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LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

johnny sack posted:

I'm realizing I have to go through all of my CDs again, at least those I listen to frequently, and rip them to better sounding audio files.


Before you re-rip all your audio, rip just one and verify that it's the source file that's the quality problem. I use all generic mp3 stuff on a Kenwood deck and even the lower bitrate MP3s sound pretty ok. It makes me think you might have an interface problem or just an output volume problem. But test to make sure. If you rip one and it sounds good then yeah, re-rip.

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LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

atomicthumbs posted:

Is a used pair of these likely to give me better sound than my Volvo 940's stock rear deck 6x9s, and is $35 a good price? My head unit's a Pioneer DEH-80PRS and I'm using its internal amp.

Once the magnet falls off the tweeter and bounces around on the woofer cone, anything will sound better than stock 940 6x9's. that said I agree with STR, focus on the front stage. 9 series are easy to put components up front completely stealth, so I'd do that (and I did in several).

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

Hey STR, if getting a new amp is an option, there are some that are activated by the audio signal itself, maybe look into one of those.

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

KettleWL posted:

Hey so I'm completely car and stereo and wiring illiterate, but hopefully you guys can help me despite all that. I'm looking to install a new head unit and a new pair of rear deck speakers in my 1994 525i. Between Crutchfield and my own basic investigating I've decided on this Kenwood KDC-152 head unit, and these Sony XS-GT1338F speakers. However I do have a few questions:
1. do they perform different functions? Do I need both or one or the other? Or even neither?
The line converter is if you are running an aftermarket amplifier. It takes the speaker level signal and makes it quiet for an amplifier input. You do not need it, not sure why they'd suggest it. The metra wiring harness is a great thing to have and I recommend you get it, that way you do not have to cut and splice your car's harness. You attach it to your new car stereo so it plugs in like a factory stereo.

KettleWL posted:

2. I'd like to keep my kicker panel speakers as I really don't feel like loving with the door panel removal right now, and also they're both functioning perfectly fine. Is there a potential issue running my stock speakers to that head unit?
None unless they are a special kind like a bose factory option or something.

KettleWL posted:


3. Is there anything else I need than the things linked here (Head unit, speakers, a harness or converter or whatever) and electrical tape, wirestrippers, and a basic screwdriver set? Do I need speaker wire? If so is there a specific size or brand that's well worth it? The OP talks about getting good wire, but I didn't know if that was more for wiring amps and subwoofers instead of just replacing factory speakers.

You don't need to change the wiring, the factory wires will be fine. You might need new terminals for the new speakers at the rear, but the speakers should come with them. If you use electrical tape anywhere in a stereo install you're doing it wrong. Use insulated crimp connectors for wire connections and zip ties for bundling and organizing the wires.

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

No problem, also learn how to confidently take apart the door panels, because your next step is replacing the front door speakers. They're far more important than the rears, and you'll be blown away by how much better an aftermarket pair sound over factory, even if the factory ones are working okay.

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

Fucknag posted:

Which reminds me, the PO of my Blazer had a system in it. Still have the Kenwood head unit and the speakers (I think they're celestions? haven't looked in a while), amps and sub are gone though. Thing is, on my truck the front speakers are actually on top of the dashboard, they screw onto the grilles themselves, which then screw into the dashboard. The aftermarket speakers seem to be deeper than stock, though, and it looks like the PO cut to make space on one but didn't bother on the other.

Anyway, whether due to the lovely mounting system or being worn out (no idea how old they are) they buzz like a motherfucker; I have to turn the volume offset all the way down and turn the fader to like 8 rear (of 16 max) in order for it to not clip/rattle/whatever the gently caress it's doing. Is there any way to solve this short of cutting holes in the dash and doing custom enclosures, or am I s.o.l. with this setup?

The first step is to find out why they buzz. I'd take them out but leave them wired up and see if there's anything you can do to make it stop. If the grille is what's buzzing, modify it or clamp it down better. If the speakers buzz even sitting in your hand, they're damaged. If the buzzing is something loose in the dash, it should go away when you lift it out and you can get in there and tape it down.

