Offering its first upgrade of the 3Sixty OEM integration/sound processor in 5 years, Rockford began shipping the 3Sixty.3 on Friday at $699.
The new unit permits Bluetooth audio streaming, has an extra 2-channels, allows infinitely adjustable crossovers and comes with a more comprehensive remote.
Like the first 3Sixty models that launched in 2006, the new unit gives you a clean, full-range signal when you want to remove the factory audio system and replace it with aftermarket audio. This is necessary as many new cars come with built-in sound processing that will distort the signal of a replacement audio system.
Additionally, the 3Sixty.3 adds audio streaming from a smartphone over Bluetooth, and it gives you an 8-channel processor with 31 bands per channel. The new unit will be updatable. It includes an expansion port that looks like an S video slot for future upgrades.
Manager of product planning Dan Hunter noted, “If we want to add auto microphone tuning in the future, we can do that with an external add-on piece.”
Initially Rockford viewed the category of OEM integration processors as a way to add aftermarket car audio to new cars. Hunter said, “While we found it was getting used for that, most people were using it as an aftermarket processor.” As a result, the company has added processing and audio features.
Many of the new features stem from an improved microprocessor. The old 3Sixty had an 8-bit microcontroller for command and control whereas the new 3Sixty has a 32-bit ARM Cortex that runs at 5 times the speed. Also, the new model steps up to 32-bit precision DSP with 72-bit MAC versus the old model with 28-bit precision DSP with 56-bit MAC.
Source: Rockford
