I was wondering. Have you thought about taking the wires that goes to the external speaker and bridging it to the front speaker doors with speaker wires? At least sounds will come out of those vs. that speaker box.

If you are playing music, it will talk over the music while it is playing. The music will not stop completely.

What you think?

 

I'm not sure its worth it, the only thing I found the speaker was for was the phone audio. If you use use Android phone setup, you also have to use the aux mike they provide for the audio. Both sound very poor compared to the oem system.

 

Your're right. It won't be worth it. OEM it is.

Thanks,

 

Im taking the leap and upgrading again to a new version $550.. Main screen is much cleaner looking.



new radio

 

Any other new noticeable changes?

 

little bigger screen, more memory, just looks updated. The screen backs and main box looks to have the same connections as my current one, Doesn't look like Ill even have to change the wiring, just swap out the plugs.

 

New unit is installed. Looks to be the same function-wise as the other android ones being sold which mounts on top of the dash.

Likes: definitely upgrades the freshness/look by a year or two, even from the old android unit. Much cleaner audio (with the last unit if I turned the android volume over 1/2 level, there was a noticeable hiss even with a noise filter on the aux line and the android volume would drop back to 0 level with every restart.) With this unit, I run the android volume at max and adjust the overall volume with the stock system controls with no hiss.) I also now have sound to both my front and rear speakers (my last unit only sent sound from the fronts for some reason), although I haven't found a fader or balance control for adjustment on the new unit . The lower A/C display is now adjustable for C or F and can be hidden from the main screen for a cleaner look.

Dislikes: little slower boot up. . My main complaint is the lack of bluetooth functionality on the android unit (there is no user interface). You can pair to the android from a external device that can see and connect to the android's Bluetooth signal (ie a phone, ipod, etc) but you can't pair to a device from the android directly (ie you cant see/pair from the android unit to an obd2 adapter to use with torque - my old unit easily does this). The unit does not support reading/ playing an Ipod connected through the usb cables, but it does work through Bluetooth. The AUX cable adapter to the media interface port they sent me originally didnt work, I used the AUX adapter from my old system . The seller/manufacturer will not give me the code to access the developer settings, I have tried all the random ones from the other android threads (111111, etc), but so far no luck.

So with old unit, I ran my phone hotspot to the android (mainly to stream Spotify on the android unit itself and use internet functions), then paired the android stereo Bluetooth to my obd2 for torque, and my phone's Bluetooth to the original MB system so calls route through it
.
With new system, I will have to Bluetooth stream Spotify / iPod music from my phone to the Android, connect my phone's Bluetooth to the original mb system so calls route through it, and then get a a wifi obd2 unit if I want to run / connect torque at the same time, which disables my wifi hotspot connection.


Overall, besides the really annoying Bluetooth issue, its a nice upgrade.


New display looks just like this: