Best Buy radio malibu 2002 installations

Features galore with some minor issues, June 7, 2008

Like most other reviewers I have been extremely impressed with what I got for the money. I purchased the XHD6425 and the Bluetooth add-on. They were installed in my 2000 Ford Explorer about a month ago. I didn’t want to write a review until I had some time to work with the unit and see its positives and negatives.

The positives are well known, HD radio, inexpensive bluetooth option, available USB port and a 3.5mm aux jack. So lets go over the issues, both good and bad, for each.

HD Radio – Very nice. I won’t lie, I didn’t know what to expect. I normally get excellent reception here in NYC. So was I knocked out by the sound quality? No, not especially. But it *IS* better. It’s also nice to see the second and sometimes third HD feed in the same frequency. I wasn’t aware of that when I bought it. Any negatives? Not really. It’s a good feature nice feature. I also like that you can set it so that it only scans for HD stations.

Bluetooth – Now I was really looking forward to this for two reasons. One was obvious. I wanted to link my phone up to the head unit (HU) to make and receive calls. As far as this is concerned, it worked great. pairing was a cinch with my VZW Treo 700P. The second reason was that this unit is able to handle A2DP Bluetooth Stereo. It worked great. I was able to stream Bluetooth audio from my phone and also from my bluetooth enabled MP3 player. I can use either the device itself or the HU to control the playback. Very sweet. Any negatives here? Yeah, kind of. The BT features does not allow you to import your phonebook, so you either start the call on your phone or dial the number on the HU. Dialing on the HU is interesting, but not smart. You use the radio preset buttons as well as several other buttons on the HU. They’re too small and it’s too distracting. This is a minor problem honestly as I have my phone mounted on a ProClip on the AC vent. But others might have an issue here. Also, ending a call requires you to hold down the mute button on the HU for three seconds. This is dumb. You should be able to disconnect by pressing the phone icon on the BT module. But no. The BT receiver button is for accepting a call, not ending one. Again, not a deal breaker, but disappointing.

Available USB port – Genius. I can use this to charge any device that uses a USB charging cable. Including my work Blackberry. I can use a USB flash memory card and it works great. Negatives here? Yes. Navigating through music folders is a chore. Not fun at all. I don’t normally use this option as I simply control my MP3 player through either the BT or through the aux port, but again, it’s worth mentioning.

Aux port – Again, genius. Simple feature that should be on all radios. Does exactly what it’s supposed to. You just purchase a simple 3.5mm cable from Radio Shack or anywhere else and you can plug in any high-tech or low-tech audio feature you want. No negatives. It just works great.

Overall device… Nice. But there are some usability issues. The default sound is kind of weak in my opinion. I don’t listen to things too loud, but it was still softer than I preferred. Setting “Loudness” to “ON” in the settings fixed that, but almost too much. Again, it’s all about preferences. It’s subjective. I also wish the radio presets had better shapes. They can be hard to hit and they toggle from the sides. 1 and 2 share the same button, so you have to hit the edges and not the center. It’s annoying. As others have said, you can’t dim the display, but this never bothers me.

One last thing is car specific but still an issue. My car has controls on the steering wheel that I use to control volume, switch between radio bands, CD and cassette as well as switch between radio presets (or tracks). I tried to keep as much of this functionality intact by separately purchasing a IR steering wheel control kit from PAC. It worked, but not well. Volume works fine, but the radio doesn’t have a remote setting for switching between presets, so you’re forced to use the HU (or the remote control). Other than that, you’re just scanning between frequencies. That’s annoying. Switching bands is just that, radio only. If I want to switch between inputs, I have to use the HU or the remote. Some might think these are minor issue, but I use my steering wheel controls constantly. This became my biggest disappointment by far.

All in all, a very good deal for the dollar. No doubt. The device has issues. They all do, but as long as you go into the purchase knowing the compromises up front, I think you’ll be very impressed. I am.

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Excellent value and tons of features, March 26, 2008

Update after 3 months of use: The BT stopped pairing with any phone. Tried resetting the unit. Started pairing again disconnecting and connecting the car battery. Looks like some kind of software/firmware bug. Pain to disconnect the battery every time this happens.

Near power lines, the HD signal is lost. May not be specific to this unit.

Pros:

- Excellent value. You get HD radio, MP3/WMA CD player, USB input, 3.5mm input, remote control and bluetooth ready for less than what you would spend on a Sony unit.

- Bluetooth adapter works flawlessly. I installed this in a 99′accord which is a noisy car on the freeway and my friends could not tell I am calling from car BT. Infact, my handset picks up a lot more noise.

- BT works with voice dialing feature with my SE w810i.

- Good sound quality.

Cons:

- Hard to read display in bright daylight.

- No option to turn off BT when the ignition switch is off. My phone stays connected as the car is parked less than 50 feet away. A bit annoying.

- Radio is picking up some “alternator whine”. This could a grounding issue and nothing wrong with the unit itself.

- The “display” mode that shows song, title, artist info etc doesn’t stay in that mode when radio is turned off and on.

- No option to continuously scroll title, artist and station info all together. You can get this info separately by pressing “disp” button repeatedly.

- Cannot store any phone numbers on the unit although it remembers last 5 dialed, received and missed numbers. It would be nice to provide a phone book on the unit itself.

- Buttons are a bit tiny. Call hang-up requires pressing a tiny button for 3 secs. There should be a dedicated button for this.

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One of the best Car Decks for the Money, March 20, 2008

I had installed a Alpine XM radio in my truck 3 years ago. I had 7 subscriptions for different devices all running XM. I then got angry that XM radio had started to play commercials on some of the channels so I decided to cancel my XM radio service and switch to HD Radio. Yes, I know HD radio has commercials but it is free and the sound quality is great.

I shopped around for new decks that had the features I was looking for.

1. HD Radio

2. Bluetooth

3. CDR support with MP3 play back & support.

4. Mobile media players support (iPod or similar device).

After checking several different vendors I came to find the Dual devices. The reason why I was leaning to the Dual decks was price for the deck and add-ons. I looked at the Alpine, Sony, Pioneer, and other units but was put-off by them because of the price for the add-on modules, (Bluetooth, Ipod Support, etc.) The decks ran anywhere from $100 to $900 dollars, which is fine but the modules, (Bluetooth), added anywhere from $150 to $300 dollars for each one. This brings the price above what I was willing to pay for a radio in my old pickup truck.

I ordered the Dual XHD6425 unit for under $120 and got the BTM-60 Bluetooth module for under $50. When they arrived I was pleasantly surprised with how well the device worked.

Installation was straight forward. I have installed several car stereos over the years. I used the wire harness I bought with the Alpine unit which made it easier. There is one downfall, there is no dedicated sub-woofer output. I ended up plugging the sub woofer into the rear preamp connections.

The Bluetooth module clipped to the visor and ran down the inside of the side molding to the dashboard where I was able to fish it under the dash to the back of the deck. The cord was plenty long. Probably about 10 feet. It easily reached in my full size truck.

The unit it itself works great. Set up is fairly easy, but I did have to read the instruction on some items operation. HD radio sound is great and power is beyond what I need in my truck. I have never turned it all the way up yet and I usually listen to music pretty loud.

The Bluetooth works with out a hitch and it also supports the streaming of music from my Blackberry. It does not display the music info when streaming with bluetooth which sucks but what do you expect.

The USB support I have not had a chance to try yet. I did get a 4gig key but have not taken the time to move music to on to it.

All in all I would suggest this unit for the features included for the price and the add-on module price. I am very happy with the performance over all especially for $180 bucks.

CraZyLeS

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