Clarion CX609 Black Friday Sales!
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Clarion CX609 Black Friday Sales!.
Product: Clarion CX609 Amazon Price: Too low to display Availability: In Stock |
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I purchased the CX609 for my 2008 Nissan Frontier. Having high demolish audio systems in my past two cars, I initially was going to impartial leave my truck stock, but then I got a unusual phone (Samsung Omnia) on which I can store 16 gigs of music, and the Bluetooth audio bug bit me hard. I picked this stereo because it does everything I want it to do (I will discuss the functions in detail later) and it's Double Din, so it fits perfectly in my flow. In fact, its worth noting that I didn't need an install clean kit to fit this into my sail. Despite Crutchfield telling me I'd need a $20 Metra kit, I found that all I needed to do to install the chassis was to unscrew the 2 brackets from my stock HU and screw them onto the Clarion. Clarion's install instructions clearly justify how to do this for Nissan and Toyota vehicles, although I did not employ the thin spacers that the instructions said to consume. Didn't need them as the stock and fresh HU chassis were both exactly the same width (I occupy Clarion makes the stock HU) .
The main reason I bought this unit was for the Bluetooth abilities, and because in addition to hands free functionality, it also supports A2DP Bluetooth audio streaming, so I can play music from my phone factual through the stereo with no wires. I am really impressed with this technology. I did some testing with a CD burned from MP3s, and with the fresh MP3s streamed via BT. I honestly can't hear the contrast. When connected, the HU controls the phone by changing tracks, pausing, playing, stopping, and it also can FF/RW through tracks, which is something my BT headphones can't do.
The CX609 works well as a hands free unit as well. When a call comes in the HU pauses the music and rings through the speakers. I ran the microphone up through the A pillar and headliner and popped it out next to the device light/sunglass holder. This is about where a stock MIC is found on a Frontier with factory BT, and it works fabulous. Everyone who I've spoken to says they can hear me better on the HU than on my phone. The MIC pick up can be adjusted easily from 1-5, but I found the stock level of 3 too soft, and my preferred level of 4 is objective a bit too sensitive. I fair need to snort at a normal conversation levels rather than "yelling" into the BT which is what I often tend to do. Once connected, the stereo is ready to seize calls in any mode. To commence calls you are supposed to be able to browse your phonebook on the stereo (I haven't loaded mine yet, and might not bother), or you can enter numbers directly, or of course employ the phone, which is how I do it.
However, all is not perfect. My major gripe with the HU is also Bluetooth related. The HU can be dwelling to auto connect to the phone, or do it manually. Autoconnect works broad, and if you want to listen to the phone moral away, it handles everything for you. The jam is that if you are listening to any other source, it goes to Bluetooth mode every time you turn it on as soon as the phone connects, and you need to switch befriend to your passe source. If you shut auto connect off, it stays on the previous source, but to connect you need to switch to BT and go through a menu to rob the phone as there is a disconnect button, but no connect button. If you don't connect it, you don't win hands free capabilities if you gain a call, so its kind of a no-win. For now I impartial let it connect (which it does VERY swiftly) and then switch to another source if I don't want to listen to the phone.
The attatched USB cord is very cold and allows you to connect your ipod up without an adapter (haven't tried it), or creep in your thumb drives and stream music off of them. I plugged a Kingston 4gb micro SDHC chip into a thumbdrive adapter, loaded up some albums, and plugged it into the cord (which I snaked into my glovebox), and it works grand. The read hasten is almost instantaneous, and it navigates folders easily. Very frosty.
The stereo works shapely, although as the less than stellar FM sensitivity specs would suggest, it doesn't steal up stations quite as well as the stock stereo, but out on the road its pretty. In my basement garage I was able to capture up all the stations I would query, although 1 came in scratchy until I pulled outside. It does not have RDS or HD radio, which would have been nice, but you can program region titles which in a blueprint is better because you don't demolish up with your stations named incorrectly the diagram many RDS receivers do it.
CDs play beautiful. I haven't tried an MP3 disc yet since I have the phone and USB port, but it does read track titles off my CDA discs... wintry.
Overall sound quality is salubrious. I collected have stock speakers so I can't say for certain how well-behaved. The preset sound schemes didn't please me, but the custom function works well. You can place your extreme, mid, and high levels, and for each you can engage the frequency center and Q ratio (I possess this means how wide your adjustment is) . I occupy lows can be space at 50, 100, or 200. mids at 500, 1000, or 2000, and highs at 5000, 10000, or 15000. Q settings are .7, 1, 1.4, or 2 for each. I grasp smaller Qs. While it's nowhere come as nice as the 12 band EQ I had in my last vehicle, it does work resplendent well. It also has a Bass Expander and BBE processing - but only for CDs and MP3s. I wish you could utilize BBE on everything.
The point to is ok but not as high demolish as it could be. The color on murky hide looks noble in some of the colors, but not all. My interior lighting is amber but the amber looks poor on the reveal, so I region it to Red which I derive is easier to read. Ford owners with green illumination would like the green, and blue looks cold but it doesn't match my car. You can customize your color (R0-8, G0-8, B0-8), but most colors are pre programmed. My HU is mounted legal at 30 degrees, so I need to crank the disagreement to be able to read it at that angle... but it works.
