Bought this for my 2001 Pontiac Grand Am GT as a replacement for the factory headunit. My car originally had the premium Monsoon stereo, but I was told while it had an external amplifier, it was held back by the not so great Delco head unit. I popped this radio in via a Scosche GM wiring harness from Walmart for $30 and it worked nearly perfectly. Sound is crisp and clear and a vast improvement over the old headunit.
I chose a double din radio because I want to preserve the "stock" look to act as a deterrent against stereo thieves (my 95 Suburban recently had its single din radio stolen). With this radio it's kind of a "have to look twice" to realize it's not the factory radio. And most radio thieves don't give a rip about factory radios. The only problem is that Clarion is on the front of the radio in large enough print. Perhaps I'll have to get a sticker that says Dual or Jensen.lol
Overall sound quality over all the inputs I've used has been very good. The bass is very good, almost too good in fact as my rear deck speakers are probably being pushed to their limits now. Radio reception is pretty good, not quite as good as factory, but good. And that may be due to the fact that I have to use an antenna wire adapter.
I love the customizable face colors. I have a Pontiac and they have red interior, at night the radio totally looks like it's the factory unit.
I picked this unit over it's older sibling the Clarion CX609 because of the way the Bluetooth is implemented. In the CX609 you have to run a microphone and a wire up your A-pillar or wherever you want it (I don't have the patience to do that) with the CX501 it's integrated into the unit itself and with adjustable gain/sensitivity it works very well. It's so convenient.
A weakness is the interface, it's not the most complicated radio I've used but the ease of use from a factory radio is definitely missed. Sometimes when in iPod mode if I'm in a playlist and want to select another song in the playlist, I have to go back out to the top iPod menu then >music>playlists>playlist I want>song I want. Other time it allows me to browse within the playlist without going through the menus again. And I can't figure out why it does that sometimes.
Also installation was kind of a pain. Both do to engineering choices by Clarion and by GM/Pontiac. The space behind the radio is very tight. I originally learned about this unit at crutchfield.com and they said I might have to modify the space to fit the radio. I didn't have to do that, but it's very close fit, and probably would benefit from cutting the rear support bracket. That said, the clearance issue wasn't due to the radio itself, but the RCA jacks coming out of the rear of the unit. Most radios I've seen have female RCA jack ports in the back for adding on an amplifier. This radio has female RCA jack wires in the back meaning that even if you don't use an amplifier, you still have the RCA jacks coming out of the back of the radio. And they go right up against the rear mounting bracket in my car. Had these just been empty ports, my installation would have been relatively easy. But it does work and it does fit in a 2001 Pontiac Grand Am. It's not the prettiest install, but it is doable.
Also, the illumination/dimming feature doesn't seem to be working on my unit. I have the setting on, but when my headlights come on everything dims to the night setting except the radio. Now this could be a defect in my unit or a defect in my data harness (the one from Walmart). It's not a big issue though, at least not for me. I'm going to give Clarion the benefit of the doubt and say it's a problem with the data harness by Scosche, since I bought it from Walmart.
Overall, I'm loving this radio and am glad I decided to go with it. I recommend it, but if you have a 2001 Pontiac Grand Am, I'd keep a radio shop on speed dial, I came really close to giving up and having my local shop install it.lol
Oh, and the price here on Amazon is a really really good price. It's $50 less than Crutchfield and the few radio shops that carry it. Clarion Mobile Electronics CX501 - 2-DIN CD/Bluetooth/USB Receiver
I bought this for a 2005 Chevy Colorado. I used a Metra 95-2009 Double DIN Installation Multi-Kit for Select 1995-2008 GM/Honda/Isuzu/Suzuki Vehicles installation kit and an Axxess GMRC-01 Class II GM Chime Retention Interface to keep my chimes - my truck doesn't have On-Star or a separate factory amp. I also got the Scosche Mda-1B 1988 - Up Gm Micro/Delco Antenna Adapter because GM uses a small antenna plug. All parts were exactly what I needed. The radio fit perfectly WITHOUT cutting the truck's metal rear support bracket inside the dash. The truck has Boston Acoustic speakers in the front doors and factory speakers in the rear. As a result I keep the fader set to the front speakers only. This truck has no dimmer wire or illumination wire so the dimming feature will not work. I did not need navigation because I use my Droid and I don't need DVD or movies in the truck. I had that feature in my last head unit for three years and never did watch a movie in the truck.
