Hi all and thank you Dash for allowing me to kick off this thread.

Manufacturer: XTRONS
Model: PF75ATTAR
Purchased: August 2016
Retail Price: $495.23AUD (Purchased from eBay store. Was significantly cheaper than the manufacturer website)

Steering wheel integration: Very good. Everything works. The volume scroller works great and pushing in mutes the audio. The voice control button will answer/hang up a phone call. The directional scroller works to change song or radio station. The directional scroller will not work with Spotify.

DIS integration: OK at best. Radio stations are displayed as a mHz figure on the DIS, not RDS name. Volume will show up when you change it, but often will show up and not disappear. If you use the onboard CD deck, it will read out the elapsed time as a 00:00:00 figure. I only use Spotify on my headunit so the top part of the DIS is blank.

Interface: Pretty good for driving. Looks very smart and is easy to use on the move. There is a file manager to reach all the back end stuff but there are 'apps' for CD, Radio, and external. There is a feature called "Element" which allows you to choose any colour for the faceplate illumination. The red matches the original lighting. No need to ground a parking brake check wire either, playing of video while driving can be activated by software. Additionally, there is a "Factory Settings" mode which allows you to get into the back-end of the software. This allows you to do things like alter the functionality of buttons on the face panel and change the Android splash screen to a provided car logo (Audi is included), or you can make your own and apply it. I've made an RNS-E copy which is attached below.

I apologise if TTForum has reduced the size or quality, contact me if you require it in full size.

Satnav: I elected to use iGo Navigation. Seems as though TomTom has lost their way over the years... I paid $27AUD for Australian maps, an additional fee (I don't remember) for Text to Speech which includes various voices in various languages, some do announce street names. I then paid an additional $5 for alerts which includes speed camera databases. It's very handy. I recommend changing the speed warnings to visual only and then activation of such warnings to 110% of limit. The Audi TT speedometer is very accurate and I was having my music interrupted every few seconds to tell me about my unsafe 1km/h over the speed limit habits. The map purchase includes a visual representation of the speed limit for any road also. The Navi button on the screen can be assigned to the app of the owners choice, it is originally assigned to Google Maps. Pressing the button again will return you to the previous screen... For example, I'm in Spotify and press Navi. It will open iGo. If I want to change a song I can simply hit Navi again and Spotify will fill the screen. Navigation will resume when Navi is reselected.

Media Support: There are two included USB cables which can be installed easily as required by the driver. It snaps into the loom. DAB+ is a separate purchase. A single deck CD/DVD player is installed but all audio formats should be playable. A2DP Bluetooth audio is provided but total rubbish so don't bother. The unit supports smartphone screen mirroring for Android or iOS. It's OK, but I found it unreliable. Will disconnect with no warning after a while.

Connectivity: Bluetooth is great on this unit, allows me to easily pair a mobile phone or multiple phones. Your phonebook will display on the headunit and it will communicate with a bluetooth OBD tool simultaneously. The headunit has WIFI which is perfect as I have it download my Spotify Premium playlists when I arrive home for offline playing on the go. A 3G dongle can be purchased from manufacturer. Don't waste your money on an external microphone, I asked politely and XTRONS threw this in for free as a gift (I wanted them to throw in the ELM327 Bluetooth OBD tool instead :lol: ). The built in microphone works just fine.

Ease of Installation: To somebody more experienced this will be easier. This car uses four anti theft 'slots' to secure the headunit. You need special tools or a rigid thin plastic in each slot to free the headunit. There is a video on youtube of Dension showing how to remove the Audi Symphony. I had a local car audio shop pop it for me, they charged me $20AUD, my local VW dealership offered to do the job for a staggering $250AUD. The loom is very bulky, make sure you tuck it all nicely away before putting the headunit in, the top clips will 90% of the time go in easily, the lower is challenging. Take a better look at the bracket in the car, there's a rail designed for it to slide in on. If it's not in this rail the lower half will not fit. Overall fitment is very good, small gap on right side of unit (closest to driver on RHD) but have had multiple passengers think it was OEM. I used double sided tape and attached the GPS antenna to a metal bar behind the dashboard. Seems to work just fine.

