# IPad Dash Kit by Fifield Fab (not Soundman)?



## speakerman99 (Apr 18, 2016)

Wondering how to evaluate the cost difference here. Hard to tell quality from Internet pictures, would love to hear actual customers chime in. 

I'm toying with the idea of adding an iPad in the dash of my pickup. To date I have only found dash kits offered by SoundmanCA.com Seems to be the popular choice here anyway. Kit for iPad Air slider kit is $320

I ran across another kit by Fifield fabrications at Home. Which retails for $120. Only difference I can discern is the Soundman kit includes a few magnets and suade backing. Basically the same install otherwise. 

Any experience with FiField kit? Does it boil down to fit and finish? 




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## speakerman99 (Apr 18, 2016)

Anyone spent $300 on the Soundman Kit and felt like you got what you paid for? Just curious. 


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## Hammer1 (Jan 30, 2011)

I looked at the Soundman kit and thought it was too much money. I ended up making my own and it came out great. I never new someone else was making them and I might of tried Fifield kit. It is not that hard to come up with your own


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## Snake (Aug 28, 2015)

Doug(soundman) is starting to make cheap sliders out of mdf for android tablets. I believe they are at the $90 mark. Check out the past few videos on his youtube channel if you want to see them up close.


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## speakerman99 (Apr 18, 2016)

Hammer1 said:


> I looked at the Soundman kit and thought it was too much money. I ended up making my own and it came out great. I never new someone else was making them and I might of tried Fifield kit. It is not that hard to come up with your own




I've been leaning toward the DIY route, I just can't shake the feeling that I'm missing something on the SM Kit. $300 for abs plastic that I still have to glass into my dash sounds steep. 

What material did you use to form the housing substrate? 


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## speakerman99 (Apr 18, 2016)

Snake said:


> Doug(soundman) is starting to make cheap sliders out of mdf for android tablets. I believe they are at the $90 mark. Check out the past few videos on his youtube channel if you want to see them up close.




Will do. Thanks!


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## Hammer1 (Jan 30, 2011)

speakerman99 said:


> I've been leaning toward the DIY route, I just can't shake the feeling that I'm missing something on the SM Kit. $300 for abs plastic that I still have to glass into my dash sounds steep.
> 
> What material did you use to form the housing substrate?
> 
> ...


I used fiberglass to make the pan that holds the I Pad.


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## speakerman99 (Apr 18, 2016)

Hammer1 said:


> I used fiberglass to make the pan that holds the I Pad.




Did you just add magnets to the back to hold the iPad in place or other mechanical means? 


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## dallasneon (Nov 3, 2005)

I did a side slide kit from soundman. I think it was $240 but I think it was worth every penny. The price for the kit was nothing compared to what I spent on amps and speakers. Ipad fits great, it was easy to fab once it was trimmed down. I'll buy another for my next car. Here is the finished product.
















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## speakerman99 (Apr 18, 2016)

dallasneon said:


> I did a side slide kit from soundman. I think it was $240 but I think it was worth every penny. The price for the kit was nothing compared to what I spent on amps and speakers. Ipad fits great, it was easy to fab once it was trimmed down. I'll buy another for my next car. Here is the finished product.
> 
> 
> 
> ...




That's a sweet install! I'm in the same boat regarding amps/speakers. It's not so much about the price, more that I generally like to appreciate what I'm paying for. 

Basically, I'm seeing that one hunk of plastic is 250% more than the other so what's the difference ? Quality, details, name/reputation, etc.


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## dallasneon (Nov 3, 2005)

I can't compare the soundman to the cheaper kit, I would image fit and finish are not going to be as high with the cheap kit. The side slide kit is injection molded so the tolerances should be much better.

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## Hammer1 (Jan 30, 2011)

speakerman99 said:


> Did you just add magnets to the back to hold the iPad in place or other mechanical means?
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Yes I added 2 magnets to hold it in works great


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## speakerman99 (Apr 18, 2016)

Hammer1 said:


> Yes I added 2 magnets to hold it in works great




I just tried out some super strong rare earth magnets that I had around the shop. Not really impressed with their holding power on my old iPad 2. Pretty weak actually. These magnets are so strong around metal or themselves that I almost need to wear gloves. What gives? Old iPad non metallic back? It's much stronger on the front around the smart case points that Apple uses to wake/sleep. 


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## gregerst22 (Dec 18, 2012)

I actually ordered one for my iPad mini 4 last week and it should be delivered tomorrow. I'm curious about the quality as well. It's a bit slimmer than soundmans and I need it to be low profile for my application. They also have 100% positive feedback which is plus.


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## speakerman99 (Apr 18, 2016)

gregerst22 said:


> I actually ordered one for my iPad mini 4 last week and it should be delivered tomorrow. I'm curious about the quality as well. It's a bit slimmer than soundmans and I need it to be low profile for my application. They also have 100% positive feedback which is plus.




a real live customer! Im always a bit cautious with reviews these days. Please update once you receive.

On another topic for this group. Any suggestions for jailbreaking the iPad and iOS 10?



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## Hammer1 (Jan 30, 2011)

What model I Pad do you have. There is a jailbreak for ios10 out


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## speakerman99 (Apr 18, 2016)

Just the OLD iPad2 right now. I'm planning to replace with a refurbed Air once I get all the details worked out. 


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## Hammer1 (Jan 30, 2011)

The Air will run Ios 10 and can be jailbroke.


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## speakerman99 (Apr 18, 2016)

Which jail brake program did you use. I've read up on this one.

https://pangu-jailbreak.com/


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## Hammer1 (Jan 30, 2011)

I used pangu it will also put cydia in and you are set to tweak away. Only way to go when putting a ipad in dash


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## almatias (Nov 16, 2012)




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## jtaudioacc (Apr 6, 2010)

Hammer1 said:


> The Air will run Ios 10 and can be jailbroke.


post a link to a reputable jailbreak for ios 10. as far as i know, it's not possible, yet. 

i bought an old fifield kit long time ago. it's still sitting on the shelf. soundman is molded, and is a very nice kit. expensive, but very nice.

i just really don't like how part of the ipad needs to sit behind the kit. so the edge all around isn't uniform. i'm anal like that. but, they are both great kits for installations where you want to remove the ipad a lot.


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## Snake (Aug 28, 2015)

dallasneon said:


> I did a side slide kit from soundman. I think it was $240 but I think it was worth every penny. The price for the kit was nothing compared to what I spent on amps and speakers. Ipad fits great, it was easy to fab once it was trimmed down. I'll buy another for my next car. Here is the finished product.


Doug has definitely a lot of effort into his kits. The used to make them by hand, and now they are injection molded, which ain't cheap to do. Hell he made a video about a month ago where he drove clear across town to buy some spendy suede because its the only suede he felt was good enough put in his kits. If you want the highest quality kit then get his.


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

Hammer1 said:


> I used fiberglass to make the pan that holds the I Pad.


This is exactly what I did with my Android tablet, made a fiberglass mold of the tablet and used magnets to hold the trim on. It's not a difficult DIY at all and pretty cheap in terms of materials.


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## ErinH (Feb 14, 2007)

all this iPad talk... makes me want to get the new sony headunit and use it with an iPad mini.


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## Crazycross (Feb 23, 2013)

I have used kits from fifield, sound man and made my own from fiberglass.......

It depends on what your looking for and how much room you have in that part of the dash area.....the soundman kit you can get down to the knat's ass when trimming it where the fifield is abs plastic stacked up so it gets to be a lil dangerous cutting it down on the table saw etc......

Making my own kit took the most time to get a nice finish so keep that in mind. 

Let me see if I can post some pictures for ya.


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

ErinH said:


> all this iPad talk... makes me want to get the new sony headunit and use it with an iPad mini.


If you are going that route though, why not just skip the Sony headunit and use the iPad as the source? I should add here that I don't know if the iPad plays FLAC and I am not 100% on everything the Sony does, but it seems an expensive solution. I love how that Sony looks though!!


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## Babs (Jul 6, 2007)

ErinH said:


> all this iPad talk... makes me want to get the new sony headunit and use it with an iPad mini.


