Hi. After owning for a long time, maybe you have some advise for me? I am looking at getting the 19mm non-ring because it will perform better at the higher end, especially off axis. SB recommended the 29 ring xo at 2.5K, the 19 at 3K, so not really any difference. The high frequency performance is important to me as I can hear 18.5K easy. Do you have any comment, like do you think beaming is an issue for you with the 29? Do you think the 19 is a silly idea because of power handling or output? I think it will be fine. I have never owned a ring radiator, and have only used Morel MT23 28mm for the longest time. Thanks!

I don't understand front stage. The music is not recorded in a concert hall. lol

Great video. I had a question regarding the older version software and the dcm signal management. My dsp does not have a main channel section. How would i go about setting my analog channels for phone calls from my head unit?

Did you turn off bluetooth audio in the bluetooth settings of your phone"?

Installed this yesterday - m5dsp! No messing with cables, but damn my samsung does not support APTXHD only APTX how ridiculous. In terms of bit rate , shouldn't effect spotify quality do you think based on the bit rate specs?

For the mids, it may be much easier to remove the windshield than the dash.

Hi Raw-CAT, I’d just like to ask if I stream from my iPhone to this streamer, is the signal altered or converted by my phone’s DAC? Or is the signal pure from the source? Thanks very much..

You're not gonna believe this. I was using android auto. Literally wanted to start taking my setup apart because the RTA measurements were showing drop after 15k hertz every time, I couldn't figure out where I had installed something wrong.

The BerryBak you recommended to me was a game changer. I have a test bench set up with an older Alpine INE-W927HD head unit connected to an Alpine PDX-V9 amplifier with a 60 amp power supply along with a spare 24F AGM battery. I play it through a pair of inexpensive Dayton Audio bookshelf speakers and a JL Audio 10W6 HO sub and enclosure. I put the BerryBak through the RCA output to RCA input of the unit and it sounded like completely changed the speakers. I played music through my Amazon music app on my Android Galaxy s24 ultra using the LDAC codec and it gave me the option of 32bit @96khz. I had to turn down the equalizer settings in the head unit playing through the BerryBak, especially the bass. When I connect through the head unit bluetooth it only let's me use the SMB codec. Watching your videos sends my OCD through the roof. I'm slowly putting a testing rig based on his yours in the testing equipment upgrade video you did. The Cosmos ADAC is my next purchase. Keep up all your hard work and efforts. I learn something everytime I watch one of your videos!

I've got a slightly off topic question. I'm trying to think of a way to test the noise floor of different amps. I don't have any fancy signal processing equipment, just signal generator and oscope. I think I can feed the amplifier a 1 volt rms tone at maybe 5Khz and then adjust the gain for 2v volt rms out? Then hook up a tweeter and take away the signal? Maybe I can hear the noise floor and if it varies from amp to amp? IDK, maybe my noise floor limitation is in the source unit? There's gotta be a logical way to test this, but I'm not thinking of it. Any ideas?

At 60, the tweeter loses a little importance because human hearing can no longer perceive the small differences above 10khz. However, it is still possible to perceive excessive distortion or some resonances.

Ok so I am using a joying head unit I am not using android auto. my HU has a sim card, and I am using Tidal app downloaded in the HU, mostly FLAC, files transferred to a NVME drive to save bandwidth, attached to the HU. Toslink from HU to DSP... Is there a better way to get a supper clean signal.?? Thanks

I an running TOSLINK that would have been interesting comparison as least for me toslink from Head Unit to DSP

I have found that audio quality is much better when using Bluetooth than it is when using wired Android Auto!

I suspect that there would be a lack of agreement in word choice among different people to characterize frequencies. Has this been studied? Awesome content as aleays man!

What does Android auto "wired" mean? Is that usb-c or Aux or somethin else? I'm sure I could google it, but maybe somebody else out there is still living in 2005 like myself and has the same question.

Hi, Since you're constantly switching between drivers and whatnot, do you use any quick connect? Or just lever quick connector?

