emig647 said: Head units in most vehicles (even brand new) tend to have really poor audio and even worse functionality.
Perhaps, but if you already have a factory multimedia unit, replacing it removes functionality like rear camera and car sensor readings. A car with poor audio is usually due to a speaker issue not a head unit issue.
That isn't true. I retained my factory backup camera on my Tacoma. Metra makes conversion harnesses that allow this. If you look at the iDatalink Maestro RR I mentioned earlier, all of those sensors are still able to be read via the CANBUS. TPMS, back up sensors, etc. It is a huge game changer.
And as far as poor audio quality, you're partially correct. Most factory speakers are throwaway paper speakers with tiny traditional magnets on the back. My 6x9 in my Tacoma were lighter than the tweeters. They are prone to distortion and tearing. The factory head units don't have the wattage to push aftermarket speakers to their standards, and can often make them sound worse than the throw away speakers. An aftermarket head unit is needed if you're going to push aftermarket speakers either by amp or traditional wiring.
Edit: Btw my Tacoma is a 2014 and my Mitsubishi Evo is a 2015 Final Edition.
Really struggling to understand your resistance to the idea, other than the fact that you're lucky enough to always have new cars.
I really don't have any resistance to the idea. I just question how significant the market is for this. As for my situation, my car, the company pays for so I always have a nice luxury car when I take visiting executives out to lunch or dinner. The other vehicle, I pay for, but I want a nice, safe, reliable luxury vehicle for the wife. It is just another monthly expense that I can afford. With luxury cars you don't want to be out of warranty because repairing them will cost you an arm and a leg, which is why I lease them and turn them in after 3 years. And it is not really luck either. I put in a lot of studies and hard work to get where I am.
I really don't understand the reason for these after market head units. Are people with really old cars with no built in multimedia screens going to pay $400 for a new receiver?
The average age of an American car is 11 years. There are plenty of automobile owners who could benefit from something like this.
I replaced the head unit in my 2005 Toyota about 4-5 years ago with an aftermarket model after the factory head unit failed. I assume others are driving cars whose factory head units might be worth replacing.
I can't speak for the average age of autos in other countries, but based on my travels, I've never visited a country whose cars were all recent year models.
I really don't understand the reason for these after market head units. Are people with really old cars with no built in multimedia screens going to pay $400 for a new receiver?
Absolutely. Consider, my truck is paid off, it runs just great. A new truck, that does exactly what my current truck does is $30-50K. A few thousand for new seats, a little restoration work, and my truck will be good for another 200k miles - when you are talking $30-50K for a new truck, what is 400? That's chump change.
rob53 said: I don't consider a six year old car old.
Perhaps there are people with six year old cars that would fork out $400 for this. Personally I don't keep cars past when the full factory service and warranty expire, well, that is except for what I call my Home Depot truck. Neither of our other two cars have CarPlay but have really nice screen features, nav, cameras and excellent audio. Both vehicles are a little more than two years old. The new models are now offered with CarPlay so next time around we will have it.
The other thing is that most people who might want this don't have the skills to install it themselves. I know I don't and I'm pretty handy. So getting professional installation would be another expense.
I guess it's how you want to spend your money. I could afford to buy a new car every 2-4 years, but I chose to spend my money elsewhere. When you go a few years without $400-600/month car payments, you appreciate having the extra money. My Tacoma is a 2003, and at 135k miles, runs perfectly. I get 17mpg, and it's reliable as heck. The seats are getting worn - so a few grand into new seats, maybe new carpet and why not a grand into a new stereo system - that's a lot cheaper than $35K for a new Tacoma - that will do EXACTLY what my current Tacoma does.
Really struggling to understand your resistance to the idea, other than the fact that you're lucky enough to always have new cars.
I really don't have any resistance to the idea. I just question how significant the market is for this. As for my situation, my car, the company pays for so I always have a nice luxury car when I take visiting executives out to lunch or dinner. The other vehicle, I pay for, but I want a nice, safe, reliable luxury vehicle for the wife. It is just another monthly expense that I can afford. With luxury cars you don't want to be out of warranty because repairing them will cost you an arm and a leg, which is why I lease them and turn them in after 3 years. And it is not really luck either. I put in a lot of studies and hard work to get where I am.
So what you are saying, essentially, is that you can't understand why someone who does not drive the type of car you drive and finance (lease) it the way you do might come to another conclusion that you do?
i totally understand why you've made the choices you've made. It's plain and simple and makes perfect sense.
