Customer Reviews

Jensen HD5112 HD Radio/CD/MP3/WMA/USB/SD Card/iPod Receiver with Detachable Faceplate

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

The radio installed easily (they all do) but after enjoying the HD radio for a day, I inserted a USB flash drive to listen to my MP3s and got a "USB ERR". So I got an SD card and tried the same thing (the SD capabilities were the reason I bought it) and got an "SD ERR". So the next day I burned a CD of MP3s to get me by until I returned the radio for a refund, and of course I got a "CD ERR" when I inserted the CD.
I called tech support (I didnt realize Jensen and Audiovox were the same company...wish I had) and he sounded surprised, then said to get a refund. In the little bit of research I did I found some good reviews, but after my troubles I did some more and found I wasn't the only one whose radio worked, but nothing else.

I know Jensen is low-end stuff but I was hoping for at least a year or 2 of working features. Not even a day.

Pros: The radio sounded fine. It looks nice, not that that is worth anything.

Cons: Aside from the fact that most of the radio didn't even function, the remote is weak and has the bubble buttons, not solid switches. The sticker that says "warranty void if removed" automatically gets scraped right off when removing the mount for installation, and more so when the radio is slid into the mount for the first time (saw other complaints of this online). Faceplate is not always easy to replace when removed, which you have to do when using SD slot. Trim ring kept falling to the floor. And on and on...

What's sad is that SD capabilities only seem to be available in low-end product like Jensen/Audiovox, VR/Roadmaster, etc. At least according to the local big box stores.

Refunded today... looking for something else.

I have no love for this radio. It had so much potential and had all the bells and whistles I could look for. SD/IPOD/USB/HD Radio. Installing it was fine and everything worked great for about 2 weeks and then slowly things just stopped working. First it was the SD slot. What worked the day before stopped playing. Now the radio stations that I once could get in HD are gone. The kicker is now the CD just gives me an error message. GRRRRR. After all the work to fish the iPod adapter to where I wanted it this radio has to come out.

Here's the real kick in the head... When I bought it there was a rebate. So I waited a week - said, yep thing is working great. I cut the UPC off and send in my rebate. Now without the UPC Jensen tells me they won't take the radio back under warranty. The second kick in the head came when my rebate was rejected for not having the UPC attached even though I have resubmitted my copy showing the UPC was attached.

So again. I have had nothing but bad karma with this radio.

Just purchased this unit and so far so good.

HD quality -- excellent audio quality (Detroit area). Unlike another review the HD doesn't 'pop' off or anything like that -- it does a 'flang' type transition to the digital signal which kind of sounds sweet (almost like the signal is coming into focus). The HD signal is not as loud as the analog but it is much clearer than analog.

40w per channel is louder than stock stereo it replaced (Ford 6006 unit) and the built in presets for the equalizer are adequate for general use. With the stock speakers in the vehicle everything is sounding great.

USB/SD card support only supports older media types -- newer USB sticks and HDSD cards are not supported (package states 4G SD card support, and USB I only tested 2G sticks I had laying around without any issues).

The volume/multi use knob appears a little flimsy and has a bit of play on it but in general I don't think this should be an issue.

Unlike the description above, jLink cable was NOT included when purchased from Amazon (but is included in the documentation, descriptions of the unit on Amazon and at Jensen's site). Only place that the cable is noted as not included is at the link to the image of the cable on this product description. Also to note, it appears that Amazon BOM'd the package and took out the cable or possibly at another stage of the shipping process that happened, as the package was opened and left open in the shipping box when I broke open the package. I initially thought the shipper had needed one for his stereo =)

In general, it appears to be an excellent value even without the jLink cable -- where else do you get a stereo with HD for $50? I'll update the review in a few months after it's had some time to adjust to the new install.

this product meets or exceeds everything that I need in a radio for today, I replaced my stock radio and I just wanted to be able to add my mp3 and other components to my radio in my car and the HD was a plus. I have used every component of the radio and have found no problems with it, installation was no problem although I blew a couple of fuses in the process. I have no complaints and have had the radio for about 2 months now, I plan on adding an xm/sirius component and with the cables provided I expect the process to be simple as the rest.

Where to start. I ordered this radio for my girlfriends car so she can have an abundance of music at the tip of her finger, boy was I in for a surprise. First, I received a fault stereo that did not tune any radio stations, HD or otherwise. Amazon is excellent with returns/exchanges by the way. Then I found out that although 4GB sd cards are supposed to work that Jensen/audiovox only confirm 2GB, but even still the SD MP3 Playback only allows for 255 songs, well you can get that on a 1GB easily so don't get a 2 GB unless you want half of it to be useless in this stereo. Same song limit on the usb play. CD player works perfectly as it should. The Ipod connection works for playing the 8GB Ipod touch, but does not charge it, so keep that in mind when you have a long trip ahead of you. Faceplate is easy to attach and remove for both SD removal and security reasons, so no problems there. All in all you get what you pay for the sound is fine for the everyday listener and it functions to the bare minimum of what it should.

I'm writing this as I've had this radio for little over a year now and can firmly and without any reservation say that this radio and the support from Jensen are total garbage.