BEFORE YOU INSTALL: Decide whether or not you want a back-up camera, if not you need to cut the back-up camera wire and tape it with electrical tape.Otherwise when you select reverse, the music will mute and the screen will go black with an exclamation mark in the centre.

So how does it stack up?

Fitment: 9/10
Audio Quality (Standard Audio Equipment): 7/10
Functionality and Flexibility: 8/10
Speed and Performance: 6/10 due to the user being required to clear cache regularly.
Overall integration: 8/10

Total Ranking: 7.5/10
Final Comments: For me, Satnav is mandatory in a car. I'm no fan of standalone GPS, and having a mobile phone free standing in a cockpit is dangerous. The XTRONS integrates well into the dashboard and is very easy to live with for daily driving. I'm pleased with the unit despite the little nigglies such as the poor cache management. Price was fair, it does what it promises to and customer service is excellent. Though, if the car had RNS-E I would likely not have made the change to XTRONS.

I hope I've been able to make the decision making process easier for potential buyers!

 

I apologise if TTForum has reduced the size or quality, contact me if you require it in full size.

Click on the image to have it shown in the original resolution.

Thanks for your input! Great write-up!

 

Buy direct from the xtrons website.... sign up to their news letter as a VIP (which is free) and get 15% off of your first order

 

Thanks for kicking this off Anth, great review. It's really handy to know how people get on with these things in real life so much better than just reading a spec sheet!

 

Thanks for kicking this off Anth, great review. It's really handy to know how people get on with these things in real life so much better than just reading a spec sheet!

Agreed!!

@anth1234
would you recommend this unit based on sound quality and performance compared to the stock sound systems?

 

Thanks for kicking this off Anth, great review. It's really handy to know how people get on with these things in real life so much better than just reading a spec sheet!

Agreed!!

@anth1234
would you recommend this unit based on sound quality and performance compared to the stock sound systems?

First thoughts following the removal of the Audi Symphony were that the XTRONS headunit sounds no where near as good. As expected though. They do stammer on about the graphical live EQ, which is great but I feel a lot of low-end frequencies are lost. For the functionality though, this is a fine trade-off. Don't get me wrong, it's not horrible! But it's not nearly as good as the stock unit.

Performance is rather good! RAM fills up quickly and you will have to press the "speed" software button every few days.

I recommend it, best upgrade for the money I think.

 

Buy direct from the xtrons website.... sign up to their news letter as a VIP (which is free) and get 15% off of your first order

Dude! If only I were not saving up for MSS springs I would totally get one right now with this discount. Thanks for the heads up!

Edit: I don't have the Xtrons MTCD unit, but my current android MTCB has much better music quality from internal storage than my symphony even with the hissing sound. Radio reception is pretty poor though, but I only use Spotify for streaming and Poweramp for external SSD.

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My son has a xtron unit in his golf and were just about to remove it !!
The sound quality and control is TERRIBLE

The fit and interaction with the car is great but as a sound system it's poor

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Looking at the ISO connector that came with mine it will be easy enough to bypass the internal amp with a decent external amp to sort the sound out possibly...... if the sound quality is that shit I will be trying that approach lol

 

Buy direct from the xtrons website.... sign up to their news letter as a VIP (which is free) and get 15% off of your first order

I read about this, the shipping is what killed me though. Also the USD conversion was damaging. They have an Australian eBay store (for whatever reason) which worked out cheaper. Good information to know and thanks for sharing anyway

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Great Post...I'm thinking of installing one of these in my TTS, it currently has RNS-E with Bose, do you know if it will be a straight forward installation or does the Bose complicate things? Does it come with all the required cables/adapters etc? Will my roof GPS antenna plug stright into this unit?
I'm quite compitent with eletronics etc.

