Double din or single din fold out with wireless GPS
Discussion
I'm hoping someone can put this to bed fairly simply.
I've fitted dozens of stereos over the years, but have been put of the scene for a fair while now so am not up to speed with the latest units, but I fitted a double din in one of our cars to replace a standard head unit a few years ago and fitted reverse camera etc. And have been very happy with it, but now I've got a bit of a job on where between a couple of our cars (one being my daily driver snotter) and a couple of family cars I've agreed to help with everyone seems to have the same requirements for a stereo. So I thought I'd do them all at the same time. The only issue is after a brief look at stereos there seems to be an issue.
Single din with fold out screen or double din (preferred for a tidier more factory look).
Usb, Bluetooth, ability to put a start up splash screen on, ability to connect reverse camera and built in GPS.
The GPS seems to be the sticking point, other than cheap Chinese units which I don't want for reasons listed below, all the branded units seem to use the phone for GPS, which I don't mind, but they seem to require a wired connection, which I don't want at all, the only way I could consider that is if they have a front and rear usb, I can use the rear usb for the phone and run the wire to a glovebox so the phone can be away and tidy (and charge it) and still have the front usb for a memory stick full of music.
Basically I don't want the interior looking like a rat's nest of wires, that's what I'm trying to get away from here, otherwise I'd just use a decent phone mount and use my phone for satnav.
I did find some chinese units, android based, seemed to tick all the boxes and could even get them made to fit the individual cars without needing adapter plates, quite clever really, but having had feedback from actual users, while they do work they don't work well, suffering from slow downs and very poor audio, audio quality is important.
Can anyone help with a model that does all that? I don't mind either phone based GPS or a separate GPS antenna which I can neatly integrate, I would probably prefer the separate antenna tbh and have it totally standalone. What I don't want is wires visible from the driver's seat.
I've fitted dozens of stereos over the years, but have been put of the scene for a fair while now so am not up to speed with the latest units, but I fitted a double din in one of our cars to replace a standard head unit a few years ago and fitted reverse camera etc. And have been very happy with it, but now I've got a bit of a job on where between a couple of our cars (one being my daily driver snotter) and a couple of family cars I've agreed to help with everyone seems to have the same requirements for a stereo. So I thought I'd do them all at the same time. The only issue is after a brief look at stereos there seems to be an issue.
Single din with fold out screen or double din (preferred for a tidier more factory look).
Usb, Bluetooth, ability to put a start up splash screen on, ability to connect reverse camera and built in GPS.
The GPS seems to be the sticking point, other than cheap Chinese units which I don't want for reasons listed below, all the branded units seem to use the phone for GPS, which I don't mind, but they seem to require a wired connection, which I don't want at all, the only way I could consider that is if they have a front and rear usb, I can use the rear usb for the phone and run the wire to a glovebox so the phone can be away and tidy (and charge it) and still have the front usb for a memory stick full of music.
Basically I don't want the interior looking like a rat's nest of wires, that's what I'm trying to get away from here, otherwise I'd just use a decent phone mount and use my phone for satnav.
I did find some chinese units, android based, seemed to tick all the boxes and could even get them made to fit the individual cars without needing adapter plates, quite clever really, but having had feedback from actual users, while they do work they don't work well, suffering from slow downs and very poor audio, audio quality is important.
Can anyone help with a model that does all that? I don't mind either phone based GPS or a separate GPS antenna which I can neatly integrate, I would probably prefer the separate antenna tbh and have it totally standalone. What I don't want is wires visible from the driver's seat.
wildoliver said:
I'm hoping someone can put this to bed fairly simply.
I've fitted dozens of stereos over the years, but have been put of the scene for a fair while now so am not up to speed with the latest units, but I fitted a double din in one of our cars to replace a standard head unit a few years ago and fitted reverse camera etc. And have been very happy with it, but now I've got a bit of a job on where between a couple of our cars (one being my daily driver snotter) and a couple of family cars I've agreed to help with everyone seems to have the same requirements for a stereo. So I thought I'd do them all at the same time. The only issue is after a brief look at stereos there seems to be an issue.
Single din with fold out screen or double din (preferred for a tidier more factory look).
Usb, Bluetooth, ability to put a start up splash screen on, ability to connect reverse camera and built in GPS.
The GPS seems to be the sticking point, other than cheap Chinese units which I don't want for reasons listed below, all the branded units seem to use the phone for GPS, which I don't mind, but they seem to require a wired connection, which I don't want at all, the only way I could consider that is if they have a front and rear usb, I can use the rear usb for the phone and run the wire to a glovebox so the phone can be away and tidy (and charge it) and still have the front usb for a memory stick full of music.