Basically solving rattles and buzzing is trial and error. It wouldn't surprise me though if they just got dirt in them and are jacked up, and need to be replaced. For example that is very common on small 2 way speakers mounted flat; there's often a shaft coming through the woofer to hold the tweeter up, which means there's a cylinder that's practically made to trap dirt until it grinds. That's another huge benefit of component speakers, the woofer cone is solid.

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

Misanthrope posted:

Fair enough, I do have tweeters in a different spot and I'm not interested in replacing them (partly because I hear it's a bitch), and I don't want to install an amp so the head unit will be the only thing powering them. I guess that essentially takes the DB6501s out of the running then.... given my situation what 6.5's should I look at?

I'm far from an audiophile, but the way I figure it, if I'm replacing the head unit, I might as well do the two front factory speakers at the same time.

Maybe don't rule them out yet, I'm driving those Polks off a Kenwood head unit with the tweeters mounted in the doors and I really really like them. My Volvo is decently sound insulated so they're very smooth and clean with deep bass and more than loud enough. I do not have the same complaint about harsh treble, I think they're very nice and balanced. I bought them because my Infinity Kappas were extremely harsh on the treble, (so much I had to run negative treble gain) and these were a huge step better.

In my last car I had the tweeters mounted in the dash pointed at the windshield, run with a fairly beefy precision power amp and they sounded incredible and very loud. It might just be the way the tweeters point that makes the difference.

I liked them enough to dismount and remount in my new car, and I would buy them again.

Just another opinion.

LloydDobler fucked around with this message at 00:08 on Oct 22, 2013

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

I want that, perfect for going from the amp to the factory dash harness. Are they 16GA speaker wires? 18GA?

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

Panda Bear posted:

Why do goons like crutchfield so much? Is it the site/selection? I'm just about fed up with them. I've only ordered from them twice ever and for the second time they totally spaced on shipping my order for a week and I had to call for them to overnight it, even though both times I received an email saying that my items were "shipped" (ie a UPS label was printed out for them and they were promptly forgotten about). I'm at the point where I'm thinking of asking for a refund or something because truth be told I would not have given them more of my money if I knew that they'd take two weeks to get my order to me again.

I hope your case is just an anomaly and not an indicator that they're losing quality.

I pimp crutchfield for the same reason I pimp newegg or amazon, it's because I personally have never had a bad experience with them, which to me makes it worth the extra money they charge. I used to price shop and used to get hosed all the time by weak vendors. Also they have a huge amount of resources that help newbies learn how to DIY and understand what they're buying. Their installation instructions are great and their explanations of technical things are nicely readable for a layperson.

Sorry you're having a bad experience, you should tell them about it and see what they offer you. If they jerk you around, definitely report back so we can start watching out. I'd hate to see their service decline.

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

Possible, unless it's old. You should be able to see photos or download the manual and view the plug to see if it looks like yours. I've had success with that on Kenwood stereos but also had times when the plug was not the same.

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

I'm not a full expert or anything but running 4 ohm speakers will probably be just fine, the risk comes when you go too low, it puts extra current through the amp.

The weird part is the 9 inch woofers in the doors with 1.25 ohm impedance. I wouldn't drop a component speaker in there. Typical component sets are going to be 8 ohms each wired in parallel to give a 4 ohm channel. You won't get any volume out of it because it'll be running at 1/3 power.

Review the sizes before you just start buying stuff, and pop the grilles if you can to check to see if the 3 inch "tweeters" are some kind of coaxial 3" + 1" pair or something.

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

Also believe it or not Wal-Mart has 4GA amp install kits for like $20 with a fuse block and everything. I wouldn't use the RCAs that come with them though, the terminals are waaaaay cheap. But you can throw away everything except the 4GA wire and still get a deal.

