LS460 - has anyone added the VAIS Bluetooth adapter?

[donkmeister]

For long road trips I have a BT module hooked up to the aux input; it's too annoying to fiddle about with the remote and folding the screen back up for most journeys, so it rarely gets used.

I had been contemplating the GROM, but for £500 would want something that works perfectly... Which doesn't seem to be the case.

So, I found a company called VAIS in the US have a BT module that is a fair bit cheaper ($280USD plus shipping , taxes etc) and emulates a second CD changer (I.e audio only; no screen mirroring or android apps). Seems ideal. Has anyone here had any experience of them? Anything to report?

[BigBoomer]

I believe that the LS460 has the same 6+6 connector as the facelift LS430 (Mark Levinson) systems.
If you only want Bluetooth music and handsfree then get the Bluemusic 6+6 unit and their 6+6 Y-cable.
https://www.musikimauto.de/BlueMusic-Bluetooth-Audio-Handsfree-KitToyota-66
https://www.musikimauto.de/Toyota-66-Y-connector-small
They are fairly cheap (£60 delivered to the UK from Germany) and work really well.
You just select CD2 and connect to the Bluemusic Bluetooth and use your preferred music player on the phone.

I've had mine in my LS430 for about 3 years now and I only occasionally have to connect the Bluetooth manually.
Mostly it just connects to my phone (Android) when I start the car and continues playing exactly where it left off.
The steering wheel controls for next/previous track work as normal and the sound quality is excellent.
The install is pretty simple. The only difficult part is going to be routing the microphone cable. I didn't bother as I rarely take calls when driving.

If you have an Android phone, I really like the app called Folder Player. It will play whatever is in the folder/subfolders that you choose to play.
So I have my music separated into "categories" and under those have bands and under those albums.
So if I choose "Prog" it will play songs from the Prog folder at random, but if I want to only listen to Hawkwind I can drill down to that folder and play just that.
If I hit "play" on the Music folder it will choose tracks at random from my entire music collection.

[MJB18]

I had one in my LS460. It worked really well (but eventually I gave in to temptation and replaced it with a Grom)

While I had it I made this little video showing what it does:

(somehow the video got split into two parts)

 

If I can remember where I put it when I took it out I might put it up for sale

[donkmeister]

Brilliant video demo, thanks! 

[jdanielca]

On 1/27/2023 at 11:29 PM, MJB18 said:

I had one in my LS460. It worked really well (but eventually I gave in to temptation and replaced it with a Grom)

While I had it I made this little video showing what it does:

(somehow the video got split into two parts)

 

If I can remember where I put it when I took it out I might put it up for sale

If you find it, I’d be interested 🙂 ship to London 

[donkmeister]

Update: I fitted a Blue Music adapter today (thanks @BigBoomer for the steer!). I went for SKU 2720, which is the version without telephony as the LS460 already has handsfree built-in. I also needed the Y-cable (see screenshot for the items I used.)

Fitting was surprisingly straightforward - I didn't take pictures as there are already quite a few YouTube videos showing how to remove the LS460 head unit however, the basic process is:

1. unclip then slide the trim pieces either side of the trans tunnel out of the way
2. unclip the piece of trim between the gear selector panel and the armrest
3. unscrew the gear selector
4. use a socket to undo two 10mm hex screws on the driver's side of the trans tunnel (recessed)
5. unclip and lift the gear selector panel, then carefully lay it down (I didn't bother disconnecting the wiring)
6. unclip and lift out the ashtray (again, I didn't bother disconnecting the wiring)
7. undo a 10mm hex screw on each side of the head unit (these are hidden and must be accessed from underneath... and removing/replacing these was the fiddliest part of the job)
8. use a trim tool to lever out the head unit
9. use the Y-cable to connect the Bluetooth adapter
10. check it works
11. try 3-4, maybe 5 times to get the cables into a position where you can slide the head-unit back in, then reassemble the trim around it. 

Total time: 30 minutes. Seriously, I'm impressed at how the interior goes together. Not a single broken clip either.

Total cost: €47.23 delivered ( £41.51 at today's exchange rate). 

Sound quality... the Blue Music adapter, like Grom and VAIS, doesn't do APT-X of any flavour, nor LDAC. So, you get "standard" Bluetooth audio. Whilst I would have preferred a higher-quality codec, it's perfectly fine once you are on the move - even in an LS460 there's enough wind and road noise to mean that you probably wouldn't hear any benefit of such a codec.

Functionality: it shows up as CD Changer 2 automatically (no configuration required). The track forward and back buttons work on both dash and wheel. The track names don't show up on the screen however that may be a limitation of the audio player on my phone (I use Plex to stream from my home server and didn't think to try anything else). 

Any foibles: none identified as yet. The volume of the adapter seems to be the same as that of the radio and CD player, so you shouldn't find that one input is exceptionally loud or quiet (this is a detail that is missed by quite a few aux adapter makers!)