Im surprised a guy as smart as you has a hard time wrapping your head around the idea that other people have different requirement, sparking different behaviors. This product likely has as good a chance at success as other aftermarket stereos.
Im surprised a guy as smart as you has a hard time wrapping your head around the idea that other people have different requirement, sparking different behaviors. This product likely has as good a chance at success as other aftermarket stereos.
I get that these manufacturers obviously would do some research before making such a product so there must be a reasonable chance of making a profit. I think it probably serves mostly two markets, neither one very large. People who want a custom stereo and those who just want CarPlay. I'm skeptical that an average driver of an older car is going to suddenly decide they want to replace their stereo unless the original was broken, but it is unlikely they would spend $400. This unit is a totally niche market in my opinion.
I have a 2003 Smart Roadster Coupé - http://www.smartactive.fr/phpBB3/download/file.php?id=14332 and I have been looking for a 1-DIN Carplay solution for quite a long time.
The audio I have installed (Parrot bluetooth adapter plus Focal amplifier, speakers, tweeters and Alpine subwoofer - the Focal subwoofer did not fit) cost a lot more than this Pioneer headunit.
... and I just regret not having installed it sooner. Factory installed car audio systems are very often lame, even by premium german brands.
I might go for this 1-DIN Pioneer Carplay solution,although I am now quite happy with my current solution, where the iPhone acts as a screen and the factory headunit is still there but bypassed.
Im surprised a guy as smart as you has a hard time wrapping your head around the idea that other people have different requirement, sparking different behaviors. This product likely has as good a chance at success as other aftermarket stereos.
I get that these manufacturers obviously would do some research before making such a product so there must be a reasonable chance of making a profit. I think it probably serves mostly two markets, neither one very large. People who want a custom stereo and those who just want CarPlay. I'm skeptical that an average driver of an older car is going to suddenly decide they want to replace their stereo unless the original was broken, but it is unlikely they would spend $400. This unit is a totally niche market in my opinion.
Same impulse as the upgrade to CD players, cassette decks or even 8 tracks. Just the 2017 version of the same thing.
I really don't understand the reason for these after market head units. Are people with really old cars with no built in multimedia screens going to pay $400 for a new receiver?
Headunits in most vehicles (even brand new) tend to have really poor audio and even worse functionality. Some that you upgrade the system are acceptable, but I still run into issues often. My 2015 Nissan Frontier with the Rockford Fosgate system would often reset my iPod after a few songs. Also the bluetooth wasn't very consistent.
If you are an audiophile, upgrading the head unit is almost required. Also in my opinion the UX for these aftermarket head units has beat any factory built-in unit I've worked with so far.
I've tested a lot of units that accept USB flash drives for music input. 96% of the interfaces for them are absolute crap. They are nearly impossible to navigate. It's like they were designed by people that received pay bonuses for the most Kafkaesque menus. I ran across one that had the only option for viewing/playing music from it into one massive song list regardless of how well the MP3 ID3 tags and folder structure was organized on the flash drive.
@Linkman, totally agree with you on interfaces for usb drives. But when it comes to having an iPod or iPhone hooked up, the interfaces aren't bad (usually). Another reason I really appreciate CarPlay. I was comparing car manufacturer interfaces with aftermarket btw. Overall I feel like the UI/UX on most head units needs a lot of work and attention still.
Why are these things still using resistive touch screens? For $400+, can't they use capacitive touch screens?
These aren't items that sell in the millions, meaning resistive is a cost reduction to help make them profitable, and keeps the price affordable for a larger portion of the market. There are a few with capacitive touch, but they're approaching or surpassing $1,000.
Why are these things still using resistive touch screens? For $400+, can't they use capacitive touch screens?
These aren't items that sell in the millions, meaning resistive is a cost reduction to help make them profitable, and keeps the price affordable for a larger portion of the market. There are a few with capacitive touch, but they're approaching or surpassing $1,000.
There are practical reasons to stick with resistive. I live in Minneapolis, right on the 45th parallel, and it gets cold here. I often drive wearing gloves in the winter. The resistive screen works with any glove, mitten, band-aid, etc.
rob53 said: I don't consider a six year old car old.
Perhaps there are people with six year old cars that would fork out $400 for this. Personally I don't keep cars past when the full factory service and warranty expire, well, that is except for what I call my Home Depot truck. Neither of our other two cars have CarPlay but have really nice screen features, nav, cameras and excellent audio. Both vehicles are a little more than two years old. The new models are now offered with CarPlay so next time around we will have it.
