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Car Stereo Head Unit for iPhone 5

R

ray648

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 10, 2008
118
0
Anyone got any recommendations for a head unit to use with an iPhone 5?

I'm looking for something that either has a lightning connector, or will support the use of a usb to lightning cable, and let me browse/control playback. I'm not interested in older units that might work with the iPod to lightning adapter.
 
ray648 said:
Anyone got any recommendations for a head unit to use with an iPhone 5?

I'm looking for something that either has a lightning connector, or will support the use of a usb to lightning cable, and let me browse/control playback. I'm not interested in older units that might work with the iPod to lightning adapter.
Click to expand...

I just got this installed in my car a few weeks ago. It can stream bluetooth music. Pioneer has yet to release it's iPhone 5 cable though. The cable will allow you to search through the head unit and use apps like maps.

They're supposed to release the cable some time this month.
 
tmoney468 said:
I'm waiting for this:

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-B8jHr1nanoi/p_500ICSX7HD/Alpine-ICS-X7HD.html

Hands free Siri mode seems pretty cool

Stay away from Pioneer unless you want to buy an adapter from Pioneer to get i5 support, plus another from Apple if you want video playback
Click to expand...

Thats not true. I've had the same radio for 2 years and my i5 works perfect with it, no problems whatsoever. Pioneer DEH-5100UB. Not many radios have 4volt pre out, bass heads like me need that stuff.
 
ant the ninja said:
Thats not true. I've had the same radio for 2 years and my i5 works perfect with it, no problems whatsoever. Pioneer DEH-5100UB. Not many radios have 4volt pre out, bass heads like me need that stuff.
Click to expand...

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/2013+Pioneer+and+Apple+Compatibility

I guess it depends what the OP is looking for in a head unit. If you get any of the Pioneer DVD receivers then you must get their adapter in order to get most of the functionality.
 
iPhone 5

ray648 said:
Thanks for that. The chart for iPhone 5 using usb to lightning cable tells me pretty much exactly what I want to know. I'll have a look through the suitable units later on today.
Click to expand...

I have been looking for too damn long and here is what I know for sure unless something came out today:
1. The Head Units will all work with iPhone 5 through the USB and you can charge the iPhone and will play your music.
2. The Head Units will show you music art stored in your iphone.
3. You may get some other interfaces like Pandora or others through Bluetooth
4. You will not get any video other than that except Netflix on some

You may have to get up to 3 cables: the lighting USB cable, Lighting HDMI cable, and another hdmi cable to get video, so I would have to have 2 cables exposed to get video (like using google maps or apple maps or other video) and the other one to charge it or music. Or just use BT for music. This is nuts. Pioneer has some units that are awesome with iphone 4s and they only use 1 cable for everything. So does Alpine and Kenwood and others.

So for what you are looking for, you can go with the least common denominator if you don't care about video. I want to be able to use the iPhone navigation which is better than my builtin GPS on my Volvo or any that I have seen in other cars.

If you find one that works with one cable and gives you video, please post. I bought everything (kits and cables) and just waiting on the right unit. If you go to facebook's pioneer site, you'll see some pretty pissed off people waiting on Apple (it is really apple playing hardball or some DA (dumb ass) came up with the no Analog connection idea.
 
Make sure the radio has time correction. Nothing sounds worse than a deck without this.
 
any updates? Siri?

any updates to add here? I really want to upgrade the lame stock car stereo in my 2003 corolla to something which will work well with my iphone 5 and give me Siri eyes free....leaning towards Kenwood Excelon 997...like to be able to directly connect the iphone to it...bluetooth calls...Siri....what do you guys think?
anything else out there? The Kenwood displays and other manufacturers' are SO outdated it's not even funny...looks like a 1980 video game screen...what are they thinking??!
 
Again, look at the pioneers. I have seen many people to Kenwood or JVC and just hate and end up getting a pioneer.

Anyway..your other option is to put an iPad mini or full iPad in place of your car stereo. It's becoming very popular and there are guides and YouTube videos out here on how to do it
 
I have the Parrot Asteroid Classic, bought it for 190 euro on Sale at amazon^^
http://www.amazon.com/Parrot-Astero...28645&sr=8-1&keywords=Parrot+Asteroid+classic

I don't really understand why it only has 3 stars there...

I installed this in my Bimmer, comes with a very good hands free setup, SD Card Slot, GPS, Bluetooth, 4 USB ports, I use the Alpine USB extensions, drilled to holes and they fit perfectly like it was a standard option.
http://www.hifigarage.de/images/produkte/35/gross/KCE-USB3.jpg

two of which are installed in my arm rest, two are in the glovebox.

It has voice activation for calling and searching for music, works very good. YOu can't activate siri via Radio Headunit but it does work if you hold the home button.