Cheers

 

Great Post...I'm thinking of installing one of these in my TTS, it currently has RNS-E with Bose, do you know if it will be a straight forward installation or does the Bose complicate things? Does it come with all the required cables/adapters etc? Will my roof GPS antenna plug stright into this unit?
I'm quite compitent with eletronics etc.

Cheers

I don't believe the GPS antenna is compatible, but I'm not sure! I have a shark fin on mine but there is an external GPS antenna provided. Does the job fine!

As for BOSE, I'd imagine it'd be plug and play... it connects into stock loom but this may be a question for manufacturer as I have the standard system.

Otherwise it's a straight plug and play! No need to run through the cables to find accessories or any of that trivial shit we used to.

I attached one USB cable to the back of the unit which I ran into the glove box. Hides away beautiful, I am happy to provide pics if required.

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Removing a rns-e to fit a xtron ???
To gain what ??

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I'd like to swap out my RNS-e at some point, to something that has a better satnav (CoPilot has been a favourite of mine for ages), but most importantly one with a better amp/equaliser in it. If you don't have Bose the output of the HU isn't fantastic.

 

My sons xtron is output to his Rockford fossgate amps, and subs
The audio control is terrible
All relied on there graphic eq which is shite

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"If you don't have Bose the output of the HU isn't fantastic". Non-Bose factory systems do not use the power amp sections of the HU. All speakers are powered by the amp in the boot.

 

Removing a rns-e to fit a xtron ???
To gain what ??

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RNS-E is very outdated now. I don't use the sat nav as only 4-digit postcode entry, the maps are expensive and its just very clunky entering stuff plus I have the older model which only supports 2GB SD cards which is very frustrating. Also not able to stream bluetooth music from phone. I use my phone for sat nav and i have a choice of what app to use - i usually use Google maps/Here...
I've had my TTS for over 5 years now and feel it just needs modernising inside - and no I can't afford a MK3!

 

I hada BOSE Sat Nav unit! Last week just replaced the system with:

1) Pioneer App Radio.
2) Steering wheel controls.
3) Twin USB's in glove.
3) Stunning Hertz Fronts + Tweeters.
4) Hertz Amp in boot,
5) JL Sub in boot!

All hidden under the normal boot and sounds a million times better that standard!

 

Bose is totally independent from the stereo / Nav, has nothing to do with which stereo you have mate

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Removing a rns-e to fit a xtron ???
To gain what ??

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RNS-E is very outdated now. I don't use the sat nav as only 4-digit postcode entry, the maps are expensive and its just very clunky entering stuff plus I have the older model which only supports 2GB SD cards which is very frustrating. Also not able to stream bluetooth music from phone. I use my phone for sat nav and i have a choice of what app to use - i usually use Google maps/Here...
I've had my TTS for over 5 years now and feel it just needs modernising inside - and no I can't afford a MK3!

I have rns-e with full 7 digit postcode entry, I also have full SDS so I can just tell it the postcode
Tune2air module on my Ami unit allows full streaming of music etc

Agreed it was quiet expensive to do it all but I wanted to stay oem just to show it could all be done for when I was retro fitting stuff for people

If i was to go aftermarket I'd be going for something like the pioneer / carplay unit

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Do you know the maximum MicroSD card size that can be used? can they be filled up?
Is it possible to put a large flash device say 128GB on the end of the USB cable and play all the audio files?

Is the unit supplied with the correct adapter cable to between the loom and new unit?

Did you get the OBDII adapter?

Cheers

 

Do you know the maximum MicroSD card size that can be used? can they be filled up?
Is it possible to put a large flash device say 128GB on the end of the USB cable and play all the audio files?

Is the unit supplied with the correct adapter cable to between the loom and new unit?

Did you get the OBDII adapter?

Cheers

Hi Dino, I'm sorry I'm unsure... I think it has 16gb on board and two microsd adaptors.

Yes it was entirely plug and play, no need for any wiring (I don't know if it's different for bose). Only things you need to do is snap in the additional USB adaptors if you want them, and cut the reverse camera signal wire if you don't install one.

Yes I bought the OBD adaptor. Torque app was included free with the unit. It's pretty useless for my application but reliable and fun.

