Dasaita Android Automotive Stereo Review

[lewdish]

Looking back the Sony G9 head unit actually wasnt all too bad esp for the time it came out in and in the realm of car audio devices theres still not many other devices like it. It was just kinda pricey. Hope someone buys one of the new Pioneer SXT-C10PS for restomod projects and sends it in for review. THeres not a ton of nice looking units that look period correct on older cars anymore. I cant see myself putting a smart unit into a 2000s and pre-2k car.

 

[energizerfellow]

Looking back the Sony G9 head unit actually wasnt all too bad esp for the time it came out in and in the realm of car audio devices theres still not many other devices like it. It was just kinda pricey. Hope someone buys one of the new Pioneer SXT-C10PS for restomod projects and sends it in for review. THeres not a ton of nice looking units that look period correct on older cars anymore. I cant see myself putting a smart unit into a 2000s and pre-2k car.

Pioneer, Blaupunkt, VDO Continental, and Porsche all now have 80s/90s European OEM style single DIN radios. RetroSound taking that a step further with reproduction faceplates going back to the 50s. Comedy option is the Jensen Heavy Duty JHD62, which is intended for heavy equipment, but very 90s OEM looking. It would be interesting to see how these measure.

Sadly, aftermarket radios were already looking very aftermarket-y by the late 90s.

 

[Hart]

Interesting double din design with an oversize screen. I assume the screen needs to be clear of any HVAC controls, trim, etc etc. Not sure if that would work with a lot of vehicles.

 

[Walter]

One of the things I like about living where I do is the fact that I don't need a car. However, I am really envious of the people who do, and now have access to systems like this. Car audio was always more important to me than home audio, partly because I spent several hours per day in my car. My first side hustle as a high school student was consulting on and then installing stereos for classmates and sometimes their parents. The last system I owned, in 1999-2000, was a great one from a sound quality perspective, but I would have given an awful lot to have had a head unit like this--especially given what I have now learned about audio science as opposed to B.S. thanks to this site, combined with the advent of class D amps that won't don't get hotter than the muffler. Probably the best $350 purchase I ever made was Pioneer's cheapest head unit that had iPod control combined with a set of discontinued Focal separates on deep sale and an iPod with a dead screen off eBay. I replaced the stock AM/FM radio and whizzer cone speakers in my mom's old Camry for the year I spent back in America in 2012 caring for her. I was truly amazed at the quality of the sound available at that price. Except for bass, it was 80-90% of my former $6000 system, SQ-wise. It had previously been so bad that the only thing I could stand to listen to was talk shows on NPR.

 

[amirm]

Looking back the Sony G9 head unit actually wasnt all too bad esp for the time it came out in and in the realm of car audio devices theres still not many other devices like it. It was just kinda pricey. Hope someone buys one of the new Pioneer SXT-C10PS for restomod projects and sends it in for review. THeres not a ton of nice looking units that look period correct on older cars anymore. I cant see myself putting a smart unit into a 2000s and pre-2k car.

View attachment 454811

Ah, fond memories. I really miss that look. The transformation into gaming/gimmicky RGB LEDs killed any style those head units had. The last deck I had that looked like that I think was from Alpine.

 

[Dougey_Jones]

What kind of van is this going into?

 

[amirm]

What kind of van is this going into?

Not my picture but this is the van model:

And this is how it was, prior to my "remodel" of the audio system:

 

[Nutul]

Not my picture but this is the van model:

And this is how it was, prior to my "remodel" of the audio system:

Don't know why, but can't see the images inline in your post; futhermore the server at images.rvs.com tells me that I have been blocked, and refuses to show me the images. :-(

 

[Eulipian]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Dasaita 13.3" Android Automotive OS stereo head unit. I purchased this from Amazon for $558 (has a coupon for $40 now).

View attachment 454402
As you see from stock image, this is a "double din" unit with a "floating" (adjustable) display. The advantage of this type of unit is that the display doesn't have to fit in the dash as it will sit in front of it. There are various sizes and you need to choose one that doesn't impede your dash controls, vents, etc. Even though this is their top of the line unit, it only comes with 64 Gigabytes of storage whereas the norm is 128 Gigabytes. There is USB input though so expanding storage is no big deal. Likewise RAM is 6 Gigabytes instead of 8. Supply chain disruptions have limited availability of different options as others have very long lead times.

