Quote:
Originally Posted by ryan stewart
Just installed one of these in my car (with some help from Nickco43 on the coding). Id say the audio quality is the same if you have a GOOD aux connection. I had to replace my jack once already because the pins were worn and Id lose a channel from time to time. I checked the bitrate and codecs using a bluetooth sniffing app and its not supporting any other codecs so the quality is going to be limited. Just open SBC.
If anyone sees one that supports aptx (or aptxHD even better) or LDAC lemme know. I looked at all of the more expensive versions that came up and nobody really mentions that. Not a shocker though, it requires a license fee to support the codec.
Honestly bluetooth itself is the limitation, but it was $150 to gain steering wheel controls, see the song on the radio screen and to get around the Android "absolute volume" bug that seems to be an issue with all of the chipsets these amazon bluetooth receivers use.
The only caveat of this box so far that has me side eyeing it is its sleeping. It seems to go to sleep when I lock the car but I havent figured out how long until it shuts off bluetooth when the car is just off.
If its anything like android over a dumb bluetooth interface (which is what this is, nothing proprietary) then its a long press on the play button. So there the limitation would be something translating the voice dial button to a long press, which I doubt BMW even cared enough to send that information to the radio.
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I'm sure they'll up that unit to have AtpX, it's not a far leap. But, if you really need AptX HD now and are willing to control via your phone instead (with direct input into amp):
https://www.ebay.com/itm/True-HiFi-B...5.c10#viTabs_0
I do something similar (well similar in that it goes direct to the amp) for a Hiby R3 device that I have. Powered via USB-C to USB-A that plugs into 12V usb adapter in center console. Run that along side my Tune2Air. So device up front and powered, but RCA lines run to the back (could run optical, etc as well, just like the device above). Control via iPhone (Hiby has an app that lets you browse and control playback on the R3 remotely). So if I want to go pure HIFI utilizing the SABRE DAC in the R3 straight to analog, I control it that way. I have it set off an DRC-100 to swap input presets. You lose steering control while in that mode, but you can software control the R3 for volume (or set gains where you want it via the amp).