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

Do you use that rear area behind the seats for storage or anything? Or is the car always immaculately clean like in the pics? If it's empty I'd build a thin custom enclosure that lifts the back wall forward a little, recess mount the speakers, and carpet the box (matching green if you can find it), and where the speakers are just have acoustic cloth hiding the speakers, kind of like home speakers. So it'll look like a speaker box, but not blingy or anything. If it were me I'd put a sub in it too, and make the box removable for car shows.

The kick panel idea is great for the front.

My plan for my vintage car is to not have a head unit at all, and just run an MP3 player straight to the amplifier, but I've heard that the standard headphone output is too weak so I might have to get a line driver or headphone amp for it. But there will basically be nothing visible in the car except kick panels with cloth speaker covers, the rear shelf with black cloth on it, and a box in the trunk behind the back seat with the amp and everything. The wires for the MP3 player will be between the seats so I can tuck them down when I park or put them in a center console if I build one into the car.

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

powderific posted:

To me the fronts are far the more important that the rears.

Not just you. The logic is, when you go to a show you don't face the back of the theater. Your ears are aimed forward so front stage is by far the most critical. I stopped putting the better speakers in the rear about 7 cars ago.

I do love a full balanced surround though.

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

Mr. Beefhead posted:

The Alpine turned out to be just as big of a mess as the Pioneer. I also checked out whatever model the current top of the line single-din Kenwood is, and it sucked too. It's a sad goddamn state of affairs when my 5 year old $30 Sansa Clip+ is more capable than a brand new $300 head unit.

I agree with you, thanks for doing that research. I too want this functionality and I'm blown away that nobody has it figured out. I'm still running what is technically now a vintage unit, the Kenwood Music Keg, also known as the Phatnoise Phatbox. The interface is awesome and fast, I can find exactly what I want to listen to in seconds, and organize it right down to custom playlists of any kind in any order. I have my music library organized by artist alphabetically, and albums chronologically, with full album/track/song display. It is seriously a slick and elegant system, they sold it for about 5 years and then ditched it. Phatnoise wrote such a nice interface, then Kenwood killed the functionality on newer units, and effectively just told their entire customer base to go get an ipod. Really irritating.

The problem is that it only works with Kenwood head units older than 2009 or so. I have two, and have replaced the hard drives multiple times. They require PATA laptop drives so those will be unavailable eventually, and when either of my head units dies (one is an 06 model and the other is an 07) I'm going to end up running a Sansa on aux in. For my vintage car I plan on just running the Sansa straight to the amps, with a line driver if needed, no head unit at all.


Anybody in here regularly build fiberglass sub boxes? I wanna do one for my wagon, and was wondering if there's a "best" fiberglass kit.

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

I've been shopping for one, in a perfect world I want a single DIN full face touchscreen with a volume knob (basically just what you posted) but they're all sub-$100 and that scares me. I'll pay more for reliability and there are a few brands that have at least some youtubers claiming they're decent. Joying and Atoto are two of those brands.

I'm probably about to pull the trigger on this Joying 8.8" widescreen even though it has several negative reviews and is a lot more expensive than what you're talking about. I like it because it allows me to mount the face off center, and is narrow enough top to bottom that it shouldn't interfere with my vents or my sunglasses pocket. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08K36DPLH/?coliid=I3FOE4TPB8AC9N&colid=FLM6O78WZFQ5&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

Incidentally I just built out the output side of the stereo in my daily driver wagon, I bought an Alpine 5 channel amp that's rated at 40w for each of the 4 door speakers and 300w at 2 ohm for the subwoofer, and it is unbelievably loud and clean. I paired it with Polk 6.5" components and Sundown Audio's cheapest 12" subwoofer and it is just ridiculous. Like yeah it's not popping my door frames or windshield loose but if I run it at full volume I will go deaf, and it has zero distortion until well beyond comfort. So for actual listening to music it's fantastic. I just hope my tint is dark enough to keep it from getting stolen. I did put the sub in with a plug on the wires so I can yank it out in a hurry if I know I'm going to be parking somewhere sketchy.