The remote that comes with it does enough, although it wont navigate menus which might be more useful than anything. Warning... when installing beget positive you pace the MIC into the factual port. It also fits in the remote port which is the same size. I made that mistake and only figured out the predicament after the MIC and IR remote both didn't work. This suggests to me that the IR remote may not function if you hook up a steering wheel adapter... although I can't be positive.
Overall, for $230 + $25 in harness and antenna adapters, this radio is an affordable unit that really does the trick, especially if you want to acquire a stock leer. You can salvage powerful flashier units in a single DIN, or go with a touch hide DVD player for more money, but to have a radio that looks like it came in the vehicle, but does stuff that most factory radios cant, glimpse no further!
Overview - the mammoth Blue-Tooth sound quality, the nice factory ogle, and ease of basic expend (due to button layout) are the main reasons why I would recommend this product.
I basically wanted to add Blue-Tooth, USB, and MP3 player AUX in to my factory stereo, and this unit did the job (it says that it can control an I-Pod plugged into the USB input but I have not yet tried this) . This unit looks objective as well-behaved as a factory installed unit in my Toyota Sienna. The basic operations are easy to spend (because they provide enough loyal buttons that you are not constantly stuck reading a context-sensitive-menu while you are trying to drive) .
Music audio sound quality is blooming, I did not need a unit with a colossal amp, (I tranquil have the factory speakers installed) so this unit is expansive for my purposes.
Blue-Tooth - My mic is placed next to my garage door opener and the phone quality when using Blue-Tooth is astronomical (all cords were completely hidden so it looks professional) . The pairing process was a bit clunky, I had to read the manual as it is not intuitive. I have only 1 phone paired to this unit and so far everyone I talk to says that it sounds estimable from their waste, and I can hear them perfectly.
Playing MP3 songs via the USB input is very advantageous, this player displays the folder name when you recall a folder which makes it easy to rob what folder of music you want to play (the no-name price stereo in our boat does not prove folder names, so I really delight in this unit in this respect) . We removed MANY of our CDs from our car since we already have them loaded on our USB stick, that will relieve hold our CDs from getting scratched.
Radio - Sounds as pleasant as my factory radio for AM/FM stations. One desirable feature is the ISR (Instant Set Win) button, program your approved dwelling to this button and you switch to that residence with a single button press (as opposed to doing "source engage" until you are at radio, then pressing "Band" to decide AM/FM, and then choosing your preset 1-6), so this is a nice shortcut for the 1 position that you listen to the most.
The explain - one of the nice features about this unit is also its worst feature. The helpful fragment is that it lets you decide from many different demonstrate colors so that it will go nicely with any vehicle, what a icy feature. The awful news is that the explain is simply not colorful enough, this is the reason that the unit did not pick up 5/5 stars. During the shiny daytime the present appears washed-out, and I ended up picking a vivid reveal color instead of the note color that matched my vehicles color plan.
I purchased this unit and installed it last night in my 2005 Nissan Pathfinder. Took me 4 hours because I soldered all the wires for the wire harness instead of crimping. I ended up buying it from [...] because it came with all the distinguished installation parts for free, plus I found a coupon code at [...] and knocked the label down $20 so it was Amazon.com pricing with [...] parts. The Bluetooth handsfree is awesome and works lovely obedient. I have the Garmin Nuvi GPS installed in the fling (best Nissan upgrade ever!) and unbiased do the mic leisurely the GPS, sticking out a puny towards the driver. I appreciate the iPod/iPhone integration (I have the iPhone 3GS, my wife has the 3G, and we both have iPods) . I was upgrading from several failed FM transmitters so the quality is obviously a billion times better.
Pros:
-I like the simple leer of the unit as it is not overly flashy and doesn't observe overly expensive.
-It can mimic the color of my other dashboard instruments which is a broad sell for me and the reason I picked this unit over the better-looking Pioneer model.
-iPhone/iPod integration is vast, you can spend Bluetooth or the USB dock connector. Both sound tall.
-Sounds substantial!
Cons:
-The construct is nice but not as chilly as Pioneer's double DIN units but they don't mimic the lunge illumination color.
-Setup and menus are a limited awkward. You need the manual to know what BBE-MX or S-CTRL is referring to.
-There is a camouflage saver that I accumulate a miniature distracting. Maybe I'll rep frail to it.
-The unit doesn't fit flawlessly into the Nissan Pathfinder double DIN hole. Luckily [...] included some minor well-kept pieces to maintain in most of the gaps.
-The instructions were not originally written in English and therefore it takes a bit to figure out what they are saying.
Overall I am very contented. I even called [...] tech succor line to double check some wiring (10 contain time @ 8:00pm MST) which was nice to have instead of unprejudiced guessing. I'd recommend it to a friend. The coming weeks will allow me to work out any other imperfections in the unit.