WMA support - fails miserably. First, according to Microsoft a device claiming WMA support must support WMA Variable Bit Rate. This device does not. Playing Variable bit rate files will often cause this unit to restart the file after it reaches the end or completely lock the player up. The manual claims bit rates of 32-320 kbps are supported although anything below 128 or above 190 causes intermittent lockups or stuttering in playback.

MP3 Support - fails miserably. Again a claim of 32-320 kbps. First longer files (like for radio shows or audio books) are not playable. The player will either skip these files or stop after a certain amount of time and not be able to play past that hard coded time limit. Again the bit rate claims are bogus as anything outside of the 128-190kbps range causes the player to intermittently skip the file, lockup, or only play part of the file regardless of length (ex a 5 min file only playing for 30 seconds).

CD support - as others have experienced here it sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. CDs have been formatted and closed correctly. There is no reasoning behind it from what I can gather as to if it will work or not. Sometimes burning the exact same layout again on the same brand media it will play. It is almost as though it fails due some values set in the disc media ID or creation date/information (hmmm, maybe I should check that).

SD support - fails miserably. Like many others this areas is intermittent at best with SD Err coming up quite often. Sometimes right away, sometimes after a few tracks, sometimes dozens of tracks in. It will however almost always come up with SD Err at some point during use. Thus making the SD support worthless.

USB Support - fails miserably. First only drives formatted as FAT (not FAT 32, not NTFS). Just old school DOS/Windows9x FAT 16 are supported. Like many others this areas is intermittent at best with USB Err coming up quite often. Sometimes right away, sometimes after a few tracks, sometimes dozens of tracks in. It will however almost always come up with USB Err at some point during use. Thus making the USB support worthless.

iPod Support - sorry I can not review this portion as I do not have an iPod.

XM/Siruis support - sorry I can not review this portion as I did not purchase a tuner module and subscribe to either of these services for this radio.

HD Radio support - HD Radios are recommended to have an option to manually disengage HD radio mode for borderline regions where HD radio signal cut-in/cut-out would cause constant switching. This radio fails to comply with that recommendation and provides no way to turn the HD radio mode off and use only standard FM. Thus in any lengthy drive situation where one will eventually reach borderline signal areas the radio fades in and out of HD mode thus making it unable to be listened to as HD and Analog are rarely ever perfectly in synch and this radio contrary to its claim does not perform this switch seamlessly but takes a few seconds each time.

Auxiliary Input - This is about the only feature that works. It has been the only feature that I have been able to use and consistently get decent sound from for the past year.

Support - after having dealt with support I can say this is non-existent. I have been to their service center. My test CDs, SD card, and USB drive have all been verified as formatted correctly with "supported file formats" at more than one of their authorized service centers. However, after months of dealing with them (which they now refuse to refund the cost of this unit) they have given up. The radio has been replaced multiple times without any success in correcting the issues.

STAY AWAY FROM THIS PIECE OF GARBAGE.

This would have been a nice unit had it worked as advertised with the advertised features but it fails in every respect on every feature. The support has been almost completely worthless. I would have to say the fact that they tried multiple units and did check to verify all the files I had put together were correct puts them just barely above 100% worthless. The company has no shame in the fact of its failing to deliver a working product.

About the only good thing I can say about this product is when it chooses to play something it did does sound rather clear.

I can't afford to buy another car right now. The stereo I had in my car was on it's last leg. So I took a chance (despite some of the reviews here) and bought the Jensen HD5112 and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT(so far)! This thing played my MP3/MP4 player via the Aux in jack which has all sorts of MP3's (with variable bit rates). It also easily played my 2 Gig SD card, as well as MP3's off of one of my CD's as well as other CDs in wav format. It also works very well with my 4 gig USB Data Rambo Stick. The radio stations come in fantastic on this too! (I live in Portland, Oregon)

At the time I bought this it was at $47 bucks with free shipping. IT IS THE BEST 47 bucks I've ever paid towards a stereo for my car. Worth every penny! AND I love my car again! Now I won't mind if I am stuck in traffic since I can listen to this really great stereo!

I live 40 miles west of Chicago, and I received very few HD stations with this. Also, the regular radio tuner functions worse than my factory stereo did. I'm returning it and buying something else.

I have been driving around with this radio in my Ranger for 4 months now. It is everything I wished it was, and it seems to work fine. I have an iPod hooked up, and when in range of HD, get the cool HD features. Not bad for a inexpensive stereo. I got mine from a local shop who explained how everything works and what will and won't work. Maybe that is why I like mine and some of you don't ? Maybe you're exceeding the memory limits of SD or plugging your ipod into the wrong socket or something. No this unit is not top of the line but it works.

There are just too many things that DON'T work right about this. Let's start with the display. TOO BRIGHT!!!! Adjusting the brightness doesn't do any good at all. Contrast.... REALLY BITES!!! BARELY readable, regardless of the light conditions. SD Card reading? VERY mixed. A 4GB card that works great in my Garmin GPS doesn't work with this. A 2GB card did work, however. Sirius Satellite? NOPE!!!! Says it on the box. Says it in the manual. The cable is there. The reciever they want you to get won't work. They are blaming the XM/Sirius merger on that one, and are "hopeful" to have a compatible receiver attachment "later this year". The bright side? iPod connector works as it should, and the sound is great. Installation a breeze too, if you're replacing another 3rd party stereo. Mine is going back this week.