Nakamichi Or Pioneer

[mgilly]

How can you tell if the Ls400 you are buying has a Nak or a Pioneer sound system.As the 400 i have now i was sure it was a Nak system untill i removed it , and found it to be a pioneer. Thanks

[1990LS400]

If it is a Nakamichi, then it will say Nakamichi on the face/front of the radio - always. If it does not say Nakamichi then it is the standard Pioneer. You can see the Nakamichi logo on the radio in this photo of the one in my 2000 LS400.

[mgilly]

Ok thank you , have you got your phone connected to your car sound system if yes how

[mgilly]

Now i may come across a dumb but is the Nakamichi name on the sat/ head unit aswell and were do i look .

[1990LS400]

Ok thank you , have you got your phone connected to your car sound system if yes how

My Samsung Galaxy SIII phone wirelessly connects via Bluetooth to the Garmin GPS mounted above it on a bracket. I had planned to install a Parrot Blue tooth phone kit so that it would automatically mute the radio during a phone call like the Nokia phone kit I just removed but the Garmin "rings" so loud when a call comes in that I don't miss incoming calls.

One cool thing about this setup is that the free Garmin "Smartphone Link" app from the Google Play store allows sending addresses from a variety of applications on the phone to the Garmin GPS. Both the Garmin GPS and the Samsung phone can be operated with voice commands. In fact, clicking the Samsung phone into the Samsung Infuse charging cradle automatically puts the phone into voice command mode.

If I had an aux-in jack installed on the Nakamichi (about $60 at Factory Radios in California), I could connect the aux-out on the Infuse cradle to the Nakamichi system and stream music from the phone's memory or from the Internet. I also have the Toyota Entune app on my phone which allows me to stream music to the Entune system of my wife's new Prius. The Prius has XM radio but I prefer the music I am finding on http://www.iheart.com/ which I can seamlessly stream to the Prius audio system from my phone.

[1990LS400]

Now i may come across a dumb but is the Nakamichi name on the sat/ head unit aswell and were do i look .

Nakamichi was never part of the navigation systems.

[mgilly]

great info lads , so if nakdo not do the sat nave unit who do am i better tracking down a non sat unit , ie nak unit

[1990LS400]

great info lads , so if nakdo not do the sat nave unit who do am i better tracking down a non sat unit , ie nak unit

I'm not sure I understand. IMO, it is now better to have the regular Pioneer audio system than the Nakamichi system. Nakamichi systems often cannot be repaired since there are no parts available. Nakamichi went out of business years ago and the current Nakamichi company has nothing to do with the products the old Nakamichi company made for Toyota.

The Nakamichi and Pioneer components are not interchangable on the 95-00 LS400 - not sure about the earlier LS400. The wiring harnesses are very different.

[mgilly]

Thanks again