I preordered and got one of the first batches of the bestsonic. The issue demonstrated on the videos where the audio does not work unless you plug the cable after the radio fully boots up is consistent. I’ve yet to see it work otherwise.

Protip:
Use the recommended ground loop isolator to eliminate an engine whine through the speakers when the audio is paused. The whine gets louder as u accelerate but the isolator resolved this issue.

Placement:
The large metal box fits under the storage tray and the smaller plastic box fits to the right of the gear shift. Did not fit stacked.

Experience:
So far so good once you get the hang of waiting for the radio to boot before plugging in. Yet to take it on a long trip but around town but I have had no issues so far and it’s working as demonstrated on the videos. I will update if I encounter any bad experiences. The swiping to scroll through screens and menus is great. I thought I saw the Vline lacked this ability but I could be wrong.

Recommendation for beatsonic:
1. Wireless CarPlay capabilities
2. Eliminate the wait to plug in before the radio software loads.
3. Add option to start CarPlay after the radio boots up or when the cable is plugged in. Currently you have to press the Nav button each time although the audio does pick up where you last left off. CarPlay is playing music but the screen by default displays the Lexus map.

Final thoughts:
I considered the Vline but I personally felt that there were so many moving parts with regards to the software that it may be prone to bugs. I have no plans on ever watching Netflix or YouTube in the car so that ability did not weigh on my decision. I just wanted a reliable ability to use CarPlay. As stated above, I feel wireless CarPlay should have been a feature at launch and after inquiring with beatsonic, they claim they are working on it. I am not certain if the current hardware already supports it and I hope it’s just a firmware update.

 

Thanks for the review.

I had a GROM VL2 for a week or so, it was obviously never going to be what I wanted it to be: reliable, simple carplay for my wife's vehicle, so I sent it back. Far more capabilities, but not even close to "idiot proof".

 

So I drove around a bit today and used the phone via CarPlay vs native GX Bluetooth. The person I was speaking to advised that via CarPlay she would hear herself (echo). I switched during the phone call to the native GX Bluetooth and the was told all echo was gone.

Another observation is the BT call audio for CarPlay plays in most of the car speakers and the GX native seem to play on the front left only. At least that’s the way it seemed when I switched during a phone call. GX BT def has better quality.

And… yes I followed the setting they recommended in the iPhone setting.

 

Three+ years in the waiting, finally pulled the trigger on the VLine VL2 that seemed promising. And boy, is it.

The videos were all I needed to get things installed. I also installed a USB aux plug in the cig lighter hole, which was an absolute bear to remove. Total time, ~4.5h, solid 1.5h of which was the stupid cig lighter plug.


Beautiful! Wireless CarPlay active.



This side has USB, mic plug, gps plug. The gold bit is the wireless antenna.

This side has wiring harnesses for video/audio/power

Industrial strength Velcro mounting.

Passed wires through a notch I cut in the side panel.

 

Looks great!! Seriously been considering this for my GX..

 

BTW, what kinda phone mount is that ?

 

do it! :-)

 

oh boy, good question. It just mounts in the vent like so many do, nothing fancy. I’ll see if I can figure out which it is. If I upgrade phones this year, I’ll probably find a magnetic mount.

 

I went on a ~5,400 mile road trip the second half of June and my Vline worked great ... for about 3,500 miles or so. The remainder of the ~1,900 miles were pretty miserable with this unit. Only had two disconnections the first 3,500 but at least a dozen the remaining 1,900. Most of the time the CarPlay when the disconnection happened froze the Vline unit completely causing us to have to power off the vehicle + open the door just to get the unit to shut off and work again. I troubleshot the **** out of this thing and determined some was the fault of the phone but most were a Vline problem. I’m pretty irritated at it and I’m legit considering selling my 460 and buying something with factory native CarPlay. All of my MOPARs with native CarPlay literally had zero problems, and I do mean zero. I bought both GX’s for road trips and overlanding along with reliability and CarPlay is a must have and both the 470 and 460 have nearly **** poor aftermarket solutions. The brilliant off-road capability and reliability just isn’t enough of a benefit if I/we cannot enjoy them on road trips / overlanding. My wife will keep her 470 but I’m starting to get a bit sour on my 460 and it makes me sad. I really want to keep it.

 

Oh wow, interesting and thanks for sharing! Was there any difference between wired and wireless with stability?

I’m definitely annoyed that we still can’t get a 460 with built-in CarPlay. I get, 25k units sold, blah blah, but seriously, c’mon Toyota.

 

annoyingly, the 2022 models will finally have it 😢

fingers crossed it will be plug and play with a modified pigtail

 

This was all with wireless. You cannot have wireless CarPlay connected then plug in the wired cable, won’t switch over for some reason. I didn’t bother with wired so I’m not sure if that would work 100% or not.

 

Wired carplay is very reliable for me and that’s what I’m using over wireless.
just turn off automatically connect with wireless and turn off hotspot on the vl2 and it won’t connect with wireless carplay.

also the latest firmware currently available seems to cause some black out with backup camera so don’t upgrade firmware if you need to. Just do The vline version upgrade.

 

In my limited driving thus far, I’ve had it on wireless, but plugged into the USB for charging, that seems to work fine. If I see VLine crashing, I’ll try and disconnect the wireless and just use wired mode and see how that does. No crashes yet, tho.

 

i haven’t figured any of the updating stuff out yet. Any docs or videos for that? Point me in the right direction? 😂