The launcher is the default, boring, low resolution one which is in dire need of more customizations. The right bottom widget that says "Amplifier" is not. It opens the standard Android Automotive Equalizer, DTS upmixer, channel delays, etc.

As I have noted in reviews of other Android Automative Head Units (not to be confused with Android Auto which is supported here as well), you get these units to get access to Google Play Store with hugely increase capabilities of these units and allow it to stay current. Here is a snapshot of my podcast app after I installed it:
View attachment 454406
The large 1080p display is a joy this way (actually image is far better than what you see above).

Somewhat unusual is inclusion of old fashioned touch buttons on the bezel. I actually like that as it also includes the volume control up/down which is very handy to have. While I have not tested it, it also includes a microphone should you not want to attach the external mic.

One distinguishing feature is built-in gyroscope and nice, modern app that shows your inclination, etc. Nice for people who go on difficult trails and such.

I double checked and this unit indeed runs Android 13 (latest that is available on these units):
View attachment 454407

Anyway, let's get into measurements.

Dasaita Android Head Unit Measurements
Unlike other units I have tested, there were hardly any settings for audio other than aforementioned EQ, etc. So I adjusted the volume to get 2 volts on analog output and here is what we get:
View attachment 454408
We are back to 80s SINAD which matches my expectation. I have been noting the power consumption on the dashboard and was happy to see this unit use the least amount of power than other Android units I have tested. At full brightness, it uses a bit more power but lower the display brightness and it is uses less power.

Switching to digital we once again get disappointing performance, although not as bad as Joying head unit unit I tested recently:
View attachment 454411

View attachment 454412
[Top 3 are standard head units/bottom 3 run Android OS]

The -10 dBFS was puzzling as other units (also strangely) only maxed out to -3 dBFS instead of 0. Digging around, turns out this is the headroom that the Android EQ is imposing. If you max out all the sliders there, you get to 0 dB and even over! With no bypass button, you are leaving 10 dB of dynamic range on the table. Why it is 10 dB here and 3 in others, I don't know. Both are broken, this one just more so.

I should note that all the test tones I have used so far have been at 48 kHz to avoid Android resampling. Switching to 44.1 kHz, causes the Roon player I use to upsample to 48 kHz, resulting this odd performance:
View attachment 454413
This is the same thing I have seen in other head units. The noise floor goes down but we see those strange distortion spikes.

Our dynamic range is not bad for this class of product but could be far better for digital output:
View attachment 454414

Back to the EQ headroom thing, if I max out the levels on all the bands, we do indeed get better dynamic range:
View attachment 454415

Analog jitter is not bad for the class:
View attachment 454416

Digital jitter suffers from many things:
View attachment 454417

Without sorting out the audio pipeline, it is pointless to keep testing different ways.

Conclusions
I am absolutely in love with the larger display. Comparing to my phone, it brings incredible joy and functionality -- much more so than the 9.5 inch DUDU7. On performance front though, both the UI and objective measurements were far superior on the DUDU7. Unless I can solve the mounting issues with the DUDU7, I am going with the Dasaita.

Overall, what we have is much nicer than any proprietary head unit (btw, it does have amplification) so I am going to recommend the Dasaita Android car stereo. Hopefully they work with us to improve its performance.

------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

And so where did you end up? This or the Dudu7? Did you consider other Mekede models that might fit without mods?

 

[amirm]

And so where did you end up? This or the Dudu7? Did you consider other Mekede models that might fit without mods?

Currently we are on a path to use Dudu7. But so much aggravation. Found a harness for our van on Amazon a few weeks ago. But it had to come from China (so much stuff is no longer stocked in US). Waited 3 weeks as the Chinese shipping company handed the package to DHL for "last mile delivery." DHL doesn't deliver here so after sitting on it for a bit, handed it to the post office to deliver. By then I figured between the three of them, they would surely lose the package. And lose they did. Saturday delivery date came, packages was claimed to be delivered by the post office but no sign of it. . Just went to post office and they swear it was delivered. We have the worst delivery person who works on Saturday and I am pretty sure she lost it/delivered to the wrong house.