LloydDobler fucked around with this message at 23:56 on Jan 28, 2022

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

Ironically I'm running a CD player from 2007 that has never had a CD in the mechanism. I got hooked on the Phatnoise media player back in 2005 and still use them. I've had to replace the IDE 2.5" drives several times and since there's zero support for switching to SATA or solid state, and head units newer than 2009 don't operate the things anyway, I think it's time to retire them.

So I just pulled the trigger on the Chinese android unit I was talking about earlier. I'll update if it's good.

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

STR posted:

An IDE to SD adapter won't work?

Crazy, it might. The system has a few die hard enthusiasts and I know one person was able to make it work using an IDE to SATA adapter and got a modern SSD to work but then it didn't fit in the cartridge so he had to run it open chassis and it wasn't really compatible with the automotive environment, but it was a good exercise.

The manufacturer did something to write on hidden sectors on the drive so that only "authorized" drives could be used in the cartridges but people figured out how to hack around that a long time ago when drives were failing all over.

But again, the second biggest problem is that they require a head unit to operate and the protocol is all written around Kenwood's pre-2009 cd changer instructions. So nothing newer than 13 years old will run it. Mine has a broken volume knob and poo poo like that so it's time.

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

I'd love the car pc idea, do you have any idea how to deal with the power on sleep state kind of stuff? So that it works like a stereo, playing the song that was playing when you shut the car off? But at the same time it has to sleep deep enough to not drain the battery when the car's parked for a few days.

I've always wanted that, but then phones and android head units came along and that seems like the easier move. I'm more tech savvy than most but I lose it around this level of uncommon.

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

Meanwhile I've been playing with my new chinese android unit , been about 6 hours of just loving around and thinking it will probably work. The default music player is pretty weak in terms of functionality, it just lists the songs in the library in order, that's not going to loving work for a 600 album library. So I download the same media player app that I use on my phone, and it works.

But I just did a test that revealed something unacceptable. If I power it off and let it fully power down to standby, which took less than 5 minutes, it disconnects any external USB drives, which interrupts media playback. That's a loving dealbreaker for me if I can't find a workaround. Running another test now, I had 3 USB drives plugged in to it, maybe it got confused. I'm planning to run just one large stick in it. But having to restart the media player every time I start the car is not what I'm looking for. Edit: test complete, and it still does it with one USB stick.

I also downloaded a wifi file transfer app and it won't let me upload to the unit, it's write protected somewhere and I can't find the options to get around that. I can understand the unit wanting to write protect but one of the things I was really hoping for was the ability to dump new albums to the memory sticks without pulling them from the car. The main microSD is behind the faceplate, and there's no way I'd be willing to remove and reinstall that every time I want to add an album to the library.

Basic functionality pretty disappointing. This is the same poo poo that happens with regular head units too, if you want to store a loving music library on it, as soon as you add more than say 20 albums it just can't handle it.

Now I want to try other stuff, maybe see if the microSD has better boot up speed. Because the thing only has 64 gigs of internal storage, so it won't hold all the music that I want it to, and without that wifi file transfer the only way to copy files to it is through a real clunky touch screen cut and paste operation from USB to internal. I loving hate this poo poo. I just want a massive hard drive in my car with all my music on it that plays and navigates a large library. That's why I liked the phatnoise so much, it was 100% customizable and played like a CD changer without delays. I have 618 albums of music in each car, and the only negatives are that I have to pull a cartridge to load music at my desk, and the hardware is obsolete and wearing out.

I'm thinking carputer is the way to go for everything I want. Hell if the microcontroller is functional enough I'd love to be able to trigger power-on over wifi and load songs without having to go down and turn the ignition on.

And yes I know I'm the weirdo with my requirements. Everyone else is content to just have the head unit be a dumb repeater of phone functions. I'm not.

edit: okay, it doesn't lose track of the SD card that snaps in the front, even if it's full of a ton of music. It's just the USB drives. So now my workaround, if I choose to keep this unit, is that I will get a massive SD card, and load music either by finding a wifi file transfer that gets around the write protection, or I'll put music on USB sticks and do the clunky cut and paste into the SD card so that I don't have to pop the face off every time I want to add music. I can do that one or two albums at a time, it takes about 20 seconds per album. It'll be the initial load-out where I load up the SD card and then insert it that's time consuming, but rare.

