Best Buy radio malibu 2002 installations

Great features at a decent price, January 27, 2010

I don’t normally write reviews, but I decided I should for this product since there aren’t many and I think the manufacturer deserves credit. I’ve used Power Acoustik amps and speakers before and liked them a lot. The company produces quality products but gets non-name-brand prices. So I wasn’t too scared rolling the dice on this unit. I’ve been using it for a half a year now and it hasn’t disappointed.

Sound is just fine. I doubt its audiophile quality, but it will stand with a good portion of the Sonys and the Pioneers. My one gripe there is that it doesn’t seem to filter the low pass signals out of the main channels if you tell it to output to the sub channel, but this is a relatively minor problem and if you’re not using a sub, you won’t even care. The volume is sufficient.

Menu/control system is pretty good. You get some geek cred for having a touch screen and the basic functions are as you would expect. The external controls on the faceplate are a little weird. I definitely would have made the source easier to change than scrolling through by tapping the power button (I’ve never accidentally shut it off though–it’s just you would think this would get its own button). I do like having the call pick-up and disconnect buttons that you can use when the faceplate is down.

iPod control is weird and I honestly don’t use it. It’s 100x easier to navigate your songs on the iPod itself. But I don’t have use the custom ipod input because the basic audio input off a headphone jack is all i need there anyway and it lets me set my iPod in the console right side up. I suppose if I got into video on my ipod I’d give the ipod control another try, but it doesn’t really worry me.

The Bluetooth handsfree option works fairly well. When someone calls you, no matter what screen you are in, it mutes your music, comes up with who it is and lets you choose to answer. It will also dial out strait from the head unit and interface with your phone’s phonebook. It had troubles interfacing with mine. I actually prefer to just make the call from the phone and then the head unit takes over. I’m still out on whether I find the audio quality acceptable. In town its fine, but at highway speeds I think it picks up too much noise. Still, it’s definitely usable.

Movies are pretty good. They can be a little washed out in the day depending on where the sun is etc., but generally the picture is great. I also like that it’s not just a DVD player but a divx/xvid player and can use SD and USB storage devices. I haven’t really used it, but I like knowing its there. If I did want to watch movies etc, I’d definately be using more the xvid/divx stuff than off the ipod. My one grip is that you have to use the remote for some of the navigation of the movie menus. I wish this was all touch screen, but you don’t need it that often.

Navigation is the killer app for me. I just love it. It’s also the part that I was most ambivalent about since there were no reviews of it. Well I’m glad I took the plunge. It’s $200 extra, but well worth it. It’s well programmed, you won’t have a problem switching from a Garmin or a TomTom. It finds the satellites a lot quicker than my Garmin too, and I assume (though I don’t have many tall buildings or mountains around me that it will hold on signal better there as well. And I have the antenna buried behind my glovebox. I imagine if I gave it more prominent positioning, the signal would be even better. The maps seem to be better than my garmin: it has less unnamed streets in my experience. And the fact that it’s built into your dash and you don’t have to sucker it onto your windshield is great. I’m really interested if anyone knows about software updates for it (just because I’m geeky that way). The website it points to doesn’t seem to exist. You can quickly switch between your nav screen and your audio screens. You can continue listening to your source audio while in the nav screen and you can continue to get audio nav directions when off of the nav screen.

The security feature sort of scares me. The removable part isn’t all that noticable when it’s removed. It doesn’t seem like much of a deterrent, which is all that really matters. I once had a head unit with top of the line smart card security. Well, it was stolen even though the card was out. All the thieves got was a dead stereo, but that didn’t help me any. Anyways, this unit is so reasonably priced that I think the risk is worth it.

So all and all: everything is a little rough around the edges, it seems like it was designed a little hastily–maybe by the engineers, but it’s feature-rich and most of the features work well. And if you tried to get anything similar from a big name you’d easilty be paying twice as much, which makes this a great buy.

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Good concept but alot of annoying features, March 12, 2010

By 

D. Williams (San Antonio, TX) – See all my reviews

  

I just bought this product because it had all of the features I wanted at a GREAT price. It has the bluetooth (without buying additional equipment), DVD, CD/CDRW, USB, SD Card, Flip screen, etc….I have not had any real problems with it. I am pretty happy, I will have to comment over time to reflect if there is any difference.

–Update

After using this thing for 2 weeks, I am going to have to return this puppy, way too many annoying features, it does the basics for those that are not picky. Things not working as advertised and accessive sounds is just too much for me to bear.

CONS:

*GUI looks a little like MS DOS

*Some commands are a little slow (not bad though)

*The fan sounds and winding (even when not using the flip) is incedibly annoying

*You can’t change pictures on the display or screensaver

*Can’t add names to bluetooth display or numbers

*Sub feature is not independent

*Very few customizable sounds/eq features

PROS:

*Most of the stuff works (USB, DVD, Audio input)

*Better than not having a flip screed

*It does play DVDs

*USB and other inputs are conveinently placed

BOTTOM LINE – If you don’t mind the sound and desire to do not much more than watch DVDs, don’t have the money for something more….expensive. THis may be a decent option.

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2nd power accoustik owner, September 12, 2009

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H. barraza “ŴĕƃṂā&#… (RiVeRSiDe CoUnTy) – See all my reviews

  

this my 2nd in-dash it sure is better the the old model ptid-8960 i loved the indash until the touchscreen got mess up

so i was looking for a replacement and it cost the same as this model so i went with this

i really like the interface really easy to touch and navigate to the features

video quality is good with dvds/ipod

the radio preset are easy to use

small detachable face

i haven’t install the navi yet but i will hopefully

the blue-tooth awesome no more charging the stupid ear peace just have your phone blue-tooth on and everytime you jump in the car it automatically turns on by it self how tight is that =]

Ipod feature is sweet must have the ipod cable or u can use the aux but i prefer the cable it shows the title of the artist song name and album it doesn’t let you scroll so that was a little boo but still good easy feature

the bad thing about this is it has a building cooling fan and it can get loud and anoying when you lower your music to talk 2 other people driving with you i though it was the speakers but no its the stereo so that was a con for me

other them that i still love

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