Database Users

[Q] Nexus Q Speaker Alternatives?

So Google is offering up a pair of Triad made in the USA speakers for 399. I am all for quality and all, but that doesn't seem like good value.
I'd be willing to pay 300 dollars ... are there any good alternatives out there that will work with the Q. As I understand it, the Q has a 35 watt built in amp...
A pair of compact bookshelves sounds like a good idea.
https://play.google.com/store/devic...SwiZGV2aWNlLW5leHVzX3FfdHJpYWRfc3BlYWtlcnMiXQ..

I like my Polk Monitor setup for my HT, so I might suggest them as well for the Q:
Monitor 30s:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882290200
Monitor 40s: (Might be pushing the 25W amp on the Q for these)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882290202
Unfortionately, I don't have a Q, so I can't verify first hand.
Newegg has both models on sale frequently.

ProfessorAsian said:
So Google is offering up a pair of Triad made in the USA speakers for 399. I am all for quality and all, but that doesn't seem like good value.
https://play.google.com/store/devic...SwiZGV2aWNlLW5leHVzX3FfdHJpYWRfc3BlYWtlcnMiXQ..
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Click to collapse
Bose and Polk Audio are both good brands. The $399 price is actually a fairly good price for Triad Speakers. The ones google is selling are made specifically for the Nexus Q. I bought used Triad speakers for my stereo system for almost $900 and they were a good buy.
I think the Triads sound better than Bose. I am considering buying them. These are the types of speakers you can use for many years. I had my Triads for several years until my son decided to tear them apart when he was 2 y/o. They aren't child proof.

There is a good amount of Passive speakers you can buy:
These would match the Q:
sweetwater.com/store/detail/MixCubes/
More Choices:
zzounds.com/cat--Passive-Unpowered-Studio-Monitors--2868
sweetwater.com/c409--Passive_Monitors

Questions go in the Q&A section

btmec said:
Bose and Polk Audio are both good brands.
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Click to collapse
Bose is a good brand like Monster is a good brand. They both use ultra cheap components in nice packaging and rely on subjective measurements to sell their overpriced products. Polk is legitimately good... but as the saying goes "no highs, no lows: Bose"
This question should really be asked over at audioholics.com or someplace else that audiophiles hang out... xda is more technophiles and hackers...

Joying J-VQ125

Hello forgive me as i know alot of these kinds of threads are probably posted. Ive tried searching and only came up with a couple of threads but not a lot of information.
I was looking to get the Joying J-VQ125 head unit. Does anyone know anything about it? Is it good/should i stay away? it seems pretty solid and the video in the sale post on aliexpress shows very smooth transitions. It seems to be pretty good running 1024x600 res and the rk3188 chipset on OS 4.4. I like the idea of physical buttons on a car stereo so i am after a head unit with a physical back/home button and volume controls. Ive been using android since 1.5 and rooted my fair share of phones. That being said i dont think i have much of an interest to root the car unit.
i cant post external link, so to view the headunit just got to aliexpress and search J-VQ125. its the only one that comes up
any helpful information would be greatly appreciated
TIA

I JUST got one of these Joying units in the mail today. I will start playing with it this evening. Like you I wanted something with at least one physical knob and a couple of buttons, and it has a slightly bigger screen because it does not waste space with a useless (come on its 2015) DVD slot. .
I got one direct from there website and used coupon code Joying which got me this unit with 1024x600, quad core and 7 inch display for only $265 shipped. It arrived in less than a week from china.
http://www.carjoying.com/quad-core-...b-memory-airplay-obd-wifi-bluetooth-html.html
I can answer any questions you have about it. I will probably have it on the bench playing with it/making sure it is updated etc.. for the rest of this week.

Aside from the price can you see a difference in the Joying unit you bought and this one: http://www.carjoying.com/quad-core-...een-airplay-gps-navigation-radio-audio-s.html

symyn said:
Aside from the price can you see a difference in the Joying unit you bought and this one: http://www.carjoying.com/quad-core-...een-airplay-gps-navigation-radio-audio-s.html
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Click to collapse
No they look the same except for the fact this is already in EU to avoid taxes.