Also pics make everything better. So here's my test setup. Just out of frame are a benchtop power supply and a bluetooth speaker with an aux in.

LloydDobler fucked around with this message at 11:10 on Feb 10, 2022

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

Tom Guycot posted:

...because the unit is basically stock android, I found I could just put a microSD with all my music in it, and run the normal version of power amp, plus maps, other music apps, do split screen with apps, run apps that doesn't have an android auto version, or whatever way better than android auto. So after all that I never even bother with android auto, and its great.

That's exactly where I'm ending up, I tested my unit with an internal SD card and it loads it instantly so my music app restarts where it left off (after I hit the play button). The only things I'm even slightly unsatisfied with are app related, like how the app doesn't restart playing music on powerup, or how it manages playlists and random play. But I'm learning that this is me not knowing how to use apps, because I DON'T LIKE USING A PHONE AS A GOD drat COMPUTER. Like I just learned that all the menus in my mp3 player are extremely context sensitive, way more than I realized. So if I'm looking at the song library, the hamburger menu only allows me to adjust how the songs display. If I switch to the now playing screen, that same menu now allows me to switch modes to artist or album directly within the context of the song that's playing. That's something that was seriously pissing me off and now I have the answer.

I still haven't installed the head unit in my car, I spent all day saturday researching apps, a friend of mine came over whose brother is hardcore into playing with phones and showed me launcher apps. The stock launcher on this thing uses really crappy neon color icons, the launcher he recommended is soooo much nicer. I then blew the rest of the day curating playlists and making wallpapers. Now I want to find a wallpaper app that loads a new wallpaper randomly on each startup. I have a few more things to play with on it but once I finish I'll get it installed.

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

Lowclock posted:

I assume you got your wifi file transfer problem figured out then? I was just thinking about it and that unit actually looks like an awesome aspect ratio to do split-screen stuff on android. Even apps that don't particularly support split screen usually work fine if you force it, and either side would probably be closer to a normal AR than stock.

Nah, I gave up on that and just manually loaded my entire music library onto a single microSD card. I can handle a USB stick for the rest of it.

And yeah it actually has split screen native, you just hit the app switch button and there's an icon on the app that if you touch it, the app only maximizes to half the screen. Pretty nice. Doesn't look like it does 3 at a time though.

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

Finally got around to mounting the android unit in the car, I had to buy an additional wire harness for my Crux steering wheel control adapter because the one I had was specific to Kenwood and a few other brands. I think I purged the extra one that came with it when I moved in 2020. But the steering wheel controls worked perfectly, simple setup. You just push the button on the wheel and then touch the command you want it to do. I could actually map them to anything on the list. I might even map "previous track" to play/pause instead, as I'll use that way more. In the rare instances where I want to go back a track I can always do that on the touchscreen.

First boot:


I downloaded and customized a bunch of wallpapers, then installed an app that changes them daily. They're not all Volvo logos but these are.





The Volvo dash adapter uses the stereo side screw holes but it had two slots that put the head unit at max protrusion from the dash. So I had to add a screw hole but I was able to recess the body of the unit into the pocket, and the screen snaps on perfectly flush with the dash face. I can still slip a piece of paper between them but you can't see any mounting hardware or anything like that, I'm pretty happy with it.

I still might make some adapter plates that would allow me to mount the screen dead center in that console rather than centered over the pocket, I haven't decided. I should probably just make them and try it, I can always go back to this if I don't like it. I picked the single DIN model because this car has very limited storage pockets and I like using the pocket under the stereo for stuff. In hindsight I probably should have just gone with a double DIN unit like everyone else does.

Of course no sooner did I get this installed than I find the model they sell with a smaller screen and physical volume knob. I think I would much rather have had that than this, but :effort: I'm not going to pack this one up and send it back now.

