Bespoke Questions
 

Is this head unit really that bad?

I am still waiting for my FR-S to arrive, and the only option I included was the Bespoke radio. I understand that the nav is crappy, but I actually prefer my cars without integrated nav. I test drove an auto w/ the Bespoke and like the touch screen and look over the base model stereo, but didn't have time to actually play with it much.

I am mostly interested in hearing thoughts about this unit as a stereo...sound quality, ease of use, features, etc. I use a car stereo to listen to music, and want to hear how this unit does in that regard, not concerned w/ nav or texting, making phone calls, though I would like to hear thoughts about connecting an IPhone via Bluetooth.

Fire away, let me hear the good and bad...

really bad!

for the same price you can get a better aftermarket with bigger screen and better features

I appreciate the response, but can you quantify it a bit for me? I realize that the Bespoke option is $850 or so and aftermarket head units offer more bang for the buck, but I am wondering if the Bespoke is really a bad radio from an audio perspective, not so much from a feature perspective.

The Bespoke head unit itself isn't a bad unit. The HD radio feature sounds great, the pandora integration is top notch, iPod integration scrolls quickly, Bluetooth audio streaming works well and the Bluetooth telephone integration is one of the best I have ever used. The iPhone bespoke app is where the unit falls short. The app is absolutely horrible! It's not a navigation app and it's not supposed to be. It's supposed to be a routing app, similar to the maps app on the iPhone. The only problem is that you can't even type in an address manually. You are forced to search from a list of POI's. You also can not listen to pandora or the radio while the app is open. You are forced to listen to their Internet radio stations which have terrible audio quality and buffering. The good news is that all those issues can be addressed in future app updates. I hope they do address the issues, the app has great potential but as it stands it is half baked and worse than a beta version!!

Future android support? That's the only gripe i have with mine.. Otherwise i dig it.. It's not that bad of a hu.

I really like my BeSpoke unit, but as stated, the actual App is horrible.

Cool, thanks for the responses. Makes me feel a little better about deciding to go with it vs the standard head unit. Sounds like it is decent enough and should tide me over unless I decide to start replacing everything.

My kids like to watch Netflix or a movie on the Ipad/Ipod/Iphone from the backseat and the bluetooth taps into the BeSpoke unit so they hear the sound from the speakers in the FRS.

I agree, the BeSpoke app really needs some updates but everything else is up to par in my opinion.

As a headunit, I like it. I'll like it even more when I install Satellite Radio. You can also apparently hack a backup camera into it, haven't investigated that yet. A vendor here has a kit to do it, but too pricey for my blood. I'm an electronics guy so I'll eventually figure it out.

The BeSpoke app, currently, is garbage. I don't expect it to ever be anything other than garbage unless they sell a LOT of Scions with BeSpoke head units.

For a stock HU, it's pretty nice. I'm am typically an audiophile so if I had to make complaints I could, but for a factory HU it's solid, sounds good, and works well IMO (with the exception of the garbage BeSpoke app.)

I'm glad you asked the question, OP. The car that I'm about to buy (hopefully) comes with the BeSpoke hu. I don't plan on using the ap since I have android, but everything else is sounding good.

I got my first Iphone because of the Bespoke, been on android before. I like the Pandora integration to get me by until i can get satellite radio put in. Fm radio is just terrible, bad reception and terrible sound quality.

Ok so far the consensus seems to be that as a stereo the Bespoke unit is pretty good, the app sucks but IPhone integration is pretty decent. This is good, my primary concern was overall sound quality and so far I haven't heard any complaints about that either.

That's interesting because I'm having the opposite experience with sat radio. We just bought a used car that had XM radio in it. Apparently the subscription hasn't been cancelled yet so I'm getting stations. The sound quality is good but anytime I go through any tree cover at all it cuts out. Is that normal?

In my experience, that is normal. I think it must need a clear line of sight to the satellites like dish/direct tv does. My sat radio experience is all in rental cars though.

-Justin