The best MP3/CD receiver available!
Written: Jun 28 '02 (Updated Jun 28 '02)
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Pros: Plays MP3s (any file format), reads ID3 tags, fancy graphics
Cons: really slow track seek
The Bottom Line: This is definitely the best MP3/CD car receiver out there at the moment (trust me, I did lots of research).
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| bipbop00's Full Review: Pioneer DEH-P7400 Car CD/ MP3 Player |
I bought this player about 3 months ago, and it has performed flawlessly ever since. I bought it because it had all the features you could ever want in a car MP3/CD player, and every other reasonably priced model was missing something. I picked mine up online for $240. It has lots of EQ options (for a low priced receiver), has folder and disc random/repeat, and sounds great. One of the big buying points for me was that it supports all the possible file formats (ISO, Joliet, Romeo); usually people use Joliet, and many receivers don't support this, which is ridiculous.
I haven't had any skipping problems, and it hasn't had any trouble reading any disc I make, no matter what speed I record it at (though I recommend recording at half what the CD-R drive is capable of, as this yields a better copy that is less prone to skipping, particularly if you are using cheap CD-R discs).
Finally, the graphics on the electro-luminescent (organic LED) display are pretty neat. My only (minor) complaint here would be that the colors invert every 20 seconds, which I think is stupid. Let me explain: the display uses 3 brightness levels of the same aqua color; when it inverts, black swaps with bright aqua, and second darkest aqua swaps with the second brightest aqua.
It reads the ID3 tags for artist, title, etc for each MP3 and displays it nicely (my only complaint is that it doesn't scroll names that are too long to fit). Also, some really cheap MP3 players start at the beginning of the last song it was on before you turned off the car... this is lame! This player starts wherever you were within the song as it should.
I only have one real complaint: track skip with MP3 discs is really slow. It takes almost 6 seconds from the time you hit the track skip button (or stop hitting it, if skipping multiple tracks) to the time the next track starts playing. But if you create your own disc, you'll probably like every track on it, so you wont need to skip. I've heard that the seek time for discs with folders (especially more than one level deep) is even slower, but I haven't tested this (I've been using discs with no folders). I've heard that other players have this same problem though.
Actually, I have one more complaint, which is that with the EQ features, it is not obvious what's going on, and the manual doesn't make much of an attempt to explain it. Anyway, in conclusion, this player is definitely the best MP3/CD player around.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 240
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Epinions.com ID:
bipbop00
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Reviews written: 1
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