Did your TJ come with a factory Subwoofer? After the installation did it work normally? Mine don't I need to move the cursor in sound to one speaker and then I hear and feel the sub but lose the other speakers.New member here, just wanted to thank all of you who have posted to this thread as you've greatly assisted me in my Android HU research and wanted to share some info from my recent hands-on experience.
Last week I ordered a TJ specific unit from Amazon branded as "MCWAUTO Car Radio ...". I chose this specific unit because of the reviews and the included 32GB of RAM.
Link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07X556HLQ/?tag=wranglerorg-20
Observations
One minor annoyance is that I was using a Bluetooth headset for a call and when I walked to my Jeep and started it up, the headunit took over the call but never "played" the call audio over the speakers. Seamless call transfer is not so much a reality here. Works well for initiating a new call, not for picking up an existing one.
- Based on the button layout and OS menus, it appears to be a clone of the XTRONS unit
- Fit was fine and it powered right up with the included harness.
- Initial time to boot to the menu screen takes 36 seconds and another 15 seconds from there until music begins playing. Any secondary boot (within the 60 minutes standby timeframe) only takes 3 seconds to being playing music.
- My factory installed sub worked with the included harness but I had to go into the audio settings and turn on the 'Ex Amp' toggle. It was off by default.
- Polarity : All of my speaker connections using the provided harness were in reverse polarity. I used an iOS app 'Speaker Pop' that sends a signal through the speakers and uses the mic on the iPhone to determine polarity. I ended up swapping all speaker pair pins and now have correct polarity in all 4 factory speakers. Sounds natural to my ears.
- Bluetooth works great for music but I could not get it to connect with the Veepeak BLE+ ODB Scanner. Will attempt connection to the WiFi version of this OBD scanner later this week.
- Installing apps from the Google Play store was a breeze. Connected to my home WiFi from the garage
- There is an included App called 'EasyConnect' that lets you mirror your phone's screen on the HU display.
- I tried to install a few inclinometer apps from the Google Play store but none of the ones I found displayed correctly on this particular display (buggy or cutting off parts of the screen).
- Bonus: The screen is totally visible when I have my polarized sunglasses on & a backup camera was included but I have not connected it yet. Nice touches!
I'll be upgrading the factory speakers next but I have not fully decided whether I'll will keep this unit or not. Just wanted to share my experience with the group as this thread has been extremely helpful in getting me this far with the TJ Android HU.
Cheers!
Double DIN Android Head Unit (InsaneAudio TJ1001) Chinese Knock-Off Review
- Thread starter badlieutenant
- Start date
Yes, my TJ came with a factory sub but it only "turned on" when I went into the audio settings and flipped the 'Ex Amp' toggle. It was off by default. Maybe check and see that this setting in enabled for yours?
Thanks for your feedback on this - good to hear about the audio quality.
But I want to add that the audio quality likely has nothing at all to do with Android, but rather with the quality of the DAC they used. The software simply sends a stream of 0s and 1s — and if the source format is excellent (for example using a lossless format or high-quality low-compression format) then the output to the DAC will be excellent. The DAC is what turns that digital stream into an audio signal. From there, the quality of pre-amp and amplifiers have a huge impact, too. Android itself has little or nothing to do with the sound quality.
Last edited:
This has got me interested but I can’t find on the UK Amazon store anything for a 2001 TJ, only for 2003-6. I’m guessing the connectors are different?
e.g. this looks tempting https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B082CZFSH4/?tag=tjforum0a-21
e.g. this looks tempting https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B082CZFSH4/?tag=tjforum0a-21
Up to 2002 the unit had squared off corners and rounded corners after 03, the plugs can be modified.
The center bezel can be upgraded to the later bezel with some modifications to accept that radio, did it on my son's 01.
Chief Brohician
'98 TJ Sport '11 Extreme Camper '18 JLU Sahara
Supporting Member
Lifetime Supporting Member
I know what you mean. A lot of stuff is geared towards the late model TJ’s. It is frustrating.
Anyone have an update on how their XTRONS unit is doing? I continue to contemplate pulling the trigger...
Mine is doing great. Arizona heat hasn't killed it. The desert offloading hasn't killed it.
Only thing that bothers me is the clock seems to go fast and I'm resetting the time every few days.
I put one of those powered subs in the back and changed out the pod speakers. Sounds great.
Last edited:
Mine is fine. It overheats without a custom fan in the top. You can't see the top of the display without hacking the plastic unless you are a midget. It only runs old stuff and is kinda slow by modern standards. The wide 8.8 joying single DIN might be worth a look if you don't need the physical volume control. Don't pay more than about $225 shipped on ebay/amazon. The zbark on ebay is the same thing with a different rom. I'll probably get the same thing when mine blows up so it's not too bad. The touch screen is the big downfall, once you scratch it you're looking at a new unit. My next one I'm going to put in a cheap screen protector which requires full dissection. I use OSMAnd for nav, free and works great on this deck.
MrMark52
TJ Enthusiast
Finally got mine installed a week or so ago. Still trying to figure out how to set up the settings on the Clarion XC1410 amp that’s driving the front dash and rear sound bar speakers and the Phoenix Gold Sub amp for the 8” sub.
After a year of the radio sitting unboxed in my office, I had misplaced the plastic bag of parts which included the WiFi and GPS antennas. I happened to have a spare antenna that I’ve been using for the WiFi.
