Thinking of reworking my old car console to add cup holders. Best place to put them would completely block access to the radio location. Tapes don’t expect anymore and I hardly ever play cd’s.... in fact I don’t really ever play the radio unless a roadwork sign tells me to.
so I am thinking all I really want is a way to connect my phone to an amp and have a hands free phone access. Anyone have something like this?
Yup. I did that years ago on my street Miata. Audio devices date a car interior faster than anything else and they're usually pretty low on style.
Mine's set up to use a 1/8" audio jack input because WIRES ARE KING. It's usually plugged into a click wheel iPod Classic because then I can control volume and playback without having to interact with a touchscreen whilst driving.
When we did our latest NA built at FM, we did the same but added a single-knob bluetooth receiver. That's it beside the two gauges. With the knob, you can switch to aux (which we don't have hooked up), control volume, change tracks and power on/off. No fiddling with a touch screen while driving. It's an NVX XUBT3. And yes, this was very heavily influenced by my own car :)
In both cases, we just stuck a small amp in behind the center console and ran the appropriate input into it.
Can you give us a functional review and ownership experience of your knob? Looks like a good piece of equipment for a lot of different builds.
I have a headless unit in my Mini. Just some small cheap amp with a bluetooth dongle plugged into it hidden in the dash out of sight. Power comes on with the key. No volume knob, no nothing, just control the music with my phone. I'd post a picture of it, but there is nothing to see.
Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) said:Can you give us a functional review and ownership experience of your knob? Looks like a good piece of equipment for a lot of different builds.
Quote of the month.
Link to Keith's knob https://www.amazon.com/NVX-Universal-Controller-Motorcycles-XUBT3/dp/B015XLMLQQ
Its sad that I feel like I need this for my 2019 car because Android auto is dumb. When playing audio books, you have to touch the screen to pause. So berkeleying annoying.
Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) said:Can you give us a functional review and ownership experience of your knob? Looks like a good piece of equipment for a lot of different builds.
You are asking a whole lot of public questions about another mans knob.
Keith Tanner said:
With the knob, you can switch to aux (which we don't have hooked up), control volume, change tracks and power on/off. No fiddling with a touch screen while driving. It's an NVX XUBT3. And yes, this was very heavily influenced by my own car :)
Am I correctly reading the manual that the knob doesn't rotate in the traditional volume knob sense, rather that it turns a short distance and you do that momentarily to skip a track and hold it there to increase or decrease volume, like holding down volume +/- buttons? Having a knob beats only having a screen, but I was hoping for a more conventional volume control. Still neat they got all the controls in such a tidy physical package.
Jesse Ransom said:Keith Tanner said:With the knob, you can switch to aux (which we don't have hooked up), control volume, change tracks and power on/off. No fiddling with a touch screen while driving. It's an NVX XUBT3. And yes, this was very heavily influenced by my own car :)Am I correctly reading the manual that the knob doesn't rotate in the traditional volume knob sense, rather that it turns a short distance and you do that momentarily to skip a track and hold it there to increase or decrease volume, like holding down volume +/- buttons? Having a knob beats only having a screen, but I was hoping for a more conventional volume control. Still neat they got all the controls in such a tidy physical package.
That is the way the controls are on my iHip bluetooth headphones. Tap to change track and hold down for a volume change. It sounds odd until you use it, and then it's like "Oh, okay"
Jesse Ransom said:Keith Tanner said:With the knob, you can switch to aux (which we don't have hooked up), control volume, change tracks and power on/off. No fiddling with a touch screen while driving. It's an NVX XUBT3. And yes, this was very heavily influenced by my own car :)Am I correctly reading the manual that the knob doesn't rotate in the traditional volume knob sense, rather that it turns a short distance and you do that momentarily to skip a track and hold it there to increase or decrease volume, like holding down volume +/- buttons? Having a knob beats only having a screen, but I was hoping for a more conventional volume control. Still neat they got all the controls in such a tidy physical package.
This looks like it would do that:
Yes, got a boss Bluetooth amp hidden inside dash
Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) said:Can you give us a functional review and ownership experience of your knob? Looks like a good piece of equipment for a lot of different builds.
So I've had this knob for a long time. I didn't even know it did anything until one day...
Oh, the one in the dashboard. Right. It's basically a jog wheel. It doesn't rotate, it just turns 15* or so in each direction. Jog to the right and let it return, you skip to the next track. Turn and hold, and the volume adjusts. You can also press the knob in - that's used to turn the unit on/off (long push) or mute (short push). Double-tap to switch from Aux to BT and back again.
In use, the biggest problem is if you want juuuuuust a bit more volume. You have to hold the knob against the stop long enough for it to go to volume and not skip to the next track, but then let it go as soon as it tweaks the level. Otherwise, it's been pretty solid. One thing I did do is change out the actual small diameter plastic knob for a larger diameter metal one, it gives it a much better feel. I used this one, then polished the chamfered lip to give it a shiny ring - this let it match the rest of the car.
If you're looking for unusual audio components like this, look to the boating world. They're not locked into the DIN sizing like cars are.
NVX makes a lot of interesting solutions. I found this one if you like actual buttons. With the popularity of UTV and Motorcycle audio systems, building a hidden car audio system is a lot easier than before.
So anyone know of good ideas to hide speakers?
WIth a BT head unit, I can get a new dash for my GTV that has no holes and won't have holes. To go with that, I'd like to hide some speakers, as well. Other than putting them under the dash pointing down (if I can find space), I'm not sure of good ways to hide speakers. Put perforations in the panels? It would not be a hard thing to have the panels and door cards to be recovered, but with some audio perforations put into them.... Then I would recess the speakers a little deeper.
You can try dual speakers where the stock one was (not sure how the Alfa is setup). I did that in my Corvair. You obviously won't get any stereo, but that what the rear speakers are for.
BTW, that site doesn't thinks Alfa's exists.
Lot of options. I once hid an 10" subwoofer in a dash of an Integra.
Popular option is down firing speaker boxes under the dash. Nothing too hard to fit 5 1/4" under most older dashes. The other possibility is under seat boxes. We did that option for my friends fiat back in the day. Here is something that is ready built to give you an idea:
https://www.classiccarstereos.com/undercover-ii-speakers-pair-250w.html
In the mustang, you can fit 2 4" speakers in the center of the dash.
I’m using a jl audio blue tooth receiver hooked up to a three channel amp in my mini. That powers speakers mounted in a suit case that is bolted on top of the back seat. Not invisible, but easy to remove if necessary
Soundstream and a few other companies also makes an amp with Bluetooth built in to simplify things
Side volume buttons on my iPhone make it real easy to adjust volume on feel, no looking necessary.
I ripped out 40lbs of 2001 sat nav and stereo equipment and just run front and rear speakers with this soundstream bluetooth amp. Really happy with the results.
As stated above the down side is adjusting volume with the phone, however you get use to just reaching over and pushing the side buttons with out having to look.
https://www.parts-express.com/pyle-pfa330bt-mini-audio-amplifier-with-bluetooth-90w--310-2658
Cheap and sounds good. They used to come with a DC wiring harness in addition to the wall wart, don't know if they still do. I ran an amp like this in my MX-5, it was an improvement over the OEM stereo.
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