It's pretty dang tempting isn't it.


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## Babs (Jul 6, 2007)

naiku said:


> If you are going that route though, why not just skip the Sony headunit and use the iPad as the source? I should add here that I don't know if the iPad plays FLAC and I am not 100% on everything the Sony does, but it seems an expensive solution. I love how that Sony looks though!!


iPad is the source, but the head unit provides the easy switchable source capability and easy done-deal optical output, or the uber-awesome analog out if so inclined which on this unit, the better of the two is a toss up with ext DSP.

iOS will play flac, but only in a 3rd party app and I think loading the files is wonky.. Damn Apple propriatary BS.. Makes me reconsider the little green robot. Sorry rant over.


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

Babs said:


> iPad is the source, but the head unit provides the easy switchable source capability and easy done-deal optical output, or the uber-awesome analog out if so inclined which on this unit, the better of the two is a toss up with ext DSP.
> 
> 
> > Does an iPad not support optical output though? For example with my Nexus I can simply plug in either a USB-DAC with optical out, or a USB to SPDIF out and done, optical to the DSP. By source switching are you talking between FM, MP3 etc? I definitely don't know a whole lot about the Sony unit, but struggle to grasp what exactly it offers over something like a tablet, especially if someone is already looking to use a tablet in the car anyway.
> ...


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## ErinH (Feb 14, 2007)

naiku said:


> If you are going that route though, why not just skip the Sony headunit and use the iPad as the source? I should add here that I don't know if the iPad plays FLAC and I am not 100% on everything the Sony does, but it seems an expensive solution. I love how that Sony looks though!!


true. but I do like that the sony would be the source control.


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## Zippy (Jul 21, 2013)

naiku said:


> Does an iPad not support optical output though? For example with my Nexus I can simply plug in either a USB-DAC with optical out, or a USB to SPDIF out and done, optical to the DSP. By source switching are you talking between FM, MP3 etc? I definitely don't know a whole lot about the Sony unit, but struggle to grasp what exactly it offers over something like a tablet, especially if someone is already looking to use a tablet in the car anyway.


There are ways to get toslink out, but most of them will AirPlay at some point. The hdmi adapter has a small computer in it that is an AirPlay target, the camera kit is difficult to provide power to charge the device with, and there are a small handful of DACs that iOS supports, etc. AirPlay is only as good as the target allows and is almost always a down sample for hires. My rainbow DSP 1.8 is about the simplest/cleanest solution where I airplay to the DSP, but I have been having wifi flake outs lately where it loses connection. To play hires files, you will have a hard time getting them to convert far enough down stream. 

This is a space where android does better. I'm going Sony NW-WM1A Walkman soon.


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## naiku (May 28, 2008)

Zippy said:


> There are ways to get toslink out, but most of them will AirPlay at some point. The hdmi adapter has a small computer in it that is an AirPlay target, the camera kit is difficult to provide power to charge the device with, and there are a small handful of DACs that iOS supports, etc. AirPlay is only as good as the target allows and is almost always a down sample for hires. My rainbow DSP 1.8 is about the simplest/cleanest solution where I airplay to the DSP, but I have been having wifi flake outs lately where it loses connection. To play hires files, you will have a hard time getting them to convert far enough down stream.
> 
> This is a space where android does better. I'm going Sony NW-WM1A Walkman soon.


I really liked your set up in the BRZ, can definitely understand where wifi dropping out would be incredibly annoying though. That Walkman is a really nice looking piece of kit!!!


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## Zippy (Jul 21, 2013)

naiku said:


> I really liked your set up in the BRZ, can definitely understand where wifi dropping out would be incredibly annoying though. That Walkman is a really nice looking piece of kit!!!


I'm using the soundman slider kit for the iPad mini which I got for around $150. Sounds like he jacked up the prices since I got mine. 

I'm still trying to figure out how they are up sampling the music for the Walkman. Maybe something like DVD to 1080 up sampling for movies.


