At Long Last... Modern head unit!

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Shaggy

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It has been 9 years in the making but I finally got a replacement, modern head unit for my 2012 LR4. This is something I have wanted to do, off and on, since owning the vehicle but never seemed to find the right solution.
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View attachment 20283

Strong word of warning - you have to find the right kit and most shops really don’t understand enough about the different versions of LR4s. I was assured they had the right one from a shop in the UK but it wasn’t and they had it mislabeled on their website. A lot of money and hassle later I discovered Spiral Audio in Florida and it could not have been easier - highly recommend them and their LR4 kit.

Kit + head unit of your choice. I went with a Pioneer. You have the choice of bypassing the OEM amp and going with something new or doing what I did and stick with the factory amp.

Screen is light years better than OEM, sound is better, radio options (car play or android auto), Bluetooth all work great (better) and all OEM functions were retained - all of them.

Took some time and $$$ but very happy.

You still happy with it?
 

mateored

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G'day magus,
The missus & I have 3 vehicles - all with CD players. We've looked at replacing two with a large road-orientated SUV & keeping the 2014 LR4 TDV6 forever. Can't find a large luxo 3.0lt. diesel SUV that has a CD player as standard.
Our roadtrips with a stack of great CD's sounding brilliant through a good audio system just wouldn't be the same using high-tech devices with vastly inferior sound.
It looks like we'll be keeping my Chrysler 300, 3.0 lt. V6 turbo-diesel & wife's Skoda Yeti until the CD
players break. I'm just plain 'ole-fashioned & lovin' it!! Growing old disgracefully!!
Also, the 4WD info screen in the OE console screen is essential - it's what the LR4 is all about.

If your only issue is sound quality, you can get better sound through Tidal Master quality or Apple lossless -- and an infinitely better selection. Unless you have incredibly obscure taste in music, that shouldn't be an issue. I've thought about upgrading the head unit, but I have a hard time justifying the cost since I just use my phone on a mount for Nav and audio and it works totally fine (I added a bluetooth dongle to the iPod input for audio). I'm still enjoying looking at everyone's upgrades though
 

Tapps33

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My problem is that I want the best of both worlds. I want the audio interface and performance of the OP's system, as well as all the OEM features as well. At this point it doesn't appear anything out there 100% fits the bill.
 

mm3846

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My problem is that I want the best of both worlds. I want the audio interface and performance of the OP's system, as well as all the OEM features as well. At this point it doesn't appear anything out there 100% fits the bill.

Naviplus does this. Adds CarPlay and retains the GPS.
 

ryanjl

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Is there a reason someone would want the factory GPS?
 

mm3846

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Is there a reason someone would want the factory GPS?

I’d like to have it, it’s nice to keep the compass working and have something available when there isn’t any cell signal. The breadcrumb feature is also really cool.
 

ryanjl

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I guess I haven't tried carplay without a cell signal. I know on an iPhone you can download maps in certain apps so that you can use them offline (Google Maps, Gaia, etc.), but not sure if that translates to use on carplay.
 

mm3846

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I guess I haven't tried carplay without a cell signal. I know on an iPhone you can download maps in certain apps so that you can use them offline (Google Maps, Gaia, etc.), but not sure if that translates to use on carplay.
it works.
 

Tapps33

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I don’t really care about the OEM GPS, it’s just the menu functionality I want to retain. Mainly the 4x4 info.

I thought the NaviPlus ported its audio through the aux input? You’re telling me it can go through the OEM sound system? Somehow I missed that!!
 

mm3846

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I don’t really care about the OEM GPS, it’s just the menu functionality I want to retain. Mainly the 4x4 info.

I thought the NaviPlus ported its audio through the aux input? You’re telling me it can go through the OEM sound system? Somehow I missed that!!

Correct. The hardware thing has an aux out, that goes into your aux in. To get it to play the audio, you make the source on your head unit "my music - aux in." then click "nav" on the Home Screen and bob's your uncle.
 

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