This is the first Android head unit I've played with/owned, and I've only had it about a day, but I've been somewhat happy with it.
Having been used to phones and tablets with integrated bezels, it's been a bit annoying to get used to having a raised bezel around the screen - tapping buttons on the edge of the screen can be interesting at times. I also noticed that the sound level/quality coming from the built in amp is rather poor. The stock Delco radio in my Suzuki was better, and I generally consider those Delco radios to be garbage, lol. But of course, this is a pretty subjective thing. The bezel, however, doesn't even come close to fitting the double din install kits we have here in the USA. The height is pretty close, but the width was considerably wider.
On the plus side, the screen is pretty darn nice. It's clear (MUCH MUCH more so than the Xenarc resistive touch screen it replaced, which cost me considerably more money, lol), seemingly bright (haven't had it in a full sun exposure situation yet), very wide viewing angles, and overall visual quality isn't much worse than my Samsung Note 3 phone. The stock ROM load feels pretty snappy, and seems to be rendering my high resolution satellite image maps just fine. I'll know better after Sunday when I take an extended off road trip with it. That was the biggest reason I went with this model - the higher screen resolution, and the quad core CPU.

urbex said:
I also noticed that the sound level/quality coming from the built in amp is rather poor.
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Click to collapse
My impressions are:
a) The audio quality for the FM Radio tune is not quite as good as my stock radio was
b) However, the audio quality for playing MP3's etc is MUCH better than my stock radio's FM/CD player. And the media players like MediaMonkey, PowerAmp etc have excellent EQ controls etc that enable them really customize the sound to the vehicle's interior sound quality, so they end up sounding much better than the stock unit's simple tone controls.
So it is kinda a wash to me.

Interestingly, I found that the FM tuner is far more sensitive than the stock radio was. I haven't played much with MP3s much, beyond the quick BT test connection with a couple songs from my phone. The plan is ultimately to leave a large SSD connected to the headunit with my MP3s on that, along with running an external 4ch amplifier (largely for the frequency crossovers), so the performance of the built in amp really isn't a big deal to me one way or the other.
But yeah, my general feeling on the product as a whole is kind of a wash, lol. I was also considering picking up one of the Pioneer touchscreen units with Mirrorlink capabilities, but I was concerned about current and future phones having a less than stellar record when it comes to compatibility.

Most feature-rich Intel Sofia HU as of 8/2017?

Hi folks, I'm looking for a head unit with the following requirements as well as nice-to-haves that I don't think exists; with that said I very much would like input on the following -
Musts:
Intel Sofia-based unit
Double Din
2GB RAM
Android 6 or 7
Physical volume knob
Backup camera support (RCA or preferably digital?)
While I know the above units exist as Joying, Pumpkin, and others make these, I'd also like the following:
Nice-to-haves:
DVD player
Dashcam support (RCA or preferably digital/USB - has anyone made a real app for this yet?)
RCA and/or HDMI video output for rear screen(s)
re: screen size, I don't really care if it's 7", 6.95", or even 6.5"; if the rest of the list could be found with a 6.2" screen I guess I would probably do it...
Anyway - I can't find anything that combines the two lists, or even two of the three nice-to-haves: as far as I can tell Joying's double-din units don't have DVD or video out, Pumpkin's units have video out but no DVD player or real digital dashcam support, etc. I could live without the DVD player if the other two wants were satisfied.
I'd prefer to get the most unit for the dollars spend here at the end of 8/2017 - any thoughts on how I can best satisfy my needs and wants?
Moreover, is there a definitive list of the different HU models and their features? This seems like a real gap to me; would be happy to help create a matrix of models and features if one doesn't already exist.
Thanks!

Tremektus said:
Hi folks, I'm looking for a head unit with the following requirements as well as nice-to-haves that I don't think exists; with that said I very much would like input on the following -
Musts:
Intel Sofia-based unit
Double Din
2GB RAM
Android 6 or 7
Physical volume knob
Backup camera support (RCA or preferably digital?)
While I know the above units exist as Joying, Pumpkin, and others make these, I'd also like the following:
Nice-to-haves:
DVD player
Dashcam support (RCA or preferably digital/USB - has anyone made a real app for this yet?)
RCA and/or HDMI video output for rear screen(s)
re: screen size, I don't really care if it's 7", 6.95", or even 6.5"; if the rest of the list could be found with a 6.2" screen I guess I would probably do it...
Anyway - I can't find anything that combines the two lists, or even two of the three nice-to-haves: as far as I can tell Joying's double-din units don't have DVD or video out, Pumpkin's units have video out but no DVD player or real digital dashcam support, etc. I could live without the DVD player if the other two wants were satisfied.
I'd prefer to get the most unit for the dollars spend here at the end of 8/2017 - any thoughts on how I can best satisfy my needs and wants?
Moreover, is there a definitive list of the different HU models and their features? This seems like a real gap to me; would be happy to help create a matrix of models and features if one doesn't already exist.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The brand doesn't matter, they all are basically the same.
All implement your first list, NONE implement your second.
You can work around the limitation by using (1) external DVD player, (2) I saw somewhere where someone set up a dashcam recorder using a raspberry pi and integrated it with the head unit over wifi. (3) if you are using an external dvd player, you can plug your back seat screens directly into it.

