[MTCB Android Head Units Q&A] sgensh:
Problems with android-caraudio.com

I bought the KGAC-7684 from Georges at android-caraudio.com last November for my 2006 Audi.

TL;DR- Unit never worked properly, stopped working altogether, and haven’t been able to get a refund/replacement/working unit.

I chatted with Georges before buying my unit and he was extremely helpful. He answered all of my questions quickly and even the ones he didn’t know the answers to, he checked with the manufacturer and e-mailed me back within a day or two.

I have a 2006 Audi A4 with Symphony II (tape deck) and Bose. Following Georges recommendations, I went with the KGAC-7684. From the time I placed my order to the day I received the unit was about 3 weeks. So far so good.

Installation of the unit was very straight forward. It fired up quickly and the menus and pre-loaded apps worked well. I didn’t have an FM antenna adapter so the first audio source I tried was to stream Bluetooth audio. The sound was terrible. I am by no means an audiophile. The stock Symphony II and Bose sounded really good, and I was expecting to maybe give up some audio quality, but it was really terrible. The volume was very low, and even when turned to its highest setting (on the Bluetooth source and the head unit) it was only at about speaking volume. At any volume it sounded like it was listening to a bad connection through a telephone. I thought maybe it had something to do with streaming Bluetooth audio, so I found a CD to try. The volume was higher with a CD, but the quality was still just terrible. I attempted to adjust the bass, treble, etc.. settings but no matter what changes I made, there was no change in the sound.

I figured I must have done something wrong on the install, but because I was doing a lot of traveling, I wasn’t able to look into the poor audio issue until around Christmas. I tested all of my harnesses and made sure all of my connections were correct, I even compared the Audi pinouts with the Android pinouts and they seemed to be correct. I reinstalled the unit and still the problem persisted.

Shortly after, I turned on my car in the morning and the unit fired up as normal. The screen showed the Audi logo, then switched to the main screen. I put the car in reverse and the screen went black. When I put the car in drive again, the screen never came back. On that drive, I was able to hear the bad audio coming from my CD, but the screen stayed black. The next time I started the car, the screen never turned on, and I couldn’t get any audio to play.

I contacted Georges about these problems and he sent me a checklist of tests to perform. I found this to be a bit unusual as a consumer from the US, but being an engineer, they were well within my capabilities. One of the tests/procedures was a reset, which appeared to give me the option to re-boot the unit. However, the unit never re-booted, and none of the reset procedures worked after that. I did all of these tests and replied back with the results on Dec. 31, and still have not gotten the problem resolved. I’ve been driving around for the past 3 weeks with a big hole in my dashboard where a radio should be.

So, there are two possibilities, either I was shipped a bad unit to begin with, or the unit Georges recommended was never intended to be compatible with my Audi factory Symphony II and Bose system.

I requested that Georges send me a replacement if it really is compatible with my car, or issue me a refund if it is not. He is telling me that he is “waiting to hear from the factory”. I don’t understand why the factory needs to be involved in issuing me a refund…

At this point I would be willing to accept another unit, but I would prefer a refund and just go another route. I don’t want to have to go through this head ache again if I get another bad unit.

Use EXTREME caution when dealing with android-caraudio.com or use another supplier if at all possible. I’ll update this if the issue gets resolved, but I’m not going to hold my breath. Hopefully I have saved some of you guys from the same headache and being out $500…