Customer Reviews

Clarion FZ709 MP3/WMA/AAC Receiver with USB Port

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

UPDATE 2: If you own an Apple product, iOS 5 breaks bluetooth compatibility with this unit.

UPDATE: After using this for a week I had to lower my review by a star. The lack of physical buttons has really made this receiver difficult to use while driving. With no station preset buttons you have to fumble around with the controls in multiple steps just to change the station. Unfortunately, you won't find a cheaper receiver with bluetooth and A2DP streaming. There's no dedicated Phone button, so once again you have to fumble around to make a call and because of the lack of a control knob, dialing a number is a lesson in frustration.

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This receiver is an unbelievable deal. Everywhere else it's almost $300 but I got it for $129 here.

This is a cd-less receiver and because there are no moving parts it generates little heat. I have not used a CD in years and I bought this unit because of that and because it has A2DP wireless bluetooth audio streaming. No more wires connected to my iPhone! If you have an internet audio App (I use TuneIn Radio) you can listen to any station on the internet.

It looks great and there are no physical buttons but unfortunately you have to actually look at the unit to see where the volume control is. I would have appreciated some sort of tactile feedback such as a texture so I can keep my eyes on the road.

As with most receivers these days, the FZ709 comes with a pointless remote control. What are you supposed to do with it? Tape it to the steering wheel?

Pro's: Great-looking, a bargain, sounds fantastic, A2DP bluetooth wireless audio streaming, no mechanical parts to break, packed with features.

Con's: No physical volume knob, can't change the OLED color to match your gauges, "buttons" are sometimes unresponsive, can't change the display during A2DP streaming, clock is barely visible.

The Bluetooth support on the FZ709 is great. I was easily able to stream audio from my Droid Incredible. It worked great for phone calls too. It sounds like you've got the phone up to your face, i.e. not like you're talking on a speakerphone.

The touch screen is a bit hard to use. One of my biggest issues is that the buttons are a bit slow to respond or don't register your first few presses. As a result you find yourself pressing a couple times, wildly trying to get it to respond.

The biggest problem for me was that the FM tuner had very poor performance. With my stock stereo I can get stations from my city and the nearest neighboring city. With this unit I could barely get stations from my city (which were fuzzy). On my drive to work outside the city the radio basically became unusable. If you only plan to use this with some other media player, that might be fine, but it's a deal breaker for me. I returned this unit and will be looking for something else.

The FZ709 does a few things amazingly well, but stumbles so hard in some areas it's hard to forgive it.

***Update at Bottom***
What it does well:
A2DP Bluetooth - Flawless. Pandora from my Android phone has never sounded better.
Hands-Free - Also perfect, pairing is a cinch, the remote microphone works really well - callers sound great and say I am as clear as if I had the phone up to my face.
Interface - I've seen a lot of the other reviewers take issue with the touch screen but mine works really well, even when driving - very responsive and easy to navigate (unless you are doing a complex operation like setting the EQ or trying to make a phone call).

What it doesn't do well:
FM Tuner - It sucks, period. I went from a Pioneer with Super Tuner III that makes this radio sound embarrassing.
Volume - It doesn't have much. I can hear clipping from the internal amp when I know my speakers have plenty of headroom left. Total lack of low-end pretty much guarantees you are going to be adding a subwoofer to your system with this deck.
Dimmer - Worthlessly dims only the OLED display and not the insanely bright LED's that make up the touch interface. Big distraction when driving.
Dialing - Yeah right. Unless you want to end up in a ditch you have to dial directly from your cell-phone.

Even with the drawbacks this is still a good buy at this price point. I purchased it because I was looking for an elegant solution to streaming audio from my cellphone and a way to avoid wearing a headset while driving. The USB connection is a bonus but it seemed like a hassle to use from the brief testing I did, I didn't make any attempt to connect an iPod. One other issue I have had with my unit is that the bezel came broken and was so brittle it ended up in about 20 pieces after I took it off for installation. I'm not sure if this was just my deck or a common problem though.

***Update***
I thought I would share why you should reconsider this deck unless you plan on installing a subwoofer. It has NO LOUD BUTTON - Why would that matter? Loud buttons should really be called depth buttons because they boost the frequencies (low and high) that the human ear is less sensitive to at reasonable listening volumes. If you own this deck you can simulate the effect of 'loud' by boosting the gain of 100hz(bass) and 10khz(treble) in the custom EQ settings but you will have nasty distortion at higher volumes. Quality head units with this feature will dynamically adjust the amount of 'boost' throughout the volume range to reduce distortion. I think Clarion must have omitted the feature because they though at the $350 MSRP their average buyer would have a complete system and wouldn't want it('loud' buttons are undesirable in systems that incorporate subs and are listened to at high volumes). The smoking gun here is that this head-unit incorporates a feature called 'Magna-Bass Ex' that works like 'Loud' but boosts 60hz instead of 100hz - Most speakers in cars do not reproduce 60hz very well if at all, even Clarion's own products. Subs are great at 60hz. Buy this deck if you have a sub or plan to get one, otherwise skip it.

