Pioneer DEH-P5000UB In-Dash CD/Mp3/Wma/iTunes AAC/Wav Receiver

Up to 24 Station Presets / Plays CD-R CD-RW, with MP3 and WMA files / 50 Watt x 4Channel MOSFET Amp / Cellular Mute

I purchased this to replace the stock radio in my 2006 F150 4x4. I read the reviews here and elsewhere and was a little bit concerned about the interface in regards to it being non-intuitive and the knob flimsy. I disagree on both counts. The interface is very intuitive once you learn it, and the knob is by no means flimsy. Also, there were comments regarding the lack of presets - this is not a problem at all - when the radio is in tuner mode one only needs to push up or down on the knob to advance to the next preset. There was another complaint regarding the clock - all I can say to that is, read the manual!

My stock radio had very good AM reception but poor FM reception. I was afraid I would lose good AM reception with the new radio, but the AM reception is just as good if not better.

I use this radio with my iPod Touch 2nd generation and again, no complaints. I am a mild audiophile and the output sounds very clean to me in all modes.

I do agree that there should be a mute or pause button on the radio itself in case the remote is not handy. Other than that, this is a great product for the price.

I upgraded from an Alpine CDE-9843, just so I could hook up a USB drive, and I expected this unit to operate similarly to the Alpine. I was wrong! It has lots of little quirks that become highly annoying the more you have to put up with them. I wish I would have tested this unit in a store before buying it, because then I definitely would have gone with another Alpine!

PROS

- Looks sleek, especially at night.

- Two-line display is great.

- Sound quality is great. The 'sound retriever' feature really does make compressed audio sound significantly better.

- Being able to control my iPhone from the unit or the phone itself is a nice touch... too bad I never use this. I use a USB stick instead.

CONS

- NO PAUSE BUTTON. I can't imagine who made the decision to leave the pause button on the REMOTE ONLY but whoever that was should be fired. Scrambling for the remote to pause my music, especially at night, is very difficult and dangerous and I just can't fathom why Pioneer did this. They could have ditched ANY of the other buttons for a pause button and it would have been better.

- The knob isn't easy to use. Left/right/up/down buttons are far easier to manage while driving than this cumbersome all-in-one knob.

- Think you'll be able to just copy new songs to your USB stick and this head unit will organize them alphabetically? WRONG. For some insane reason, MP3s are organized by DATE CREATED first, and alphabetically second. So, whenever you add a new song, it becomes the first song the head unit plays! In other words, to add just one new song and maintain their order, you have to copy the entire contents of the USB drive to your computer, erase the USB drive, and then copy all of the songs back to the USB drive so their date created timestamps are in order. FUN!

- When using USB, you will frequently need to browse your files using the big List button. But this is difficult because pressing the List button takes you all the way back to the root folder! You cannot quickly see the other songs in your current folder. If you are listening to something that is not in the root folder (i.e. 99% of the time), you will need to navigate there manually from the root to find the file you're currently listening to! This is not natural - the List button should take you to the files in the current folder, not the root folder. Pioneer - why not have a single click take you to your current folder, and a double click return you to root? That would have been such a simple solution to a very frustrating problem.

- Yes, it has a resume feature, meaning when you switch inputs or turn the car off, your song will resume playing from where it left off. But it's poorly implemented. It only takes note of your position every minute or so. So quite frequently you will be in the middle of a song on USB and switch to the radio, for instance, and then switch right back to your USB and now you're listening to the beginning of the song again. My Alpine unit always resumed from EXACTLY where I left off, not an entire minute behind.

- Pressing up/down to switch folders is backwards. Up takes you to the next folder, down to the previous. No big deal perhaps, but... WHY? It can confuse you if you forget and accidentally skip back a few folders rather than forward.

- Each source is supposed to have its own independent sound level adjustment. And they all do... except the radio. Again I just have to ask... WHY?

- When Random is turned on, pressing next should take you to a new RANDOM song. But no, it takes you to the next song. So you can't skip through random songs. You have to listen to a song all the way through and then, only then, will it pick a random song. WHY?

- If you have your music paused when you turn your car off, it will come blaring back on when you start the car again. WHY?

- It does work with my iPhone, however, I could not get it to work at all with my friend's iPod video. I thought this unit was supposed to support that iPod... but it didn't work. Tried multiple cables, and it just wouldn't recognize it period. We hooked it up to the auxiliary input, but it sounded awful. No bass, hollow sound... what gives?


CONCLUSION

If this unit would just operate like my old Alpine - i.e. more intuitively, I would be much happier. As it is, though, operating this device is a minor struggle every time I want to switch songs... or PAUSE a song. I recommend trying this out in a store before buying - I think you'll agree that there are much better options out there!

Pioneer DEH-P5000UB In-Dash CD/Mp3/Wma/iTunes AAC/Wav Receiveris a product perfect to me. I did the buy and in few days received it.

Great HU! It had all the features I needed, Aux, USB, and was easy to install.

Pros:
Looks are amazing
Really easy to navigate
Sound is awesome

Cons:
I would say it is a little bit slow navigating through an Ipod
Aux input doesn't sound as good as the USB input (but this is probably normal for all aux inputs)

Really awesome deck! I put the DEH-P5000UB in with my stock speakers and the resulting sound is wonderful! I can't get enough of it!

Sometimes the USB interface has a hard time with certain songs and will stop sensing the USB drive I have plugged in. Works fine the next time I start my truck though.

Very surprised at the sound I was able to put through my crappy stock speakers!