Bruce,

I would strongly recommend you to get the alpine headunit with optical digital output. This way, you can have the processing done by the processor. For example, your setup now. The headunit feed analog signal to the digital processor. From there, you use the digital processor just for equalization. Now it would be nicer if you feed digital signal to the pxah700 and let all the conversion done by pxa instead of the headunit.

Just thought i feed you some more information.

g35mt

 

hehe cool stuff jonathan. Can't wait to see ur car in person. Maybe i'll get mine installed first so i don't look retarded.... Hehehe. Love to get together with you sometime JOnathan.

Yes yes rudy my car is gonna be back AGAIN!!! MORE STUFF!! sigh.....i guess the fun just never ends. My money trail is coming to an end. Didn't you say rudy freee stuff? What was that? Free AVN and Free stuff? NO WAY! :P

Ed

2003 Transport V35SKYLINE. Team Transport! www.teamtransport.org

 

Okay... Here are a few picts that I took of the double DIN, Eclipse AVN 2454, and JL Audio 500/5 amp install. Let me know if the picts are too big, and I can resize them down.

 

Ed, we should get together for dinner later this week. Then you can check out the AVN unit and see if you still want to go with the AVIC instead. PM me when you get a chance - perhaps a meeting at the Curry House...

 

Hey jonathan are those the iForged Flux wheels you have on your coupe? If so what size and how much did you pay for them. Im thinkin of getting them on my 05 when it comes in. Did you need to lower the car or change the springs?

 

I'm the guy with the sedan, Bruce [bkchang] has the coupe in the first picture, so I can't answer your question.

 

Wow, only 128kbps on the AVN? That just killed it as an option for me... I love the look of the touchscreen, I just wonder if there will be a double DIN option for the '05 coupes! If so, I might have to save up for the AVIC N1...

 

The wheels on Bruce's coupe look awesome. I can't believe how close the wheel comes to the calipers. I think its like a sixteenth of an inch!

Sound Advice of Mission Viejo

 

The AVN does play back my MP3's that are at 192kbps and 224kbps, but when I try to skip forward to another track I get a stuttering of the current music before it goes onto the next track.

I am conjecturing [guessing] that the AVN must load up MP3 songs into a small buffer / memory. So if you have a MP3 that is at say 192kbps, it must be too large for the buffer. So you can get [according to the manual] playback that is choppy sounding because the MP3 is probably not flowing into / out of the buffer smoothly. [I'm guessing that when I change tracks the stuttering sound I hear is the unit flushing the buffer before reading the next MP3 file.]

I am also guessing that because it has to feed the MP3 file into a buffer, that is why the navigation between MP3 songs is so slow. The manual itself even notes that operation will be slow when dealing with MP3 CDR's and that it is normal and not a unit malfunction! If I had know about the poor MP3 playback ahead of time, I probably would have opted for the installation of the Eclipse CD changer from the get go. Regular CD's and audio CDR's playback just fine and operate normally.

Personally, I feel that having a double DIN screen gives the cleanest / most OEM type look and feel. The MP3 issue is bothersome, but so far the rest of the unit's functions have been great!

 

That is the first time I heard of that weakness of the AVN but it is good of you to share it with everyone. Also if you are going for sound quality the MP3's are not the best. I stopped playing the MP3s in may car because on bigger systems the difference in quailty stands out alot more.

Sound Advice of Mission Viejo

 

yeah i've never really liked the AVN besides its good looks. It looks pretty much stock (minus the green lit buttons). It only has 6 FM preset which is rediculous and the NAV system on it is good but "feels" outdated, including the menus and options.
The AVIC-N1 is a much much better Nav system but too bad its not double-din and has a weak mp3 player.
Wish we had the best of both worlds. I'm gonna wait until spring, hopefully some more double-din nav units will have risen.

Nice installs though, looks great.
What is up with the 2 headunits in the coupe?

<font color=green>-Rambo</font color=green>
G35c-6MT-DG/Willow/HyperGround/BorlaExhaust/350Z-intake/AVIC-N1-double-din

 

Rudy, when I was researching the AVN unit, I too had not heard of any weaknesses, so I was a little bit surprised about the MP3 playback issue. But don't get me wrong, I'm very pleased with the unit otherwise.

The AVIC's 3D / bird's eye nav screen is pretty neat though [and probably the future for all navs]. But I must say that I am not looking at the nav screen much at all when I'm driving. The audible cues seem like the safest way to be guided. I'm sure that it is only a matter of time before Eclipse updates this unit and irons out the few kinks [I too was a little surprised that there were only 6 FM presets, but it wasn't that big of deal to me since I rarely listen to FM].