Tremektus said:
Musts:
Intel Sofia-based unit
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mind me asking why this is a must? I'm more of less curious since there doesn't really seem to be that much of an advantage. The platform is at the end of the road. There won't be more of these Intel chips coming in the future.
Tremektus said:
Nice-to-haves:
DVD player
Dashcam support (RCA or preferably digital/USB - has anyone made a real app for this yet?)
RCA and/or HDMI video output for rear screen(s)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Again, I am curious of your interest in a DVD player these days. The risk of failure is so great and there are so many alternatives to using spinning media that this doesn't really seem to make sense in 2017.
What do you actually need from a dashcam perspective? Stand alone units offer more performance and better options. Also, do you really want your head unit responsible for something that could make or break your evidence of a traffic issue?
Some joying units that have DVD players also have video out. The newer units with Intel and digital amps also support output via rca. None have HDMI out.

pounce said:
Mind me asking why this is a must? I'm more of less curious since there doesn't really seem to be that much of an advantage. The platform is at the end of the road. There won't be more of these Intel chips coming in the future.
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Click to collapse
Curious to know why you think that "the platform is at the end of the road" is of any relevance. Its still a better chip than what any other car radios have in them.
Or is this just a bandwagon thing?
Until we see car radios with qualcomm SoC's in them, this chip is still the best we have available.
https://www.intrinsyc.com/vertical-development-platforms/s820am-v2-automotive-development-platform/
But for $3300..... that's a pretty steep price for a half decent car radio.

luciusfox said:
Curious to know why you think that "the platform is at the end of the road" is of any relevance. Its still a better chip than what any other car radios have in them.
Or is this just a bandwagon thing?
Until we see car radios with qualcomm SoC's in them, this chip is still the best we have available.
https://www.intrinsyc.com/vertical-development-platforms/s820am-v2-automotive-development-platform/
But for $3300..... that's a pretty steep price for a half decent car radio.
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Click to collapse
I'm really just curious as to the specific preference for a CPU when in most cases the brand or maker is more or less insignificant.
The Intel part has some issues (like the others), but due to its obscurity and limited life there is also a much more limited interest in extending it's usefulness by the community.
Since you, ibdroid, are not the OP... perhaps the OP can let us know why they have specific interest.

Ownice c500 universal has everything on your lists except DVD player. As stated here there aren't any I've found that do.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hi guys, fair points. I suppose when I said requirement I was leaning towards the Intel architecture because I saw indications it was more powerful, and I'd like to future proof whatever unit I get as much as possible.
Re: DVD, also fair point; it would be strictly to satisfy media for my kids but in all honesty so long as I can decode .mkvs and mp4s etc on the unit that would work great - I just want to have aux video out for a flip-down screen or something as well.
So what's out there worth owning that has the following? I saw that HDMI out was pretty rare...:
Double Din
2GB RAM
Android 6 or 7
Physical volume knob
Backup camera support (RCA or preferably digital?)
HDMI out preferred? (RCA out ok)
Rootable
The Ownice C500 looks nice (and I like the idea of TPMS etc) but doesn't have any video out so far as I can tell? Will do some more research myself.

pounce said:
I'm really just curious as to the specific preference for a CPU when in most cases the brand or maker is more or less insignificant.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The brand and maker is very important. Budget chinese brands cut corners, resulting in very poor performance and instability (means crashing a lot). The budget chinese brands also don't provide documentation or source code (GPL), which *is* provided by the bigger brands like Intel and Qualcomm.
The Intel part has some issues (like the others), but due to its obscurity and limited life there is also a much more limited interest in extending it's usefulness by the community.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know what you mean by "extending its usefulness by the community". Its a CPU. The community doesn't have the ability to alter the design and run a changed version through a FAB. It is what it is. It makes no difference if the platform iterates into a new better thing, because such advancements cannot be applied to existing hardware -- its already burned in silicon.

You know exactly what I mean. There is only you and a couple of other people working on fixes for this platform. How far have you gotten? You just like to be contrarian.