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I'm back with some more pics and information!

So here's a photo of the ELM327 bluetooth adapter by XTRONS. If I remember correctly it was price at around $20AUD. The headunit comes with a few different apps installed. Torque and Dashcommand to name a few, but I seem to have issues connecting to any other app than Torque. Get's stuck saying "Turning Bluetooth On". Seems like a software fault with this version of Android... Works fine with your phone, and torque is OK. Just an issue with some other apps. If anyone can chime in on this issue please do.

Torque is cool, shows things like Coolant temp, Vacuum, Throttle position, RPM, Boost and I believe has the capabilities to install more addons for other variables. It also has a page for 0-100, 1/4 mile, 1/8 mile, total HorsePower etc.

I tried to apply the custom splash screen I posted on the first page... Despite fitting it to XTRONS' specs, it looks poor. Very pixelated and disappointing Back to the Audi animation...

For those of you wanting to tinker with this, go to "Factory Settings" and enter the password '126'.

That's my update for the day... Not sure what apps I should get for it... Would be nice if there was a better interface for spotify, like bigger buttons to press while I'm driving.

 

Thanks for the update...i think I might buy one

 

Manufacturer: XTRONS
Model: PF75ATTA
Purchased: September 2016
Retail Price: £269 with ODBII bluetooth adapter, sign up to XTRON VIP and get 15% off of your first order

Steering wheel integration: Very good. Everything works. The volume scroller works great and pushing in mutes the audio. (I don't have MFW) so can only comment on the volume control

Interface: Pretty good for driving. Looks very smart and is easy to use on the move, the icons are huge and as with any Android device you can customize the screens, move things about etc. It's very slick and very quick with a handy "kill all" rocket to close all apps you have opened whilst dicking around..... like I say it's super speedy and you have no excuse to not have all the things you want where you want them.

Satnav: meh it's on there, all much of a muchness, you just stick the one you know and like on there and off you go.

Media Support: There are two included USB cables which can be installed easily as required by the driver. It snaps into the loom. DAB+ is a separate purchase. A single deck CD/DVD player is installed but all audio formats should be playable. A2DP Bluetooth audio is brilliant with my iPhone, hooked straight up and started streaming direct from Deezer on my phone, easy to control etc but I will be installing Deezer on to the headunit itself to get full functionality and use the IPhone as a hotspot.

Connectivity: Bluetooth is great on this unit, allows me to easily pair a mobile phone and it will communicate with a bluetooth OBD tool simultaneously. The headunit has WIFI which is perfect as I have it downloaded Torque and will get deezer via WIFI. A 3G dongle can be purchased from manufacturer but in this day and age tethering is far easier and cost effective.

Ease of Installation: The removal of the old head unit is a doddle, the fitting of the new headunit and wiring is a doddle, the plugs can and will only go in one hole and one way..... the headunit on the hole however is a bitch, as stated before the top clips in with ease, the bottom..... not so much.... absolute twat.... and yes I did bleed for this bastid!!!

BEFORE YOU INSTALL: (as stated by Anth1234) - Decide whether or not you want a back-up camera, if not you need to cut the back-up camera wire and tape it with electrical tape.Otherwise when you select reverse, the music will mute and the screen will go black with an exclamation mark in the centre.

So how does it stack up?

Fitment: 9/10
Audio Quality (Standard Audio Equipment): 7/10
Functionality and Flexibility: 8/10
Speed and Performance: 8/10 due to the user being required to clear cache regularly.
Overall integration: 10/10 (just because it does everything I am capable of doing)

Total Ranking: 8.5/10

Final Comments: Can be a twat to fit so go in with some patience, the airbag light can be pesky, make sure the clips don't fire off when you remove it from the old headunit. I don't know what everyone is banging on about re: sound quality, it's ok to be fair but then I'm not running Bose so maybe this makes a difference...... no hissing or popping, it's plenty good enough for what I and 90% of the world will need, certainly won't meet the requirements of audiophiles. All in all good purchase and happy with what I got