Donating Member
What has happened to head units?
Just browsing the latest Pioneer dogalogue, and every H/U in there seems to look ****, they seem to be goin backwards in features, last yr when i got my curent one, they seemed to be goin in a better direction, OEL display, integrated Bluetooth, USB playback, etc, but now, for the same price i got that for, you get ipod interface - Thats about it, now that great for Ipod freaks, but why have an mp3 / cd player, if you have an ipod, is it that to make them interface with the ipod, they have to leave something else out to make room, they have gone back to the crappy looking old skool calculator looking screens, ungly, big, bulky writing, Im sure that for 400 or so they could bring out something that has F&R pre outs, Sub preout, Aux in jack, usb playback, bluetooth, a REAL LCD screen, that you can customise with different display routines, i dunno, maybee these do exist, but at the moment with whats available in a decent price range, im deffinately leanin to goin the Carpuder option, plus with a few lil interface inputs and outputs, you could have speed sensitive volume, power window controlls when you hit a certain volume, engine data displays, hell, anything that is electronicaly controlled in your car, you could do from the touchscreen, wind your windows, unlock the boot, turn the heater / AC on, cant see me doin that with a $500 Pioneer lol
WA's ASR Rep
well not long now these head units wont b needing CDs at all i know a few brands r already into manufacture without these.
i seen the latest carputer few months ago wen i got all my gear 4 the VP and dam u wouldnt believe wat it can do basically wat u do at home and at work u can do in ur car there would b no need 2 leave ur car hahaha.
Check out my ride in progress.... 98 VT V6, V8 Supercar kittedDaily toy.... 92 VP Calais 5L
********4 Sale- 2 x 7' Pool Tables********
Drop A Patch....
Dont know what your talking about, headunits have more features than ever i reckon.
I think Ipod interface is great! I think USB and SD inputs are a waste of time.
Pre outs are good, blue tooth is in more than ever now.
Any features that you cant find have probly been dropped because they are pointless
smooth moderator
not everyone has/wants an ipod, so usb and sd inputs arent a waste of time. only for those with an ipodOriginally Posted by Wagon_Wheel
though sd is probably not really needed, only really need one of the 2.
Why would they give you EVERY option in a $500 head unit? Don't you know anything about marketing?
You start with minimal features for minimal cost and then gradually get more features as the price increases.
I'll quickly explain to you starting from the lowest model to the highest model (take not of all the models with "UB" as a suffix, this means USB capability):
DEH-1050E - Basic CD tuner, 1 set of RCA's
DEH-2050MPG - Same features as above plus MP3/WMA playback, AUX input & remote control
DEH-3050MP - Same features as above with different cosmetics
DEH-3050UB - Same features as above plus direct USB connection & 2 sets of RCA's with sub control
DEH-3000IB - Same features as above but direct iPod connection rather than USB
DEH-P4050UB - Same features as above with iPod & USB, IP-Bus connection and 3 sets of RCA's
DEH-P5050UB - Same features as above plus flip down face
DEH-P6050UB - Same features as above plus blue OEL animated screen, 7 band EQ & other audio features
DEH-P7050BT - Same features as above minus OEL animated screen & 7 band EQ, plus bluetooth & USB
DEH-P800BT - Bluetooth, blue OEL animated display, iPod direct, motorised face, 7 band EQ, AUX input, 3 sets of RCA's, no direct USB but a USB adapter can be used
DEH-P9850BT - Bluetooth, colour OEL animated display, high end SQ features, 16 band EQ, motorised face, 3 sets of RCA's, AUX input and IP-Bus to allow USB or iPod adapters
As you can see 5 of the 11 can directly accept a USB device, 3 would require an adapter and 3 are low models that don't warrant it.
From what I can see, this year probably has the broadest range of head units Pioneer has ever had. But even if they don't make you happy, there's Alpine, Clarion, Kenwood, Eclipse, JVC, etc out there as well.