My only issue so far with the radio is I can’t see the clock display, and have been told by the seller that there is nothing that can be done about it. Also thought it weird that upon power-up and connection to WiFi, that the radio never sought an update And I’ve yet to find a button to update - just thought it weird that there were no updates to the OS. Previous radios updated once WiFi connected.
Hope to get some time to work on it today. Will report back my findings and setup if/when I get to a final setup.
After a year of the radio sitting unboxed in my office, I had misplaced the plastic bag of parts which included the WiFi and GPS antennas. I happened to have a spare antenna that I’ve been using for the WiFi.
My only issue so far with the radio is I can’t see the clock display, and have been told by the seller that there is nothing that can be done about it. Also thought it weird that upon power-up and connection to WiFi, that the radio never sought an update And I’ve yet to find a button to update - just thought it weird that there were no updates to the OS. Previous radios updated once WiFi connected.
Hope to get some time to work on it today. Will report back my findings and setup if/when I get to a final setup.
MrMark52
TJ Enthusiast
Update to the clock display as noted above -
I had found the GPS and WiFi antennas that shipped with the radio and with the warm temps today, went out to install.
I also wanted to play around with the XC1410 4 channel amp and PhoenixGold settings and as luck has it, got wrapped up in other things. In doing so, found there is a setting for where the clock is synched. I had previously set that to GPS and Wifi, so decided to switch off noting that I could then manually set the clock.
when I eventually went black to the Home Screen - there was the clock in great big characters. Easy to see now.
Now to figure out how to fine tune the amps. The XC1410 has 90hz, 60hz, and Flat settings, and it is being fed with the speakers output of the Xtrons radio. Note that I could use the low level outputs of the Xtrons to feed the XC1410, i just have not tested that yet to determine if that would be better.
I am using the dedicated Sub out of the Xtrons to feed the PhoenixGold sub. when o originally installed the Xtrons, I did run a 1000hz signal thru the Xtron and adjusted to output voltage of the sub amp to match the speaker spec.
FWIW - I’ve Replaced the 2 dash and 2 sound bar speakers with some Boss MR50B’s, rated 150Watts Max, 75watts RMS@4ohm’s. Cheap, but better than what was in there. Maybe I can buy some new one’s with my Santa money
.
I had found the GPS and WiFi antennas that shipped with the radio and with the warm temps today, went out to install.
I also wanted to play around with the XC1410 4 channel amp and PhoenixGold settings and as luck has it, got wrapped up in other things. In doing so, found there is a setting for where the clock is synched. I had previously set that to GPS and Wifi, so decided to switch off noting that I could then manually set the clock.
when I eventually went black to the Home Screen - there was the clock in great big characters. Easy to see now.
Now to figure out how to fine tune the amps. The XC1410 has 90hz, 60hz, and Flat settings, and it is being fed with the speakers output of the Xtrons radio. Note that I could use the low level outputs of the Xtrons to feed the XC1410, i just have not tested that yet to determine if that would be better.
I am using the dedicated Sub out of the Xtrons to feed the PhoenixGold sub. when o originally installed the Xtrons, I did run a 1000hz signal thru the Xtron and adjusted to output voltage of the sub amp to match the speaker spec.
FWIW - I’ve Replaced the 2 dash and 2 sound bar speakers with some Boss MR50B’s, rated 150Watts Max, 75watts RMS@4ohm’s. Cheap, but better than what was in there. Maybe I can buy some new one’s with my Santa money
.
Finished all sixteen pages of posts in this thread... This is something I want to do!
I have a 2000. I understand the issue with fitment is due to the shape of the corners of the center stacks radio opening. Can't I just change the center stack trim piece to one from a later model TJ?
I have a 2000. I understand the issue with fitment is due to the shape of the corners of the center stacks radio opening. Can't I just change the center stack trim piece to one from a later model TJ?
MrMark52
TJ Enthusiast
Update today after having issues later yesterday (don’t sit in your driveway playing the system and tinkering without the engine running - you’ll kill the battery after about 3 hours and think something has gone haywire with all the spaghetti wiring).
When I went out today and hooked the dash and sound bar speakers up using the Xtron’s low level outputs fed directly into the XC1410, setting the XC1410 to low level input and limited passthrough to 90hz - and BOOM! the system came alive!
(Previously I was feeding the Xtron’s high level speaker output to the XC1410‘s speaker input.).
When I went out today and hooked the dash and sound bar speakers up using the Xtron’s low level outputs fed directly into the XC1410, setting the XC1410 to low level input and limited passthrough to 90hz - and BOOM! the system came alive!
(Previously I was feeding the Xtron’s high level speaker output to the XC1410‘s speaker input.).
armaunr
Member
Super interested in one of these, wanted to revive this thread to ask a question. I have a 2002, so I've got a different center bezel. Could I just swap mine for an 03-06 bezel, then install this radio? Would it be a straight swap or no?
There are many of these listed on Amazon. I can not recommend one over another. But you need one. As stock bezels are single din.
HECASA Double Din Dash Bezel Radio Stereo Installation Kit Compatible with 1997-2002 Jeep Wrangler TJ https://a.co/d/d90pfaO
HECASA Double Din Dash Bezel Radio Stereo Installation Kit Compatible with 1997-2002 Jeep Wrangler TJ https://a.co/d/d90pfaO