hngo69

Anyone have any experience with this unit?

http://www.navihua.com/product/show_product.php?id=414

Looks very promising. Looks similar to the unit for the IS. Here is the thread that discusses the unit. https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...hlight=navihua

I like this option compared to the other ones being offered like carlinkit, grom VL2 or beatsonic as there is no additional box to find a spot for.

Welcome any comments or feedback to help with my purchasing decision.

peasodos

iTrader: (1)

Expensive and it’s a touch screen, not intuitive to touch the screen in the GS.

jdpdata

Touch screen would be a PITA to reach, unless you have basketball player's arm length. I much prefer RT mouse. Feels natural and more intuitive. It's where my right hand rest while driving.

hngo69

RT mouse looks to be supported. Touchscreen required only for specific functions like having media play from oem side while accessing the android side and for apps that do not support RT. As confirmed on the IS thread. Hopefully works the same with the GS version.

It is expensive. If compared to VL2, it has 1 GB more ram, Android 9 vs 8.1, 64 vs 16 gb of rom, plus touchscreen. Price difference may be warranted.

This is like having a 12 inch tablet in your car.

jdpdata

VL2 does come with only 16GB ROM, but it's more than anyone will ever needs. I loaded up on Google Maps, Waze, Netflix, YouTube and bunch of music apps. I still have 12GB left. And 3GB ram is plenty too. It's very snappy. Sounds like you're already set on getting this. Go for it and let us know how it works out. Wish they made the screen resolution higher. Is it capacitive touch at least?

hngo69

According to the specs, it is capacitive touch. Resolution is 1920x720.
My only hesitation is the cost of this unit. $713 USD shipped.

Ultimately, I would like to be able to stream flac and take advantage of the ML sound system. With android head unit, I am hoping to hook up a Cyrus soundkey DAC and route this to the audio line in jack. I haven't come across any solution that can tap into the ML DAC directly.

MX73

I would be wary of what android is running. I have one for my '06 GS. Advertised having Android 6.0. Nope. It's 4.1. Found out by running AIDA64 on the unit. I think a lot of users complained, most from the RAM and Tundra groups, and the vendors started taking this seriously.

It's nice an all since you can do pretty much a tablet can do but I rather have Android Auto or Apple Carplay. I do miss streaming youtube while driving. lol.

OUT FOX EM

Keep in mind GROM VL2 is getting an update to Android 10 (it may already be out, I haven’t updated).

This unit looks like it has potential, but the touchscreen part is a bit concerning. They should have built the unit with a custom design so that the screen comes out and sits flush with the dash if they wanted to differentiate themselves a bit. Then it would actually make the touchscreen useful, and the screen itself would appear larger as well. But with it sitting deep down in there, it seems like it might actually be more of a hindrance whenever touch is required.

Cwang

The Ipod input doesn't convert as it reads the contents as a digital file and sends it to the amp via a digital bus. There's no reason why you couldn't install Tidal on the Ipod, I assume that also sends info the same way. But I realise that this isn't integrated quite the same way as an android tablet.

hngo69

I forgot about the ipod option. Does the ML system able to decode apple lossless from an ipod?

Cwang

Yes. I have a 64gb Ipod full of ALAC converted from FLACs. The system fully integrates into the car including voice control. I believe it's sent over a digital MOST bus straight to the ML amp for decoding. I find this high quality link makes it's surround feature soumd great, with the right kind of music.

hngo69

Thank you for confirming. Will try this option.

hngo69

@Cwang Ipod with Alac is a huge improvement over 320k mp3. Just painful doing the conversion and retagging my music collection. Using Flac to Alac and then retagging with Musicbrainz Picard.

Any recommendation on a better method?

I can now emphatically proclaim that the ML is the best sound system in any car that I have owned.

I am not considering any changes to the OEM infotainment system. Will eventually get an Ipod with a larger storage. Using an old 64GB Iphone SE for now.

Cwang

Sorry to be rude but I'm assuming you're making the FLACs from cds or FLACS from the internet? Sourcing and buying cds can be a pain but once you've got them, the ML deserves nothing less. The number of FLACs that are just upsampled MP3s out there, have to be careful!
I use DBpoweramp to convert my FLACs to ALAC, it does all the tagging(if incomplete) itself, it's really easy.

Same. I'd like a GROM but I don't know how it handles lossless, I'm going to assume it can't talk to the amp directly. I have a 64gb Ipod but want to upgrade.

hngo69

My flac's are from CD source. Yes, I agree that the downloaded ones are hit and miss on quality and most likely upsampled.

Will try dbPoweramp as I have more conversions to do.

From what I understand of the android units, it takes over the aux input, meaning it's analog. These units will not have a decent dac. That's why I purchased the soundkey to plug into my android phone and eventually to the android head unit. Scrapping that plan now as the ipod with ALAC is a better solution which achieves what I set out to do. Play lossless audio in my GS.

Enjoying the short drive I have to work each day now.

Thank you @Cwang for showing the way. Much appreciated.