Hello Everybody,

New member to the forums here, and I thought I would share the outcome of my Z120BT installation that I completed the weekend before last. I have been using this forum pretty extensively for information on the unit prior to and after purchase, and I have to say you guys have a great forum!! I bought the unit through Crutchfield, and did the installation myself into my '98 Toyota 4Runner to replace a 5-year old single DIN Sony Xplod CDX-M8800 unit. The configuration in my truck was nothing extensive nor elaborate prior to upgrading to this head unit, so here's the breakdown as it stands now:

Pioneer AVIC-Z120BT Head Unit

Pioneer GEX-P920XM Receiver

Alpine MRP-M350 Mono Amplifier

Sony Xplod 10" Subwoofer (Wedge Enclosure)

Infinity Reference 6 1/2" Speakers (Front Doors)

Infinity Reference 4" Speakers (Read Doors)

Not really trying to advertise in my neighborhood, but wanted a sound system better than stock, and have a little thump to it. I was not interested in a system that made my doors rattle and so loud the neighbors could hear me 6-blocks away. I like it loud...but not THAT LOUD!! So I think I found a decent balance between sound and functionality.

As far as my decision to upgrade goes, I was certainly looking to get out of the old technology I was in, and move to a more all-inclusive head unit that gave me a little more control over my A/V and Navigation options (Own a Garmin Nuvi 256WT). Tired of FM Transmitters, 10-Disc CD Changers, and MP3's burned onto discs. I was actually shopping the Z110BT unit with hopes of saving a couple bucks and paying to upgrade the firmware at a later date. Well, the unit went discontinued on Crutchfield, so I sucked it up and got the Z120BT as soon as it was available. Without boring you guys to death, here are some pictures of the final installation..I'll be happy to answer any questions, or tuck my tail and run for pissing you guys off for putting up this longwinded post, so I apologize in advance...Hope you enjoy the Pics!! Peace ~ HFoM

Noteables: Parking Break Bypass Mod, Custom iPod Cable Placement, XM/Nav Antenna Outside/Roof Mounted, VSS Wire Tapped

"Radio Active"...Get it?!?!?

DVD Display

XM Display (Sorry for the glare..Station Avatars are there)

iPod Display

iPod Menu

MusicSphere

iPod Location (Mod)

XM Receiver Location (Under Rear Seat)

BT Mic Placement

Antenna Location Left/Right (Don't make fun of the paintjob!!)

Looks tight..

Thanks...Had no idea the pictures were cut off due to the format of the website. At work, IE6.0 was allowing me to see the images in their actual size. Got home, and everything was jacked up and cutoff...Resized them so now they display properly...

I was about to give you props on the music selection...

then I saw Winger... then I saw you mention IE6.0.... and had a whorrible backflash....

Just kidding....I realize the Hair Metal station.... and that you said "at work"... in which I'm into IT, and know that there are allot of corps that have to stick to a standard...

Jokes aside.... nice/clean looking install....

How do you like the 120 interface?

That's absolutely hilarious that you picked up on Winger on the XM station!! As soon as I posted that picture, I was thinking to myself.."Of all the bands to pop up on Hair Nation when I posted this pic...It had to be Winger didn't it!!.." I had the most positive feeling that I would get called out on that one (Still laughing here)!! I am totally in line with your jest there, so no offense taken...

Thanks for the compliment on the installation. I tried to make it look as clean as I could considering my installation experience is primarily configure/learn as you go. I have some experience with my previous installation so I knew it wouldn't be too tough, but was ready for the cable-running fest..

I absolutely love the interface on the 120BT, and it's every bit as exciting as the "First Look" video made it out to be. I like it cuz it makes it interactive kinda like the new touchscreen phones, and it's got an incredibly quick response time and toggling back and forth between modes is seamless with next to no lag. I know that everyone anticipating the firmware update on their 110BT will be very happy with the upgrade on this one. Everything loads quickly and you get right into enjoying the head unit very quickly on boot-up. Everyone will also really dig the touch/slide menus, and search options as well. MusicSphere I found to be a nice addon to help simplify all the agony of hand creating playlists. I guess I would have to say that the hardest part of the install, bar none, was tapping into the VSS wire. That was a new challenge for me, but glad I got to go through it. Outside of that, the positioning of the BT mic took some time to get right as first placement made it sound a little muddy to people I was calling.

All in all...Very sharp head unit with all the features I could possibly want...Let me know if you have any specific questions about the interface at all..will be happy to answer 'em for ya...

P.S. Wish I could enjoy the Pandora portion of the head unit, but alas, I have an HTC TouchPro2 so can only dream for right now. I can play my Pandora feed through the iPod when I am in WiFi range, but the Pandora interface is not accessible over the head unit...Can't really bitch, since I would never have a constant connection while driving anyways...

A very respectable review.... Thanks ....

Now I gotta work on figuring out my sleep apnea, and my anxiety while waiting to upgrade mine...

is the cover art on the ipod still pixelated on the 120BT?

I find it to be suprisingly sharp considering the different levels of resizing it takes on at times. I don't know if you can tell by the cover art shown in the iPod display pictures I took, but it actually looks very clean with VERY minor pixelation...and when I say "very minor"..I mean it's so slight that it will not annoy you or find yourself saying..."Wow..the cover art looks like shit on here..."

It has three separate size representations depending on the situation, and I found none of them to be what I would consider to be "poor"..

