AVH-4000NEX or AppRadio 4?

[Porcupint]

Originally Posted by zinzan

I also chose the 4000NEX. Got it for $519 on Amazon through a third-party vendor. Ordered last Tuesday, got it on Wednesday! (this vendor was also in Atlanta, it turns out)

I have not installed it yet, as I am awaiting the wiring harness, dash kit, etc from Sonic. But I have hooked it up to a spare PSU in my home office so I could check it out and perform the Carplay firmware update. Love it. Yes, it has a resistive touchscreen, but it is WAY better than the touchscreen on the OEM BRZ HU. Really not missing the capacitive touch here.

The biggest factors that swayed me were the larger screen, the HD Radio, and the SD card slot. I have tested a 64GB NTFS SD Card (Samsung EVO Pro), and it read from it and played quickly (I tested video and music files).

I don't play CDs often in my car lately, but it's a nice-to-have. Can even play DVDs.

And the tilt screen might help with glare.

I plan to do the install myself, and have no aftermarket stereo installation experience. Hopefully, I can figure it out with the threads here and elsewhere. I did install a Rydeen Duo backup cam in my car, so will have to rewire that and find an alternate power source. I may ping you guys here with questions if I run into any trouble.

-Z

Ugh.... you're making it really hard to resist the urge to get this unit to replace BRZ nav unit.

[Chimera]

+antenna adapter

Originally Posted by quality_sound

The install is a cake walk. Just match up the colors on the radio's harness and the installation harness you ordered. Easy peasy.

[zinzan]

I think I'm clear on the harness wire match up, but the things I think I'll have to figure out are:

- reverse signal to back up cam.
- reverse cam power
- speed sensor? Or not necessary since 4000 nex does not have nav?

I do have the antenna adapter, and the usb/aux port to replace the OEM one. And I have another USB extension cable I'll need to run for access somewhere.

[Scoobybrz]

Originally Posted by zinzan

I think I'm clear on the harness wire match up, but the things I think I'll have to figure out are:

- reverse signal to back up cam.
- reverse cam power
- speed sensor? Or not necessary since 4000 nex does not have nav?

I do have the antenna adapter, and the usb/aux port to replace the OEM one. And I have another USB extension cable I'll need to run for access somewhere.

I'm pretty sure it doesn't have a speed sensor wire. Just parking brake and reverse signal.

[quality_sound]

Originally Posted by Chimera

+antenna adapter

I don't think that's what was intimidating him so I left out the obvious stuff. Most people get hung up on the wiring until they find out everything is the same color per CEA standards.

But yes,to be thorough, he will need an antenna adapter, either a new USB port or the adapter to use the OEM port, and a dash kit.

[zinzan]

Originally Posted by Scoobybrz

I'm pretty sure it doesn't have a speed sensor wire. Just parking brake and reverse signal.

I received the Metra kit today, and now that I see everything, I think I've got it, but let me run it through it:

• Connect all the like colored/striped wires from the Metra Harness adapters (two parts, one with 6 pins and one with 10 pins) to the Pioneer pigtail.
• This will leave a few disconnected wires:
  • On the Metra 10-pin, a blue power antenna wire - this will be connected to the power antenna adapter (40-LX11). This was not connected to the power antenna adapter. Instead, I connected it to the blue and white "System Remote Control" wire. I am still not 100% sure on this one, but in digging through this forum and others, that appears to be what @SVXdc said should be done for BRZ's, as the Subaru OEM antenna harness does not actually use the power lead coming in from the OEM. Instead, it is integrated in the 10-pin OEM harness (link to @SVXdc's post here). Others connected all three wires (blue, blue, blue-white), and that might be fine, but unnecessary? I'll keep an eye on my radio reception, but it appeared to be fine in my garage last night.
  • On the Pioneer pigtail, a long green parking brake wire - Tap into the wire going into the 6-pin on the 16-pin OEM harness? And if I recall correctly, this is the only wire going into this plug. Confirmed. Since I was using @SVXdc's pass-through harness for my back-up camera, I just utilized part of that harness with the 6-pin isolated to the single wire, and connect to that.
  • On the Pioneer pigtail, a very short purple and white "Reverse Gear Signal Input" wire - Tap into the 2 pin on the 28-pin OEM harness? Confirmed. But by the time I got to this final step, it was past midnight and I was too tired to carefully splice into the 28-pin OEM harness. This plug does not come out very far from the dash, and the wire is pretty short and twisted before it is bound to several other wires, so I just went ahead and cut the wire and then connected to the purple and white from the Pioneer. The 28-pin OEM harness is now unused, so I just taped up the cut wire.
  • On the Pioneer pigtail, a blue and white "System Remote Control" wire - Unused? Connected to blue wire from Metra harness, see above.
  • On the Pioneer pigtail, a yellow and black "Mute" wire - Unused? Confirmed. I believe for third-party amps, etc?
• The 4000NEX is not a nav unit, so I don't worry about the speed sensor? Not used.
• To power my Rydeen Duo backup camera, can I just tap into the red wire on the Metra 10-pin harness, which corresponds to the 3 pin "+12V Accessory"? Confirmed, and convenient. But I made the mistake of "connecting all like colored wires" first, and then had to disconnect them when attaching the backup camera power lead. I then used a crimp cap to connect all three of these red wires.
  