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

https://smile.amazon.com/JOYING-Sin...s%2C290&sr=8-10

Or you can browse their entire set of offerings at their website: https://www.joyingauto.com/

They must have been getting a lot of feedback to add physical buttons and/or a volume knob because they just released several. I'm thinking about doing this same setup for my convertible but in a double din.

Also I did re-map my "previous track" button to play/pause and it rules. I need to figure out if there's a way to make the app start playing automatically on power up but this is a great workaround since it doesn't do that currently.

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

Well I don't know if the experiment is over or not, I'm pretty mad though. Twice since I got my Joying android head unit, it powered up as a full reboot as if it had lost all power. And although it eventually recovered, the music app had to reload the music library, so it took several minutes before I could play music. Other than that it had been working fine, until today.

I got in the car and it rebooted again, so I figured I was in for the long wait again. But when it got to the UI it had fully hard reset itself. All the apps and settings I had done, all the EQ settings, all my playlists, playlist backups, custom button locations and user settings, gone.

I spent HOURS setting this thing up. And I did it at my desk where I had time to edit files and then simply pass them to the head unit. I could cross check things and make sure it was all how I wanted it. And even though I had backed up all the playlists that I had painstakingly edited because for some reason on android they use forward slashes instead of backslashes for the file system, and poo poo like that, it deleted the folder where the backup was because it was related to the music app. I'm going to dig around a little more because as much energy as I put in to editing these I can't believe I put the only copy onto the hard drive without leaving a backup on my main PC.

This loving sucks. And if I can expect it to happen every couple of months, then I absolutely can't recommend this chinese garbage, even if the build quality appears great and they charge premium prices for it.

I'll probably go through and set it up one more time, but if this ever happens again (and I'm sure it will) this thing is going right in the trash. Maaaaaybe I'll pull it out and check the wiring, maybe I have a weak crimp or the factory plug has a weak crimp. Maybe the voltage is dipping too low when the car starts because I need a new battery, it is the battery that came with the car after all. Maybe I have stockholm syndrome and this head unit is gaslighting me into thinking it's my fault because I've generally had good luck with electronics. Sigh.

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

Yep. Even the base settings like using 24 hour time and time zone were reset. The SD card is recognized and loaded.

I did a basic reinstall of the apps and partially set them up and I'm noticing that it boots a lot faster now, right into where it was when I shut the car off. I wonder if I had something corrupted or conflicting that needed to be flushed. That or it did a forced update.

It kept the steering wheel control button assignments for some reason, and fortunately the SD card was untouched and lost no data which has 100% of the music, and playlists on it, so I got those back. In reality it only took me about 20 minutes to set it up again, which wasn't great but not enough to drive me to pull it out.

It gets one more chance.

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

Yeah they appear to be pretty good about compatibility, my Joying unit had about 3 different protocols you could use via a jumper. I left it on the default and it worked in the Volvo with a crux adapter. As long as it gets the signal you tell it what function to use for that signal.

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

LloydDobler posted:

Yep. Even the base settings like using 24 hour time and time zone were reset. The SD card is recognized and loaded.

I did a basic reinstall of the apps and partially set them up and I'm noticing that it boots a lot faster now, right into where it was when I shut the car off. I wonder if I had something corrupted or conflicting that needed to be flushed. That or it did a forced update.

It kept the steering wheel control button assignments for some reason, and fortunately the SD card was untouched and lost no data which has 100% of the music, and playlists on it, so I got those back. In reality it only took me about 20 minutes to set it up again, which wasn't great but not enough to drive me to pull it out.

It gets one more chance.

So this hard reset must have corrected something I did during setup because ever since it did it the unit has worked really well. Like the only thing that has gone wrong is that my background switcher app changed the resolution randomly. I went in and set it back to native and otherwise it fires up with the key almost instantly and starts playing as soon as I hit play. No full reboots, no weirdness or refreshing the library or anything. So I can say I'm happy. I'm still dialing in the settings, the tweeters with my new polk components are super harsh and not mellowing as I use them. I'm just worried about dialing back too much treble because I don't want things to sound muddy. A 30 band EQ is not necessarily a good thing in this case. I have to do a lot of adjusting. But that's half the fun as well. It also has different bass boost characteristics than my old Kenwood which makes the bass a little too tightly centered on one frequency. Still dialing that in too.

