Excellent head unit...
Written: May 31 '01 (Updated Jun 06 '01)
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Pros: Excellent SQ, 13 band graphic EQ, HP/LP crossovers, good control of subwoofer.
Cons: Slight delay when changing FM/AM stations. Otherwise, NONE.
The Bottom Line: This head unit has all the bells and whistles, it blends in nicely with most car interiors. Price/performance ratio is high.
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| kyo77's Full Review: Pioneer DEH-P900R |
This head unit has great sound quality. One of the best things about it is that it has many tweakable features like a thirteen-band EQ, and it has two custom EQ presets, along with five that pioneer made. One custom preset can be used for cd's, and the other eq preset is for when you're listining to the radio. In many reviews of the DEH-P900R, people say that it has only 1 custom EQ setting, but it actually has two. One unique feature this head unit has that no other one, at least that I know of, has called auto eq. It comes with a microphone that you plug into the headunit. The HU counts down, 10, 9, 8..etc, and that is when you get out of your car and the HU emits frequencies through your speakers, first the front left, the front right, rear right, then rear left, and it sets a eq setting based on the acoustics of your car! And it actually works!
Along with all the eq features, it allows you to set the gain so the FM stations match in volume with the CD. Most importantly, for bassheads, this is one of the best units to have, because it gives you excellent control of your subwoofers. For example, you can turn your sub on or off from the headunit, and you can set a low pass crossover of 50Hz, 80Hz, or 125Hz. But no, it doesn't stop there. You can also control the gain of the crossover points on a scale of +5 (really loud) to -5 (quieter). You also have a high pass crossover for your internal speakers, at either 50Hz, 80Hz, or 125Hz. But the HP crossover has no gain adjustments. It comes with a handy remote, and the motorized face display is very nice.
This HU also has an automatic gain control function that measures the amount of road noise and compensates the volume to overcome the road noise. There is a microphone in a metal box that hangs in the back of the HU and measures the road noise. Also, the sensitivity of the mic can be set from low, medium and high. Although a nice feature, I keep it off, I like to adjust the volume myself with the remote. It works ok in my car, but my car isn't that loud and I'd probably have to move the mic in order to make it work better. Someone asked how good the power supply is on this HU. I hope that if you're going to buy this HU that you at least use an amplifier with it. You'd be wasting your time with this HU if you didn't. Anyway, when an amp is hooked up, the internal power supply doesn't really matter anymore anyway. (Most expensive HU's have no internal power supply at all). Anyway, FYI it has 45w x 4 MOSFET power (that's at peak), the RMS is actually 22.5 x 4 watts, which is decent to run factory speakers, or small aftermarket speakers. You've heard me rave about the SQ, you can probably guess that is due to the fact the HU gives 6.5v pre-outs to the amps. No need for a line driver unless you're gonna be competing. The HU has the RDS feature, if you don't already know, and when you listen to a RDS compatible station, the name of the band and name of the song is displayed on the HU when you push the rt button on the HU. It would be nice if all FM stations were RDS, but not all are. The remote is extremely easy to use, and is durable. There's a button on it that will divide the volume by half, sort of like a mute, which quiets the HU with one push on the remote (which is not on the HU). The manual for this HU is literally like 80 pages.
Also, of course, it has CD text display, which displays the name and title of the song and cd your listening to. It has screen savers which are nice in order to protect the display. This head unit is worth the money, unless your Bill Gates, then you would opt to go for pioneers ODR line of headunits that cost 3-4 thousand dollars. The only complaint I have with it is that changing FM or AM stations takes 2-3 seconds, which dosen't seem like a long time, but it is, cause I like to flip through FM stations, when I'm listening to the radio. Also radio reception is only average. Your stock head unit might have better reception, but it is not "bad," just not excellent. One other complaint is that every time you turn off your car, the head unit moves down. I;m not sure if it is defeatable, but it can wear out the servo motor sooner if it always moves down when you get out of your car. Otherwise, its a nice unit.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 550
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Epinions.com ID:
kyo77
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Reviews written: 4
Trusted by: 0 members
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