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## Babs (Jul 6, 2007)

Zippy said:


> There are ways to get toslink out, but most of them will AirPlay at some point. The hdmi adapter has a small computer in it that is an AirPlay target, *the camera kit is difficult to provide power to charge the device with*, and there are a small handful of DACs that iOS supports, etc. AirPlay is only as good as the target allows and is almost always a down sample for hires. My rainbow DSP 1.8 is about the simplest/cleanest solution where I airplay to the DSP, but I have been having wifi flake outs lately where it loses connection. To play hires files, you will have a hard time getting them to convert far enough down stream.
> 
> This is a space where android does better. I'm going Sony NW-WM1A Walkman soon.


Are you referring to the old or new camera adapter? New one has a charge-back input like the AV adapter.


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## Zippy (Jul 21, 2013)

Babs said:


> Are you referring to the old or new camera adapter? New one has a charge-back input like the AV adapter.


The new one. Here's a link to it opened up explaining. 

Why does Apple's Lightning to HDMI adapter have an ARM computer inside? - The Verge


Edit: Since then it has been confirmed as an AirPlay target.

Re-Edit: That is new on the camera kit. I thought it was still the AV kit.


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## speakerman99 (Apr 18, 2016)

Crazycross said:


> I have used kits from fifield, sound man and made my own from fiberglass.......
> 
> It depends on what your looking for and how much room you have in that part of the dash area.....the soundman kit you can get down to the knat's ass when trimming it where the fifield is abs plastic stacked up so it gets to be a lil dangerous cutting it down on the table saw etc......
> 
> ...


Pictures here would be great! Thanks for your input.


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## speakerman99 (Apr 18, 2016)

naiku said:


> Sorry OP, getting a bit off topic.


No problem. I'm enjoying the conversation. I bought the Sony HU a few weeks ago for the exact same setup, although I will need to do some fabrication to mount the Sony in my truck. Actually spent several hours playing with the Sony yesterday afternoon in my basement. I'm still trying to figure out the preferred method to keep OEM features and I wanted to test drive the sony in some real world situations before spending any more $$ 

I hooked up the Sony to my Harman Kardon AVR receiver and Infinity floor-standers to get an idea what this baby would do. Immediately I noticed the spacious depth from the Sony DAC. Tried to do A/B comparison between Sony analog output versus optical out. To be honest I can't tell a big difference. If anything the optical sounds maybe more accurate, but the analog has a warmer, guttier sound. Has anyone else figured out their preferred method? 

I'd assumed that I would run all digital to the DSP, but that would bypass one of the Sony's main features in the DAC. So what's better 2 high-quality DAC conversions(HU>DSP) with warmer sound or 1 very accurate DAC just at the DSP? Or I'm really just splitting hairs at this point, right?


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## gregerst22 (Dec 18, 2012)

speakerman99 said:


> a real live customer! Im always a bit cautious with reviews these days. Please update once you receive.
> 
> On another topic for this group. Any suggestions for jailbreaking the iPad and iOS 10?
> 
> ...


So I received the dash kit in the mail today. My initial impression is that it's pretty much exactly as it was described on the website. The fit and finish is good and it seems sturdy. The only thing I will do is add some felt like soundmans has. I haven't seen or used soundmans version in person but I think his looks like it would be easier to dock and undock the iPad with but for 1/4 the cost I don't mind and I will only occasionally remove the iPad. Most of the time it will stay docked. 
I like that its low profile because my plan is that the dock will attach to the center console and be suspended above my hvac controls with neo magnets. In my car I can operate the hvac using the remote touch system so I really don't need access to the physical buttons. 99% of the time the temp is set at auto anyway.

I've had just the iPad attached to the center console for the last couple of weeks using magnets and it's awesome having easy access and control of stored music, streaming music, videos, texts, internet, email, siri etc. Not to mention better Nav then what's comes with the car. Now that I have it I can see myself giving that up. Now I just need to make it look integrated and oem. This dash kit will give me a good foundation to start with.


