Headunit upgrade with JBL

Has anyone upgraded to one of the Android headunits available on eBay or any factory-like headunit upgrade, and you have JBL? I saw the Rosen, but they nickel and dime you to death for nearly every add on. Actually, it's more like they $100 and $200 dollar you...
I've seen all the easy upgrades for the non-JBL owners, but finding a unit that supports JBL has proven fruitless so far.

**UPDATE**
See my review of the radio below.

 

Well, thanks to the overwhelming responses... pause for sarcasm...

I took a plunge and ordered an Android radio from eBay and the corresponding JBL adapter. I should have it in the next week or two, and I'll post my results for everyone.



I went with an Android unit because I have experience with them from Avin, who made Android headunits for my previous BMW.

 

I've seen that same option on recent Chevy models. It's an app-like feature that I've been scouring the Google Play store for. I've come across these that I'm going to try once I install my radio.

Voice Text: Voice Text - Android Apps on Google Play
Text by Voice: Text by Voice - Android Apps on Google Play

 

I finally installed the radio, and like it very much. The JBL system works as it should thanks to the adapter. I've copied the review which I listed on Amazon to help others over there.

JBL RADIO:
I have a JBL-equipped 2010 Prius and had to purchase a separate adapter for $40, again via eBay. The correct adapter is KD-Z0002. DO NOT let them send you CS-Z0002. Make sure if you need this JBL adapter, you verify they send you the right one. These come from China and can take quite a while -- 3-4 weeks -- if they send the incorrect harness (like the did for me.) The audio quality is the same as the stock radio. BUT, the benefit of this radio is the EQ band is highly adjustable. Very nice. The front/rear fade doesn't work right, as expected, because of the intricacies of the JBL system; if you try to fade it to the rear, you get no audio from any speaker. Overall, the audio quality is outstanding and it gets quite loud, with ease. Volume level 1 on this radio is equivalent to Volume level 5 or 6 on the stock radio.

WHEN INSTALLING IN A JBL-EQUIPPED CAR:
Step 1: Before removing the stock radio, turn to FM and turn up the volume to level 45 (yes, 45.) Set Bass, Mid, Treble, Fade, Balance all to 0 (zero). Let that stay on for about 5 seconds, then turn off the radio, then the car. Now, you can remove the stock radio.

Step 2: Install the JBL harness and the Android radio, but do not turn on yet.

Step 3: VERY IMPORTANT: To prime the JBL system to work properly with the new radio do the following: Turn the car to 'ON' for 2-3 seconds, then quickly turn the car OFF. Do this step 2 times in a row. (Note: you may not see the radio screen turn on. That's okay.)

After you complete these steps, your JBL system is properly primed and ready to go! If you did not do this, you're audio playback will sound like crap. You will notice a huge difference. I pulled these instructions from the Rosen JBL adapter install.

APPS:
All but a few apps work on the radio -- Sygic GPS Navigation, ESPN Radio, and Verizon Messages+ do not work. That first one is big pain for me, and I'm working with Sygic to get that resolved. Otherwise, my apps installed fine and work just great. Google Maps, Google Search and all other system apps are not nearly as slow and choppy as my previous 4.2 radio. In fact, they work quite smooth. "OK Google" does crash every time I attempt to use it, but you can still Voice Search when you use the mic button on Google Now or the keyboard. Strange. Overall, apps are much smoother than a 4.2 radio.

BLUETOOTH:
Connected to my Verizon LG G3 quickly. All my contacts and call logs loaded right away. The internal mic on the radio is absolutely, positively terrible. No better way to put it. My caller could not hear me even at full yell. They told me they could barely hear me. Just connect the included external mic, which worked just fine. I mounted mine to the left of the clock buttons.

STEERING WHEEL BUTTONS:
Good news, bad news. The steering wheel buttons work and you can fully customize them within the settings menu. The upside is they work. The downside is the Next/Prev track buttons only work in the system apps (i.e. Music, Radio, Bluetooth, Video, etc.) Those buttons do not operate in Pandora, Spotify, VLC, Google Play Music, or any other user-installed music or video app. An annoyance for sure, since my last Android radio had no issues with this. The Volume and Mode buttons operate within every app.

BRIGHTNESS:
The screen brightness only slightly dims when I turn on the headlights. (To make this work during the install on JBL, connect the orange illumination cable to the green unlabeled cable.) So, I installed the Screen Filter app for nighttime driving. Works great. Alternatively, you can swipe down the notification panel and just lower the brightness that way. The screen does dim quite well doing it that way; I just prefer using the filter app. As for daytime driving, it's plenty bright with great visibility in nearly every sunny condition.

The physical buttons. ...oh, the physical buttons. Well, they are blue. As you know, the Prius interior lighting is green in most places. You cannot change the color of the physical buttons. Also, get to know where the buttons are at. The lighting on the buttons is very dim, and therefore difficult to see clearly at night. My biggest peeve about this radio.

WIFI/Hotspot:
If you've ever owned an Android radio, you know the wifi is not super strong. This is about the same. Not better, not worse. Consistently OK. Download speeds rarely exceed 15Mbps. If you're connecting to your home wifi to download apps, maps, or whatever... get close and leave the car on. It'll be a while.
Hotspotting my phone works, when it wants to. Sometimes it can be finicky with connecting, but I honestly think that has more to do with this stupid Lollipop upgrade on my phone than anything with the radio. I say that because the radio picks up my house wifi every time, without fail.

OTHER:
The radio startup time is 20-30 seconds. It's not super fast, but by the time I backup out my driveway and start to pull off, it's coming on. If you turn off the car for any longer than 10-15 seconds, you'll have this startup wait.
The code to access the Factory Settings menu is 126. Don't get carried away messing with too much stuff in there.
Haven't tried using the DVD function, but the video player (video files) works great.
I did install a backup camera, and plugged in without issues. The image can be best described as SD (standard def), but a BIG plus is the image is very visible at night.
It reads my 128GB hard drive just fine - and best of all, it plays back FLAC files!

OVERALL:
It has it quirks, namely with the steering wheel track buttons and the dim physical buttons. But overall, this is a solid radio with outstanding audio quality and I can enjoy all my music apps front and center on my drive. And I'm so very glad that it works with my JBL-equipped system without issues!

I'm sure I missed some points, so I'm happy to answer any questions.

 

It's very straightforward. The wires on the back of the radio are labeled for the 2 required camera cables. One wire is the yellow A/V cable, the other is the power wire.

 

Sorry for the late reply, I'm not subscribed to this thread.
I mounted mine on the A-pillar where the pillar meets the headliner, after trying it near the clock buttons. I used a cable extender to make the length, since the mic cable is quite short. It reduced the echo quite well.