What you see is compression artefact, where around frequency of interest resolution is lowered since apparently you will not hear other tones close to the reproduced frequency due to the masking effect that is classic trick MPEG compression uses to reduce amount of data (masking treshold)! Basically furter away from primary tone other tone is reproducet, easier to hear it, so anything close to reproduced freq. is "eliminated" buried in noise and effective resolution can be lowered...

Not disputing your data, but im very curious to see if this for all android auto, or if this is the headunit you used. AA is MUCH more compute and data intensive than bluetooth alone, so could absolutely be bottlenecked by a headunit.

Im still watching the video, which tweeter is the best for loudness and no distortion. I jame a ton of hip hop and alot of high frequency music

What's the story, picture, overview, with the extra battery if you wouldn't mind explaining. I have assumptions but not sure if they are accurate. Whats powering what? Charging of 2nd battery and main battery? Is there a limit on say listening at loud volumes as 2nd battery gets more depleted then have to stop? I guess an overview of a daily system using a hulk subwoofer and lots of power. I prefer the idea of the AE subs at the moment as don't need to be concerned with the electrics but if just adding an extra battery is all that's needed, well that's no big deal.

so my current head unit has 2V output, yet my Helix DSP has 6V output...im a bit confused about matching the input to the dsp and then the output to my amp.

do you know how Apple Car Play performs, wired and wireless?

I did similar tests on my Kenwood 9720xds after doing my digital output mod. When using wired android audio and playing tones that were recorded with REW, my results didn't look like this. From what I remembered it was as good as straight usb.

aptX was not in my phone wirh bt 5.0 only AAC, but with new phone bt 5.4 (5.3 too) now they have aptX. And sound much better. Why this is called old one?

So would I benefit getting my old kenwood psw8 out of the attic and putting it back under my seat? I have a cancellation at 60 ish

I have a question for you do you think hi res audio means anything or it's just audiofile BS

See Red power.

Okay, I might be wrong about this, so feel free to prove me wrong. I think saying that rear-fill speakers should be barely audible is an exaggeration. I tried that approach, and when they are barely audible, there’s almost no noticeable difference. What I did instead was adjust the rear speaker volume until the soundstage shifted on the vertical axis from the dash position to roughly the steering wheel position. Now, it adds an extra spark to the overall sound, and I actually really like it. That being said, my rear speakers are still significantly quieter than the front ones-just not extremely low. When it comes to time aligment you just have to play with it, while listening to music.

Very informative video, really appreciate your work on these topics that seem no one has really investigated factually!

One thing to note with these android head units is some of them emulate android auto (usually using an app called carlink). Not sure if the atoto has native android auto or the emulated version. I'd assume the emulated version would have worse performance than a native implementation of android auto. Personally for me i prefer to use the android head unit as a tablet and play music locally or use streaming apps directly on the head unit rather than going through android auto.

Thank you for this. I have been writing to Google with no response ever since I started using AA as I felt the Audio was losing quality as compared to Bluetooth LDAC in the same headunit. Can't make use of Hi-Res streaming apps like Apple Music through AA in the region I live. Looks like they are not interested to fix it though there are enough DAPs running customized Android that support Wired and Wireless Hi-Res Audio. Need to explore the option where I could use AA from the phone for Maps and Calls, wherein the Hi-Res Audio streaming can be though a DAC to the same headunit either via Bluetooth or Aux-in.

I’m confused. That bass rolloff is HUGE. I would rather lose above 17k where I can’t hear that that gigantic bass rolloff. Am I misunderstanding something?

If you only use poweramp i would suggest you try something else. I was using it but it sounded so bad. I tried resetting back to default for everything but ended up switching to synphonium and it sounds so much better.

I wonder if the deviations are from the Android Auto or the phone or the combination of equipment 🤔

I always knew Android Auto wasn't going to be as clean as using a USB stick, but wow, that's dirty!! I typically use my USB stick when listening to music. I have an Android headunit, and occasionally, I'll use KZbin Music for streaming music. Thanks for the great detail, Raw Cat!! 💪🔥

I use an external bluetooth device, Audison B Con, optical output to Helix DSP/Amp, which is LDAC compatible. Great video!

