BOSS Audio Techniques BVCP9700A Automotive Stereo – Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, Double Din, 7 Inch Touchscreen, Bluetooth, No CD DVD Participant, AM/FM Radio Receiver

Great upgrade for my Jeep
Installed stereo into my 2016 Jeep Patriot and works like a charm. Great features, nice sound, and all the connections you need to hook up a high quality system

The best value in aftermarket CarPlay radios…
For the price, this is excellent. Well worth the price. Boss is a fairly reputable brand, so it all works great and it has great instructions. Installed in a 2005 Toyota Prius with no major issues. There are cheaper ones from no-name Chinese brands but don’t waste your time or money. I bought a CarPlay double din from a brand less manufacturer and it was riddled with problems and just generally poor quality.Touchscreen is good but not responsive like an iPad or modern smartphone. The screen quality is great but not excellent. Again, it’s much better than the cheap alternatives but not as good as the $400 radios. One pretty decent drawback is that the usb input for CarPlay comes out of the back on a short cord. This forces you to snake it to an awkward location. It also doesn’t seem to like non-apple branded cords.Big plus is this has 4 channel output with a subwoofer output. The internal amp is pretty good too and will likely improve any factory setup. I set it up with a 4 channel amp and added pretty inexpensive speakers and now the sound system is pretty impressive.

Three Strikes and You Are Out….
I really wanted this unit to work for adding CarPlay and Bluetooth to an older vehicle. But after purchasing three from two different vendors and returning all of them, I gave up. I am not a car audio professional, but I am an electronics engineer and have been toying with car and home audio most of the past 30 years.First let’s start with the pros:Nice quality screen, easy, ergonomic functionality, and intuitive to use.Physical volume knob (hard to find)Front and rear camera (optional add-ons, I didn’t evaluate).Wired Apple Carplay works well. Very responsive. I had no issues with it connecting and staying connected. This unit does not support Wireless Apple Carplay. Front USB connection does not offer CarPlay, must use the rear USB dongle and connect a Lightning cable to it and fish out the front of your dash. Not a big deal I have a cable hanging in a car all the time anyway.Bluetooth paired and worked well with my iPhone 10.Screen resolution and touch sensitivity performs well.Plentiful pre-tapped mounting holes in various configurations allowed my existing side brackets to make a perfect fit in my 2000 4Runner. Front bezel fit perfectly in the dash.FM tuning and pre-sets work great.I had no problems with the functionality like other reviews.Has 3-year warranty, and from talking with their support, I don’t think you would have an issue with a warranty claim. They were fast to answer, and really wanted to help.Now the Cons:Built-in 4-channel amplifier is severely underpowered. I think my clock radio in my bedroom has more power than this thing. Boss states on their web site this has a 320W amplifier (80Wx 4 channels). This is total baloney. I opened it up and took a look at the numbers on the amplifier chip: TDA7388 made by STMicroelectronics. Their data sheet shows this as a 4 channel x 26 Watt @ 14.4 V, 1 kHz, 10 % Class AB Amplifier. The distortion (THD) graph shows 10% at 11W (this is why is distorts the sound as you turn the volume up to 50% level). To overcome road noise and actually hear music it needs to be 40% to 50% and then the sound unbearably distorts. I was so disappointed in this. For the price I was willing to get over this and manually wire the RCA pre-amp outputs into a 4-channel 25W/channel external amp (even with this little wattage the sound was like night and day compared to the internal amp). But when the pre-amp outputs were used, there was a constant hissing noise on the outputs. I tried three different units, all had the same problem. Even with nothing connected the noise showed on my o-scope. Boss has US based support, and they seem to stand behind their products, but they could offer no explanation. All they could offer was a RMA replacement on the units. Because I was in the 30-day Amazon return period, I didn’t want to risk a full refund.I don’t know why the unit is 6.3” deep. It is literally hollow inside and the whole thing weights 27 oz.Some of the good reviews on Amazon and Crutchfield blow my mind. These buyers must really have replaced sucky factory units. My Toyota factory unit this was to replace is not “premium” by any measure, but had decent quality sound. Even though the features and operation of this Boss unit were nice, I am buying it to hear it not to watch it. I still can’t get over how bad it sounded so I can’t give it more than one star. I ended up purchasing a ATOTO A6G2A7PF due to another posted review and could no be happier with it, in fact it blew me away for the price point (and it has wireless CarPlay).

Installed that in a 2008 Toyota Matrix. The radio doesn’t fit very well in the hole, but it is what it is with this kind of “modification”. It works very well with Android and the included backup camera. They are features that still need testing, but so far we are pleased with it.

I installed the Boss double fin unit in my 2000 Porsche Boxter and it has brought my Porsche into this Century. Looks great and so far works great . So far I am very happy with the unit although I haven’t tried out the handsfree calling yet as my car is parked for the winter.