You can playback music from the iPhone either via Bluetooth or Lightning cable.

They just brought out the new Firmware which has tons of fixes in it. They also now have a App Store.

THe biggest downside is it takes really long to boot up. (Around 30 seconds)

Also they just released a double DIN touch screen version.

http://www.parrot.com/asteroid-range
 
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what do you think of the Pioneer 8400 model? seems to have all the appradio functions?

does Appradio 3 look promising?...it comes out next month for purchase....I was leaning to the Kenwood x997, but the display is a total joke...seems like Appradio could be a winner in terms of iphone 5 integration....i simply cant justify spending more than the $399 that appradio 3 will sell for...what do you think?
 
Hi everyone!

Since few weeks I have the same dilemma.
Many car stereos supports features that I need i.e. Hands Free Calling or playing music via Bluetooth.

Some Google searches later I've realized that I don't need some things like navigation in my car stereo system. Instead of it I want to provide signal from my iPhone 5 to display in my car (i.e. using Sygic as my car navigation).
This is the moment when I saw some problems.
Almost no car stereos supports signal from iPhone 5.
My choice is (I still haven't bought it) Pioneer AVH-X8500BT.
It supports almost everything.
You only need Lightning<-->DigitalAV cable and some extension cables:
AVH-X8500BT.jpg


I suppose it still doesn't provide support for Siri, but I'm not sure about this.

What do you think about this model? Will it support counted by me features?

Do you have any experience about Lightning extension cables like this? Will it works in configuration described above?
 
What do you guys think of this head unit? I am strongly considering this as it has the eyes free compatibility, bluetooth, app abilities and so forth.

I am also considering this one too from alpine
 
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I've been poking around for a replacement for my car. I want "everything" in terms of features but more importantly I want it to work quickly and smoothly.

Every. Single. One. Of the units on the market including appradio3 has reviews that mention horrible responsiveness on the touchscreen.

That's a complete non starter for me.

I'm going to look into using an iPad mini....
 
anthonymoody said:
I've been poking around for a replacement for my car. I want "everything" in terms of features but more importantly I want it to work quickly and smoothly.
Click to expand...

No kidding. You would think simple little things like UI responsiveness would resonate with these idiotic manufacturers. Then again it took a decade for Tivo to finally kick out a box that didn't completely suck in terms of UI responsiveness.

What's worse is units like my Kenwood KIV-BT901 that worked fine for basic audio functions now don't thanks to whatever crap Apple changed in iOS 7 :mad: So even if you found one that worked fine today, Apple has changed crap during the iPod era and now in the iPhone era that randomly breaks crap. It wouldn't be too bad if manufacturers would actually use the firmware update capabilities they build into the products, but honestly I don't know why Kenwood, Pioneer, Sony, etc. even bother sticking the USB port and documenting it in the user manual since I've yet to see any manufacturer do anything useful with the capability :p

I'd kill for an iOS based car stereo with steering wheel controls and a remote mic for handsfree.... I would look at the Android based ones except in the name of cheapness they cut so many corners with the hardware that you don't even get to notice the flaws of the underlying Android OS and whatever half-baked integration the manufacturers throw together because the darn things are so sucky in their responsiveness I'd probably chuck 'em out the window before I had time to complain about the poorly thought out UI, abysmal integration, etc... Ugh I hate the automobile electronics industry :p
 
I can advice Pioneer AVH-280BT . It has reasonable price . AVH-280BT primarily as a screen for a backup camera that I was installing in my 2007 Honda Accord. However, I also wanted to use the opportunity to take a look at how far I wanted to go in improving my car stereo situation - I was using the stock radio and an AUX adapter I had hooked up a few years ago.
When shopping, I considered the higher end models that offer things like CarPlay, HD Radio, satellite radio, AppRadio, GPS navigation, etc. Honestly, unless you really need any of these things, I would pass. CarPlay is in its infancy, requires a usb connection to the phone, and the reviews have been less than stellar. AppRadio frequently breaks with new iOS updates. The GPS units provided in these stereos can't hold a candle to native phone apps like Waze. I guess HD radio and satellite might be interesting, but it seems unnecessary to me given the plethora of internet radio options via the bluetooth connection to your phone. Bluetooth was really my only must have feature.
 
ray648 said:
Anyone got any recommendations for a head unit to use with an iPhone 5?

I'm looking for something that either has a lightning connector, or will support the use of a usb to lightning cable, and let me browse/control playback. I'm not interested in older units that might work with the iPod to lightning adapter.
Click to expand...
I use the built in media nav system in the car,think its originally made by Samsung. It has radio,GPS,touchscreen,and a USB port for music playback. The port works well with iPhone 5,6 iPod nano,iPad Air and any USB memory dongle. The system also has Bluetooth capability,and a built in handsfree for the phone.
 
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