• On the back of the Pioneer, there are some dangling A/V I/O RCA plugs. Do I just leave these unused and dangling? Unused, for third-party amps, etc.
• For all of these unused, dangling wires and OEM harnesses, should I wrap them in some kind of foam insulator or something?

I also replaced the USB and AUX In plug with the AX-USB-35EXT. Works fine.

I attached a second USB extension cable and ran it to my glove compartment, but need to find a good mounting place at some point. I may just drill out a hole in the glove box, like the Canadian USB port.

I attached the microphone, but haven't run it through my A-pillar to my headliner yet. So I'll have to do that when I get the chance. For now, I just have it clipped to my glove compartment door. Edit: Ran it up to the OEM microphone location (removed the OEM microphone).

I tested everything and it all seems to work, though the reverse cam didn't work until I found the setting to activate the camera in the 4000NEX.

Due to the various lengths of the wires, the connections behind the HU are a little messy, and a little bit difficult to manage. I may cut off a length of the extremely long green parking brake wire, and I may add a length of wire to the purple and white reverse gear signal input wire. I may cut off the blue power wire from the antenna adapter altogether, but I will wait until I feel more sure that the antenna is getting appropriate reception.

And I may try to find some kind of foam wire wrap to cover some of the unused dangling wires.

I'm holding onto the OEM HU and USB/Aux port. And the OEM microphone. If/when I ever sell my BRZ, I will probably take the Pioneer with me and reinstall the OEM HU. So I'll have to reconnect the cut 2-pin wire to the 28-pin OEM harness, and reconnect @SVXdc's backup camera harness. I wouldn't expect this to be difficult.

Thanks. Pretty excited about this!

-Z

[zinzan]

Update after first morning drive with the 4000NEX: sounds great, looks great, Screen is more responsive, GUI is an adjustment. Carplay is a big step up in User Interfaces, but crashed once on me (phone had to be rebooted), and the apps are limited at this time. But the voice recognition and command structure is much easier to work with, and Siri reading aloud a text message from my wife was perfect.

[F1point4]

I've had the 4000NEX in my car for a month now. Love it. Choose it over app radio 4 mostly cause of the screen. Capacitive sounds awesome but glare sucks since its a glass front.

You need to wire in an ebrake bypass or tap into the car's ebrake signal or you won't be able to do much with the unit. I couldn't upgrade the firmware to the CarPlay enabled software until I took action. I chose a bypass so the install is much cleaner.

I wrote down some observations about CarPlay to date if anyone was curious. I predominantly listen to my playlists and podcasts from my phone.

Apple seems to do a very good job of giving a car friendly interface with keeping Safety in mind. You can do most everything using voice so you can keep your eyes on the road.*

Initial observations:*
Everything is driven by the phone. The head unit is pretty much just a screen.*

CarPlay isn't a full replacement for the head unit. CarPlay just sits over whatever interface the manufacturer provides so you will still have HD Radio, DVD player, XM whatever. You just have to switch out of carplay to access them.

When you take a screenshot using the phone, it will take a screenshot of whatever is on the head unit.*

When messages come in or when I make a new one, I wish a text transcript would show on the screen in addition to Siri reading it to you. Yeah it would not make for a safe driving experience, but I want to make sure Siri captures the dictation correctly. She talks too fast sometimes to understand*

Siri isn't perfect but in the car she does well enough you can use voice for everything.*

Thank goodness for a proper iPod interface. Finding songs and searching through playlist is exactly like it is on the phone. Alpine and bespoke managed to screw it up. Haven't played with this pioneer's native player enough to make judgement.*

It has support for iTunes radio which is cool.*

It does not lock you out of your phone when plugging it into the car. You can still use your phone as normal. If you do decide to go to music, or maps. It will be reflected on the head unit display*

Maps works well, looks great on the head units 7" display. Easy to read. Plus is that I don't have to update maps on the head unit. Only gripes: POI makes maps look cluttered, and you can't scroll on the map by swiping. Have to use Direction arrows. Last, maps won't work without a cell+data signal

While the main navigation is on the head unit, the phone has a companion mode where it shows you the entire route step by step. The compass on the screen is a nice touch*
I wish pressing buttons in carplay would make a beep so you know the presses registered

You can make it so when you press the now playing or music button on the radio that the phone shows you a playlist so you can quickly choose another song.

Kinda stinks that it can't remember what playlist you were playing from when you get back in the car. Yes it does resume what was last played, but when you press back on the CarPLay, it goes to*the*main music menu, not the playlist you are actually playing music *from. Correction: it sort of does but not always. I think if you don't use audio/YouTube in between driving it will pick up where it left off. But the playlist thing is always true. You always have to re-pick the same playlist if you just got in the car and wanted a different song on the same playlist that is currently playing.

