Best Buy radio malibu 2002 installations

An excellent player for the money!, August 1, 2010

I paid less than eighty dollars for this brand new unit at a local store and am very impressed with what I got. I bought it to replace my radio in my RV. It has everything I need which basically is just the simple audio-input jack. Between that and the cigarette charger for power, I connect my iPhone with Pandora and I’m all set for a road trip.

The radio is pretty decent as far as the quality goes. It sounds great! An improvement over OEM stereos for sure!

The buttons are small but you get used to them. I think they could have been slightly larger but this was a design decision. I disagree with the previous person stating that the knob it too shallow. That person must have abnormally large fingers because I thought the knob is quite nice.

The radio is decent. It got all of my stations with no hassle. Memorizing stations is dead simple: Hold down the number you wish to save to and walla. That’s the way it should be.

The CD playback is as expected. The audio sounds great. MP3 playback is somewhat cumbersome but it’s no different than any other stereo on the market when it comes to searching/finding/playing MP3′s that are in folders. (how primitive, BTW)

The AUX 1/8″ input jack is the key feature here…You can input anything from a DVD player to an iPhone, iPod, Zune, whatever…It does the job and amplifies it.

The remote was killer for me because in an RV, I can control the deck from the kitchen table and that is a great feature. A little velcro on the back of the remote and I’ve got instant convenience that I will never lose.

The quality of the deck is higher than I expected for a sub $100 radio. The knob felt heavy and quite precise when turning. The other buttons are very small, however and … forget reading what is printed on them. You really have to take the time to memorize them. It’s minor but should be noted for those that may not be able to see smaller things.

My only gripe was that the manual did not give instruction on how to set the clock! I read it 5x times and never saw the instruction for setting the time! I was stunned not to see this. What an oversight. For those that need to know: Turn the unit off by pressing and holding the main knob. Now press and hold the clock button and press and hold the main knob. The 12: will start to flash. Now press the up/down buttons then when you are done, press the left/right buttons and when you are done, just press the main knob and its set. How crazy that they didn’t tell you that (I spent over an hour pressing buttons like a monkey until I figured out the right combination)

Even with that oversight in the manual, I still give it 5 stars. It was easy to connect and very straightforward. I’m certain it will give me years of quality playing while in the RV.

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 Comments (3)

Very Simple, Yet very satisfactory, February 8, 2010

By 

Rogelio Reyes (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) – See all my reviews

  

I bought this radio as an upgrade for my honda civic lx 2001 and it was just perfect. The moment i installed it i noticed the difference in sound quality and it was only the stereo powering the speakers. When i used a power amplifier it sounded even better. I have to admit this is NOT the most powerful stereo for a BIG audio system, but if you are like me that only want a quality music and very good sound inside your car, this should work perfect.

Pros: cheap, nice quality sound, RCA output for amplifier, aux and mp3-wav-wma etc support.

Cons: simple display (if the song name is long, it wont display it and it does not scroll on the screen), only one pair of RCA.

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Very Good So Far, June 16, 2010

Just when I needed a new car stereo, Amazon happened to have a sale on this item. (The AM/FM toggle on my old radio in my Saturn stopped working and I was stuck with AM.) I chose this unit based on the brand name and other positive reviews. Not only was the price better than anything at Best Buy, but I got free shipping as well. I did have to buy some other adapters from other stores (another $30 or so extra).

Installation was fairly easy for someone like me who is not the most mechanically inclined person in the world. The set sounds great, has 18 FM presets instead of the 12 that you normally get in an OEM radio, and it seems to have good reception. My only complaint is that the buttons are small, so you have to familiarize yourself with operation of this set before driving anywhere. So far, there is no smoke coming out of the dash, so I must have done things right. I have not tried to use the CD player yet.

So for around $100, I got a decent system and installed it myself instead of paying a store at least $150 for the same thing.

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