su34ru wrote:Congratulations to Chris on a terrific piece of work!
Need some advice from the good folks here.
I had a Nexus 7 sitting around (the original 8 gig WiFi), so rooted and put Timur's ROM on it.
Now for getting it into the car. I have a Gen 5 wagon. Anyone done any work with Gen 5s here? These have a double din HU (non Macintosh, non Satnav), followed by a pocket below and aircon cotrols further below. As I see it, if the nexus 7 has to sit in the double din, it replaces the stock HU and i will have to install a single DIN HU in the pocket... does anyone know of a Fascia kit that'll let me do this? Or is there a way to somehow mount the Nexus 7 on top of the existing stock HU (some kinda bracket or even in dash holder?) since that will become the primary system in the car and the HU remains on AUX the whole time?
A question for Chris - why did you use the FSL-21 for Aux? Was it because your HU did not have an Aux in? The Gen 5 HU has one. Should I just connect with a 3.5mm cable? Or am i losing SQ this way?
Any help appreciated.
Thanks.
I can't help with the Gen5 specific stuff being a Gen4 owner, but there's a couple of things you could investigate. Firstly, you could look at modifying the brackets that hold the standard headunit to allow it to slide further back into the dash, allowing the tablet to sit in front of it, but still behind the fascia. I've seen this done quite well in a Forester (but can't recall what forum it was on, maybe NASIOC). Another option is to get rid of the stock headunit all together and run the tablet standalone. This can be done with a USB DAC and a small amplifier that you could mount behind the tablet where the headunit once was. That is assuming that your model doesn't have a factory amplifier. If it does, you could just run line level RCA's from the DAC to the factory amplifier (some custom cable splicing could be required).
Correct, the pre-facelift McIntosh doesn't have an high level AUX in, but even if it did, I prefer the FSL-21 method as it means I use a USB DAC, eliminating the amplifier in the tablet, meaning I get the best quality output possible. Many people are using the 3.5mm stereo option as it's very easy if your headunit has a 3.5mm in. But sound quality is the trade-off. Most would never tell without hearing the two side by side.