Canyonlands
New member
I recently bought a clean one owner 2003 SR5 4Runner which came into my possession pretty much bone stock, to include the original no-frills double DIN stereo head unit.
I bought this vehicle to cover dual duty between daily commuting as well as to get me off road here in western mountains for many hiking, mountain biking and backpacking trips. For this reason, the car is being kept in no-frills status. Nothing worth breaking in for. The challenge with this is that my last cars were a highly advanced road car and a luxury SUV, both with excellent BT phone pairing and streaming of Pandora and Google NAV via my Android phone. These are hard features to give up once you're used to them, in fact I refused to.
After much research, I stumbled upon what seems to be a perfect solution. Stumble is an ideal word to use here. I thought I had the ideal head unit in the JVC KD-R820BT but after reading the fine print, any of these head units using the USB BT module were listed as having stability problems with the HTC Hero. While on the JVC site I noticed that the KSBTA100 BT add-on was reported to be 100% compatible with my phone. So I looked at the list of units that worked with the KSBTA100 and found a great $170 solution.
The JVC Arsenal KD-AHD79 Single DIN CD Receiver. Built-in HD Radio tuner and iTunes tagging. Satellite ready, iPod ready, front USB port, 2-way iPod/iPhone control, external mode for iPhone®/iPod Touch, MP3/WMA compatible, dual AUX inputs, 7-band iEQ, 50W x 4, includes wireless remote and carries a two-year factory warranty. I plugged the tiny JVC KSBTA100 Bluetooth module/controller right into the back of the AHD79 and gained very quick phone pairing for not only hands-free phone but also music and NAV streaming.
I finally had the time to do the install this morning and have had it out on the road for a good test trip.
Just after getting it all back together. Gone is the boat anchor. Man, that original radio is seemingly 5x heavier than the new one. Anyway, as you can see, this is no fancy touch screen DVD unit and the face plate even comes off. Seen to the right of the ventilation controls is my ProClip tilt/swivel holder for the HTC Hero.
In the garage after my test run, you can see in the lower left the KSBTA100, glowing green to indicate that it is paired with my phone. For incoming calls I simply reach down and slap that phone button to answer, the mic is in the same location and a call to our home voice machine showed that it is loud and clear. The mic sensitivity is adjustable BTW.
The new radio has better reception than the original and sounds much better with the stock speakers. Pandora sounds great and pipes down for calls or NAV voice cues. I look forward to trying out HD radio this weekend when we head down to the front range of Colorado for Bolder Boulder.
A great lower cost upgrade in both sound and function for this early 4th Gen 4Runner.
I bought this vehicle to cover dual duty between daily commuting as well as to get me off road here in western mountains for many hiking, mountain biking and backpacking trips. For this reason, the car is being kept in no-frills status. Nothing worth breaking in for. The challenge with this is that my last cars were a highly advanced road car and a luxury SUV, both with excellent BT phone pairing and streaming of Pandora and Google NAV via my Android phone. These are hard features to give up once you're used to them, in fact I refused to.
After much research, I stumbled upon what seems to be a perfect solution. Stumble is an ideal word to use here. I thought I had the ideal head unit in the JVC KD-R820BT but after reading the fine print, any of these head units using the USB BT module were listed as having stability problems with the HTC Hero. While on the JVC site I noticed that the KSBTA100 BT add-on was reported to be 100% compatible with my phone. So I looked at the list of units that worked with the KSBTA100 and found a great $170 solution.
The JVC Arsenal KD-AHD79 Single DIN CD Receiver. Built-in HD Radio tuner and iTunes tagging. Satellite ready, iPod ready, front USB port, 2-way iPod/iPhone control, external mode for iPhone®/iPod Touch, MP3/WMA compatible, dual AUX inputs, 7-band iEQ, 50W x 4, includes wireless remote and carries a two-year factory warranty. I plugged the tiny JVC KSBTA100 Bluetooth module/controller right into the back of the AHD79 and gained very quick phone pairing for not only hands-free phone but also music and NAV streaming.
I finally had the time to do the install this morning and have had it out on the road for a good test trip.
Just after getting it all back together. Gone is the boat anchor. Man, that original radio is seemingly 5x heavier than the new one. Anyway, as you can see, this is no fancy touch screen DVD unit and the face plate even comes off. Seen to the right of the ventilation controls is my ProClip tilt/swivel holder for the HTC Hero.
In the garage after my test run, you can see in the lower left the KSBTA100, glowing green to indicate that it is paired with my phone. For incoming calls I simply reach down and slap that phone button to answer, the mic is in the same location and a call to our home voice machine showed that it is loud and clear. The mic sensitivity is adjustable BTW.
The new radio has better reception than the original and sounds much better with the stock speakers. Pandora sounds great and pipes down for calls or NAV voice cues. I look forward to trying out HD radio this weekend when we head down to the front range of Colorado for Bolder Boulder.
A great lower cost upgrade in both sound and function for this early 4th Gen 4Runner.
