciated, and if you need more info that I left out because I am dumb I'd be happy to oblige.

If you order from Crutchfield they give you a good set of directions for headunits; you might try that. Their filtering system for head unit selection is pretty good too, so you can narrow down by what features you want and compare wattage, etc some there.

# ¿ Aug 17, 2013 20:18

blk: Dec 19, 2009; .

Person Dyslexic posted:

Yeah I was looking at them... how is there advice by phone? And thanks.

I've never used it, but supposedly fabulous - they get high rankings for customer service all around, not just among car audio retailers.

# ¿ Aug 17, 2013 22:05

blk: Dec 19, 2009; .

Selling my head unit if anyone's interested. I really liked it but I'm upgrading. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3515402&pagenumber=3&perpage=40#post418605692

# ¿ Aug 20, 2013 03:55

blk: Dec 19, 2009; .

I'm having the weirdest problem with my Pioneer DEH-X9500BHS. It has two USB ports on back that are supposed to charge connected devices. It won't consistently charge my Nexus 4. I've tried 5 different USB cables in each port, both with and without the Pioneer extension cable. Sometimes it won't charge at all, sometimes it will charge for 30 seconds then stop, sometimes it will charge for 2 minutes then stop. Doesn't matter if the car is turned to ACC on or started all the way. Has anyone seen anything like this before?

# ¿ Sep 15, 2013 02:31

blk: Dec 19, 2009; .

DocCynical posted:

I have a 2010 Toyota Tacoma that I want to put a new headunit into. I really want something Android based, that will interface with the steering controls, which I can tether to my phone if I want data. I've seen a few things on Ebay which seem rather shady and Crutchfield is showing up blank in the Android department.

Has anyone run one of the mystery Ebay units? Any recommendations?

All the Android-based units I've researched have been reviewed as garbage. I have no first hand experience, though.

# ¿ Dec 21, 2013 09:14

blk: Dec 19, 2009; .

Is there a headunit out there that can stay BT paired with two phones? I drive my wifes car sometimes and don't want to re-pair each time.

# ¿ Jan 11, 2014 08:06

blk: Dec 19, 2009; .

So I drive my wife's car sometimes; I recently got her this headunit:

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_130X6600BT/Pioneer-DEH-X6600BT.html

so that I could stream BT audio while I was in it. She got her first smartphone recently and I wanted her to be able to do the same. Basically, if I'm driving alone, I want it to pick up my phone, if she's driving alone, I want it to pick up hers, and if we're both in the car, I assume one of us will have to disable BT on our phone so it only has one to choose from. It would be ideal if we could choose the paired device to stream from from the head unit, but not mandatory.

The headunit is supposed to be able to pair with up to 3 phones. I paired with my Nexus 4, then tried to pair it with her iPhone 5S. It seemed to pair OK, but it refuses to connect to her phone after that, even if it's the only BT device in the car. I tried clearing BT memory on the headunit, that didn't do anything. I restored factory defaults on the headunit and paired it only with her phone. That worked OK. I then paired in my phone, and her phone stopped connecting again. Even though multiple phones are paired with the headunit, it insists on talking only to mine, even when the other phone is the only one in the car.

Does anyone have a headunit they recommend that is easy to toggle between two paired BT devices? There's this JVC that claims to do it, but user reviews say it's garbage in pretty much every other capacity. http://www.crutchfield.com/p_105KDX80BT/JVC-KD-X80BT.html

# ¿ Jan 27, 2014 21:48

blk: Dec 19, 2009; .

Would adding an amp like this do anything to improve the depth of sound in my 97 Miata?

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_500MRXF35/Alpine-MRX-F35.html?tp=115

I don't have head rest speakers, just door speakers that are really flat and tinny. Have this head unit:

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-byPgr5SyF6m/p_130X6600BT/Pioneer-DEH-X6600BT.html

# ¿ Jun 1, 2014 06:34

blk: Dec 19, 2009; .

I'm selling a fancy pants Alpine head unit in the AI marketplace: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3515402&pagenumber=7#post432201006

# ¿ Jul 15, 2014 02:26

blk: Dec 19, 2009; .

This thread should be renamed Acoustical Insanity.

# ¿ Jul 18, 2014 00:54

blk: Dec 19, 2009; .

If it matters, JVC will let you customize colors, Alpine will not. If you order from Crutchfield both should have everything you need (aside from something to crimp or solder the wiring tails).

# ¿ Aug 5, 2014 05:21

blk: Dec 19, 2009; .

Bose system in my NC Miata sucks. Anyway to tell if it's more the fault of the headunit or the speakers? Replacing everything would be more expensive.

Also getting lovely vibration/rattling from bass in both of my cars. Does this mean loose door cards, blown speakers, or potentially both?

# ¿ Oct 7, 2019 04:34

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# ¿ May 5, 2024 18:40

blk: Dec 19, 2009; .

No highs, no lows, must be Bose

# ¿ Oct 10, 2019 06:03

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > Ask Us About Car Audio, Part 4: Gasp Harder