11GL550

The command unit on my 2011 GL550 final **** the bed and I want to upgrade to a more modern media interface. My car has the Harmon Kardon setup so I will need to tap the fiber optic Most amp. I am also looking to utilize Apple CarPlay. It seems like the Avin units are one of the easier upgrades, especially since they include all the wires needed and are almost completely plug and play. However, I have heard that they are good, but not great and sometimes have some quirks.

What are you all running and what other options are out there that work well?

Also just want to note that I am fairly mechanically inclined and good with electronics, splicing, and soldering. So while plug and play is great I am open to other options as well. Also I’m in Massachusetts and not opposed to someone else doing the work if there is a reliable audio specialist locally that works on these Mercedes units.

BlownV8

Welcome to the forum. Use the search feature. It's been discussed in length.

BlackML550

Check this YouTube channel out. This fella does a heap of headunit reviews and upgrades and I learnt alot before I bought one for my daughters B180. Well worth a look. Pretty sure he covers off on fibre optics in one of the reviews. Look under Audio forum here as well. I'd posted stuff there and saw that many others had as well.
https://youtube.com/@SaabUnleashed?si=jwoB3avzJQzPy-vX

eric_in_sd

All I really want is a large screen for Torque gauges, and a music player that is a little easier to use, with a larger screen, ideally not needing to go through the Aux connector. As it is, the COMAND screen is used mostly as a mounting surface for my Garmin.

So I get discouraged reserching fancy head units that offer a view of your vehicle from space, and perform regular urinalysis to ensure you are not yet diabetic - but then disable the dashboard clock and and and

I think I'll just get an Android tablet.

11GL550

Thanks, I’ll definitely check it out.

The fiber optics don’t seem too complicated with enough adapters out there, but for whatever reason no shops around me want to touch it with a ten foot pole.

I am with you on going less complicated than a lot of units are. I don’t mind the extras, but excellent sound quality, Apple CarPlay, easy of connectivity, a decent sized screen for navigation, and reliability is all I really need. I have seen a few that integrate an obd2 which might be nice.

eric_in_sd

Of all the idiocies MB engineering came up with, the fiber optic loop is pretty much top tier. That and being a off-road vehicle that dies if you get it wet.

Seriously, fiber optics? We are talking ~100Tbps. We're talking bandwidth enough to stream Onlyfans to a good-sized city. The only benefit I get out of it is having to pay about $200bux for an interface to the fiber optic ring if I want to replace the head unit.

By the way, sound quality is about the last thing you should be hoping for out of a head unit. Virtually the entire limitation in car audio is the speakers. A distant second is amplifier power, but this largely because car speakers are so inefficient..

gb25

Another option is bypassing the factory amp with something like this:

https://audiotechdirect.com/atd-abc-...-r-class-w251/

I bought an android headunit and didn't really like it. Sound quality was kind of crap and I couldn't really get it to sound good with tuning. Then I found something like that cable years ago on ebay. I put a little rockford fosgate amp under the driver seat. Low-level output from a kenwood head in to the RF amp then speaker outputs from the RF in to the factory wiring to Morel speakers. Had to tap in to a switched wire for the ACC to the amp and headunit though (used wire to lighter outlet I think). Sounds better and now it's kind of more like a normal vehicle as far as the wiring goes.

EWT

I'd throw in a vote for buying a name brand double din unit for about the same price as a probably buggy Android head unit. You lose the ability to run Android apps, but you'll likely have less headaches with one. I just break out my Android phone if I want to run Torque/Dash Commond etc.

I think the stock (speakers and amp) Bose system in the GL actually sounds decent for a factory system after using pink noise to adjust frequency response with the equalizer built into the Pioneer head unit I use. One issue you'll run into regardless of which head unit you use is that you'll lose fader capability once you use a MOST/analog converter. The sound stage ends up coming from the front with whatever F/R balance is the default though, so I don't find it to be a problem.

eric_in_sd

So the "name brand" units run a proprietary operating system, not Android?

EWT

Correct. Just a run of the mill Pioneer/Sony/Kenwood etc. Double Din unit. You'll get bluetooth for streaming and phone, and Android Auto/Car Play. You can't add android apps but if you really want to be able to stream video, which seems to be the reason many people use them, you could use something like a $30 Chromecast to feed video to the unit via HDMI input. The android head units just don't seem to be very reliable based on the complaints I've seen in person and online. They're usually based on old Android builds, don't get maintained well after the sale and often have issues right out of the box. There are some Facebook groups and websites where you can get help with issues if you can figure out the actual device you have (they're usually sold under a bunch of different brand names), but I'd rather get something that just works.