airborn

I also just got the system installed yesterday and it was pretty easy, but just a little tedious for a non car guy. The video helped out a lot.

Things of note after messing around and skimming through this post:

• Stock radio and carplay ui work just fine. Example: if I wanted to listen to a radio station and nav (w/out voice over), it works.
• AUX sound quality is indeed horrible through this system. Using BT for sound is much better but unfortunately voice over from maps wont work.
• There is no delay when viewing the rear camera in reverse when Carplay is on (for me)
• There isn't a huge delay loading the system either (for me)
• "Climate control changes will automatically display factory screen to show setting." <-- I changed my temp, and I did not see this show up on my screen. Not a big deal I guess.

Overall, I am happy with the purchase. I am disappointed with the AUX quality, but I am hopeful it is somehow firmware/retro fixable but I'm not holding my breath.

For reference, I have a 2014 IS350 and use an iPhone 11 pro.

BeatSonic

​​​​​
Thank you for your detailed review. As for your Aux sound quality not being satisfactory, please check to make sure the connection going into and out of the noise isolator is secured. Also make sure the 3.5mm to the plastic box is also secured. The sound quality should be similar to your Bluetooth quality. It's good to keep the music playing while troubleshooting so that you can identify where the connection issue lies.

airborn

Yeah, I made sure all the connections were secure before locking anything in place.

Sound is "fine" if it is on low/normal volume. I tend to increase the volume when listening to music and that's where I hear the distortion. It is mostly during high volume and when there's heavy bass. I should have been more specific earlier when I said sound wasn't as good as over BT.

BeatSonic

You can get rid of the distortion on your bass on high volume by lowering the main volume from 56 few knotches on the plastic box settings. Try between 52 to 54. Also you can separately configure the eq for Aux. Compare the eq settings in Aux with your Bluetooth to tune.

airborn

That seemed to work. I set it to 54. While there's some very very slight distortion if I crank it up very high, but I was really just testing limits. However, I did notice that if I didn't give the unit enough time to load, the music wouldn't play at all where as BT would connect regardless of when I plugged in my phone. It's not perfect, but it's good to know where the limitations are. Thank you for the help!

BeatSonic

Glad you got it working. If you want to distortion to go away at super high volume you can lower the main volume even more. Lower it too much and your turn by turn voice prompt will be too loud relative to the music you are listening to.

Correct, either wait until the car loads fully before plugging your phone or you can replug it when that happens. It's due to the phone getting confused to where its sound output is supposed to be at, Bluetooth or Auxiliary.

daninsd

Has anybody with a ES350 installed this? If so:

1. Do you only have to remove the glove box for a firmware upgrade?
2. If so, how difficult was it to remove?

If this post is only for IS-3rd gens, would it be the same for the ES? I don't want to have to take the center console apart just for an upgrade (I'm fine if it's only 30 minutes to remove a glove box.)

Thanks!

ricardofv

I installed mine yesterday, and I'm very pleased so far. I have a 2017 IS200t non nav, and I find that AUX audio is very decent. I did have to connect the audio connector from the harness to the Android Auto box without the noise filter. The noise filter was making my low frequencies sound distorted. It was really bad. This was solved by eliminating the MPOW filter, and luckily there is no noticeable ground noise while the engine is running.

What I do notice is that the lexus 7 inch screen, for the non nav 2017 IS seems to be a different resolution than what the Android Auto interface outputs (800 x 480 5:3 aspect ratio video signal). This makes all the icons look squeezed horizontally. It it not a lot, nor a deal breaker by far, but it is still noticeable that the icons do not look square. I haven't been able to find what is the resolution for the 7 inch lexus screen, for the non nav 2017 IS, but it doesn't seem to match the aspect ratio of the AA interface.

arruda89

I’m all for this but if I can’t enjoy my ML sound quality with this, then no thanks. Not worth losing audio quality because it wants to use a 3mm jack. Time for u guys to use USB or something. Tf lol

ThumperPup

i know this is in the IS section and my vehicle is a ES but im trying to find out more info
i have a 2016 ES300H and i want to add apple car play to my system so this is the unit to do that with i use an iPhone XR model and im wondering how does this work with your iPhone good? like on the website i don't see an add in for keeping my USB plugs in the car without having to add more USB outlets for the apple car play from beat sonic at least not for the 2016 ES
so that means ill have to use BT only when switching back and forth unless i don't want to have it plugged into carplay ?
what about portrait and landscape modes like i know some of the apps i use do not go into landscape mode so does that mean that if it doesn't then it won't do it on the decide either cause it will work just like a mirror only or will it ? like id not want something that is going to look like crap and only have a standard up and down screen instead of using landscape if need be. like i use Waze app for maps i also drive uber so id like to be able to know that my uber app might work but if it doesn't its cool but im just trying to find out some more about this

Thank you

JayCee0919

Hello:

I'd love to know when BeatSonic is coming out with Apple CarPlay for the 2017 IS300 F-Sport WITH Nav.... Is there an ETA on this?

Also, does anyone have the same car and currently running another option? I'm not really interested in mirroring but would definitely be willing to go the Android route if it was a bug-free experience.

Appreciate any insight!

Cheers!
James

Javan96

I have is300 2017 non fsport with factory Navigation, I'm currently running a unit from carlink kit got it from eBay it's about $300 carplay works good on it which is also wireless carplay, Android Auto don't work that well in my opinion. Unlike beatsonic solution it's only one box you have to install.

JayCee0919

Thanks for the reply! I saw like 100 of those on eBay and wasn't sure about them from a quality standpoint. Have you been running it a while? I'm really only interested in CarPlay so that's perfect on my end. If you have a link that would be great (you can PM me) but I can look around there as well.

Thanks again!

babaijebu

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...25-screen.html you can go through that thread.

kalman1224

don't normally write in these forums but read through a lot to make my decision I felt I owed to everyone. So this was for a 2018 Lexus es 350 with factory navigation. Compared the beat sonic, grom vline2, crux interface, road top from Ali express, and add-on unit from 4x4 Canada store. I went with the road top but just a couple of thoughts on the other units. I think the beat sonic and crux are the same with possibly differently firmware both use NV-17 box from NV connect. If I were choosing between these two would probably go beat sonic because support seemed to be outstanding from them vs Crux where I have seen a lot of bad reviews for support. The grom Vline 2 had too many issues when I researched and also bad customer support. The 4x4 boxes I believe are just the Ali express and eBay boxes resold at a higher price. I will focus on the road top I installed from aliexpress and do a slight comparison to beat sonic. Install super easy, uses one box versus 2 boxes for beat sonic. Seller on aliexpress gave decent support. Seen a lot of comments about bad audio from beat sonic, the road top is excellent, perhaps because it has a full eq you can use to adjust sound and no secondary RCA connection between two boxes like sonic since it is one box. road top has a wired mirror link and is wireless, also was only $250. Have had no connection or drop issue, connects automatically to the car every time. The only issue I can report is the phone connection on AA side can be an issue but sometimes works fine. I haven't played around to lunch with it for a solution but have read that the sonic version often times do have phone issue as well. Second, there is no mouse pointer. The jog is used with a highlighted box for icons similar to how a non-navi rotary car would work. ( I have seen in videos beat sonic has the mouse pointer) Overall for the $500 savings, AA wireless, and mirror link, easier install I completely recommend it.