Tabla de contenidos para Issue 5 - 2017 en InCar Entertainment

ALPINE INE-W977A Apple CarPlay with Siri, Android Auto with voice control, premium navigation with off-road and 3D capabilities — plus a healthy 4 x 50W of power to deliver the wealth of entertainment options… Alpine’s INE-W977A really does seem to deliver a new benchmark for 1-DIN in-car entertainment, with a 7-inch touchscreen for control. So there’s no need to choose a head unit to match your mobile platform here. There’s Apple CarPlay providing iPhone functions directly through the 7-inch touchscreen display, with directions, phone call functionality, sending and receiving of messages, and music playback, all while you you’re your thoughts on the road. Or you can use Android Auto with an Android smartphone — again offering easy phone calls, text messages, Google Map and voice control through the 7” touchscreen.…

With Kenwood’s new and nicely-curvy 7-inch in-dash multimedia receiver, you don’t even have to touch its touchscreen, you can “conduct” the DDX917WS series with a wave of your hand using ‘Air Gesture’. You can also customise the gesture commands to operate your most used functionality — wave right for next track, wave left to reject calls from the missus, as you like. This is just a sign of the high technology within the DDX917WS. In addition to four channels of amplification 22W at <1%THD (max power 4 x 50W), it carries both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, as well as Air Mirroring, displaying your Android apps without cables or a network connection. Two-way communication and touch control can be supported for selected Android phones. It’s also ready to work with…

ALPINE X208AU Alpine is aiming to set an industry standard with its X208AU 8-inch advanced navigation system, delivering smartphone apps to your dashboard through the inclusion of both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The Primo 3.0 NextGen navigation platform provides high-resolution mapping including 3D landmarks and cityscapes, seamless animation Graphics, TMC Live Traffic Updates, and also (when away from the traffic) 4WD Off -Road maps included and, of course, an extensive Point of Interest database. Three years of free map updates ensure your navigation system will be up to date for a good while. Siri, OK Google and voice control and voice control can handle phone calls, messages and an endless choice of music options, right up to 24-bit/192kHz FLAC files, and the inbuilt DAB+ digital and FM/AM radio. There’s…

It’s a funny thing that the deeper you examine the ins and outs of this Falcon XR6, and the longer you study its finish and fit, the more your mind is driven outside its physicalities to consider a different dimension entirely — that of time. Time was the first thing I noticed when I looked at Jack’s XR6. There has clearly been a great deal of it spent on this car. He is obviously a Ford fan and really loves his car, this passion evidenced in the finished product (or potentially work-still-in-progress, as we’ll see). First hours and hours of deliberation, consideration and thought must have been invested in the planning process before ever a tool was lifted. On the outside, agonising over the colour scheme and, once the colour…

FOCAL FPX 5.1200 FIVE-CHANNEL AMPLIFIER Not unlike every industrial sphere, car audio has its illustrious leaders — audacious companies unafraid to reinvent the wheel if that’s what’s required to achieve the goal. Of course this ideology is not always proof positive of a true innovator. Development of new technology is critical, yes, but it sometimes requires significantly more acumen to do the opposite — that is, rather than head back to the drawing board, instead take an existing design and successfully infuse the latest technological advances into said platform. It was this ideology that French master designer Focal had in mind when it began development of its new range of amplifiers. It didn’t look to reshape the world. Rather the ambition was to the take the highly successful FPS range,…

NONDA ZUS SMART CAR CHARGER Deceptive little device, the Nonda Zus. Plug it into your car’s cigarette lighter socket and it provides you with two usefully illuminated USB sockets ready to power and charge your smart devices. It rapid-charges, and rather cleverly, the USB sockets are reversible, so you can make them convenient for your preferred devices’ easiest orientation. And from what you can see of the physical device — small, sculptured and illuminated nicely as it is — you might think that was it. But no. No, no, no. MILEAGE REPORTS Because look, it has an app. Indeed the full name of the Zus (on the box) is “Connected Car App Suite & Dual USB Car Charger”. You pair it with your smart device, and this adds a raft…

