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I installed the 8200 in my ZR1 two weeks ago. Crappy weather has kept me from getting a lot of time to evaluate it in driving conditions. Opened up the garage doors and fired up the LS9 today and got comfortable in the heated seats. I confirmed my initial impression that the 8200 significantly improved the sound over the stock HU.
By way of background when I bought the car in 2015 I did an audio upgrade. JL 700w amp, Bit Ten sound processor, JL speakers and JL 10" stealthbox sub. I retained the OEM HU. I figured with the Bit Ten I would't need an upgraded HU and I use Waze so the NAV was not an issue.
I was happy with the first upgrade but not thrilled. Plenty of bass but the highs and mids never met expectations considering the cost.
Fast forward. I hated the OEM HU. Clunky, hard to use, 15 year old display technology. It was the only thing I disliked about this amazing car. I decided to upgrade. After numerous opinions from lay folks and experts I went with the 8200.
The improvement in the sound quality is amazing. The clarity and separation is what I was looking for from the start. Loud, clear, and sounds as good as some of the best home stereo systems I have heard, including mine.
The features of the 8200 so far have been great. I notice a lag when switching tracks playing music from my Iphone. Not sure if that is normal. Also, incoming calls are causing the unit to go funky. Not a reboot but close. I am working on figuring if I'm doing something wrong.
The screen display is amazing. Its as good as an Ipad. The OEM HU display was cloudy and muddled. Its pretty easy to figure out the 8200 functions without resorting to the manual. I'm sure there are a lot of features I have yet to discover but I can now easily move between all functions.
Overall, I am very happy with the 8200. There are other units out there from Kenwood, etc. that do pretty much the same thing. You can't go wrong with any of these higher end units.
Thanks for the review! I have a 7200 as the anchor of a fantastic system going into my Z in a couple weeks. I will post my thoughts and pics after it's done. Can't wait.
Thanks for the review! I have a 7200 as the anchor of a fantastic system going into my Z in a couple weeks. I will post my thoughts and pics after it's done. Can't wait.
The 8200 and 7200 are both of the units I've been seriously thinking about installing. I've found the 8200 on sale for $994, about $200 less than a regular priced 7200. I probably don't need such a high end unit since I'm still running stock Bose, but I like the features and the reviews have been very good. Look forward to your 7200 review.
I have the 8100 just installed a few weeks ago and while it is a awesome deck, I have found a few dislikes. 1 You have to press ok every time you start the vehicle 2 There is no standard bass treble settings, or atleast I have not found it yet. 3 It seems to be more for IPhone users, I have Galaxy. Now because of the weather I haven't been able to spend as much time with it as I would like so this assessment may be premature.
I also went with the 8200nex. I installed this last weekend with a reverse camera, and am super happy with it so far. One of the improvements over the 8100 is that the warning screen goes away on its own in a few seconds without having to press ok. Reverse camera comes on right away too, haven't had to wait to boot up fully. Prices on this unit have been coming down lately also. I've seen them on Amazon for under $800. That's where I got mine.
Last edited by TorchRedFred; 01-29-2017 at 09:30 PM.
Wow, that looks fantastic. Mine will be done sometime this week and I need to learn how to get those types of screenshots/backgrounds on mine.
It's real easy to do. You can google "corvette splash screen" to get some images and then you just save the images to a usb stick or sd card and import them into the radio through the settings for background and splash screen. There was also a thread on the forum where members were sharing different backgrounds and I got the one background image from there. I ended up putting 5 or 6 images on a SD card along with about 500 songs and leave it in the radio. That way they are there if I ever want to change the background to a different image.
It's real easy to do. You can google "corvette splash screen" to get some images and then you just save the images to a usb stick or sd card and import them into the radio through the settings for background and splash screen. There was also a thread on the forum where members were sharing different backgrounds and I got the one background image from there. I ended up putting 5 or 6 images on a SD card along with about 500 songs and leave it in the radio. That way they are there if I ever want to change the background to a different image.
Thank you sir! I saw it had an sd card slot. That will work perfectly, I just haven't been in touch with all the new gear out there as I put a lot of my audio stuff in storage and dusted it off after i got another vette for a play toy. There is some really cool stuff now!
Sorry thats what I meant the factory USB in the center bin. Did you have to buy a specific part to use the OE USB location ?
I'm propably not the best person to answer this but I'll show you what I did. I wasn't sure how to use the OE location so I just left it like this for now. It hasn't bothered me yet, but if it does in the future I may look into a better option.
01-08-2017, 04:40 PM
Early impressions of Pioneer 8200