I have had this head unit now for two days now and I could not be happier with it. Synced right up with my HTC EVO and was streaming music from my Xiia radio app right away. The microphone seems to work very well. My caller had no problem hearing me with my inside voice. The buttons work wonderfully and the slide up and down the blue bars also works flawlessly. She sound quality of the A2DP is wonderful (no analog headphone connection required, YAY!) No buttons and knobs makes this a wonderful low profile dashboard accessory. I would recommend this exact unit for anyone with a smartphone. I was even able to charge from the back USB and stream audio from the Bluetooth at the same time. The installation was a breeze and the manual and wiring diagram were simple and easy to follow. There is a screensaver on the organic display. It works fine but is not too distracting as some car stereo screen-savers I have seen. Again, I would rate this tops,, quality is wonderful, features are wonderful, sound quality is wonderful. I am using the highpass filter on the unit to lower the bass level in the back, so that is a plus. I trust the Clarion name and you can not beat this unit for the price. There are newer models with video screens, but I have a high resolution screen on the EVO, so this is just what I needed. Five Stars.!!! I may purchase a second unit for my wife's car. Buy one and dont look back. You will be glad you did.

Hi ,

I had this radio for 3 days only but I just love it , it is exactely what I was looking for. No Cd player , I don't use CD's anymore and especially in the car. This unit paired perfecty with the iphone 4 for telephone and audio using bluetooth connection , no issue , the sound is clear with very good quality. I am also using the USB cable for charging purpose and/or audio and it works perfectly also.I am used to touchscreen with the iPhone and iPad so this radio interface is not an issue for me.

Installation was easy using the included diagram , no issue on this side. Yes the blue display doesn't match my car dashlight but it would be very difficult to find the perfect match ! As I said , this radio is exactely what I was looking for , Iphone compatible either by USB connection or bluetooth , hands free while driving , quality sound is very good , low price !

Thank you

A warning to anyone looking to buy this product and has an iPhone 4 or 4S on iOS 5, the bluetooth will not work!!! Many Clarion FZ709 owners like me were happy using their iPhones via bluetooth, until they upgraded their iPhones to iOS 5 (or bought a new iPhone 4S). Now bluetooth will not stay connected for more than a second or two. Apple says the new iOS is following bluetooth standards, and Clarion needs to fix it. Clarion says they cannot fix it. I will update this review if either side finally does something to get it working again. (this issue is specifically with the FZ709 unit - there have been similar bluetooth issues with other car stereo manufacturers that have been resolved by the manufacturers providing updates to their stereos to make them work with iOS 5)

So after reading up on this head unit it sounded like it was going to be amazing... it was inexpensive and everything i wanted. the day i got it i installed it (which was very easy everythings color coordinated blah blah) after installing it all and being happy with it all i turned it on and it worked for about 5 minutes then froze and wouldnt even turn off i had to unplug it from the back. after thinking my wiring was wrong i re-looked at everything and had to make no adjustments but i hard wired everything amd it still did the same thing. luckily it does have a warranty and im actually taking it back in right now to have the place work on it... BUt now im out of music in my car for 1 to 2 weeks :(.

I've been using it for about 8 months now. I can't wait to go back to a better brand like my Alpine in my other vehicle.

The good.
Bluetooth call quality is excellent (Samsung Galaxy S)
Streaming Pandora works great
That's it!
The bad.
WAY to many things to list.
The display looks terrible and dim.
It runs as hot as a device with moving parts.
The buttons work sometimes.
It is VERY unintuitive.
Things you should be able to do with a button tap and a knob twist take MANY button presses to accomplish.
It lowers the volume on my phone to where I can't hear it when I unhook it from the bluetooth until I reboot the phone.
Every time you sync bluetooth, you have to change your output back to whatever it was you were listening to ie. CD, USB, Radio
God forbid you want to random ALL your MP3 collection on flash drive. Every day or 2 it will just start playing in order again and you have to go through the tedious task of getting it back to random.
If you are in random ALL mode and you don't want to listen to the band that is on, TUFF! Skip forward only goes to the next song on that album.
I could go on and on about all these little things.
I can't fathom how this gets the ratings it did. They are what convinced me to buy it. I don't review things often and NEVER in this detail, but I highly recommend against this device.

The radio was great for about a minute. It went out right after I put it in. The seller was great and fixed everything for me. Very good feel and works great for my radio cooler. Bluetooth was great.

This is a good product. The sound is wonderful,and not to mention the hard drive usb hook up is the best in the class. It will hold up to 320 gbs of music. Whereas most usb harddrive radio only can hold 120gbs. The only issue is with the remote control, it will not allow you use the " list" function which allows you to search thru your folders to pick a specific folder for play, which is important if you have 320 gb hard drive. But its worth $130 I paid for it versus $175. It was listed for.