ANS-810 / ANS-510 (PROPER RNS-510 alternative)

[wai]

I am expecting my delivery soon too! Do share where's the best place to place the GPS antenna.

Find a surface under the dash that is preferably not under metal. Also, you need to avoid the various mechanisms for the ventilation system.

There is a fair amount of excess cable you will have to coil up. The best way to avoid any antenna effect (undesirable) from this coil is to wind it in a figure of 8 and cable tie it so it does not unravel. Again, this has to be tucked out of the way of the various mechanisms.

[whiskywallah]

does anyone here feel like the bt music quality isnt the best? i work for a dealer and ive used cadillac, nissan, buick, gmc and a few other off brands used cars bt just to test it out and the quality of the bt in my car isnt the best. there is like a feint ticking noise. the only car that ive duplicated it in using the same phone is a 2012 mistubishi lancer gt. its not the phone quality"""" its the music quality coming from pandora only in BT mode. the same pandora playing from the ipod cord through the radio is fine.
is there a update for that or a module update?
its installed in a 2009 vw cc 2.0t model.
i would just continue to use the ipod cord but its not long enough so i rather my phone be wireless.

I agree with you. I've tried 3 or 4 different phones, linked BT to 2 different ANS and the quality is definitely not the best, and compared to hard wired is definitely worse. It's hard to describe the problem; there is a 'ticking' as you describe, but it also sounds like it's crushing the HF signal and maybe also something liketoo much gain (and no, turning down the phone does not help.)

I've tried iPhone4 and HTC phones so maybe someone who is happy with BT audio can tell us what phones they use?

[whiskywallah]

Find a surface under the dash that is preferably not under metal. Also, you need to avoid the various mechanisms for the ventilation system.

There is a fair amount of excess cable you will have to coil up. The best way to avoid any antenna effect (undesirable) from this coil is to wind it in a figure of 8 and cable tie it so it does not unravel. Again, this has to be tucked out of the way of the various mechanisms.

I ended up popping mine on top of the dash. Come out from underneath the drivers side and then carefully slide the cable towards the windscreen. It's not that hard and works perfectly. Yes there's a small black blob on top of the dash but it's very discrete. And +1 for coiling the cable in a figure of 8; very important. Before I did this it would take 5 mins to get a GPS signal, now its almost instant.

[whiskywallah]

This looks a great unit - just wondering if anyone with any SQ background/experience can comment on it?

How is the sound quality and customisation? How do the RCA outs perform? Obviously there are some more advanced things lacking like time alignment etc., but does the unit stack up against aftermarket stuff as far as general SQ and EQ adjustments?

And for anyone running amp(s) has everything been to your satisfaction?

For the price, it's perfectly adequate. The RCA outs are above average and fed into a reasonable amp sound fine.
The EQ itself is good; you can adjust the centre freq and Q of Bass, Middle and Treble, and there's a seperate Sub out level.
Theres no timing adjustment, nor auto EQ.

My main gripe is with the method of control. There are 4 sliders, in the wrong order! Each slider has +/-7 unscaled increments which is almost enough fine control but setting them is nigh on impossible with my sausage fingers. There really needs to be nudge up and down buttons rather than soft sliders.
There are maybe 6 or 8 EQ presets plus custom, but you can't store you're own presets that i can find.

The control of fade and balance is OK, but again, is hard for my sausage fingers to get where I want it; you grab a cross hair and move it where you want it. Nudge buttons would be preferable.

Most of the probelms I describe above are trivial, since you set them once and pretty much forget. My external amp has a remote sub control which is very useful. I have that attached to the steering column and given my eclectic music taste I adjust that quite often.

Overall I would give it a B+ for sound and sound control; and for the money is perfectly adequate.

[jessv3]

I agree with you. I've tried 3 or 4 different phones, linked BT to 2 different ANS and the quality is definitely not the best, and compared to hard wired is definitely worse. It's hard to describe the problem; there is a 'ticking' as you describe, but it also sounds like it's crushing the HF signal and maybe also something liketoo much gain (and no, turning down the phone does not help.)

I've tried iPhone4 and HTC phones so maybe someone who is happy with BT audio can tell us what phones they use?

I don't mind the BT quality, I stream live Internet radio on an iPhone 4S via BT, and haven't noticed any ticking, it's a little quiet so I adjust the volume on the ANS.

[Slinz]

Thanks whiskywallah, much appreciated.

One of my cars came with a really awful Chinese touchscreen unit, which has left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth for these kinds of thing. This one looks like it's in another league though. Also that unit had similar controls for the fade/balance, which was pretty annoying haha.

Anyway, thanks for the solid description.

[starionx]

And +1 for coiling the cable in a figure of 8; very important. Before I did this it would take 5 mins to get a GPS signal, now its almost instant.

That's interesting. I'll have to try this figure 8 for the cable as mine is also taking about 5 minutes for the gps to get a signal.

[jitwei]

Find a surface under the dash that is preferably not under metal. Also, you need to avoid the various mechanisms for the ventilation system.

There is a fair amount of excess cable you will have to coil up. The best way to avoid any antenna effect (undesirable) from this coil is to wind it in a figure of 8 and cable tie it so it does not unravel. Again, this has to be tucked out of the way of the various mechanisms.

thanks. Is it me or the unit's screen is very prone to glare? I removed a plastic protector (smaller than the screen size) but it seems like there's still a layer of very glossy film on the unit. Is this how it's supposed to be?

[wai]

thanks. Is it me or the unit's screen is very prone to glare? I removed a plastic protector (smaller than the screen size) but it seems like there's still a layer of very glossy film on the unit. Is this how it's supposed to be?

The screen can be a touch reflective. Thankfully for my Caddy, it is mounted below the AC controls and vents and sodoes not get much from directly above.

[jitwei]

is there any other way to get my hands on the latest firmware aside from waiting for DKN to return and subscribe to him? I don't mind paying him but the wait is killing me.. hahaha