AVC-9000 Mini Review
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Auspack Electronics have begun distribution of the AVC-9000 headunit which is a “clone” replacement of the RNS-510 from VW.
I have mixed feelings about the AVC-9000, but only because I was hoping for the sort of overall quality that comes with an Alpine headunit or similar.
Don’t let this put you off from buying one and I will explain why shortly (ie. Sound Quality is excellent.. more later)
Beeping Sounds – Very annoying!
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Beeping Sound when you press any or all buttons. This is very annoying at first, because no matter what buttons you press on this unit, including volume up or down at small increments even, your speakers belt out a mid volume Beep! No where in the setup is this able to be turned off at all. What the hell!
iPod Charging – (Won’t work with the latest generation iPods for charging)
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Latest generation iPod’s which include the 6th Generation iPod Classic, iPod Touch, iPod Nano – Fatboy, and iPhone’s do not charge at all when connected to the ipod interface connector cable from the headunit.
Therefore when these latest generation iPod’s are connected to the headunit, it will only use the internal battery for ipod use, thus depleting the ipod battery in it’s usual expected time of several hours at best before you have to take the iPod out and re-connect it to your computer for charging up.
This is NOT an issue with all the previous generation iPod’s, as they do charge when connected, and so can be left in the glove box indefinitely without having to pull them out periodically for charging.
Since I only owned a latest generation iPod Touch, my solution for this was to buy the previous generation iPod (80 GB) from the Apple Store (Re-furbished stock with full warranty) for $309 and fill it up with music to become my permanent jukebox in the glove box… So YES. it does now charge when connected, and so can stay in the glove box permanently
iPod User Interface (Terribly slow - unless you use the remote control which is great!)
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This frankly leaves a lot to be desired in terms of how you get around with the onscreen controls being clunky at best, and quite slow to respond when touching the cursors for up and down movement from the onscreen menu.
I found a way around this though, that proves to be quite the opposite experience in terms of speed. That is to use the supplied remote control to navigate through the menus. This is a way quicker method to navigate through the artists/albums/songs hierarchy of the typical iPod menu. To give some credit to the manufacturer where it’s due though, and that is that the the artist name, album name and song name appears correctly, and with no delay in terms of showing the information as soon as it is clicked upon or entered into a new menu.
My previous Alpine headunit with iPod interface kit would take several seconds to display track information or menu information when selecting changes (it was 3 years old).
iPod Music Quality
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This is where the unit SHINES.. I have not in all my years of various headunits and ipod interface kits heard such high output levels whilst sounding relatively clear and free of distortion from an iPod as can be!
To clarify this point, let me be specific.
This unit seems to have excellent quality DA converter chips inside, which result in an iPod music quality that is amongst the best I have ever heard. The sensitivity is a lot higher than the factory headunit from VW, resulting in output levels which are at least 50% higher thatn the factory headunit.
Therefore this is a double edged sword, because on the one hand you can now push the volume levels of your factory amplifier built into the MY07 GTi even higher (50% higher to the human ear), but at the same time, you can now start to push your amplifier into the distortion levels that become apparent only when at 75% volume or higher, which can damage your speakers over prolonged use at much higher volume levels.
The factory VW headunit with VW ipod interface adaptor can not seem to push the amplifier to similar distortion levels when playing from an iPod.
I can tell you which way I prefer to listen to my iPod, and that is with the AVC-9000 and it’s excellent sounding quality together with the iPod connector at much higher volume levels! Discretion advised on volume levels of course, so as not to damage your speakers.
Radio Music Quality (Fantastic Quality Sound!)
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This is undoubtedly the biggest positive surprise of them all in terms of quality.
Again just like the iPod sensitivity levels that were very high output levels, the FM Radio has amongst the highest output levels of any FM headunit radio I have ever heard..
The AVC900 is much louder than the factory headunit from VW as a comparison when using FM Radio, therefore providing much higher volume levels and the bass and treble levels sound more enjoyable (musical and close to CD quality) to listen to compared to the stock VW Fm Radio unit which sounds a little lifeless in comparison.
The only reservation is that the signal strength on weaker FM radio stations can be a bit crackly at times, with stations like 96.1FM breaking up occasionally.
Other “major” radio FM stations have no issue at all.. 96.9, 104.1, 104.9 105.7, 106.5 etc and even Vega Fm all sounded Terrific, and never once crackled on signal strength.
iPod Video (Does not work BUT what a great bonus side effect it give you!)
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This function when pressed does not actually work at present. BUT it does have an interesting side effect which I will call a positive though unintended feature!
When Video iPod mode is selected, you all of a sudden have the ability to control the ipod as per normal ipod controls and menus. Therefore you can scroll quickly through your playlists and artists, tracks etc and quickly select what you want and play it without the beeping that was mentioned above. You can of course select iPod videos to play, though these videos simply playback on the ipod screen and not on the headunit display, but the audio always comes out through the main speakers.
When playing ipod audio tracks via this “iPod video mode” and via controlling the ipod manually you don’t get to see anything on the headunit screen .. ie blank blue screen, but you do see the track names etc on the ipod.
Bluetooth Phone Volume (Annoying to change volume just to talk)
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This actually works ok as would be expected of any Bluetooth phone device, but the only complaint is that you have to put the volume on the headunit right up to 25+ (around 40 is maximum) to actually clearly hear the person you are talking to when you are in the car. On a positive note, the clarity on my Nokia N95 via the headunit simply good, but not excellent as are some of the Bluetooth units available nowadays, which are dedicated to the task.
To be honest, I think the only reason the driver sounds a bit distant compared to dedicated units, is the fact that the microphone is located on the actual headunit, all the way down in the car console.
To remedy this, I found that talking a little louder than normal car kits with dedicated microphones up near the sunvisor, and there is no issue with the other party hearing you properly at all.
Source Menu System (Inconsistent and a little frustrating)
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When pressing the SRC button on the left hand side, you will find that it takes you to the main selection screen for all the various functions of the unit. Including TV Tuner, DVD, Ipod, Bluetooth Car Phone, Radio, Auxiliary, USB etc.
There is some inconsistency in how these sources can be selected depending upon which mode you are already in.
By that I mean, if you already are in a particular mode, and you press SRC.. sometimes this does not work and take you back to the selection screen. To work around this you press the middle of the onscreen display and it always shows you a cursor menu system including some of the sources mentioned above, and one of these will get you out and back into source selection screen.
