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Old 11-12-2012, 12:04 PM   #1
Masterauto
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Post BRZ Ltd Nav stereo, What do you think?

Personally I think it should be in a cheap Chinese car. This is what Japan makes the best of so why not a better system than this?The sound is tinny and using the system is annoying. So I'm going to press a voice activate button an wait for this thing to ask me what I want instead of just pressing 1 button? The touch screen button are too small and they put too much on screen at one time. Then again you have to reset direct access button to radio stations each time you turn it on.
This is what a base system should be today. Not on a limited grade car. I hate to see what they get on the premium model.
My Chevy pickup is far better. You really need some steering wheel buttons for volume and channel and phone pick up.
the most used buttons should be mechanical on the bezel and not taking up display touch space.
Not to gripe as only thing I am unhappy with in this car. I really love this BRZ and reminds me of my old Porsche 356 only better : )
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Last edited by Masterauto; 11-14-2012 at 02:22 PM.
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Old 11-12-2012, 12:08 PM   #2
Burrcold
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FYI - The Limited and Premium models have the same navi unit.

In any case, yes it sucks. But I wasn't expecting anything spectacular. However, if it was going to suck (which it does), I do wish the interface was more basic (which it's not). Trying to search for things through the menus is a nightmare, especially if you want to change something quick while driving.
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Old 11-12-2012, 12:28 PM   #3
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Yeah the interface sucks, but it does what it's supposed to do so I don't really see any reason to change it. It sounds really good which is more important to me. I usually just shut the screen off entirely and control it with my phone so it's just a glorified volume knob for me, but the touch screen is nice for making calls and the nav comes in handy once in a while. If you want a nicer radio just buy something else, it's probably the easiest thing in the car to change. If they could put radio preset buttons and skip track buttons on it I think it would make a huge difference.

Last edited by spaceywilly; 11-12-2012 at 12:45 PM.
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Old 11-12-2012, 12:36 PM   #4
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I'll be swapping mine out for a Pioneer AVH-P8400BH fairly soon here. We don't get steering wheel controls anyways, and NAV isn't a necessity for living in Alaska (though handy about once or twice a year). The layout is terrible for driving and it is slow to connect my iPod, though the interface for the iPod is MUCH better than the current gen WRX/STI radio. The song information is much more full and transitions quicker between tracks.

I do not listen to the radio and we don't get Satellite Radio in Alaska, so none of that makes a difference to me.
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Old 11-12-2012, 01:20 PM   #5
noodleface
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I hate the voice command menu. It makes Siri look like a Mensa member. 9/10 times it changes the radio station instead of dialing the person's name I've just said.

I've updated the speed dial numbers and find that it's much more accurate.

That said, the sound isn't awful, it took a bit of adjusting the EQ but with my iPod, the sound quality is passable. It's certainly worlds better than my '02 Impreza and '10 WRX stock.
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Old 11-12-2012, 01:31 PM   #6
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Subaru is pretty notorious for being terrible in this aspect. You usually get a poor version of what you'd expect in a Honda Accord 6 years ago. The Kenwood navi system in my spec.B is the same. It's roughly what you'd expect out of any other vehicle in about 2003.
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Old 11-12-2012, 02:28 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chanomatik View Post
I'll be swapping mine out for a Pioneer AVH-P8400BH fairly soon here. We don't get steering wheel controls anyways, and NAV isn't a necessity for living in Alaska (though handy about once or twice a year). The layout is terrible for driving and it is slow to connect my iPod, though the interface for the iPod is MUCH better than the current gen WRX/STI radio. The song information is much more full and transitions quicker between tracks.

I do not listen to the radio and we don't get Satellite Radio in Alaska, so none of that makes a difference to me.
Let me know who makes this unit.

Last edited by Masterauto; 11-14-2012 at 02:21 PM.
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Old 11-12-2012, 03:11 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Masterauto View Post
Let me know who makes this unit. China or Japan, my bet Chinese unknown co. Think they should double check who makes the decision for kickbacks on these.
The BRZ's head unit is a Fujitsu Ten (ie: Eclipse).
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Old 11-13-2012, 07:18 AM   #9
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The stereo could use more thump.

The navigation UI is poor, but it's not the worst I've used (it's in the "meh... gets the job done" category). A larger complaint is that voice commands are laggy when searching for addresses (on the plus side, they work fine for handsfree, apart from unnecessarily making you confirm call recipients). I like the audio/map split screen.

Overall, it's a lot more useful than not having a touchscreen or voice commands. Not a ringing endorsement, but I'm glad the car has it.

<rant>I look forward to when these infotainment systems can tap into your phone for search. At least they should let let you speak your query, send it to the phone, retrieve the results (as a phone number or address/GPS coordinates for the head unit's handsfree or navigation system). Scion's BeSpoke does that and even more, but it's expensive, sluggish, buggy, and requires being cabled (this stuff should be done over bluetooth).</rant>
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Old 11-13-2012, 02:10 PM   #10
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I found the stereo to be pretty decent, definitely better than other Subarus I've been in. I did have to adjust the equalizer settings a bit to my liking.

I use XM Radio and one thing I wish is you could assign a different equalizer profile to each input type because XM doesn't have the bass/mid-range for whatever reason a normal FM station does.

I don't want steering wheel controls for the most part but wish there was a voice command button somewhere.

The Nav works much better after going in for the TSB, the GPS doesn't drop out anymore. I actually like the Nav versus other in-car ones I've used. It's better than the one I have in my Jeep.