The other thing is that most people who might want this don't have the skills to install it themselves. I know I don't and I'm pretty handy. So getting professional installation would be another expense.
First of all: my newest car is a 2005 with 85k mi on it. It's still new as far as I'm concerned. It won't be getting on until it has 150k mi on it.
Second of all: installation is really easy. You get the adapter or wiring harness pigtail, crimp the wires together (power to power, ground to ground, speaker L + and - to speaker L + and -, etc.) and plug it in. It's pretty dead simple. On my car, I can do it in under 30 min. On my wife's car, I had to remove a little more of the dashboard, it took an hour. Wiring the steering wheel was plug and play and configured via an iPhone app. It's slightly more expensive to do steering wheel controls with the app-enabled adapter, but the convenience for install is worth it to me. Wiring the rear view camera wasn't complicated, although running the wire for video and reverse signal from back to front of car was mildly troublesome. You go from the trunk to rear passenger compartment, and I ran the wires under the door sill trim. Works fine. For crimping the wires, I prefer to use bullet or spade connectors with shrouds rather than crimp splices.
If you're at all handy, you could do it yourself without any real trouble.
I really don't understand the reason for these after market head units. Are people with really old cars with no built in multimedia screens going to pay $400 for a new receiver?
I have a 2011 Subaru Legacy with a weird Bluetooth handsfree phone option. This takes up 3 DUN units in my console. I also don't have a backup camera. If the $400-$500 models fit the standard double-DUN location and I can get enough adaptors to handle steering wheel controls, then it's worth it. I'd remove the weird bluetooth setup, keeping the microphone, which is stuck to the top of the steering wheel housing. The $400 I'd spend is a whole lot less than the original cost of a navigation unit for this vehicle (if I could even make it work).
I don't consider a six year old car old.
You'd probably have to use the mic that comes with the aftermarket system. Even so, that's not a big deal. The 400-500 dollar units fit a normal double DIN space. The steering wheel adapter is a solved problem. You either get the Axxess unit or the PAC unit - get the ones that use an app to configure. They're so much easier.
emig647 said: Head units in most vehicles (even brand new) tend to have really poor audio and even worse functionality.
Perhaps, but if you already have a factory multimedia unit, replacing it removes functionality like rear camera and car sensor readings. A car with poor audio is usually due to a speaker issue not a head unit issue.
A buzzing speaker is one thing, a factory unit that was made by the lowest bidder, or one who had a cost requirement and put all the money into the interface rather than the amplifiers is one that won't have as good sound as a well-chosen aftermarket unit.
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And as far as poor audio quality, you're partially correct. Most factory speakers are throwaway paper speakers with tiny traditional magnets on the back. My 6x9 in my Tacoma were lighter than the tweeters. They are prone to distortion and tearing. The factory head units don't have the wattage to push aftermarket speakers to their standards, and can often make them sound worse than the throw away speakers. An aftermarket head unit is needed if you're going to push aftermarket speakers either by amp or traditional wiring.
Edit: Btw my Tacoma is a 2014 and my Mitsubishi Evo is a 2015 Final Edition.
I replaced the head unit in my 2005 Toyota about 4-5 years ago with an aftermarket model after the factory head unit failed. I assume others are driving cars whose factory head units might be worth replacing.
I can't speak for the average age of autos in other countries, but based on my travels, I've never visited a country whose cars were all recent year models.
i totally understand why you've made the choices you've made. It's plain and simple and makes perfect sense.
Im surprised a guy as smart as you has a hard time wrapping your head around the idea that other people have different requirement, sparking different behaviors. This product likely has as good a chance at success as other aftermarket stereos.
Second of all: installation is really easy. You get the adapter or wiring harness pigtail, crimp the wires together (power to power, ground to ground, speaker L + and - to speaker L + and -, etc.) and plug it in. It's pretty dead simple. On my car, I can do it in under 30 min. On my wife's car, I had to remove a little more of the dashboard, it took an hour. Wiring the steering wheel was plug and play and configured via an iPhone app. It's slightly more expensive to do steering wheel controls with the app-enabled adapter, but the convenience for install is worth it to me. Wiring the rear view camera wasn't complicated, although running the wire for video and reverse signal from back to front of car was mildly troublesome. You go from the trunk to rear passenger compartment, and I ran the wires under the door sill trim. Works fine. For crimping the wires, I prefer to use bullet or spade connectors with shrouds rather than crimp splices.
If you're at all handy, you could do it yourself without any real trouble.