carls2004

Im currently looking at two head units, for my 2006.. One is a kenwood DDX672BH, for $319.00 , and also a pioneer AVHX5700BHS, for $359.00.
After reading many reviews and I will be using it 70% for C.D'S, and 30% Pandora radio,and Bluetooth..- Im thinking pioneer....as it seems it has more positive reviews.. And my current pioneer AVH-X3500BHS, has served me well...
ANY thoughts guys

markcz

Find a local shop that has them available to play with, I'm partial to the user interface on Pioneer, to me they just seem more friendly to use.

Re CD's, you have to look into a dockable iPod that you can dedicate to the car. You'll never go back to CD's after the first time you have a sudden urge for a certain song and your ENTIRE CD collection is at your fingertips within seconds

Also, give Dennis a call before you buy anything. He has great deals on the radio itself, and you can be 100% sure to get all of the proper interface adapters that will work in your car

0Double D Mods

I am thinking whoever is selling those for that price is clearly not an authorized dealer

carls2004

Well I looked localy, and checked out first hand a few pioneer and kenwood units..

What the hell happened to kenwood build quality. What a hunk of over price crap. Sorry guys.. Pioneer build quality is so so much better, and YES user interface on pioneer so so much better... I didn't get to check out kenwoods DDX672BH , But if its like their lower price units and comparing to pioneer, WELL Hands Down pioneer..
I was lol, in store when I checked out kenwood model Kenwood DDX372BT , and compared it to a Jenson... I would take the jenson...Jensen DMX5020
Makes me 99% sure ill go with the pioneer AVHX5700BHS

carls2004

Well I would take chance on unthorized dealer for tho's prices.. And have option of 2 year Full war for 27.00...And save hundreds

carls2004

Well I did it. Have a Pioneer AVHX5700BHS, ordered....$354.00 total price...

carls2004

Hey markcz,,On that ipod you mentioned.. ANY Suggestions on brand and or model.. Best lowest price unit also..

markcz

Any dockable iPod would work as long as your HU has a cable available for it and the one you get has enough memory for all of your songs. In the past I would recommend a refurbished iPod classic direct from Apple, but they're only selling the iPod Touch now.

It seems that an original iPod or the newer iPod Classic are getting kinda pricey unless you get lucky on eBay. Makes me glad I already have two of them.

carls2004

So how does this look.

As I no nothing about ipod's and never used one... And how do I put my c.d's. onto it. Directly from my laptop... From what I read, I need iTunes ? to put music onto ipod ?? - Sorry if these are all stupid questions, as ive haven't used these new gadgets they come up with.
Wont sound quality suffer ? or is that small amount..

markcz

Yes, it SHOULD work. Gen 6 and earlier Nano's have the 30 pin dock connector, Gen 7 on have the smaller lightning connector. Your HU should have an adapter available for both. If you want more capacity go with a Touch or on Amazon you can search for 'apple ipod classic' in electronics and there are some decent 60 or 80GB choices in the $80-120 range.

You would need to convert all of your CD's to digital music by putting them into a computer CD drive. iTunes is required for the ipod, and is actually one of the easier CD to digital converters to use. Get settings right, put CD in, in a few minutes it's converted and imported to iTunes. How much memory the songs take and how much is lost from CD to ipod depends on the quality you record them at. I did most of mine at 128Kbps years ago when memory was super expensive, which puts 300 or so songs per GB of memory (or about 20 CD's per GB of ipod).

The 128K conversion is obviously not CD quality, but still sounds pretty good. If I was starting over today I'd convert everything at 256 or 320Kbps. At 256 you'll fit about 150 songs or 10 CD's per GB (30GB ipod = 300 CD's at 256K quality which most people couldn't tell isn't a CD).

