What are my options for inputting better signal in my 10 year old Lexus?

Audio Gear Talk
1

I’m currently the owner of '10 Lexus IS250 and the stereo is surprisingly capable.
The head unit has bluetooth and it sounds not bad, but I assume it’s BT tech from over a decade ago so not sure what the limitations of bit rate and sample rate are, but I’m sure there’s a fair bit of loss going on from my phone to the stereo when connecting via BT.
There’s a USB input for USB drives (I guess) and your classic headphone jack input for the “aux” cable.
Without ripping out the head unit I was thinking about getting some janky Iphone to portable DAC via OTG cable, then from DAC to the aux input of the stereo. Problems with that is phone won’t be able to charge at same time and just lots of cable and stuff to set up everytime.

Is there maybe a cheapish DAP with a good line out that could interact with Roon properly?
Something like that I could just get a separate mount for in the car and power it from another usb power input. I’d not having any steering wheel controls for skipping which would suck…

Anyone ever done something like this? Looking for ideas!

Thanks!

2

I’m thinking this might fit the bill: FiiO KA1 along with a wireless charging pad/holder so the phone can charge at same time

3

I use the FiiO KA1 from an iPhone running Roon ARC then 3.5 into AUX input. However, the difference in resolution is not worth the effort in a car so I normally use lightning out of the iPhone into the USB CarPlay jack. That said, if my car didn’t have CarPlay, I would use the AUX in and the KA1.

If I need to keep the iPhone charged when using the first option, I use an Apple camera adapter.

1 Like
4

With all the aux jack options you lose the steering wheel skip/reverse button functionality too, come to think of it

5

They sell bluetooth devices that mount on steering wheel that just control play/pause skip and volume, but that would add an extra layer of jankiness to the set up