2004 V70 Yatour sd/USB/bluetooth connector for HU stereos

[Locky2001V70]

Anyone here ever purchased the Yatour brand connector for the Volvo HU car stereo systems?

I'm happy with the sound quality and the stock look but it would be nice to hide an iPod in the glovebox with a decent playlist for weekend road trips.

Anyone have any experience with these?
Is it a simple installation/ re removing HU head unit and installing?

What is the sound quality like?


Cheers!

[vtl]

I put one of Chinese Yatour's knock-offs in 2002 V70. No bluetooth and iFoo integration, but I was not interested in that. It supports at least 8Gb SD/MMC card, sound quality is pretty high. It had all what I needed.

On the other hand, when I bought 2005 XC70 it had USA Spec adapter in glove box, in which I had to reflow soldering, because of crappy PCB mounting quality. It also cuts power from iFoo device when next track is selected, so I could not use old iPod bought off Ebay with dead battery. After battery replacement iPod still was hanging from time to time, and overall sound quality was not up to Yatour's, partially due to HU in XC70, but mostly thanks to crappy circuit design (no interference protection). Yatour has no engine noise at all.

Unfortunately, Yatour is not working on 05+, so I replaced the whole HU with Kenwood.

[chrism]

Sorry but I was going to start a new topic, then I saw this post so I'm going to highjack

The current radio is the HU-650 with CD/cassette. It's doing the typical thing where it jumps from station-to-station even if it is tuned to a strong station. As a side note, I have gone into the C-pillar and inspected the antenna connections. All is OK there, confirmed by connecting/disconnecting while the radio is on and the antenna appears to be working.

Also, the volume control is whacky - volume INCREASES when I turn it counterclockwise. Sometimes you have to spin, spin, spin the knob to get the volume to change. Almost like the FASTER you spin it, the better it works. AM reception is "fair" at best. Looking at the backside of a radio at the P-n-P, it looks like the volume and station selector controls are pretty much unserviceable.

So, to replace the radio with a brand new Volvo unit is cost prohibitive. Replacement with a used Volvo radio seems like a waste of money and energy, given the many complaints I've read about these things. So that brings me to the point of replacing it with an aftermarket unit.

There are trim panels and harness adaptors that allow you to install a standard DIN Kenwood or whatever radio you choose. If I go that route, what are the complications I can expect? ie, will the current built-in antenna work OK? Will the steering wheel controls still function? Is the car alarm integrated with the radio system in any way?

In a nut shell. I don't even know what I don't know. Have any of you tackled this before?

[vtl]

There's 2DIN fascia panel, which looks ok, and a wire harness for 05+ Volvos.

AM reception in Kenwood is unacceptable, I can't really listen to the station located within 10 miles. FM is fine. Probably antenna amplifier will solve AM problem.

In term of sound quality Kenwood (DDX-371 in my case) beats HU-650 with one hand.

Steering wheel controls work if adapter is installed (~$40..50). I also wanted automatic dimmer working, so decided to build my own Arduino-based adapter, see https://github.com/vtl/volvo-kenwood

[vtl]

Also if you are generally fine with HU-650, which actually works (no jumps between stations, volume knob works), you can buy used one on ebay for a very little money.

[Locky2001V70]

Thanks for that, yatour sounds pretty good for the money.
The other one I'm interested in is the Grom unit which has the advantage of bluetooth connectivity.
The laws are really strict with mobile phone in cars.

I will probably go a replacement 2 din Head unit at some stage down the track, but for now happy to keep a stock look.