motorhead New-tral | Join Date: Sep 2021 Location: London Ontario Posts: 8 |
motorhead
New-tral
Join Date: Sep 2021
Location: London Ontario
Posts: 8
(NC) ATOTO S8 Ultra review
This is a review of the ATOTO S8 Ultra 7 double DIN Model S8G2A78UL. I have a 2009 GT PRHT with factory Bose. Ive owned it about 2 years, and luckily being a NC2, it had the AUX in. Using a Bluetooth receiver, I was able to stream Spotify to the factory head unit. Using an EQ app on my phone, I got it to sound much better than the radio or CDs. This led me to think that a new head unit alone, while retaining the factory Bose amp and speakers, would achieve what I was looking for. Turns out I was right.
I wont get into installation, as that has been generously been covered by others on this forum.
My first decision was whether to go with a name audio brand with a good reputation or a more affordable Chinese android unit. Im an android guy phones and tablet and it made sense to stick with android. ATOTO has a good reputation so I chose their top of the line 7 model. As far as I know, the name brands all have a proprietary operating system. There is no access to the Google Play store. You get what they give you, and thats that. Dont like the interface? Tough.
The ATOTO OS is a thin shell running on android 11. There is full access to the play store for any app you want. ATOTO has a history of firmware updates for a decent length of time. It has wired and wireless Android Auto, and wired and wireless Apple Car Play. You can change the wallpaper if you want. Mine is a Mazda logo. I had some tech issues at first, and they responded to my satisfaction within 12 hours. It is installed with a Metra dash kit, and a Scosche wiring harness adaptor. It looks factory.
I had issues at first. The volume control for the radio was all out of whack. Three clicks of the volume, and it was too loud to listen to. This relegated the volume for the radio to a choice between two levels only. Streaming music and downloaded MP3 files were fine. Obviously, this is unacceptable. Turns out, there is a secret setting menu, and lo and behold, there are separate volume levels for each input. A quick change in the radio level from 10 to 1 solved my issue.
Next, the overall sound quality was crap. The factory selected EQ was flat. There are probably 10 other preset EQs - jazz, rock, soft rock, etc. I didnt like any of them. Uh-oh. But wait you can create custom EQs. I sat there for a while and tweaked it until it sounded better, then even better, then WOW. So I think that the Bose amp has built in crossovers and processing that wasnt playing nice at first. I cant believe how good it sounds now. My wife thinks the high end is a little much, so I created another custom EQ for when she is in the car. It is a couple clicks of the touch screen to switch back and forth.
I couldnt get my phone and the head unit to connect via Android Auto- wired or wirelessly. A couple reboots of both devices solved that, and now it connects wirelessly 95% of the time within a few seconds.
The Good:
The unit looks factory. It makes my 2009 Miata look, feel, and operate like a much more modern car.
Unless the car is not used for a week, the unit does not fully power down when shutting off the car. It sleeps. When I start the car, the unit is connecting to Android Auto in 2 seconds, while my phone is in my pocket.
I have Android Auto set to open Google Maps and Spotify on connect split screen. My last stream then resumes play automatically. I push the factory steering wheel button and say take me home or take me to Home Depot and Google Maps starts the route avoiding highways if I choose. My wifes 2016 Honda Pilot cant do that.
I have full steering wheel controls without any extra hardware. Each button is programable.
On startup, the volume resumes at my preset level low, as opposed to the high volume that I may have been listening to when I last got out of the car.
The volume can be super loud, and still clear even with the top down.
The screen is super bright even in direct sunlight. It auto-dims at night when my headlights are on.
I set the back-lit buttons to the same color red as the rest of my Miata lighting.
The tech support.
Im sure that I am missing some things, but I really like the unit.
The Bad:
I had to play with settings more than I think should be necessary to get things to sound good.
As with anything, there is a learning curve. The head unit cant be connected to Android Auto and my home Wi-Fi at the same time. This may be true with any AA head unit, but I had to figure that out.
Bottom line:
This unit was about $550 CAD on Amazon.ca. The top tier Kenwood that I was considering is about $1500 CAD.
I am very happy with my purchase. The ATOTO does everything I want for a great price.
