For the past 4 years I've been using a Pioneer DEH-P6700MP car stereo which is almost identical to the Pioneer DEH-P670MP. I really liked the Pioneer as it seemed to really be able to liven up my 1998 Toyota Corolla factory speakers and had several features I regularly used and loved. I decided it was time to upgrade recently as my old Pioneer was having difficulty playing CDs while the AC was on, and it was making ticking sounds with many of my CDs. I decided right off the bat I was going to stick with Pioneer.
I spent a few days researching units and the main thing I kept noticing with many of the new 2010 Pioneer CD Players was the choice of going with one that had HD Radio or going with one that had Bluetooth functionality. It doesn't appear you can get a Pioneer with both. I decided to go with the HD Radio functionality due in part to the talk about how FM broadcast quality was greatly improved. (I'll post a small rant on this at the end of my review.)
It seems like all Pioneers have the ability to read MP3 CDs still which is great, but one of the nicer additions is the USB port on the front. You can plug in your iPod, Zune, or USB thumb drive and play music off it instead of burning a CD or MP3 CD. It also works for charging USB devices. I tried plugging my Black Berry 8350i into the USB slot, but it would not recognize it as media and would only charge the phone. Another input on this Pioneer head unit is the aux audio input jack on the front of the face that you can plug into with a male to male stereo audio cable. An unannounced features this unit has that will be useful for many is RDS support. The unit will display the song/artist when listening to radio stations that broadcast this information.
Installation: I thought going from one Pioneer to another would be a breeze and that the stereo wire harness would be the same as my old Pioneer. Just to be sure I contacted Crutchfield whom said many stereo manufacturers use the same harness for several years. Unfortunately I want to confirm in my review that the one from my DEH-P6700MP and the one in this new DEH-P5200HD are not the same. They look similar, but they are wired like a mirror image of each other and will not fit each other. *A note to the beginners, if you've still got a factory stereo in your vehicle, do yourself a favor and buy a harness adapter so you do not have to cut the factory wiring in the dash. That way if you ever go to sell your vehicle or you decide you do not like the stereo, you can just disconnect the harness and put the factory stereo back in.
I've been using the Pioneer DEH-P5200HD for a few weeks now and I like the unit a lot. Many of the various equalizer settings are the same as what was available on my old unit, and MP3 CD playback is about the same as well. Having the USB slot on the front is extremely convenient and I use it frequently to plug in a 8gb USB thumb drive full of songs. When you pull out the drive and plug it back in, the unit remembers where you were at in the last song and picks right back up. One major thing that takes some getting used to is the control knob on the radio. It seems to control everything in that one knob and it takes time to get used to. The remote control will help ease you into things as all the buttons are easily spelled out on it. It's also worth noting the remote is identical to my previous Pioneer remote and both were even cross-compatible.
Pros:
-Same fantastic EQ options Pioneer is known for. Includes bass frequency filtering options.
-USB & Aux input on the face
-USB input plays immediately when you plug in a USB drive, it also remembers what file and where it was at when the device was last plugged into it.
-iPod control from the face or remote
-RDS support for showing titles of songs from broadcast radio
-No lights and animated character distractions flashing all over the display.
Cons:
-Face detaches to the left side instead of flipping down which may be harder to remove depending on your dash
-HD Radio is not much of an improvement in quality of FM radio.
-USB input when reading from a USB thumb drive appears to read the folder order from last to first. (Song order is also affected if you add more songs to a folder later.)
-Control knob is an awkward all in one with a bit of a learning curve.
Do you remember upgrading from a tube TV to a flat screen? Do you remember the difference in picture quality? HD Radio is NOT that same upgrade. The HD FM radio broadcast quality is almost the same as what you've heard for years except now you don't get static, instead you get cutting in and out for seconds at a time when the signal starts getting weaker. Sometimes you hear the radio DJs talking about how much better their station sounds in HD, but the truth is there isn't much of a difference. I've read AM broadcast is hugely improved, but I have no interest in most talk radio programming so I have not tuned into any of it.
I'll try to come back and update this review once I've had some more hands on time.
*UPDATE 5/21/2010*
HD FM Radio: I've had this unit installed for a month now and have spent more time with the HD FM Radio functionality. I have turned off the blending mode that combines the HD and regular FM signals and find HD reception to be bad. I live minutes outside Houston and the reception on most the FM HD stations is extremely poor. For HD when the signal gets weak, the broadcast just cuts out all together. When I go downtown the signal is usually exceptional, but at 20 miles away from one of my frequent stations, quality becomes more miss than hit. When I drive to the southeast side of town, most the HD stations are unavailable at all. If you live inside a large city and are close to the radio stations you might enjoy HD radio, but for those of you who live in suburbs or you are far from the radio stations FM HD Radio is probably not for you.
Sound quality: I have finally decided this unit out performs my old Pioneer in sound quality. One of the custom features you can set and adjust that makes this possible is the ability to filter low bass frequencies from your 4 regular speakers. For those that like to turn up their music really loud sometimes, this can help you from blowing a speaker and also get rid of some of that extra distortion you can get from turning up the volume too much. That's not to say you can't still blow a speaker, but it should help.
Other than the HD Radio and the occasional issue with the all in one control knob accidentally getting pressed in when changing the volume, this Pioneer is a great unit. I'd definitely buy another Pioneer car stereo, they have not let me down yet. I'll update this review again if I come across anything new or something worth updating.
*UPDATE 6/22/2010*
USB Input Reading: I have finally found out what the order folders are read from USB flash drives. Apparently all folders and subfolders are read from the flash drive based on the order in which they are copied to the drive. While you would think this wouldn't be an issue, it can be an annoyance for those with multiple folders. If you select and copy multiple folders at a time to a flash drive, Windows seems to want to copy the folders from last to first. It does the same thing if you copy a folder with subfolders in it. Also if you go back and add more folders later, those will play after all the other previously copied folders.
Song playback order is also affected by the order in which they are copied. If you go back later and add songs, they will play after the previously copied songs in that folder. If you are like me and have purchased multiple albums from an artist and want to play them from oldest to newest, you'll have to copy the folders to the drive in the order you want them to play. If all this file order talk sounds like too much, the good news is that you can burn a MP3 CD with folders and they will be played in alphanumeric order without any special copying order or anything. For those of you with iPod, none of this order playback should be an issue since the iPod is actually playing the songs and sending the music to the receiver. Pioneer DEH-P5200HD CD Receiver with HD Radio and iPod Direct Control - Ipod - Mp3 - Head Unit - Usb'
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