Info found here: PIONEER CAR AUDIO RANGE 2008 - CD/DVD Players
wizfiz
usb is best thing for stezzas i havent made a single cd for my car since having usb its awesome ya dont need ipod in car bit over kill
the new range of jvc is coming and some of the stuff the new ones do is like wow
look around not just 1 brand
I agree, USB is by far the best thing format to support. iPods can come and go, but the USB standard just keeps getting better...more storage, more capabilities.
I have an SD card reader & it's handy because I can use the same card in my phone and just swap it in when I want to take my music with me, but USB is still a better format since you can plug in flash drives, MP3 players and portable hard drives.
I will never ever bu an iPod (I'm morally opposed to iTunes and there are players out there that are just as good and cheaper) so I don't care if I never have an iPod interface on my head unit. I can still plug other people's iPods into my Aux in, if I want to.
The CD is dying fast, so we're likely to see 3 different lines of product in the future:
1) CD players for those who want them, with the current range of options
2) Head units with no disk drive but various other inputs (USB, SD, iPod etc)
3) DVD players which will become more common as screens get cheaper.
The ipod doesnt come and go. It has come and set its place in the world and it is here to stay for a good period of time. The usb 2.0 standard has been around since 2000 - Im not saying its not good technology, but is hasnt changed and therefore you cannot say it 'keeps getting better' (although USB 3.0 is due this year). Ipods trump the USB for storage - 160Gb for Ipod vs maybe 8Gb for a USB stick. More capabilities? None that I can think of.
Both have their strengths, but you cant knock the Ipod just because you dont have one. Its pretty much a USB stick with extras. If anything its the ipod with more storage and more capabilities.
When are we gonna get head units with hard drives inbuilt?
They've been and gone... Pioneer had one about 5-6 years ago. I'm sure they'll come back but at the moment they seem to be limited to sat nav high end unit.
What I meant is that as iPods change with the changing times, the old adaptors and plugs aren't likely to remain compatible. I could have bought an iPhone three times over for the cost of my current phone but Apple have a culture of control in all their products, and while this attitude continues I will never buy an Apple device. </rant off>
USB stands for Universal Serial Bus..the key word there is UNIVERSAL..the worldwide, open-source, benchmark interface for all manner of electronic gizmos. The standard for USB will not change and will remain backwards-compatible for the foreseeable future. That means as improvements are made (the devices that use them, and the data speeds they are capable of), the port increases its usefulness accordingly. I can charge my phone, and power a foam dart launcher from my head unit if I want! :-)
160Gb is nothing, USB can support 500Gb devices if you want, and they won't cost half as much as an iPod either.....just plug in a portable hard drive of your choice. The size of flash drives just keeps going up, and SSD are also gaining popularity.
Rick =]
sony currently have one :P it has 1gb(i think) of space in the face of the headunit
1 GB?! Not good enough. They can cram 8GB into a micro SD card for under $100 so it cant be because of lack of space or price
The only problem with having storage built into the head unit is getting your music on and off easily.
klaw81, if im not mistaken the ipod adaptor cable has been the same for every ipod released, meaning any ipod will work with the ipod adaptor. I cant see apple chaging it any time soon. Yes apple retain a lot of control over their creations. It is their interface, not their specs, that are the reason for their success. They need to retain this control to avoid copycats.
SSDs cannot be popular until they are readily available, cost effective and show some decent size. At the moment you would struggle to get one and would be paying close to $800 for something like 32GB (or half the price for half the capacity). Hard to be popular with specs like that - Capacity isnt their strength. Certainly not a cost effective option to carry music.
Can you really control a foam launcher? I just cant see how you would control it unless you have the carputer.
Can agree though that if you didnt have an ipod, there would be no point purchasing one simply because your head unit supported it - There are better ways to carry a collection of music. If you did have an ipod though, purchasing a head unit with ipod support makes sense.
Last edited by kopper69; 03-05-2008 at 11:02 AM.