I like that it's compatible with my existing Sirius SCC1 receiver - I didn't want to have to buy a proprietary Sirius receiver. That kind of thing just rankles me and it's a BIG reason I chose this unit. I just plugged it in and it simply worked. The unit will hold 18 Sirius presets and I can choose to display Artist and Track at the same time.
Also, the ability to read USB MP3 files is great - I like to throw audio books on a USB stick for long drives. The Clarion will remember the track position even after the truck is turned off and the USB stick removed so when I put the USB stick in again the unit will shift to the USB source and start playing where it left off. This is a great feature for audio books. Fastforward/rewind is accomplished by holding the Next Track/Previous Track buttons.
Good bluetooth connection with my Droid X - The unit connects automatically with both BT phone and BT audio at the same time. (My wife's much-more-expensive Pioneer AVIC will not connect both phone and audio to her Incredible at the same time; she has to choose one or the other and go through the cumbersome process to do it.) I can play music on my phone and sound comes out of the Clarion instead of the phone and I can pause, skip tracks, control volume, etc with the Clarion. The BT Telephone part also works great and the sound is fine. The microphone is built into the unit. The Clarion easily accepted my Droid X phone book although it wouldn't transfer the contacts in my favorites but I think that is a problem with the phone and not the Clarion - I'm still working on it. It is not possible to add single numbers to the phone book. The Clarion phone book stores all the names in Last Name | First Name order which I don't like. Calls are not that easy to start from the Clarion unless it is redialing a recent call. Trying to direct dial from the radio while driving would be crazy because its way too complicated. However, incoming calls work perfectly (and mute the radio during the call) and I can make outgoing calls from the phone while it sits in the dock and then it's hands free speaker-phone over the Clarion. Overall I'm extremely happy with the bluetooth and this is another BIG reason I am happy with this unit.
Aux-In jack on the front - haven't used this yet but its good to have.
Double Din - Big two-line text thats easy to read while driving. The buttons are not all mashed together and the volume knob is big. It's easy to control the unit quickly and safely. I appreciate this after driving another vehicle with a single-din unit that had dozens of tiny buttons and practically unreadable text and button labels. However, I can't see the clock at the same time as anything else which is a negative - in other words I can see Artist and Track, or Station or whatever but if I want to see the clock it will be all I see. They should have left a spot where the clock can always be visible.
The FM sounds pretty good - better than the Sirius music stations I think. I can't compare the FM sensitivity to the factory radio because I took out the factory radio long ago...
Music sounds good enough with my BA speakers. Not outstanding, but good enough for me. In my younger days when I was more into music I would have demanded more and probably used an external amp and sub-woofer, etc (and also bought a more expensive brand just because of the name!) but nowadays I mostly listen to talk radio on Sirius. However, like I said, music sounds very acceptable if I don't crank it up way too loud. I actually removed my external Alpine amp at the same time I installed the Clarion. I don't feel like I need it.
The ability to change colors is very cool. Right now I have it on a custom yellow which looks real good.
The remote, which I don't use, has a mute button but the head unit does not. However it's easy to turn down quickly due to the huge volume knob.
I did test the CD part which was fine, but I probably won't be using that either.
There are three ipods in my house so I could test that feature but I just don't care enough to do it. I can use my Droid over bluetooth if I want to play portable music.
Bottom line is that I am very happy with the Clarion considering it's price and would certainly buy again if I needed another head unit. - Cd Player - Usb - Ipod'
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