Remember that you don't have to put EVERY song onto the ipod if they won't fit. My two current ipods are a 60GB Video iPod and an 80GB iPod Classis (I just sent an email to someone on local Craigslist selling a new 120GB Classic), so all of my 4500+ songs have no problems fitting on the ipods with plenty of space left over for movies. My iPhone 4 is only 32GB, with a lot of that taken up by the OS and apps, so I only put the 1800 songs in my "All CD Favorites" playlist on the phone.

"Playlists" are the shiznit. You can basically make a 'mix tape' just by checking off a few songs in iTunes and adding them to the list. Once in the car you can call it up from the HU and set it for random so it's kinda like listening to the radio, but the songs will all be coming from the playlist you created. You can make as many playlists as you desire. I have one for Xmas music, one for hard rock, one called 'Driving Songs', you get the idea... My "All CD Favorites" is a playlist that only has the "good songs" off of each album.

There are lots of iTunes tutorials on the web, or just grab any 10 year old off the street and get them to explain it to you

carls2004

Guess im lost on the dockable feature, ???. As u still have to use a cable to hook to deck.. ??. USB ?

markcz

I edited my last post, I was confusing the Nano with the Shuffle. The Shuffle will NOT work, the Nano most likely will without issues. The 1-6 gen Nano's have the 30-pin dock and the 7th gen Nano has the same Lightning connector that started with iphone 5.

From the Pioneer site:
"Dockable" used to mean that it had the 30-pin connector and could be plugged in to any of the "made for ipod" accessories. Apple made it a bit more confusing when they changed the 30-pin plug to a newer much smaller "Lightning" plug. There are adapters available to use a lightning ipod in a 30-pin device, but I believe the term dockable still mostly refers to ipods with the 30-pin plug.

As long as the ipod you get has a 30-pin plug or the lightning plug it should work in your radio if you get the right cord mentioned in the quote above.

carls2004

Thanks markcz... Just so you know I canceled that deck order, and decided to keep my current pioneer AVH-X3500BHS., as its working fine. So it looks like I would need cable CD-IU201V,
The CD-IU201V USB to 30-pin interface cable connects a compatible iPod® or iPhone® directly into the DVD receiver's USB port and mini-jack AV (or AUX input), and gain full, direct, adapter-free control via the receiver interface. The direct digital connection assures you get the utmost audio and video quality from your media.

But may need firmware update.. Depends on what I pod I get.. If I read pioneer's sight correctly..
And it says I need additional cable to update if need be.... Boy, its getting deeper. lol

markcz

Most (if not all) of the 'older' ipods with the 30-pin dock should work on that HU with just the 201 cable

If you get an ipod with the Lightning connector you'll have to do the firmware update and get the special adapters

carls2004

mmmmmm.. Cant decide on, to get a little better head unit or ipod. Can only do one right now.
Im having hard time on the ipod decision since I have no issue of ejecting and putting in diff c.d, when needed.

And if I want to put my c.d., collection onto ipod, using itune's - Is that free or do you need to pay , which I was told...to do that then there is a fee per year.

markcz

iTunes is free to download and use for iPods, you only have to pay for songs or other media that you buy from them if you choose to.

carls2004

Thanks markcz.. for all the info.

carls2004

Thought about it, and ordered a new AVH-X5700BHS.
Figured this way i have my good AVH-X3500, for my second veh..
And couldnt pass up a price of $329.00 and it new, not a reman.

NotScared

I recently installed the 4700 which is the same thing minus the HD radio and really like it. TONS of features and fairly easy to navigate. I'll write up a review of that and my other equipment shortly.

carls2004

Just finished wiring in the new deck [ AVH-X5700.
I tried to use my mounting from old pioneer, but since this has face that adj, and open, I cant get it to clear when I hit the open or close.
Guess I gotta do some trimming on top and bottom.
Unless diff mounting kit ?

Only other thing I noticed so far was that when I turn on Pandora from my android phone it only plays thru blue tooth. and Pandora isn't active on H.U.
My other pioneer all I had to do was turn it on thru blue tooth first,,, then , Pandora would be active ...