New RCD330 Plus Headunit with Mirrorlink/Carplay

XSSIVE said:

I don't have the 330 yet to know for sure, but as I had mentioned in my other posts based on my reading I keep seeing people mention an incompatibility with Dynaudio where it will "work" but not perfectly as it's actually not using the Dynaudio amp and just using the 330s internal amp. I've only been able to go off other peoples posts (and I've read a lot on several forums) which is why I decided to just dive in and order the thing and find out for myself.



From my reading it seems like if you just plug in the 330 into a car that has Dynaudio and had an RNS315 it will work, but, the volume scaling will be off meaning it will jump through the volume range faster than the 315 and not sound as good at higher volumes. If you try to Vagcom code the 330 for Dynaudio it won't work. When plugged into a car with Dynaudio the 330 fader won't work. If you code it to Skoda amp the fader will work but the audio sounds bad since the output voltage of the headunit is still too hot for the Dynaudio amp.



So based on all that, again, just from my research and reading no real world testing yet, my thinking is if you code it for the Skoda amp and use the Alpine harness I mentioned earlier which will lower the speaker level output voltage to turn on the Dynaudio amp then everything should (fingers crossed) work even better making full use of the Dynaudio amp.

Click to expand...

Don't know about all that. All I can say is I'm using a 330 (mostly Carplay) in my 2012 Autobahn GTI with Dynaudio and, to my ears, there was a slight improvement in sound quality over the 315

The only anomaly I experience is the volume jumps after any interaction with Siri. Regular modulation of the volume is perfectly fine.

I suggest buying one and hooking it up to see what works or doesn't. If you don't like it, there is strong resale demand


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Just installed. Really easy install. Nothing on this car has been so easy to plug and play.

I got the rcd330 187B noname with HW 451, SW Y510 and Bluetooth sw c210. Bad things first: call echo, USB chord hanging out the front.

Good things: red accents, sound quality (at low volumes - indistinguishable with the car in motion), absolutely flawless integration with the car (radio buttons work, the mute button mutes because I haven't reset it via vag-com yet, the look and fitment is perfect). The screen is really great. A "black" screen with the backlight on is not distracting at night like the RCD510, which I had shut completely off. Touchscreen responsiveness is great, too. ANDROID AUTO.

I'm a pretty techie person, but never really considered my car a piece of tech. The best I had was HD radio and hands-free calling, not to mention a huge battery and data drain on my phone when the rcd510 would auto-play Google music. Now this car now feels like a 2018-era car. I have Waze, Google play music that DOESN'T auto-play when I don't want it to, Google assistant, and best a system that updates over time.

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How do you all feel about the sound quality of the RCD330, I have one, and I swear nothing sounds as good as the RNS510 I had beforehand....there's just something not quite right with the audio quality coming out of the RCD330 in my mind....it's like there's serious issues with the midrange and the bass is weird. I can't put my finger on it.

I installed my RCD330 the other day, latest E part number with 565 hardware and Y510, C210 software. Now I can see why some people think it works fine with Dynaudio and others realize it doesn't 100%. It depends on how loud you turn it up. It works fine with the volume anywhere below half, once you go towards 2/3 or 3/4 it starts to distort and all the way up is just a wall of distorted noise unlike the stock RNS315.

After taking some voltage measurements from the speaker outs I was right in my thinking. The RNS315 only puts out a 4V max from the speakers when all the way up. The RCD330 being made for cars without external amps isn't limited on it's speaker output and will spike above 6V when all the way up. That's why at around that 2/3-3/4 volume it starts to distort since it's surpassing the 4V the Dynaudio amp is expecting from the headunit.

Since you can't Vagcom code the voltage down on the RCD330 like you can the other RNS units since it never came in a car with an amp you have to drop the voltage with hardware, essentially treating it like any aftermarket headunit that also can't be coded. I have what should be the answer to this problem on the way and once I can confirm it works I'll post more info. I don't want anyone who cares about this to spend money on something until I test it.

It also, as expected, doesn't show the fader, just balance which is due to coding. Once I get my hardware speaker level fix I'll also try some alternate coding since apparently coding it for a Skoda amp will then show the fader.

Beyond that, at 50% volume and lower the RCD330 is a real nice upgrade to the very small screen, very dated feeling RNS315. I much prefer using Android Auto and Google maps to the old RNS315.

As for any other things to note, mine does have the odd quirk that others have mentioned where after using Google assistant the volume will drop on the music you were listening to, but not every time and only if it's Android Auto music, not SD card or radio. I can live with that little quirk since it takes an extra second or two to raise the volume back up.

