twzou999

Hey guys, I have recently got my 2005 gs350(3gs non ML). Been reading a few reviews regarding adding aux or bluetooth capability and it looks like its a pick between those 2. What are your opinions? seems like vaistech cost quite a fortune compared to GROM, and what difference dos it make?

This is my list of things I care about, from most to least:

-sound quality
-bluetooth calling
-not interruptiong other functions
-ease of installation
-display music titles

also i realised my jap import gs has a different nav to the usual 1, which actually looks more like the IS model

http://trademe.tmcdn.co.nz/photoserv.../537574397.jpg

Would be great to know if the the kits will work on this audio system too!

willdogg

I actually have both. I installed the Grom USB3 box in our 2004 RX and the Vaistech SL3B box in our 2006 IS.

Since our RX did not have the factory bluetooth phone capability, I also got the Grom bluetooth dongle (for an extra $50). The bluetooth dongle comes with a bluetooth antenna and a microphone. If you get the Grom USB3 box and you don’t have factory bluetooth phone, get this dongle, it’s totally worth it.

Our IS had the factory bluetooth phone capability built in, so I just needed the Vaistech box.

The sound quality for both products are awesome. On the Grom, when your phone or iPod is connected to the USB, the sound is incredible. But, when you use Bluetooth to stream your music wirelessly (via A2DP), it doesn’t sound as good as USB, but that’s expected.

The Vaistech SL3B box only streams music from your iPhone/Android phone or iPod via Bluetooth. There is a USB plug on the Vaistech box, but that’s only for charging. There is NO option to play music through USB.

So sonically, they sound about the same when streaming via bluetooth. But the Grom sounds a little better than the Vaistech when connected via USB. But who likes to be connected all the time?

Both units handle incoming phone calls easily:

On the Grom, you just press the track up button on the factory radio or the track up button on your steering wheel to answer. Pressing the track down button hangs the call up. Their bluetooth dongle/mic kit works flawlessly with no problems.

The Vaistech box interfaces with the Lexus factory bluetooth seamlessly. When a call comes in, the music stops playing, and the Lexus phone ringtone plays through your radio, you press the “answer phone button” to answer the call and press the “hang up phone button” to hang up.

Since both boxes are connected to the factory radio harnesses, they do not interrupt radio, nav, climate control or any other normal car functions.

Both units required some work to install. Just use the DIYs here on clublexus. They’re not simple jobs. I had to use a dremel tool on my RX glovebox to cut a small opening so the Grom harness could have some wiggle room. Just take your time and be careful. Mount it where you could easily access it for future firmware upgrades. If you’re not comfortable installing it, hire a professional.

My RX is a non-nav model, it only has a single line of text on the radio. The Grom displays the first several characters of my music titles (songs) on this single line of text. You just press the text button to toggle the display options (song title and track number). You select songs using the track up/down buttons on your steering wheel and track up/down buttons on your radio.

My IS is a nav model, it’s integrated with the nav screen. The Vaistech displays my music titles (albums and songs) when you press the folder/file button to dig down in the folders. When your vehicle is stopped, you can select albums and songs with your factory touchscreen. When your vehicle is moving, you can only select albums and songs with disc up/down buttons on your radio (albums) and the track up/down buttons on your steering wheel and on your radio (songs).

Both manufacturers suggest you setup playlists for your music library for easy navigation of your songs.

I did run into a couple intermittent bluetooth problems with the Grom box though:

1. When I play a song in a playlist, the title of the previous song appears on the factory radio display. When I press track up to go to song #3, the title of song #2 appears on the radio display.

2. When I play a song in a playlist, the disc up and disc down buttons on the Lexus factory radios do not move you to the next or previous playlist.

Both of these problems do not happen when I connect my phone to the Grom USB port. But this could be limitation of bluetooth.

These bluetooth display problems do not happen on the Vaistech. It could be the “you get what you pay for” adage.

Both the Grom and Vaistech emulate CD playback when connected to a Lexus factory nav touchscreen radio.

Personally, I like both boxes. But the Vaistech seems to be a little more robust. The Vaistech could also work on the single line radio display of our RX, but since the RX doesn’t have the touchscreen nav, I went with the less expensive solution.

I’m going to call Grom tech support to see if a firmware update is needed. Keep you posted.