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Advice on bypassing the head unit
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<blockquote data-quote="competentfake" data-source="post: 8674094" data-attributes="member: 676987"><p>Greetings!</p><p></p><p>I have a 2007 Camry and want to upgrade the audio system, but I've run into a big problem: I hate every head unit on the market.</p><p></p><p>I've DJ'd and run soundboards professionally, and while I don't consider myself an audiophile, I have a good ear for tone, and it bothers me when a track doesn't sound right. I listen exclusively to digital music from my phone via aux input, and my collection is from a variety of sources, so the bitrate and volume can vary quite a bit from track to track, and I like to be able to adjust EQ settings on the fly to compensate for the varying sound profiles.</p><p></p><p>Now, it could be said that any music played through a stock head unit will never sound right, and that's fair, but I've replaced the speakers and the overall effect isn't terrible. I run a mostly flat EQ on my music app with the mids toned down a bit, and can get decent sound by adjusting the standard bass and treble parametric controls.on the head unit and balancing the 'gain' of the phone volume with the head unit 'master volume.</p><p></p><p>Recently, however, I've encountered two significant challenges. For one, I upgraded my phone to a Pixel 2 XL, which can only connect to an aux input via a USB-C adapter, thus I have no DAC on my music player, and the knobs on the head unit are starting to fail.</p><p></p><p>So I set myself to shopping for a new system. I knew I didn't want a touchscreen interface, because not only are the GUIs on those things invariably clunky and unintuitive to use, messing around with the EQ on one of them is tantamount to texting and driving. I need to be able to EQ by touch, so I looked at the non-touchscreen models only to find that for some reason, every single high-end head unit I have seen is a LED-infested, flashy box with one huge volume knob and dozens of tiny buttons, and worst of all, even though every single one of them boasts a 10 band digital equalizer, the damn thing is always buried in layer upon layer of menus, and therefore might as well be in the trunk.</p><p></p><p>Why did they take our tune knob away? I know it wasn't perfect, and factory car stereo manufacturers never seemed to grasp why midrange control might be important, but it was elegant in its simplicity, and tapping a knob to cycle through options and turning it to adjust them is much more efficient <em>and less distracting</em> than navigating a series of menus with tiny buttons, but I sense that perhaps my views on the subject are in the minority. On to my problem!</p><p></p><p>As I looked at all these head units, it occurred to me that i don't <em>need</em> any of this stuff. I don't need a CD player, I use my smartwatch for playback controls, so I don't need those, I don't need Sirius bloody XM radio, or any radio at all for that matter, so I started looking into simply bypassing the head unit, and promptly fell down a rabbit hole.</p><p></p><p>A few days and a few thousand browser tabs later, this is what I came up with, and I simply want an expert to tell me whether it's feasible.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH]5226[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>I found a lovely preamp with a parametric EQ and a portable DAC. Just a little fuzzy on whether this is possible, feasible, or advisable, and if not, I'd like to ask if there are any alternatives that let me improve my sound and adjust parametric bass/mid/treble and the master volume WITH KNOBS separately from the head unit.</p><p></p><p>Many thanks,</p><p></p><p>~Rob</p><p></p><p>PS: Also if anyone knows of a head unit with a tune knob, that would work also. I have not for the life of me been able to find one.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="competentfake, post: 8674094, member: 676987"] Greetings! I have a 2007 Camry and want to upgrade the audio system, but I've run into a big problem: I hate every head unit on the market. I've DJ'd and run soundboards professionally, and while I don't consider myself an audiophile, I have a good ear for tone, and it bothers me when a track doesn't sound right. I listen exclusively to digital music from my phone via aux input, and my collection is from a variety of sources, so the bitrate and volume can vary quite a bit from track to track, and I like to be able to adjust EQ settings on the fly to compensate for the varying sound profiles. Now, it could be said that any music played through a stock head unit will never sound right, and that's fair, but I've replaced the speakers and the overall effect isn't terrible. I run a mostly flat EQ on my music app with the mids toned down a bit, and can get decent sound by adjusting the standard bass and treble parametric controls.on the head unit and balancing the 'gain' of the phone volume with the head unit 'master volume. Recently, however, I've encountered two significant challenges. For one, I upgraded my phone to a Pixel 2 XL, which can only connect to an aux input via a USB-C adapter, thus I have no DAC on my music player, and the knobs on the head unit are starting to fail. So I set myself to shopping for a new system. I knew I didn't want a touchscreen interface, because not only are the GUIs on those things invariably clunky and unintuitive to use, messing around with the EQ on one of them is tantamount to texting and driving. I need to be able to EQ by touch, so I looked at the non-touchscreen models only to find that for some reason, every single high-end head unit I have seen is a LED-infested, flashy box with one huge volume knob and dozens of tiny buttons, and worst of all, even though every single one of them boasts a 10 band digital equalizer, the damn thing is always buried in layer upon layer of menus, and therefore might as well be in the trunk. Why did they take our tune knob away? I know it wasn't perfect, and factory car stereo manufacturers never seemed to grasp why midrange control might be important, but it was elegant in its simplicity, and tapping a knob to cycle through options and turning it to adjust them is much more efficient [I]and less distracting[/I] than navigating a series of menus with tiny buttons, but I sense that perhaps my views on the subject are in the minority. On to my problem! As I looked at all these head units, it occurred to me that i don't [I]need[/I] any of this stuff. I don't need a CD player, I use my smartwatch for playback controls, so I don't need those, I don't need Sirius bloody XM radio, or any radio at all for that matter, so I started looking into simply bypassing the head unit, and promptly fell down a rabbit hole. A few days and a few thousand browser tabs later, this is what I came up with, and I simply want an expert to tell me whether it's feasible. [ATTACH]5226._xfImport[/ATTACH] I found a lovely preamp with a parametric EQ and a portable DAC. Just a little fuzzy on whether this is possible, feasible, or advisable, and if not, I'd like to ask if there are any alternatives that let me improve my sound and adjust parametric bass/mid/treble and the master volume WITH KNOBS separately from the head unit. Many thanks, ~Rob PS: Also if anyone knows of a head unit with a tune knob, that would work also. I have not for the life of me been able to find one. [/QUOTE]
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