Hey this radio never turns off... in my car 2012 Golf R...
how do i fix this?
it tells me "Dont forget you phone" but i can still turn it back on and my phone is always connected to the bluetooth

Im planning on installing the Desay B version on my 2006 GTI.
The can bus needs to be upgraded but, is it a simple swap? To not have the car die after the RCD 330 install?
Thanks

XSSIVE said:

I installed my RCD330 the other day, latest E part number with 565 hardware and Y510, C210 software.

Click to expand...

Hi there

I got a unit which is exactly like yours (part number, HW & SW). Could you get android auto to work with it?

I could not get it to work in mine - I face the following error :

Games Goblin said:

Hi there

I got a unit which is exactly like yours (part number, HW & SW). Could you get android auto to work with it?

I could not get it to work in mine - I face the following error :

Click to expand...

No idea what could cause that, mine just worked without issue. Maybe update the phone software and android auto app (if you haven't already) and try a different cable from phone to radio?

Games Goblin said:

Hi there

I got a unit which is exactly like yours (part number, HW & SW). Could you get android auto to work with it?

I could not get it to work in mine - I face the following error :
]

Click to expand...

I'd be trying a different cable.

Anyone else using Android Auto have this volume issue?

Depending on where I set the "maximum start-up volume" the volume from song to song when playing through google play music on Android Auto will revert back to that "maximum start-up volume" no matter where I had manually set the volume when listening. So if I have "maximum start-up volume" at 5 and I'm listening at 15 the next song drops to 5. If I have start-up set to 10 and am listening at 5 it jumps up to 10. It doesn't do this if I manually push the over button to skip to the next song, only if it plays through from song to song. It also has the volume bug where using google assistant will revert the music volume to that "maximum start-up" volume too. It doesn't do this with SD card audio though as that stays wherever I set it from track to track and after using google assistant.

I wish I could disable the maximum start volume like you can speed volume and just have it stay in the last volume position it was set at.

A bit annoying, but I can probably live with it since the RNS315 is so dated that I rather have to turn volume back up with each track than look at that little 315 screen again haha.

XSSIVE said:

Maybe update the phone software and android auto app (if you haven't already)

Click to expand...

I am running the latest version of android auto and google play services

XSSIVE said:

and try a different cable from phone to radio?

Click to expand...

manol said:

I'd be trying a different cable.

Click to expand...

I tried 4 different cables across 4 different devices. I do not think the cables are the problem.

Is there any way to set the date on my VW Polo (2015, 6R)? I only see the option of setting the time in the instrument cluster.

Regards

fatvdub said:

Hey this radio never turns off... in my car 2012 Golf R...
how do i fix this?
it tells me "Dont forget you phone" but i can still turn it back on and my phone is always connected to the bluetooth

Click to expand...

It's working as intended. It still gets power after turning the ignition off. Once you remove the key, the, "Don't forget your phone," message appears, and then it shuts itself entirely off and won't drain the battery. If you're worried about power usage, just don't touch it after you remove the key.

ssunnylee24 said:

Im planning on installing the Desay B version on my 2006 GTI.
The can bus needs to be upgraded but, is it a simple swap? To not have the car die after the RCD 330 install?
Thanks

Click to expand...

Anyone?

ssunnylee24 said:

Anyone?

Click to expand...

Yes, it's an easy swap. There should a few guides on the internet how to do it.

XSSIVE said:

I installed my RCD330 the other day, latest E part number with 565 hardware and Y510, C210 software. Now I can see why some people think it works fine with Dynaudio and others realize it doesn't 100%. It depends on how loud you turn it up. It works fine with the volume anywhere below half, once you go towards 2/3 or 3/4 it starts to distort and all the way up is just a wall of distorted noise unlike the stock RNS315.

After taking some voltage measurements from the speaker outs I was right in my thinking. The RNS315 only puts out a 4V max from the speakers when all the way up. The RCD330 being made for cars without external amps isn't limited on it's speaker output and will spike above 6V when all the way up. That's why at around that 2/3-3/4 volume it starts to distort since it's surpassing the 4V the Dynaudio amp is expecting from the headunit.

Since you can't Vagcom code the voltage down on the RCD330 like you can the other RNS units since it never came in a car with an amp you have to drop the voltage with hardware, essentially treating it like any aftermarket headunit that also can't be coded. I have what should be the answer to this problem on the way and once I can confirm it works I'll post more info. I don't want anyone who cares about this to spend money on something until I test it.

Click to expand...

Very excited to see your results with the Alpine unit. Thanks for taking the plunge. [emoji481]