What the hell are you talking about?

Tremektus said:
Hi guys, fair points. I suppose when I said requirement I was leaning towards the Intel architecture because I saw indications it was more powerful, and I'd like to future proof whatever unit I get as much as possible.
Re: DVD, also fair point; it would be strictly to satisfy media for my kids but in all honesty so long as I can decode .mkvs and mp4s etc on the unit that would work great - I just want to have aux video out for a flip-down screen or something as well.
So what's out there worth owning that has the following? I saw that HDMI out was pretty rare...:
Double Din
2GB RAM
Android 6 or 7
Physical volume knob
Backup camera support (RCA or preferably digital?)
HDMI out preferred? (RCA out ok)
Rootable
The Ownice C500 looks nice (and I like the idea of TPMS etc) but doesn't have any video out so far as I can tell? Will do some more research myself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It doesn't have HDMI, but it has outputs for 2x external video. You need to buy the option for them to enable it though and its convoluted process on how you do that. Best just send them a message on AliExpress on what you want.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Which of these head units don't suck?

I am no stranger to Android in a car, I have done custom tablet installs in cars, (back in 2012 with Timur's custom cyanogenmod rom), custom car computers (roadrunner, centrafuse), etc.
Last year, I decided to give one of these neat looking Chinese head units a shot, I went with the Eonon double-din model with the PX5 processor, 4gb ram, 32gb rom with DSP audio chip. Out of the box and installing, the software wasn't terrible but borderline silly. The DSP audio control app was new to these units so I forgave some of the funky terminology and adjustments that were available in there, it was a far cry from adjustments one would find on a cheaper dedicated DSP unit. The performance was okay until summer rolled around and I had to tear the head unit apart and install my own heatsink and fan to the processing module board, this resolved that. The cheap mmc memory was a limiting factor of its performance in heavier apps like Google Maps, otherwise. Wifi performance was borderline trash. The extremely cheap and laughable wifi chipset barely handled 1.5-2Mbps of data transfer when downloading a Spotify library to the SD card. I even attempted to unsolder and replace the cheap antenna with my own higher end antenna but this was no solution to the very cheap and barely functional wireless module. Digging into the rom to find out that it's only been compiled for two equally bad wireless adapters, I gave up trying to make the wifi work any better. My unit also always produced processor noise out of the speakers when it was quiet in the car, sounded like onboard audio from cheap PC motherboards; this happened out of the amplified speaker outputs and the RCA outputs. I have since sold that car, I have a new car and would love to try again if it's even worth it.
I am not here to bash on these head units, I really WANT to see them improve. I would love to get my hands on one with more premium hardware, better working networking, worked out bugs, smarter display dimming control (maybe even a few extra cents of an ambient light sensor), audio DSP controls that are actually awesome, proper heatsink for included processor, etc. Do these exist? It's hard to find them in the sea of different brand names and Engrish website listings.
Any input on this would be so helpful to myself and many others.

I think you’ll find that they all suck in one way or another. If they were to be of total quality they would be $1500 or more. Think about the use case though, NO ONE else is making custom canbus integrated units that fit inside modern cars which no longer conform to single/double DIN form factors. I don’t think at the price points most of these units are that quality and functionality will be improved.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I've been using Android head units since around 2013 or so, when they had resistive touchscreens lol. While they still have a lot to improve on, I must say that they've come a long, long way. There's only really three features that I want to see, and one of those the 2013 ones all had:
1) For the love of God, there was no need to take away iPod support. Some of us still have an iPod. It's great to have in a car to play your music. Much better than putting it on SD cards, because I like the playlists. Bring it back!
2) Resolution. 800x480 is roughly as best at it gets for these guys. Although I'm greedy and want 4k, at least give me 1080p!
3) Blu-ray support. Come on already, it's been out for 14 years!

I am also interested in this question, I had the atoto a6 pro before I sold the car. For a quad core it felt slow.
Is there any unit out there besides joying with proper lte support? Joying does not support att/Rogers/Fido lte frequencies. Except band 7.
I've seen on the forums that the xtrons won't even take a 4g dongle and work in mobile connection mode and also they have an underpowered USB port, 250mA or something . Where standard is 500mA.
Anything out there with North American frequencies?

