Opinions on how to integrate Nexus 7 into car audio install

[Me-262]

I had a Kenwood nav/stereo HU, it started to flake out earlier this year and lucky me I paid for extended warranty and got my $$ back, all $900 of it. Not bad for 4 years of use. So I started looking at my options and pretty much dislike every Nav HU available today. Compared to a tablet they are all very basic , slow and crippled in some way that you can't install everything you want easily. Best I could find is Appradio / Pioneer and even with ARliberator its a royal PITA to connect every time you step into the car, no thanks.

So, I want to skip all that and connect a Nexus 7 to the rest of my stereo setup. Its your traditional setup, comps up front, sub in the rear with a ZX450 powering it all. Right now all that's missing is the HU. And this is where I need some help/suggestions. I'm not sure what I should use as a reliable / reasonably priced method to get the sound from the Nexus into the amp. From what I've read my 2 options are to use a DAC or bluetooth into a single DIN HU. I'm not looking for "the best" sound possible but don't want it to sound like crap either. The Kenwood was a step (or 2-3) down from my last Alpine non-nav HU and I was able to live with that.

Its not going to be a permanent install, the Nexus happens to fit very nicely over the outside of the factory Double Din location and I plan on holding it in place using Neo-magnets. Glue some on the inside of the dash and fit a hardcase onto the Nexu, glue them to that as well.

What do you guys suggest ? Make/model#'s appreciated. Is bluetooth able to provide reasonble audio quality ? Using a DAC I can plug into the headphone jack but that will look a bit untidy and I have concerns it will wear out the jack eventually. Suggest away !

[ttocs]

sony has made a couple of decks that are made to do this and has apps that allow you to access almost every function on the deck through the app screen. People have been mounting the deck behind the tablet, not all that hard if you know how.

[brenzbmr@sb]

I am feeding my tablet from to an hdmi to digital toslink converter then that gets sent to my PXA H700.
Use the sony deck it seems to work well but there are options like
Bit one or the masconi 4 to 6. Tbe masconi pisce iirc has a droid app to use it.

[ajaye]

Figure out the format requiring the highest resolution you intend to play in the car, and look for something that can support it. A 24bit/192khz lpcm dac would cover you up to blu-ray 7.1 surround territory. You wouldn't use the headphone jack if you were going to an external DAC, unless its a dual digital minitoslink/analog 1/8" like some macs have. You would be sending a digital LPCM or surround encoded signal to the DAC, so HDMI, usb, firewire, toslink I'm pretty sure would all be more than adaquate. Bluetooth would be great in your scenario too because you can have multiple devices paired to your master device (headunit) and easily switch between them. So you could have the tablet, but also your phone for incoming calls or whatever, or if your buddy or your girl is riding with you and want to hear something from their phone its just a matter of pairing with your headunit. I have no clue what kind of data throughput bluetooth can do though. that may be a limiting factor. It also may be higher/faster than anything else I listed, Im just not that familiar with it. Let us know how it turns out, I'm interested to know what's out there for the car these days.

[dwnrodeo]

In my personal experience, Bluetooth has been sub par for any decent audio quality, worse than FM. It could have been the devices, BlackBerry to Kenwood X994, but I have heard of others stating it doesn't sound great either.

[Kirghiz]

In my personal experience, Bluetooth has been sub par for any decent audio quality, worse than FM. It could have been the devices, BlackBerry to Kenwood X994, but I have heard of others stating it doesn't sound great either.

In the couple installs I have heard that did this, I would tend to agree. USB would be the better route.

[Me-262]

Ok, lots of good options to choose from. If possible I would like to go bluetooth as its easier and no wires.... Is the sound terrible or just not optimal? My car is a bit loud so Sq isn't a dominant feature in my setup.

As a test last night I ran the system directly off my phone (S3), used a headphone jack to dual rca. Sound was decent with slight electronic noise that was only perceivable between songs. Biggest complaint would be it's not loud enough at full volume. I think something else inline to crank the volume would resolve that. I won't be using the phone in a final solution, haven't bought the Nexus yet so testing things out with the phone.

Ideally the simplest setup would be Nexus sending bluetooth signal to hu, that connects to amp..

[dwnrodeo]

In my experience, Bluetooth is terrible. Unbearably so. Others may have a different experience, but I would rather go analog RCA than BT.

[vwdude]

I think that Bluetooth is only as good as the receiver will allow. When I use Bluetooth connected to my factory Vw stereo playing through my system it's just short of cd quality, but MUCH better than FM and even Sirius. It all depends on how modern the stereo is that is accepting the signal I think.

I don't have a good solution though to integrate the nexus. I'm sure the other suggestions are great though. I have seen installs where an iPad mini was used and they have found great ways to integrate them, I just haven't followed them close enough.

[nuckinfutz]

As much as I hate apple I would say go for an iPad mini instead. Ipads have better integration with tons of head units which would probably give you the best sound quality too. I agree Bluetooth sounded like a muddled mess on my alpine head unit. It was fine at lower volumesbut the sound got distorted before any other source. I think some head units have android integration too though so I'd get one and hook it up with USB and be done with it. One wire that charges and everything because Bluetooth sucks battery.

[Me-262]

Update: I went to the local BB and checked out a variety of decks . (Mom & Pop shops in town are rare and they don't stock anything so its impossible to test gear out without buying it). I went in looking to buy an Alpine but ended up with a JVC single DIN deck. Reason being is the JVC seemed to be the only deck that easily switched between 2 blue tooth devices (I can play music off Nexus and then switch with one touch to cell phone when a call comes in) . The Alpine required about 7 steps to do the same thing which won't fly while driving.

Anyway, after a week of playing music via bluetooth through my S3 I can say the following: Its not horrible, in fact its quite reasonable tradeoff for no cables. Sound isn't ultra clear but I can fake it by turning up the treble. I can listen at reasonably loud volume and its still decent, its when you crank it that the sound goes to hell. I'm getting older and can live with that. I may connect via USB later on but for now IMO bluetooth is acceptable.

The onboard xovers in the JVC are junk, not even close to acceptable. The sub out forces you to run their xover which bites, I ended up running it full range out the deck using front.rear outputs then making use of the superior xvover in the ZX450. The JVC is alright, I've never liked the brand and now that I own one I can see how Pioneer/Alpine are far superior.