Hi, What app you have used in Android Auto to play? Is it itunes? Sorry if i have missed can you let me know? As I came to know by some engineers that android auto can only play 16bit files. Even though a higher sample rate file is play an OE headuint downsamples it to 16 bit. I don't know what aftermarket headunit does.

Hey! Android developer here. In the past I have reverse-engineered and re-implemented the entire Android Auto protocol and I can clarify some parts of the video. First of all, while it's true that the protocol is identical for all head units, the head unit manufacturer has the ability to choose some parameters and the phone will adapt to it, so it's possible for one head unit to have a better implementation than another one. The protocol allows selecting between 3 audio codecs: 1. PCM (lossless) 2. AAC_LC (lossy) 3. AAC_LC_ADTS (lossy) Furthermore, it also allows selecting the sampling rate: 1. 16000 Hz (mostly used for guidance audio) 2. 44100 Hz 3. 48000 Hz Bit rate is fixed to 16 bits. I've also seen that there are some "preferred" codecs for WiFi and USB connections, so there is a difference there. However, I'm not really sure if they are enforced or if they are just used in case the head unit specifies more than 1 supported codec (which can be done). The codec can be "forced" in the phone's Android Auto developer settings. So, you might see improvements by selecting PCM there, as it's almost for sure compatible with all head units. The audio gets captured from the phone with the "AudioCapture" class, which is a system API and is lossless if the right codec is selected. Android will just automatically perform down/upsampling if the sampling rate does not match what Android Auto asks for. I'm not really sure what the 16KHz roll-off is about, there's nothing in Android Auto's code to do that. They are either using the AAC codec or there's something wrong in the head unit's implementation that makes it do that. TL;DR: If implemented properly, Android Auto can be a bit-perfect audio stream to the DAC even over WiFi.

Nerijus. Just seen this. Very useful video. I usually use Apple Music lossless audio via Android Auto. I have the same headunit and switched to using the Apple Music app running directly on my headunit using my phone as a hotspot. It'd be interesting to see if the results differ using those apps on the headunit directly?

Hello, I wondered if you offer your services to tune audio systems? I have recently installed myself a complete new system including DSP, amps, speakers, etc… and left the final tuning to a dealer. Considering the quality of the equipment, I am disappointed with the end result, and I believe this key part of the audio installation is widely misunderstood - even by certain dealers. This step requires specialist knowledge which you clearly have. Is this something you are able to help with, or are you just a You Tube content creator?

Im just going straight from phone to dsp on the new car. Might get a DAP but im not really familiar with them anymore for those I still use old ipods modded with sd cards and rockbox. Would be nice to find one with digital out that doesnt cost a ton have seen a few online but it seems all there is now is fiio which are all around 500 or more then a bunch of oddly named things that look pretty similar for 50-150. So idk what id go with. Figure the headphone adapter is more than clean enough from what they say on ASR and other places they can provide a pretty clean signal so will probably go with that and just leave it hooked up to the dsp and print a nice slide in case for my phone with the adapter glued in place. Not gonna be playing anything higher than 48khz so it should be fine.

Will aux change anything?

Not Android Auto head units are not created the same. The Android Auto from my factory radio doesn't measure flat at all (big peaks and valleys), all the filters it adds, and it introduces a lot of noise. I wish mine was as flat as the Atoto. I skip it and go straight to the DSP.

In the past, I searched for a DAC and the cleanest player to feed the DAC. I've ended up buying an iPad, apparently, apple delivers "bit perfect" signal from their devices. If you got Apple device and have the time, it would be interesting to try it connected to the ATOTO HU.

Amazing video 👍🔥I’d love to see Apple CarPlay wired and wireless to compare. Not sure if you have access to an iPhone.

So am i safe to assume LDAC is among the best Bluetooth codecs?

Amazing content like always! We would like to see also how the BEA1 performs!

Can you also test this with differend headunit? I would like to know is there any difference between brands like alpine or pioneer when it comes to using android auto. I know its probably very close but it would be interesting to see.

This is great to see. I wonder what if you test the aux in for audio and android auto just for control. But nit sure radio works that way. Also wonder if it has to do with the DAC in the radio.