1) There is the standard cover art display you see when viewing your iPod Artist/Album/Track standard display. This is the largest representation of the cover art, and I would liken it to the size you would see on the iPod itself...(Pic 4)

2) There is the view that is somewhat angled when doing an artist, track, or album search...The cover art is off to the far right and is the second smallest size of the three. Again, does not look poor at all despite being on an angle..(Pic 5)

3) Finally, there is the smallest size of the three when in Navigation mode. It's about the size of a stamp and is on the bottom right corner as the Audio source while in Map mode. You can simply touch the cover art, and it will bring up the standard iPod track view mode. Again though..given the size of the icon, the album art is rather clear...(I can take a picture of that if you want)

Couple last thoughts. You do have some picture adjustments that you can make on the unit to try and sharpen up the display as much as possible. (Contrast, Brightness, Color Temp)..setting these to your liking can certainly makeup for some inconsistencies in picture/screen resolution. Remember though that the unit itself only has particular level of pixels per inch, so graphically it's only going to get "so good" if you know what I mean. It ain't HD, but it's a very nice picture...

Let me know if you have any more questions...

Don't knock Kip!

I can't wait for my upgrade!

I wish I went to a better installer. He put everything in the trunk and stuck the iPod in the glove compartment even though I asked for center console. said he couldn't put the amp and outs under the seats because there was no room, even though my previous amp was under there...Now I have no room in the trunk...really irks me...

Very nice install. Only suggestion: GPS can "see through plastic"... so move the antenna under dash if at all possible. You'll probably need the metal plate for that, but worth it for hiding the antenna.

My Wagon has a "rear spoiler" which isn't really a spoiler, but just a black plastic strip that is at the top of the rear hatch. I roughed up the top of a satellite antenna and roughed up the underside of the black plastic spoiler and hotglued the little bugger up in there. Nice hidden antenna that way.

Thanks very much for the compliment...and thanks equally for the suggestion as well!! I didn't know that about the antennae. Hmmm..I figured it could see through the windshield glass with no issue, but felt it would be tacky with them sitting on the dash like that. So I went with giving it the best possible line-of-sight to the stars. I'll probably start surveying the truck for a spot that might help with hiding them...Certainly no shortage of wire!! LOL...

Peace ~ HFoM

Hairfullofmetal,

Lucky guy getting the new Z120.

My question is simple, how is your Bluetooth?

A good number of us have reported all kinds of issues with Bluetooth call phone call quality.

From what I understand, people tell me it sounds like I am in the middle of a waterfall when I use my BT on my Z110.

Have you had any complaints?

TypeS,

I will be quite honest about the Bluetooth and say that it isn't overly stellar in it's outbound sound quality. I think the two things that combat it from sounding as good as most of us would like it to be is:

1) Some form of better voice compression to clean up the outbound audio.

2) The ability to control the microphone volume directly.

I think most of the great Bluetooth technology is built into the wireless headsets you see people using, while the rest of us are calling them names like "Borg" behind their back. Let's be honest, it's a pretty standard microphone even with the echo-cancelling feature, and ultimately every vehicle has it's own acoustics. No way to get around anything that defeats it from the start. All of my friends are honest in telling me that it clearly sounds like I am on speaker-phone, and I expected that out of the gate. However, in a couple of my first calls, some people stated they could hear me fine, and others said that I sounded muffled and they couldn't understand me. Had to start scratching my head on this one since I was getting mixed results. And trust me, I was grilling them on what I sounded like to them at the time I was calling.

So at that point, I set out to try and find a happy medium given what I could and couldn't control. I will be quite honest in saying that I am a vocally boisterous person to begin with, so part of the cure was being more conscious to speak at a more controlled volume. Hard to do when it's something you wouldn't normally do with a handset to your face, but when that microphone is 12" away, you feel like you need to project a little more. NO NEED with this microphone, it's very sensitive.

Secondly, I would say that over all microphone placement in your vehicle seems to remedy some of the problem too. I spent about a half hour moving the microphone to different positions in my car, calling my work phone voice mail, and then running inside to listen to the test messages I left myself. I spoke quietly and loudly in the same test call to try and create some variety. In the end it came down to two things..moving the microphone a little further away from me AND turning it sideways (See picture 9 above). At first, I had it on the outside of my visor and pointed directly towards me...So now it is on the inside of my visor closer to the windshield, and I turned it 45 degrees so I am speaking towards the side of it vs. dead-on. I found this position to be the best sounding for my vehicle in relationship to me in the driver seat. Clearly I don't look at the microphone while I am talking, but am keeping my eyes on the road, so any direct sound coming from me is aimed at the windshield and then angled downward to the dash. After I found a voice quality that sounded decent on my voice mail, I immediately called a friend and started grilling him on his opinion. He did claim that I sounded a bit loud, but he simply turned the volume down a couple notches on his headset/handset and he said I sounded quite clear and could understand everything what I was saying.

So in summary, I suppose it comes down to a few solutions. You could run out and buy a different microphone if you are so inclined. I have read on the forums that Parrot has an alternative. Or you could just use some simple trial and error fixes like I did. In the end, it's clearly not the perfect quality that we all envision it to sound like, but it is MUCH better than it was at first. Also, ask your caller to try turning down their inbound volume too during the call. This may help. Sorry for the long-winded post, but I wanted to make sure I got all my comments across..Hope this opinion helps..

Peace ~ HFoM

When I paired my laptop to my Avic.... I noticed it loaded Parrot drivers<---services actually

My guess is that the handsfree in these Avics, is actually coming from Parrot.... So it may explain why someone would have better luck with a Parrot Mic.... it may play nicer with the noise cancellation...

just randomly thinking/typing....

Hi. I just had a Z120BT installed in my '99 SR5. Does your radio antenna pop up everytime your unit is powered on? With my original/factory head unit, the antenna only popped up when I turned on the FM tuner. The installer said that with the Pioneer, the antenna always pops up when power is applied. I called Pioneer tech spt, but they didn't provide a helpful answer. Thanks.