We always start stories on radar detectors with the following important disclaimer: radar detectors are illegal to use in all Australian states other than WA (where Redline distributor Neltronics is based). See a further note at the end of this article. So Neltronics has announced a major upgrade for its bestselling Escort Redline radar detector — the new Redline EX. This is, they say, the same old Redline under the hood, with its dual antenna design for extreme long range detection, and they claim it to be “completely undetectable by RDDs (Radar Detector Detectors)”. The new additions include GPS, which assists with false alert filtering, and operates in cohoots with Escort’s Defender database of all fixed speed cameras and red light cameras. With GPS the new Redline EX has the…

facing.mull.caves Federation Square, Melbourne It’s a bizarre notion for navigation – let’s get rid of street addresses. Instead, we’ll name everywhere on Earth with just three words. Crazy? Not according to Mercedes Benz. In a voice-prompted world, street and suburb names are apparently just not good enough. “Traditional street addresses just were not built for voice input” says Chris Sheldrick, CEO and co-founder of what3words, which is based in London (that’s London, UK). “15 Ammanford Road and 50 Ammanford Road are hard for a voice system to distinguish between, and many house names and road names aren’t unique. There are 14 different Church Roads in London, and 632 Juarez streets in Mexico City.” So to avoid such duplication, what3words has named each and every three-metre square in the world (that’s…

Australia’s biggest horsepower party is already gearing up, with the annual Street Machine Summernats festival presenting “four days of automotive perfection” in January, attracting over 100,000 people and 2,000 entrants to Canberra. Latest news is that Discovery Channel’s Street Outlaws’ ‘Farmtruck’ and ‘AZN’ are returning this year — and this time, we’re told, they’re not just along for the ride. “We had to come back. We genuinely fell in love with the cars, the culture, the people and the simple fact is this time we want to do a burnout Aussie style!” says Farmtruck. Farmtruck and AZN will supercharge their involvement in the event by shipping a standard version of of Farmtruck’s famous 1970 C-10 Chevy Pick-up (below) over to Oz. Thanks to an upcoming partnership between Summernats and the…

Fabian Augustine’s car — a 2010 VE HSV Senator which has been blown, cammed, bagged and kitted out with some primo audio/visual gear in a very tasteful way — is a fine example of good planning. You may have heard, among the more male-orientated car enthusiast, the wildly unacceptable truism that “If it’s got boobs or wheels, it’s going to cost you a lot of money.” If that were indeed true, then Fabian’s ride should have cost a good deal more than we gather it did. Because these wheels are outstanding, and yet the whole car has nailed the concept of achieving attention by not doing anything too over the top to get it. So the initial appearance is of a burgundy Commodore — nice enough, but wait a mo……

ALPINE iLX-107 CARPLAY HEAD UNIT It’s a couple of years since we did a deep dive on an Alpine head unit devoted to Apple CarPlay. But here we have Alpine’s latest, the iLX-107 head unit, which is indeed imbued with that devotion. PICKING THE PLATFORM Indeed, it’s so devoted that apart from the built-in AM/FM radio, it is pretty much CarPlay and nothing but CarPlay all the way. To be precise, beyond CarPlay (to which we shall return) there are three entertainment options: AM radio, FM radio and the analogue A/V input. The last of these is only going to work when your handbrake is applied, assuming you’ve wired up the system the way you’re supposed to and not simply attached the ‘Park Brake’ cable to the earth. If properly…

TRANSCEND DRIVEPRO 230 DASHCAM Dashcams are becoming ever more handy for insurance purposes, as well as general piece of mind that you’ll have proof when you’re in the right, and others are in the wrong. And for that role, the key wants here are two-fold — reliability of operation, and quality of image. The last Transcend dashcam we tested was the DrivePro 220. This new 230 model looks very similar but updates both software and hardware, notably the all-important image sensor which, in combination with the optics, governs that vital image quality. Any low-res dashcam will record an idiot flying in from a side-road and causing an accident, but if they then scarper, will you be able to read their number-plate from a few soft blurry images? SENSOR SENSE Chances…