I wish the music/maps whatever would stay up on the HU when you use hte phone. If you aren't on a carplay app, it just goes to the home screen and sit there. Kinda frustrating if you want to change the song.


Lately i'll be playing music and the whole thing cuts off. I have to unplug the phone and replug it back in for it to work. Sometimes multiple times. Have to use an official iPhone lightning cable or my microusb Lightning adapter went bad

PHone sometimes goes black when you unplug and is not responsive for a few mintues. It always comes back

When you are using the phone sometimes the status bar is always white so its hard to see the time etc

Carplay popup splash screen sucks EVERY TIME! It gets in the way if you are trying to text or whatever. I'll be in the middle of something while firing up the car, then i plug in the phone to get the radio going, and the splash screen just steals my thunder. I have to navigate back to where i was a few times.


Talk slow and precise to Siri or she'll get your messages wrong while you drive. I have a loudish exhaust so it makes it hard for her to hear. My mic is located right above the A-pillar airbag. save the texting for when you aren't driving anyway.

[zinzan]

@F1point4, thanks for the notes. I'm not worrying about the ebrake bypass at this time--so far, everything it locks me out of while driving seems reasonable, but I'll keep it in mind if I find any lock outs to be unreasonable.

I wonder if mic placement should be further away from the windows. After running the wire under the A pillar, not much more effort to center it on the headliner, or maybe even hide it under the OEM mic location vent.

I'm hoping Apple improves CarPlay and reduces the crashes. And I hope and expect more third-party apps. I listen to Podcasts a lot, but am not a fan of Apple's app, so hopefully Pocket Casts or someone else builds in Carplay functionality.

I wish Maps had a more 3D mode.

[kaitak98]

OP here. Been working a lot lately so I haven't had time to chime in. Thanks for all the input. I think I'm going to go with the 4000 since the price is almost the same.

Some of the wiring zinzan mentioned has me a little concerned but hopefully it will be clear once I have everything in front of me.

Now the only issue is getting the dealer to replace my factory HU so I can sell it or keep it for when I sell the car. As of now on every startup the HU reboots several times. Of course it didn't do it when the car was at the dealer for service.

Thanks again for all the replies.

[zinzan]

Originally Posted by kaitak98

Some of the wiring zinzan mentioned has me a little concerned but hopefully it will be clear once I have everything in front of me.

Let me know if there's anything you want me to clear up. Now that I've done it, it all seems pretty straight-forward to me. The antenna is working fine for me with good reception up here in NW Atlanta.

And some of my wiring was only necessary because of my reverse camera. If you don't have one of those, it's a little easier.

I ran my mic up to the OEM microphone location this afternoon. Also pretty straight-forward, but I had previous experience running wire down my passenger A pillar into the glove compartment for my dash cam, and it's easy enough to run wires from glove compartment to the HU. I do need to clean up the bundling of my excess wires (mic, dash cam, 2nd USB) there in my glove compartment. They are rolled up and zip tied, but maybe I can somehow hide them behind the glove compartment.

-Z

[zinzan]

Originally Posted by zinzan

I'm hoping Apple improves CarPlay and reduces the crashes. And I hope and expect more third-party apps. I listen to Podcasts a lot, but am not a fan of Apple's app, so hopefully Pocket Casts or someone else builds in Carplay functionality.

I wish Maps had a more 3D mode.

Originally Posted by zinzan

I ran my mic up to the OEM microphone location this afternoon. Also pretty straight-forward, but I had previous experience running wire down my passenger A pillar into the glove compartment for my dash cam...

A quick update after about 13 months with this unit:
* The Pioneer Mic did not work well in the OEM BRZ Mic location. Everyone I called complained they had difficulty hearing me. I called my office voicemail and listened later, and it was very muffled. I tried insulating with foam, etc, and it never improved adequately. I finally gave up and just clipped the Pioneer Mic to the headliner above the mirror, pointing directly at me. Sound quality is much better, and I'm no longer getting complaints. It's not quite as clean, but it's fine. Wire is still hidden behind headliner and the A pillar, etc, and no one except me really notices the exposed Mic. Tip: Headliner is thin, so I thickened the back side of the clip with tape so it would clamp down a bit tighter. Otherwise, it's very loose.
* I have to say that I am disappointed with CarPlay's lack of evolution. It hasn't changed much, and there have been very few new Car Play apps added, outside of internet radio options. No great podcast alternatives. No Waze or Google Maps, or any other navigation options.
* Sometimes, CarPlay just freezes, and I have to reboot my phone. Not too often, but maybe once or twice a month.
* Sometimes, the 4000NEX reboots itself. Not often, maybe 3 or 4 times in the past year.

Still happy with the head unit, overall, but Pioneer is already moving on from the 4000NEX, and technology continues to improve. I held on to the Subaru OEM HU because I assumed I would hold onto the 4000NEX whenever I sell the BRZ, but now I'm not so sure about this.

-Z