Zap! said:
I've been using Android head units since around 2013 or so, when they had resistive touchscreens lol. While they still have a lot to improve on, I must say that they've come a long, long way. There's only really three features that I want to see, and one of those the 2013 ones all had:
1) For the love of God, there was no need to take away iPod support. Some of us still have an iPod. It's great to have in a car to play your music. Much better than putting it on SD cards, because I like the playlists. Bring it back!
2) Resolution. 800x480 is roughly as best at it gets for these guys. Although I'm greedy and want 4k, at least give me 1080p!
3) Blu-ray support. Come on already, it's been out for 14 years!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
first point...fine I get it..
second point 4K???????
third point..ok you are trolling..

I appreciate the few replies here.
I for one am hoping for the most subtle and cost effective improvements that make the experience of one of these in the dash feel like a better product. Top changes I'd like to see:
Display with high NITS, defeat the bright sunlight. Ability to see the content REALLY WELL comes before ultra-high resolution. As long as I can't count the pixels from the driver seat, I'm not going to knock on the resolution.
Clean audio output, some of these produce noise like crazy when listening at quiet volumes, you can hear internal processes coming through the speakers like onboard audio of cheap PC motherboards.
DSP controls that make sense- timing controls that conform to other DSP audio controls of all other typical DSP audio products, the interface is goofy although the chip being used is quite powerful but I don't believe the writers of the software interface completely understand what it should be doing.
Automatic dimming displays. A tiny ambient light value sensor hidden in the glass or plastic fascia and android's own built in software solutions will allow automatic brightness control of the display so that when you're sitting in your car at night without the headlights turned on, the screen doesn't bake your eyeballs out or when your car has automatic headlights and they turn on early before the sun goes down and your screen goes so dark you can't see it. This is a simple solution and I hope they resolve it.
Custom fully integrated units such as the one we put in our 2013 Mini Cooper Countryman S model needs to be worked on more before shoving them out the door. $600 gets us a head unit that looks nice in the dash but the integration of retained door chimes/warning sounds/blinker signal indicator sounds is the most absolute rubbish thing, ever. Would gladly spend closer to $1000 US for something that is more refined.
A home screen that doesn't suck. Solid integration with FM tuner controls, common media player apps, etc in the home screen would be great to see. A home screen that works good enough to the point that we don't have to fish the play store to make it better would be killer.

It’s been a short while, anyone got any updates on android head units that don’t suck?

ojuniour said:
first point...fine I get it..
second point 4K????
third point..ok you are trolling..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) Thanks! There has to be a way to hack it back.
2) I was joking about 4k, but I want 1080p
3) Not trolling, I have quite a few Blu-ray disks and would like to be able to view them in the car.

8227L Head Units? 9210S vs 9218S

Considering to buy a cheap Android head unit to replace an old Pioneer AVIC. I've seen some popular models are 9210S and 9218S. 9210S claims to have Android 10.1 with an MTK system while 9218S claims to have 8.1 and an MTK G50 system. Anyone know the hardware difference? Any reason to pick one of the other? They both look identical in appearance to 8227L head units so I'm guessing they are. 1GB/16GB enough RAM for just radio, media player, and Google Maps?
Do most of these have illuminated capacitive buttons? I read Amazon reviews for some other brands that say the buttons don't light up, but I've seen some Youtube vids where they do.

Suggest an MTCD/E first.

marchnz said:
Suggest an MTCD/E first.
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the advice. I'm sure those are a lot better, but they're also 4-5x more expensive, or higher.

GnatGoSplat said:
Thanks for the advice. I'm sure those are a lot better, but they're also 4-5x more expensive, or higher.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, the unit you're considering must be really awful as thr MTCD/Es are buggy enough.

marchnz said:
Wow, the unit you're considering must be really awful as thr MTCD/Es are buggy enough.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could be, never tried one. A lot of posts in this forum are about these 8227L variants, and there are several Youtube vids where some people think they're a great buy, but others have issues. Some have issues, but can overlook them due to the price. For <$60, my expectations are fairly low.

Do not buy a 9210S. Ive bought one and the wifi is AWFUL!!!!!!!

I ended up getting the iMars A75789 w/backup cam from Banggood for $42. Its wifi does suck, but the deal killer is no basic audio controls. No fader, bass, treble. I definitely need the fader because my aftermarket speakers are different front/rear and I need to fade to the front or the rear will be too loud. I just didn't expect any car stereo at all would be lacking in those basic audio controls. That's stuff you could find on a FM-only radio from the 1970s. When I tried to return it, they offered me $20 refund which I accepted because shipping back to China is prohibitively expensive.
Yeah, these do suck. I definitely need something better.