Naviplus Phone distortion

[vmfire]

Anyone out there with Naviplus have any issues? Mine works ok but phone calls are somewhat distorted sounding in the front speaker. Music, books etc. sound ok, but just phone calls are pretty tough. Are there adjustments? Thoughts?
I use the Apple CarPlay aspect of it.
Thanks.

 

[indycole]

I’ve had some quirks here and there but calls have been fine.

 

[vmfire]

I’m ok with a quirk. But phone calls disrupt biz.

 

[danny noonan]

Yeah. The sound is very ”tinny” compared to stock. Reached out to Naviplus who didn’t have a fix. Also get a lot of complaints about an echo for the other person. If I turn off bluetooth and used plug in CarPlay it’s much better.

I’ve come to accept it as a 90% solution.

 

[vmfire]

Yeah. The sound is very ”tinny” compared to stock. Reached out to Naviplus who didn’t have a fix. Also get a lot of complaints about an echo for the other person. If I turn off bluetooth and used plug in CarPlay it’s much better.

I’ve come to accept it as a 90% solution.

I will try turning off bt. I do use it wired 90 % of the time.

 

[morningsoul]

I've had the Naviplus since I got my LC400 from Eric Sarjeant in May 2021. Just replaced it.

The Naviplus was buggy. I had the major echo issue when anyone called inbound. It was super bad. Also frequently had to stop the car to reboot the system. Not that convenient when I'm on the highway, to say the least.
Final straw was when the system just simply locked up. No amount of tinkering could get it back.
NaviPlus company was HORRIBLE to deal with. They denied any warranty claim at all saying the unit was old. They had me try rewiring the harness, which was a major PITA. I was willing to swap out the unit and reinstall it. They wouldn't even do that. I will spare everyone the rotten level of communication from the company. Suffice it to say it was worse than bad.

As has become custom on this board, @Eric Sarjeant stepped up brilliantly. Having done the original install (morning soul on YouTube), he sorted me out with a new EC Offroad unit, and I even ended up $200 in the black. He did the refund without even messing around with the jokers at NaviPlus.

The EC Offroad unit has been rock solid. Install was pretty simple. It took about 2 hours, but honestly much of that was just extracting the old NaviPlus unit. EC Offroad has extraordinarly good video instructions - the best I've seen for dash removal. I'm sure I could do it again in under an hour.

I've attached a few random pictures of the install in process, but it's not meant to be a guide, check out the EC Offroad site for that. Last picture is of the NaviPlus unit in its natural habitat - where it belongs - the bin.

Don't even consider buying the NaviPlus. It's night and day between the products.

 

[vmfire]

I removed my NaviPlus last week too. Could not use the phone feature and the sound quality much worse that even the stock system. I just had had enough. Eric Sargeant did help me get in touch with the tech who installed it and gave me some tips on removing and going back to stock. While it was a noble attempt at better tech, it was disappointing at best. Live and learn I guess.

 

[CharlieS]

I was not impressed with phone call quality through the Naviplus I had. I only used CarPlay, and when my wife was on the other end of the line, she frequently reported horrible echoing with both wired and wireless bluetooth. I experienced it too. Like you say, all other audio (streaming, music, podcasts) was fine. The stock system works as expected.

If you've had the dash trim apart before, install or uninstall should be well under an hour. The units are plug and play between the head unit and monitor. Trim is all easy to remove. When I removed my Naviplus, it took 30 min, start to stop.

 

[Eric Sarjeant]

When I got the NaviPlus in June 2020 I was so excited to have CarPlay on my 200. I got it installed right before LCDC and used it a ton that week, probably 40+ hours in the vehicle. It was a solid 75% reliable (still worth the money), however as time went on it slowly started bugging out more. A buddy of mine @ZRTactical had raved on his EC Offroad unit, so I made the switch too. It's been 100% reliable (in wired CarPlay mode) so far. Yes, it costs more, but hen you're spending 200-series kind of money, another $500 probably doesn't matter much. Also, the most recent firmware flash lets you use CarPlay even when you're listening to XSM or other sources w/o switching to AUX. I would agree with the others, if you are considering buying one of these, go for the EC Offroad unit.