The other double din ones I bought performed worse and they too were pain in the neck to figure how to install without custom shell and harness. I loved their displays though.

Meanwhile, the van is thorn into 100 pieces and we can't put it back together until this stupid problem is solved. The system is working but no interface with canbus/steering control.

I contacted Mekede and I was pleasantly surprised that they answered. And since I had bought it from Amazon, they had a dedicated support. I told them about the above harness and they said it would work. But here I am without the stupid thing.

The inventory at Amazon has shrunk massively. Almost everything has to come from China with weeks of delay. Otherwise, I could have ordered one with the wiring from Mekede direct even.

After a ton of searching on the weekend when I realized the harness was lost, I found another Android headunit that supposedly comes with the harness/canbus adapter! Better yet, it is locally stocked and supposed to be here tomorrow! The whole 9 inch Android unit and this harness costs something like $89!!! I will test it to see how it performs but it is incredible how cheap these can be (this one has very little memory and storage). Crossing fingers that the harness and canbus decoder will work with Mekede and put me out of my misery.

To be clear, we don't need the harness for wiring. We got that. Just need these little backboxes that decode the canbus and translate it to what these head units expect. I find zero information on what these boxes do or what the head unit expects as far as serial protocol. This head unit is also one of the few that has this 8 pin connector for Canbus vs the 3.5mm jack that many Japanese brands use.

 

[Eulipian]

Currently we are on a path to use Dudu7. But so much aggravation. Found a harness for our van on Amazon a few weeks ago. But it had to come from China (so much stuff is no longer stocked in US). Waited 3 weeks as the Chinese shipping company handed the package to DHL for "last mile delivery." DHL doesn't deliver here so after sitting on it for a bit, handed it to the post office to deliver. By then I figured between the three of them, they would surely lose the package. And lose they did. Saturday delivery date came, packages was claimed to be delivered by the post office but no sign of it. . Just went to post office and they swear it was delivered. We have the worst delivery person who works on Saturday and I am pretty sure she lost it/delivered to the wrong house.

The other double din ones I bought performed worse and they too were pain in the neck to figure how to install without custom shell and harness. I loved their displays though.

Meanwhile, the van is thorn into 100 pieces and we can't put it back together until this stupid problem is solved. The system is working but no interface with canbus/steering control.

I contacted Mekede and I was pleasantly surprised that they answered. And since I had bought it from Amazon, they had a dedicated support. I told them about the above harness and they said it would work. But here I am without the stupid thing.

The inventory at Amazon has shrunk massively. Almost everything has to come from China with weeks of delay. Otherwise, I could have ordered one with the wiring from Mekede direct even.

After a ton of searching on the weekend when I realized the harness was lost, I found another Android headunit that supposedly comes with the harness/canbus adapter! Better yet, it is locally stocked and supposed to be here tomorrow! The whole 9 inch Android unit and this harness costs something like $89!!! I will test it to see how it performs but it is incredible how cheap these can be (this one has very little memory and storage). Crossing fingers that the harness and canbus decoder will work with Mekede and put me out of my misery.

To be clear, we don't need the harness for wiring. We got that. Just need these little backboxes that decode the canbus and translate it to what these head units expect. I find zero information on what these boxes do or what the head unit expects as far as serial protocol. This head unit is also one of the few that has this 8 pin connector for Canbus vs the 3.5mm jack that many Japanese brands use.

I feel your pain. Like the old days of DIY computers with competing connection standards and always needing that one x-pin connector that wasn't there on the board or power supply. And don't lose a screw or need and extra anything, you'll have to buy a dozen at half the price of the board. Your experiment has had me looking at YT videos for installing a double din unit on a 2010 CR-V. The basic installation looks terrible only if you choose the rear camera option--which I, of course, would. IF I attempt the descent, it's going to be a 1:1 space replacement. No big-screen and no 360° front DVR. For the Goldilocks unit, Mekede will "thrown in for free" all the cabling "allegedly" necessary for everything without the extra charge listed on the website....if you can find the right one for your model and year. Thanks for sharing your experience and keep the updates coming.