Summary
-------
Most reviews point out the goodies, good sound etc. Yes the unit is good, but
has a good share of negatives too, some of it may be called nitpicking, but
you read and decide in case you are planning to buy one.... In summary, good
player for most people that are not picky. For those a little picky like me,
it may not be worth MSRP, grab it if you get it on a deal.
Good
----
+ Can browse files/folders on a mp3 CD
+ Dimmer for display (a blackout mode would have been cool, like in my previous alpine)
+ Many sound tweaking options like EQ (equalizer, custom) / DSO etc
+ Works with ipod (cable included), removing the need to ever burn CDs again
Bad
---
- Unexpected limit of 150 max folders, 300 max for file+folders including empty
intermediate folders... I had a WMA CD with about 300 tracks, but the unit
read only the first 150 since the folders in the folder structure are also
counted... this is a very bad design. My older alpine used to handle all
files and folders like a charm. This was pretty bad for me and made me buy
an ipod to use with it!
- Poor display modes for mp3 id3 tag information. Just a few modes of display.
For example no artist display mode, the artist name will be
scrolled along with title/album etc only when the song starts and it can be
dangerous/distracting to wait to read it while driving. Some id3 info like
bitrate/comments are not vailable at all whereas most other brands do them.
- No "jump mode" or quick scroll mode (I think it is advertised on this unit,
not sure) thereby it can take forever (and hence dangerous while driving) if
you try to scroll thru long lists on the ipod.
- When you are browsing, no indication of whether it is a folder or a file,
also no indication when the list wraps around (again, my earlier alpine
handled these well, showing a ---- sign at the end of the list...)
- Blue light on knob bright & jarring car interior especially in the night
(covered it with a black hair band!). Display can get a little hard to read
in daylight (even if NOT under direct sunlight).
- The two line tall display a little cluttered - the top line is more or less
useless always showing static information, instead of utilising both lines to
browse etc. Btw, you cannot browse from the current point (which my earlier
alpine did), but always have to start from the beginning.
- Very small buttons (the 1/2/3... buttons) for some important functions like
play/pause. Is a little painful even with small fingers, can be a real pain
if you have somewhat big fingers.
- Some minor functions not available until the display information (mp3 tag
etc) has finished scrolling.
- A little clumsy to take the unit off and put it back on... will get used to
it. A unit that does not have to rotate the faceplate should be better
(those where CD goes in directly thru front faceplate).
After looking at other units in the market today and getting this, overall I am
reasonably satisfied, not extremely pleased. I has almost decided on a
Pioneer, but I discovered that the shuffle feature on all of them is near
useless (pressing the next button ALWAYS takes you to the sequentially next
song EVEN if shuffle is on, I think pioneer shuffle works only if you listen
to the song completely and leave it to it to move on to a new one!). A real
bummer for me.
Good luck with your purchase.
