Zune integration Car Audio - Tech with a twist of lime! & FLHybrid Club.

May 12 2008

Zune integration Car Audio

Written by Kacey Green

Monday, 12 May 2008

This is the first part of a review series about the Soundgate Zune integration solutions due to the modular nature of the product.

Ever since I had my Creative Zen Vision:M tethered to my Civic’s aftermarket radio, I’ve dreamed of a direct connection, like the one seen on some BMW and Scion vehicles. An iPod can plug directly into the stereo system and charge while providing digital audio and remote controls via the steering wheel or head unit; except designed for alternative players. I have always admired Apple products but there is usually something about them keeping me away, and the iPhone and iPod exude this condescending vibe at a level of eleven. After Microsoft stabbed Plays-for-sure in the back and my Urge account was sold to Real/Rhapsody, I have been using a Zune 80.

I saw Jason Dunn’s piece from CES

where he interviewed a Stillwater Designs (the parent company for Kicker and Soundgate) employee, Joe Hobart. They mentioned my exact usage scenario, I listen to my music most in my car and I do not charge it there, arriving with a drained player and on long trips due to my listening style, a dead player. They were describing a device that hooked directly to the factory radio and the Zune; the interviewee mentioned both Honda and Toyota, radios I work with everyday. He described how I would be able to listen to my Zune through my factory radio and use my steering wheel controls and head-unit’s buttons to control my Zune but also Voice Command (He didn’t say voice command but that is an OEM control for me and I later confirmed this).

I was stoked and checked the web everyday for news of the upcoming products. I found a brief blurb on a car audio blog, and later one of the Soundgate employees contacted me directly on the Thoughts Media site and gave me some vague details on the timing so I could get back to doing more useful things than pressing F5 as if there was a woot-off going on.

The time that I was told to expect something to happen (around the Chinese New Year) came and went, I started back to wondering if this was just vaporware. Then one day I was drawing up the logos for the Midlands Hybrid Club and during a break I went back to the Soundgate site, I still only saw “coming soon”, but the contact information at the bottom of the page caught my eye.

I dialed the number that seemed most promising and it rang and rang and rang, just as I was about to hang up a young female answered the phone, I told her why I was calling and she connected me with Chet. Chet filled me in with what was going on and got a pre-production unit allocated to Logjam to me. Today I am reviewing that unit after a couple of weeks of testing and evaluating.

My music listening style is best described as “Shuffle-All, Skiptastic” because I almost always have my player set to shuffle all of my music, and because my music moods are so erratic I’m constantly skipping through the shuffled library to find a song that complements or reverses the mood I’m feeling at the time. If you don’t believe me, ask anyone who has taken a drive with me when I’m toting my own music. I spend more time skipping through my collection than listening to it.

This product is called the Zune Core, it interfaces directly with all Zunes (4 | 8 | 30 | 80) via their sync ports, it is expandable and supports video out, it has ports for lineout/video out, remote in, power in, and a permanently attached Zune sync cable ending in a Zune sync connector.

The beauty of this product is that the Core does what most users need right out of the box, it connects to the Zune and brings out audio from the device’s pre-amp so the headphone port and amp aren’t stressed, it also provides clean audio to the user in a convenient format, a 3/8^th mini-plug or RCA connectors. Another cool feature is the expandability, shortly after the Zune Core is released on a mass scale there will be a wired remote available. If you have a Sony steering wheel remote in your vehicle now you can use the remote features immediately.

There will also be vehicle specific adapters that will connect to the remote port and the lineout allowing factory quality integration with the Zune. Another useful scenario enabled by this product's modular nature is that it is easy to move between vehicles. Just unplug the Zune Core from its vehicle side connections (power, line out, and remote) and you can move it to your next vehicle or use the included portable cable kit to listen to your Zune in a friend’s car (you get a cigarette style power plug and RCA cables and a stereo patch cable).

This technical stuff is great but how does it sound?

I used to think that My Prius needed a subwoofer; this couldn’t have been further from the truth. I was using a cassette adapter hooked directly to the Zune’s headphone port and plugged into my tape deck. I have to set the Zune to a volume of 17 and the Prius to 20 or above just to hear anything but it still sounded better than an FM adapter. The only time this setup gave me interference, was when my GSM cell phone was transmitting data near the cable or when passing a TV tower along one of my regular routes.

