Car Stereo for Google Play?

kration · 27 Aug 2014 at 20:46

I've got a 54 reg Corsa. I listen to music via my mobile using Google Play, currently connected via a cable from my mobiles headphone socket to the 'Aux' socket on the cheap stereo. However, there's no way to change tracks etc. via the stereo headset.

Is there a headset that has better integration with 'Google Play'? e.g. the ability to skip forward through tracks (even on radio/shuffle)?

The price range I'm looking at is £100 - £150.

This is probably a bit of a naive question, but I'm completely out of touch with phone/stereo technology...

georges · 27 Aug 2014 at 20:54

I bought a bluetooth/usb-only pioneer head unit from halfords for ~70ish and that plays music via bluetooth from my android phone (and hands free+nav).

It skips tracks over bluetooth when I've used both the onboard player and spotify, but I'm not sure about google play although I imagine it would.

http://www.halfords.com/sat-nav-aud...with-bluetooth-and-ipod-iphone-direct-control

^Think this is the model. It doesn't have a cd player, though they do one which does. I've been really impressed with it to be honest, I expected it to be a shoddy implementation, but it even starts my music automatically from where I left off when the car turns on.

UnworthyBean · 27 Aug 2014 at 21:36

As above, something with bluetooth will be the best best. Even the basic ones will let you skip forward and back although most will show what you're listening to as well.

It'll also work with Google Play as I used to use it. I only ditched it as it wouldn't sync playlists with anything other than iTunes.

unrealrocks · 28 Aug 2014 at 13:07

Didn't realise anyone actually uses Google Play!

Freefaller · 28 Aug 2014 at 13:13

I do - it syncs all my music from home to it I think it works pretty well.

OP any bluetooth device that can stream audio will allow you to control the tracks.

DB_SamX · 28 Aug 2014 at 14:08

I use Spotify on my phone, which is in turn connected to my car speakers via Parrot Bluetooth. The Parrot kit allows me to easily pause/skip/etc tracks.

SKILL · 28 Aug 2014 at 14:44

I've not long bought the head unit georges linked to and it's been working perfectly with my nexus 5/google play for the past few weeks, can definitely reccomend it

kration · 28 Aug 2014 at 18:16

Cheers - thanks for the replies.

In relation to the comment on Google Play Music I can really recommend it. I got it when it was on offer, so only pay £7 a month (rather than £10) but it lets me sync music with my CD collection, has an excellent range of music and is relatively easy to use. Sound quality is decent too.

LadFromWales · 28 Aug 2014 at 20:52

Pioneer or Sony for Android phones?
Would be nice to have the option to connect via USB also, either UMS (Xperias have UMS!

) or USB audio.
Do these display the song title on the headunit display too?

kration · 29 Aug 2014 at 19:44

LadFromWales said:
Pioneer or Sony for Android phones?
Would be nice to have the option to connect via USB also, either UMS (Xperias have UMS! ) or USB audio.
Do these display the song title on the headunit display too?

I got the recommended Pioneer installed this afternoon and I'm pretty impressed.

You can connect via cable to the Aux socket via the headphones, but if anything Blue Tooth sounds better than that (which surprised me).

It has a USB socket and lets me play tracks stored on a USB pen drive. I don't know about the connection types you mentioned though.

It shows the song title when playing from USB, but doesn't show it when playing from Google Play via Bluetooth (it just comes up as 'unknown track' or similar). That's a bit of a downer - does anyone know how to make it show track titles via Bluetooth?