Basically I don't want the interior looking like a rat's nest of wires, that's what I'm trying to get away from here, otherwise I'd just use a decent phone mount and use my phone for satnav.
I did find some chinese units, android based, seemed to tick all the boxes and could even get them made to fit the individual cars without needing adapter plates, quite clever really, but having had feedback from actual users, while they do work they don't work well, suffering from slow downs and very poor audio, audio quality is important.
Can anyone help with a model that does all that? I don't mind either phone based GPS or a separate GPS antenna which I can neatly integrate, I would probably prefer the separate antenna tbh and have it totally standalone. What I don't want is wires visible from the driver's seat.
Hi,I've fitted dozens of stereos over the years, but have been put of the scene for a fair while now so am not up to speed with the latest units, but I fitted a double din in one of our cars to replace a standard head unit a few years ago and fitted reverse camera etc. And have been very happy with it, but now I've got a bit of a job on where between a couple of our cars (one being my daily driver snotter) and a couple of family cars I've agreed to help with everyone seems to have the same requirements for a stereo. So I thought I'd do them all at the same time. The only issue is after a brief look at stereos there seems to be an issue.
Single din with fold out screen or double din (preferred for a tidier more factory look).
Usb, Bluetooth, ability to put a start up splash screen on, ability to connect reverse camera and built in GPS.
The GPS seems to be the sticking point, other than cheap Chinese units which I don't want for reasons listed below, all the branded units seem to use the phone for GPS, which I don't mind, but they seem to require a wired connection, which I don't want at all, the only way I could consider that is if they have a front and rear usb, I can use the rear usb for the phone and run the wire to a glovebox so the phone can be away and tidy (and charge it) and still have the front usb for a memory stick full of music.
Basically I don't want the interior looking like a rat's nest of wires, that's what I'm trying to get away from here, otherwise I'd just use a decent phone mount and use my phone for satnav.
I did find some chinese units, android based, seemed to tick all the boxes and could even get them made to fit the individual cars without needing adapter plates, quite clever really, but having had feedback from actual users, while they do work they don't work well, suffering from slow downs and very poor audio, audio quality is important.
Can anyone help with a model that does all that? I don't mind either phone based GPS or a separate GPS antenna which I can neatly integrate, I would probably prefer the separate antenna tbh and have it totally standalone. What I don't want is wires visible from the driver's seat.
Over the last few years, plenty of head units have moved towards Apple CarPlay / Android Auto and most are a wired connection. With some cars, you can plug the phone into a cubby area and there's no 'wires' showing and you then control everything through the head unit's screen and then of course, you get access to Google Maps or Waze (and any other GPS app you may have). I understand your requirement mentioned above in that you'd want a rear and front USB slot, but a good number of head units don't have a front USB. You could use a head unit's 2nd USB slot at the rear where so equipped and use a USB cable extender (assuming one works) and put that into the glovebox where it won't be seen. If you, as you say above you don't want any wired connection, then so far, only a couple of high quality brand head units have Wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto, and even then, I think it's only one I've seen offering wireless Android Auto - the others offer wireless Apple Carplay only. It's the USA Pioneer DMH-W4660NEX unit that offers both wireless AC & AA.
A head unit I used since release in 2013 in my BMW E39 5 series is the Parrot Asteroid Smart. It pre-dates AC & AA and runs an old version of Android now but was fine at the time and more importantly, it's all that is really needed on a car audio head unit. It has a GPS antenna and runs locally installed GPS software - came with iGo. I tucked the GPS antenna up under the dash area so 100% not visible and I ran the ipod lead under my centre console to a custom made iPod holder in the ashtray. When not in use, I'd close the lid and 100% invisible. The unit has 2 more USB slots on the rear and I was going to run an extension lead and plug in a 16 or 32GB MicroSD card but never got around to it as the iPod had the excellent quality audio files I wanted on it. It has a Video input, Bluetooth which supports multi point - I had both my mobile phones connected at the same time, it has Wi-Fi too.
Selling mine now and they do crop up on ebay from time to time. I've imported in an Alpine iLX-W650 unit as want to go with AC & AA, and make use of the in built Time Alignment etc as well. Audio sound quality is very important to me along with reliability and performance so none of the chinese replacements come anywhere close to be considered!
Cheers, Dennis!
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