The Euphoria range of subwoofers represent DB Drive’s flagship models, yet at $399, there’s little to hold you back from enjoying the latest EPS8 powered sub in the range. The range is designed “for the traditional audio purist that likes to live life on the edge”, says DB Drive, focused on accurate musical reproduction, yet with the ability to perform at any volume level. The EPS8 uses an 8-inch drive and dual passive radiators with internal amplification rated at 225W or a stonking 550W dynamic power backed by a PWM MOSFET power supply and multi-fault protection circuitry. Compact and suitable for underseat use, it’s versatile too, offering adjustable input sensitivity across both low level RCA inputs and Factory Radio high level inputs, with 180-degree phase shift and variable low-pass filtering…

CLARION FX508AU Clarion’s latest double- DIN 4 x 40W receiver confirms the move away from physical media and the rise of the connected car, with its ability to run either Apple CarPlay or Android Auto depending on your platform of choice, then putting your apps right on the 6.75-inch capacitive touch panel. Of course there’s also Bluetooth built in for easy audio streaming, including Handsfree Profile 1.6 for superior call quality, with an external microphone included in the package. The Clarion can retain pairing information for five phones — enough for all the family — along with 500 contacts per phone, making calls and caller ID a clear and easy process. The disc-free mech’s rear USB makes the CarPlay/Android connection and also allows iPod direct connect; there’s a minijack analogue…

Navman has released an SUV version of its DriveDuo combo satnav and dashcam. It includes not only 4WD routes but also Large Vehicle Routing (avoiding narrow laneways or low overpasses when driving a light truck, large SUV, or towing a caravan or boat), all displayed on its 6-inch screen, while its inbuilt ‘Super 2K’ (that’s full-HD 1080p) dash cam records high quality recording to an internal 8GB of memory, expandable via microSD up to a further 64GB, whle the DriveDuo SUV’s 3-axis G-Sensor shows the direction any impact came from in the event of a collision, providing more information on how an impact happened. Also onboard are Lonely Planet Travel Guides, the Zomato Restaurant Guide, and Live Traffic. There are more than 123,000km of off-road tracks drawn from mapping partners…

You might think that tail-lights are an odd place for innovation, but OLED tail-lights are becoming the latest refresh for luxury rides, with Mercedes announcing their addition to the new S-Class Coupe and Cabriolet at the recent Frankfurt Motor Show, following their introduction by BMW and Audi. Mercedes uses 33 individually controlled OLED panels in each module — their individual addressing allows rather pleasing ripple or sequence effects, though Mercedes isn’t using them to double as indicator lights, instead including separate turn signals. “The total of 66 ultra-flat OLEDs act like floating elements inside the tail lamp”, says Mercedes. “In addition, they emit a highly homogeneous light pattern in all directions and form a unique day and night design. Locking and unlocking the vehicle is additionally emphasised by an animated…

the owner of this VW Golf GT Sport wanted a colour scheme that kept in line with the original factory tones. But then, as a show car, the audio install was taken far far ahead of any factory system, via a commission to specialist Hyper Sound Car Audio. DESIGNING FOR DIGITAL In order to take the entire audio shebang to a whole ‘nutha level, the system was specified around Digital Designs range of amplifiers, speakers and subwoofers. The factory VW RNS510 head unit with builtin navigation was maintained as the source signal generator while two Audison bit Ones (whose processors form a bit of a through-theme this issue, with all three cars using them) were put into the path to massage the signal to get the best out of it.…

HELIX H 400X FOUR-CHANNEL AMPLIFIER Since its inception in 1990, Helix has enjoyed considerable growth worldwide. An audacious yet modest company, its expansion has not only encompasseed acumen but also stable size, so that today’s Helix is a vastly more mature and experienced company to that of thenadays. This veritable master of electronics now offers everything from speakers and subwoofers through to processors and amplifiers — even combining the latter for certain models. In short you don’t find ‘bad’ Helix products, period. Its specialty, though, is amplification. Though looking at the H 400X you could be forgiven for initially dismissing it as just another simple power amplifier. Sure it’s got a flashy appearance, but isn’t it just one among the myriad of other amplifiers on the market? What could possibly…