 

[sadovnik]

I also ended up returning my Naviplus for a refund earlier this year. The unit was garbage and their customer service was even worse. I would rate the product a 1 out of 5 and the company a zero out of 5. YMMV.

 

[residualboulders]

I have to chime in here too. I bought the Naviplus. When it works its a decent solution, but the steering wheel controls to advance track rarely works in less than 3 attempts, and the phone audio is terrible. On top of that I kept having issues with it connecting. I have to say they always respond to me. Although if I ask 3 questions in an email they usually only answer 1. They determined it was their main unit bad. They sent me a new one but it's worse than the first and now my phone rarely connects wirelessly.

I ordered an EC offroad, have yet to install it. For those of you that have it @Eric Sarjeant and @morningsoul, Looks like the EC Offroad auto connects on the home screen so you don't have to push the nav button? Does it also remember your currently selected playlist? I know that's asking a lot, but my old vehicle would just pick up where I left off, spotify paused on my phone and started playing again when I restarted the vehicle. Just curious how that works with the EC offroad. Naviplus you have to start it up and renavigate to your playlist. Just a little annoying when you're running errands around town.

Where is everyone installing that little black box that comes with the EC Offroad, that is another reason I have not installed mine. I'd rather not have that visible.

 

[Eric Sarjeant]

I have to chime in here too. I bought the Naviplus. When it works its a decent solution, but the steering wheel controls to advance track rarely works in less than 3 attempts, and the phone audio is terrible. On top of that I kept having issues with it connecting. I have to say they always respond to me. Although if I ask 3 questions in an email they usually only answer 1. They determined it was their main unit bad. They sent me a new one but it's worse than the first and now my phone rarely connects wirelessly.

I ordered an EC offroad, have yet to install it. For those of you that have it @Eric Sarjeant and @morningsoul, Looks like the EC Offroad auto connects on the home screen so you don't have to push the nav button? Does it also remember your currently selected playlist? I know that's asking a lot, but my old vehicle would just pick up where I left off, spotify paused on my phone and started playing again when I restarted the vehicle. Just curious how that works with the EC offroad. Naviplus you have to start it up and renavigate to your playlist. Just a little annoying when you're running errands around town.

Where is everyone installing that little black box that comes with the EC Offroad, that is another reason I have not installed mine. I'd rather not have that visible.

Yes, the ECOF auto connects. As for playlist, yes, but not due to ECOF, Carplay always remembers where you left off. when I switch from car-to-car, it seems to be indifferent to systems.

 

[residualboulders]

Yes, the ECOF auto connects. As for playlist, yes, but not due to ECOF, Carplay always remembers where you left off. when I switch from car-to-car, it seems to be indifferent to systems.

Cool thanks. Apparently something is different with Naviplus (or at least mine) as it never remembers where carplay was. I have to start over every time.

 

[sadovnik]

Where is everyone installing that little black box that comes with the EC Offroad, that is another reason I have not installed mine. I'd rather not have that visible.

Which little black box? My ECOR is a single unit, as opposed to the Naviplus which was two.

 

[residualboulders]

@sadovnik i guess maybe black cube might be a better description? I'm not sure what this is for, I'm guessing GPS or something.

 

[sadovnik]

@sadovnik i guess maybe black cube might be a better description? I'm not sure what this is for, I'm guessing GPS or something.

View attachment 2846466

That's the GPS antenna. It's got a magnetic base so I just dropped it on top of the central speaker grill and it stays put. It's only necessary if you're going to use an Android-based GPS app running off the unit. If you're only going to use your iPhone, you'll never need it. I haven't used it yet. I may just remove it.