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

I just dove in to the generic chinese android world and I haven't got it to sound as good as the 15 year old Kenwood Excelon it replaced yet. I think I'll get it there but I'm not recommending them quite yet.

I did however want to offer an alternative subwoofer. These sundown audio punch way above their weight. Subwoofer nerds love them because they're low cost due to no frills but very high quality. I just got this exact one for my wagon and it is definitely loud as gently caress. I'm driving it with the 300w sub output on an alpine 5 channel amp and it's pretty impressive.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09FVXX9YM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Kappas are great, I ran them in one car and my only complaint was how bright the tweeters were. I actually ran negative treble in the eq to balance it out. I'm having the same problem with the current gen Polk DB series, I had the last generation in a previous car and loved them. I also love that add-on midrange speaker for the infinitys, I've never seen that before. My convertible is set up for a 3 way component set so I need that.

LloydDobler fucked around with this message at 20:03 on Jun 23, 2022

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

I guess it depends on what you like your tunes to sound like. I vastly prefer sealed boxes because I like a good solid thump. Ported boxes to me tend to be more blurry and muddy rather than just deep.

DoesNotCompute posted:

I just ordered a Sundown SD3 8" subwoofer...

That sundown oughta do just fine driving it hard. They are often very underrated. One thing I have heard is that their subs that don't have vents through the magnet have to do side venting below the spider, and it can manifest as a sort of whiffing/popping sound on higher frequency quick hits, like the bass drum. This video pretty much demonstrates it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJAZeioWCbM

There are several other videos including sundown's own promo videos that have this noise present. I actually test drove their 6.5" sub because I loved the idea of that small of a woofer/box. I tried it in a sealed box and it made almost no bass at all, switched to a ported box and it was surprisingly loud, but in both cases it made that same noise. If it were in a trunk it wouldn't have been a big deal at all but it was in the cabin of my wagon so I heard it all the time.

I hope yours doesn't do that but if it does don't fight it and just send it back and get one with a magnet port. I ended up going with a single E-12 because I already had the box, and I bought a 10 ga trailer wiring plug so I can just yank it in and out of the car at will. It sounds absolutely beautiful, zero whiffing noise and goes louder than I will ever want to listen to it even though it's pretty much their cheapest sub.

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

LloydDobler posted:


I got in the car and it rebooted again, so I figured I was in for the long wait again. But when it got to the UI it had fully hard reset itself. All the apps and settings I had done, all the EQ settings, all my playlists, playlist backups, custom button locations and user settings, gone.

This loving sucks. And if I can expect it to happen every couple of months, then I absolutely can't recommend this chinese garbage, even if the build quality appears great and they charge premium prices for it.


Yep, happened again. Every 4 months it factory hard resets and I have to reinstall all the apps and reset all the settings. This should be like #1 priority. This is bullshit and I'm calling in the warranty and/or just getting something else. gently caress this garbage.

Joying android headunit for reference. I'm really happy with the build quality and the looks and everything. But internal quality is not there.

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

nope. it holds the memory. It does have to boot from scratch but that's just a boot cycle, the apps and settings are still there. I did that dozens of times while setting it up because I did it on a bench.

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

LloydDobler posted:

Yep, happened again. Every 4 months it factory hard resets and I have to reinstall all the apps and reset all the settings. This should be like #1 priority. This is bullshit and I'm calling in the warranty and/or just getting something else. gently caress this garbage.

Joying android headunit for reference. I'm really happy with the build quality and the looks and everything. But internal quality is not there.

Ok so since I'm lazy I just left the head unit in the car and left it all default and started using the built in mp3 player. First thing I notice is it sounds noticeably better than the Omnia player I was using. Second thing I notice is I haven't had a single reboot of any kind since the last reset. I'm thinking my media app is the problem. I'm going to try a different one. Testing others on my phone to see if I like the UI before committing to the car.