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## speakerman99 (Apr 18, 2016)

gregerst22 said:


> So I received the dash kit in the mail today. My initial impression is that it's pretty much exactly as it was described on the website. The fit and finish is good and it seems sturdy. The only thing I will do is add some felt like soundmans has. I haven't seen or used soundmans version in person but I think his looks like it would be easier to dock and undock the iPad with but for 1/4 the cost I don't mind and I will only occasionally remove the iPad. Most of the time it will stay docked.
> I like that its low profile because my plan is that the dock will attach to the center console and be suspended above my hvac controls with neo magnets. In my car I can operate the hvac using the remote touch system so I really don't need access to the physical buttons. 99% of the time the temp is set at auto anyway.
> 
> I've had just the iPad attached to the center console for the last couple of weeks using magnets and it's awesome having easy access and control of stored music, streaming music, videos, texts, internet, email, siri etc. Not to mention better Nav then what's comes with the car. Now that I have it I can see myself giving that up. Now I just need to make it look integrated and oem. This dash kit will give me a good foundation to start with.



Thanks for the pics! It looks like its a pretty tight fit from here. Someone mentioned above that the fifield kit was stacked ABS. If it's not too much trouble could you take a picture form the back and/or side. I'm wondering how the stacked layers are held together.


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## gregerst22 (Dec 18, 2012)

speakerman99 said:


> Thanks for the pics! It looks like its a pretty tight fit from here. Someone mentioned above that the fifield kit was stacked ABS. If it's not too much trouble could you take a picture form the back and/or side. I'm wondering how the stacked layers are held together.


Looks like 3 pieces are glued together. top, middle and back. The top and back look to be 1/8" thick abs glued to the middle piece which is about 3/4" wide and 1/4" thick. All in all its pretty sturdy and there's only a little flex under moderate pressure.


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## jtaudioacc (Apr 6, 2010)

ErinH said:


> all this iPad talk... makes me want to get the new sony headunit and use it with an iPad mini.


i think that's the best option. stash that head unit and control with something else. i've been considering this. not cheap, and i still need to play with the app to be sure it's decent enough.


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## speakerman99 (Apr 18, 2016)

gregerst22 said:


> Looks like 3 pieces are glued together. top, middle and back. The top and back look to be 1/8" thick abs glued to the middle piece which is about 3/4" wide and 1/4" thick. All in all its pretty sturdy and there's only a little flex under moderate pressure.




Thanks Man. Thats perfect. Do you think the iPad is secure enough without magnets or do you plan to add a set for good measure?


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## Zippy (Jul 21, 2013)

Here's a link to the kit I originally wanted to get. It's 12v, motorized, touch panel to release the tablet, and really expensive. 

iRoom’s iDock | iRoom GmbH – Intelligente Technik

Problem was it was too big for my small sports car. Would work great in a SUV or large truck though.


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## rton20s (Feb 14, 2011)

jtaudioacc said:


> i think that's the best option. stash that head unit and control with something else. i've been considering this. not cheap, and i still need to play with the app to be sure it's decent enough.


If you can wait 10 minutes, there will probably be a really good deal on a used one down there in SoCal.


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## speakerman99 (Apr 18, 2016)

jtaudioacc said:


> i think that's the best option. stash that head unit and control with something else. i've been considering this. not cheap, and i still need to play with the app to be sure it's decent enough.




Spent a while with the app yesterday. I'm not sure that it's a one stop- Desktop replacement for the iPad home screen that they sort of made an attempt to replace, but I did appreciate the attempt by adding optional buttons to open Waze, iTunes, etc. 

What I still don't understand is why they have to disable the song pal app when my phone is plugged in. I get the shortened features list with optical, but I still want access regardless if I play some tunes from the phone. Any insight?


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## gregerst22 (Dec 18, 2012)

speakerman99 said:


> Thanks Man. Thats perfect. Do you think the iPad is secure enough without magnets or do you plan to add a set for good measure?
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


The iPad won't need magnets to stay docked the fit appears to be tight enough that the lighting connector will hold it in place. But My plan is to use magnets to hold the dash kit to my center console. Basically it'll be a molded cover over the hvac controls and can be removed if needed. No permanent modifactions.


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## almatias (Nov 16, 2012)




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