Bluetooth has worked well with both my IPhone4 and new Nokia 920. One lame thing is you can't have multiple BT devices at one time, my Jeep does allow that.
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Old 11-13-2012, 04:51 PM   #11
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This unit is ****, I had upgraded my speakers and head unit on the wrx, nothing expensive and the sound was a lot better, bluetooth support was better, no touchscreen so controls were easy to work with and I had a remote which was great.

GPS barely works, navigation is slow as ****, navigating the radio itself is a pain in the ass, buttons too small. HD radio goes in and out constantly. Handsfree just gives up out of the blue, and it's too complicated. I mean, why not use something that already works, drop android on that ****, create a custom interface and put apps to handle the radio features. You don't even have to tell anyone it's android running in the background.
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Old 11-13-2012, 05:41 PM   #12
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I've had no issues at all. I sat down with the EQ settings for 30 seconds before finding something that works. My bluetooth has worked flawlessly, and the only time I've lost GPS signal is driving in the middle of nowhere, when GPS was irrelevant because I was just driving north for 300 miles anyway.
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Old 11-13-2012, 05:42 PM   #13
Mach V Dan
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I agree with most of the above comments. After the sixth time of being unable to answer the phone because I couldn't find the tiny square of screen I'm supposed to push while driving, I vowed to get rid of it. I put in a AVH-P8400BH.



I like the new head unit, but it's not perfect. Sound quality is great, and the user interface is easy. The whole "app radio" functionality is not ready for prime time, in my opinion. It works, mostly, but it's kludgy, and sometimes it just locks up. I find I use the head unit a lot for bluetooth audio, and to control an iPod Classic. For that it works really well, although maybe once a week the iPod locks up and I have to unplug it and reboot it.

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Old 11-13-2012, 07:26 PM   #14
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Dan, more interior shots with that unit, please! I must see what this will look like once I get mine!

Good taste, by the way. I don't have an iPhone, so I don't plan on using the App functions. I'm looking forward to the removable face plate, crisp screen quality and improved interface for driving.

Does it load your iPod quickly? I have a 4th gen iPod Touch. It's slow to load on the BRZ. My 2011 WRX loaded much quicker, but was lacking in displaying track info.

Thanks!
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Old 11-13-2012, 11:10 PM   #15
Mach V Dan
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chanomatik View Post
Does it load your iPod quickly? I have a 4th gen iPod Touch. It's slow to load on the BRZ.
It takes maybe 45 seconds the first time I plug it in. Not too bad. There's 11,000 songs on my ipod...

Once you are up and running, though, the ipod will just pause when you turn the car off and resume when you come back, so then there's no delay.

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Old 11-14-2012, 04:21 PM   #16
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I actually find it funny all of the complaints about the radio. The factory audio setup sounds infinitely better in the BRZ than I have heard in any factory WRX/STi.. I will admit the rear speakers seem a little pointless, but I have none of the other problems listed.

One question in particuliar, Masterauto - what are you talking when you say
Quote:
Then again you have to reset direct access button to radio stations each time you turn it on.
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Old 11-14-2012, 04:49 PM   #17
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I definitely agree that the stock BRZ audio is MUCH better than the stock WRX/STI.

I'm filled with jealous rage that you're cool with the unit.
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Old 11-14-2012, 05:00 PM   #18
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I like the sounds quality and features of the stock radio but I hate to skip a track I have to find a small soft button. I would kill for a mechanical one at this point. I would be interested in a head unit that could run droid stuff like I have been reading, might be cool to use some of the track apps and OBD2 programs.
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Old 11-15-2012, 04:29 PM   #19
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That's unfortunate, my local dealer wouldn't even let me test it out, so I kinda ordered one blindly. Is there any that look relatively stock that work well besides the AVH one?
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Old 11-15-2012, 05:30 PM   #20
chanomatik
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Check out Amazon, CNET, Tigerdirect or your preferred electronic site. Search for double-din touchscreen units and sort them by average user reviews. If you're not locked to a preferred brand, I like going after one's that get the most amount of positive reviews. I do that for phones and TVs, too.
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Old 11-15-2012, 10:10 PM   #21
Burrcold
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I just realized the Canadian Navi is different. Probably the same crappy quality though...

Here is mine:

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Old 11-16-2012, 11:35 AM   #22
chanomatik
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Well, at least you get analog buttons to change tracks with! If I had AT LEAST that I'd be okay with it.

Thanks for the pic. It's good to know how screwed over Americans get because we're so "cheap". It looks like your's is a DVD player as well? Ffffffffuuuuuuuu
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Old 11-16-2012, 12:56 PM   #23
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Quote:
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I just realized the Canadian Navi is different. Probably the same crappy quality though...

Here is mine:

You see where it says 'Pioneer' at the bottom? That's the upgraded radio in Europe (IIRC). It's basically an OEM version of an AVIC... not crappy at all.
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Old 11-16-2012, 12:59 PM   #24
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I smell an easy upgrade.
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Old 11-16-2012, 01:11 PM   #25
diirk
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I've been pretty happy with the stock radio/Nav unit. No issues with the GPS dropping out. BT works great. Sirius works great. IPOD works good. I'm told text messages should be able to show up on the radio, but haven't tried that yet.

Things I would like to see:

Steering wheel controls.
Ability to shuffle just a folder on the IPOD.
Need to enable NAV/Phone in motion.
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