My current setup with the Zune Core is using that same cassette adapter and the Core in portable mode, since no 2004 Prius comes with an auxiliary jack I still need this part until one of my upcoming reviews. The way the cable from the tape adapter hangs now keeps it from catching the signal from my phone and with the better signal coming from the Zune through the Core allows a lower volume so I cannot hear the TV Tower interference either.

Prior to the Core with the Zune and the Prius set to a high volume level there was an awful hiss at volume levels required to contend with rain or high-speed highway travel. Thanks to what sounds like an Amp in the Core, I do not need the high volume anymore.

I do have a car charger for the Zune and Zen (it is a USB port with a cigarette adapter on one end) but with my old installation that introduced a horrible sound in the Civic, a high-pitched feedback loop that changed with engine speed. In the Prius, there is no alternator so there was no whine but it produces its own horrible noise through its high-voltage to a low voltage converter.

The Core has its own isolation circuitry on board so I don’t have to devise ways to isolate the player from the car (I have yet to find an inexpensive easy way to do this, so the core saves me from having to complete that search too!) I am now able to leave the Zune at volume level 12 and the Prius between 4 and 18; I did crank it up to 62 and an additional notch to MAX. At any volume higher than 20 the rearview mirror shakes uncontrollably with the force from the bass in the sound system now. The Core has an amp, I could have the Zune at volume 0, and it would sound exactly the same, what is important here is that the Zune dock sounds best to me at volume 12.

This sound is just as crisp and loud as when I play my Zune through my Zune dock at home through my 5.1 Logitech speakers in up sampling mode (I don’t want two speakers doing all the work). The highs are bright and clear and the lows are rumbling and distortion free.

The expandable nature of the Zune Core is amazing. Soundgate only needed to make one device to talk to the Zune and one to talk to each car. The two devices interface with each other for some cool possibilities, such as an iPod Core, and this helps cut down waste caused by overstocking and duplication of components as seen in competitors iPod integration products.

For example, my boss’ wife drives a used vehicle and she likes to listen to her iPod. So with the iPod core and the interface for her car, she can listen and charge all day long, but when I finally show them the Zune goodness, all she has to do is get a Zune Core and keep the same vehicle interface. Imagine the possibilities. More importantly since she drives a demo, she might switch cars several times this year and they may not all be Hondas so she can take her core from car to car and just get a new car interface at each time she changes brands. This saves all the extra parts and waste you would normally see with a competitor’s system and she is finally free of her FM transmitter!

Logjam electronics has an exclusive contract with Soundgate until the general availability; the price is a reasonable $69.95. Get a CORE here: LogJam electronics has the exclusive contract until general release.

The Zune CORE allows for a clean, one cable connection from your Zune Player to your car. In addition, you arrive at your destination with a fully charged Zune instead of one gasping its last breath. This sure beats the two-cable method other manufacturers’ incorporate using one headphone cable and a charger, adding stress to the headphone connector and amplifier resulting in the addition of electrical noise to the audio stream.

Soundgate has an exclusive contract with Microsoft for Zune car audio integration and they have done a spectacular job with their position.

If you have a TV installed in your vehicle or have an input for your navigation screen to display alternate video sources (when not moving), you can use the Zune CORE to display video on these devices.

Coming soon:

Soundgate is looking at all in one kits, that include a core and vehicle specific interface, but these are a ways off. An iPod CORE is around the corner. The Zune is a fine product but from a business standpoint it is currently, a distant second in terms of market share, so I can fully appreciate why Soundgate wants to have an iPod core out soon.

Midlands Honda will be installing this product at the customer’s request as soon as the exclusivity contract is complete. They are completing the process of becoming a Soundgate dealer now.

Chet at Soundgate provided my Zune Core to me at no cost, thanks to the kind folks at LogJam for giving up one of their units so I could do this review.

I have used the Zune Core on my daily commute for almost a month now, and on two long trips, one to Myrtle Beach for the Honda Civic Tour with Panic at the Disco, and the other to the Pilot Ready Ride event in Charlotte, I demonstrated the device several times at Earth Fare 2008. I feel this is a solid device, perfect for music lovers who commute, and own a media player loaded with their choice of music.

What's in the box?