Yeah, I find the built in hard drive units very slow to put music on... Both the Pioneer on'e i've used copy and encode the music in real time, so you have to listen to ever CD you plan to put on there. That would take hundreds or thousands of hours to put your collection into the head unit.
An external hard drive via USB is what i'd prefer but then the user interface on the head unit to navigate thousands of songs would have to be easy to use.
It's true that SSD is still a long way off, but I predict all laptops will use them within 5 years - the price of all similar technologies has dropped sharply once a few manufacturers start using them. Currently, they are way to expensive (compared to flash memory of the same capacity) to consider.
Yes I can and have used foam rocket launcher in my car - it has buttons on the base for control, but it takes power from a USB port. I really shouldn't admit to that :-)
I would suggest that Apple's success is mainly due to their marketing. Apple have a habit of taking old technology, adding a few cool features and a good user interface, and claiming it to be revolutionary, groundbreaking and fashionable. To their credit, their user interfaces are very good, but they really don't invent much new stuff - they just re-package an existing idea in an interesting and funky manner and market it extremely well. However, I agree that if you own an iPod, having an interface with your car's head unit would be a big bonus.
StoneX, I have a Double DIN DVD player that reads MP3 files off a DVD so I have several hundred songs on one disc. I find that getting the song I want is about as easy as finding it on my PC at home - if you group your songs in folders by artist or genre, and you can see a list on the screen, there's nothing to it. Of course, those with iPods already deal with this too and I imagine they handle it just fine. Anyway, who really has 300gb of music they actually want to listen to all of?
4.7GB is slightly different to 80GB+.
Most iPod interfaces via head units are not easy to navigate, like the iPod is.
Donating Member
im not saying that none of them are any good, but the one i have now, i got mid last year, it has Blue OEL, 7 band eq, front and rear preouts, sub out, mp3/wma/aac, flip face, sub high pass/lowpass settings, and i paid $300 for it brand new NOT OFF EBAY, it was from a normal retailer, i cant remember the model No at the mom, but to get something similar at the moent, you are looking at about $4 - 500, and i would never buy any H/U other than Pioneer, dunno why, just like them, but why are they moving away from OEL allready? I think it is far better than the old calc style displays that they are going back to
They're limiting features like OEL to certain models so the buyer has to pay more to get certain features... It's marketing. OEL isn't a massively sort after feature, things like USB and iPod are the priority these days.
Blue OEL looks ugly and tacky anyway... Full-colour OEL or segmented LCD or dot-matrix for me
Texas Hacksaw Massacre
I have a 32Gb stick which cost me a whole lot less than a 160Gb iPod which i use to play music and videos on my xbox and or my head unit, can't do that with an iPod...
It's also 1/5 the capacity and can't be used stand alone...
Donating Member
who cares about stand alone, hmm, listen to music with puny crappy headphones or ear plugs, or listen to music thru a few 300W speakers with maybee 1 or 2 800W Subs, while enjoying the breeze in your hair, the feel of the road, the purr of 8 4" pots thru a tuned length 2 1/2" port and a couple of your mates being able to hear the same thing without their head being 2" away from your with a wire joining the 2 of you together? Ill chose the car option thanks
Some people actually like to listen to music outside their car as well as inside it. Can you plug your USB stick or drive into your head while your outside your car?
They both have their uses, you're a spastic if you can't see the benefit of a portable music player.
Donating Member
Well, i do listen to music when im outside my car now that i think of it, i listen to the radio while im at work, sorry, but i just see Ipods and the like as antisocial devices that encourage people to keep to them selves and not talk to people, i see them everywhere, walking down the street, driving thir cars, off in their own planet, in fact one idiot almost wiped me out this mornin when he crossed double white lines, and came onto my side of the road, and i had to resort to the gravel on the side of the road to avoid..... a MESS, whats wrong with going somewhere, and striking up a conversation with someone, not you ipod :P
Posting Permissions
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Reply With Quote