I would use the factory player but it is EXTREMELY stripped down, no search, no playlists, track browsing only. Navigating the library is my #1 requirement. I should probably use voice for that but I haven't installed the microphone yet.

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

In spite of my problems, that's one area I'm not dissatisfied at all, this Joying head unit has a 1280 x 480 screen that is just gorgeous.

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

Last JOYING update: 2 months with a new mp3 player app and I've had zero problems. Also the new app (Musicolet) sounds way better and is faster and pretty much better in every way. I was running Omnia music player before and it appears it was the source of all my problems.

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

Sounds like you have it figured out. No power at the red switched power wire. If that's on the factory side of the plug check the fuse. Not much else it could be.

If you have power at the plug and not the head unit, check your crimp connections. Make sure to wiggle them around, it might test fine on the bench but lose continuity when jammed in the dashboard.

Next check the harness and make sure the person assembling 900 of these per hour got the wire in the right hole. I once had a metra harness adapter wired 100% mirror image from what it should have been. Fortunately on those it's just a matter of unsnapping the connector lock and putting them where they go. Also fortunately the power wires weren't re-routed to anything that could damage the unit.

Head units have fuses on the back, also check those.

Double check that the plug is seated in the head unit, some can false snap. After all this you're looking at something strange like a bad factory crimp on one of the wires or a bent pin, or an internal head unit failure.

You can try touching 12v to the head unit with it out of the car, it should light up and stuff. Also make sure it's not something really dumb like you have to hold the power button down for a real long time to get it to activate.

LloydDobler fucked around with this message at 21:31 on Feb 4, 2023

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

The fact that I didn't know that was a thing makes me feel strangely out of touch and obsolete. drat. Like I know steering wheel controls often come over a bus but not the power signal itself.

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

In the past I've noticed Crutchfield being un-necessarily strict about what "fits" because anything that isn't bolt in bolt out doesn't count as fitting. All Volvos made since like 1995 use standard size speaker holes but they mount on factory brackets which the factory speakers are glued to. Remove the glued speaker and any standard 6.5 will replace it. But they say "modified fit" or "does not fit" when you search stuff.

Same with the 700 series, 5-1/4 speakers fit just fine in the front doors, but you have to trim just a tiny bit on some speaker frames for the factory grille to snap back on. Crutchfield? DOES NOT FIT.

I rely on forums and youtube and my own experience, and shop around for discounts enough that buying the freebies separate is no big deal.

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

Mr. Apollo posted:

I have a 2019 Audi RS5 Sportback with the B&O Premium system. I'd like to upgrade the subwoofer. I was looking at the JL Audio 10W6V3-D4 and I have a sealed box of the right size to go along with it. For the amplifier, I was thinking of the Wāvtech Link500.1 mini as it'll do 500W at 2 ohms. I like the Kicker KEY500.1 with it's automatic DSP but it only does 300W at 2 ohms. Someone suggested the JL Audio VX600/1i (it'll do 600W at 2ohms) but that seems a bit overkill for me with all the custom tuning functionality (unless there's an automatic mode).

Are you interested in alternatives and/or saving money? Nothing wrong with JL, they're great. But I've been crazy about Sundown Audio for a while, and I have their budget sub in that watt range that I'd put up against anything. They really punch above their price point (all their subs do). You can also spend the same money as the JL on them but get dramatically tougher as well. They're basically a no bullshit power handling sub. In this video they torture test one at 1x, 1.5x and 2x rated power continuous. And this is their second cheapest model, he says $139 but that price is out of date, they're $189 as I write this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6XhP2CJRsQ

I have it in my wagon cargo area and it sounds fantastic, no noise or secondary venting sounds or anything. Just music.

LloydDobler fucked around with this message at 20:58 on Jun 1, 2023

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LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

Copper is copper. The difference in quality, if any, is not worth double IMO. I say save a few bucks where you can.

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