Customer Reviews

Pioneer DEH-2200UB CD Receiver with iPod Direct Control and USB Input

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I bought this so I could use the USB slot and it works great. It loads all the songs in about 2 seconds (even with a large thumb drive of 4 GB or more of music) and then there is no wait time when scrolling through tracks. It clearly displays the song title and you can adjust it to display the track by title, album, etc. I'm not a huge stereo person so I don't care about amps and making my car vibrate, but I will say that my music plays clearly and I can turn it up much louder than I need too without my music being distorted in any way. The buttons are a little small, but you get used to them. I did plug my blackberry phone into the AUX port and it did play my songs. However, no information about the song was displayed on the stereo's display and I had to control my music through the Blackberry, which is a pain. Luckily, I plan on using the USB slot, this is just an FYI for those of you who don't have an ipod and wanted to know if other mp3 players could utilize the stereo's controls. All in all this was a great value for the money and it does everything that I need it to do.

I got this on sale for under a hundred bucks on Amazon.
It features great iPod/iPhone integration---the song name/artist/album can be displayed.
Easy to use and configure compared to my old Clarion deck.
The wire colors on the Pioneer matches the standard Nissan wiring harness perfectly. [94 Infiniti G20, factory amps previously bypassed.]
You can choose either Green or Red Illumination.
It includes a wireless remote for back passengers.
There is annoying plastic cover over the USB port.
Pretty stylish...and an incredible value. I love it.

I have owned 7 different Pioneer decks over the last 10 years (my car was frequently the victim of theft) and this is by far the best unit I have ever owned. We used this to replace a junky Sony Xplode unit that died after the buttons went crazy. This deck does everything you could want it to and at an amazing price. You can plug in any USB device and it will play the music stored there. I plugged in my Droid phone and it located the music and played it with ease. We used a flash drive and it played all the music. We plugged in our iPod with the normal USB cable and it worked perfectly and it gives you the option to control the music from the deck or from the iPod. We haven't tried CD's in it but I am sure it will function just fine. The color options are a nice addition but what made me happiest is that the display is not too bright. With every unit I have had, the screens are so bright that they cause fatigue on my eyes while driving at night. This does not distract me at all but I can still see it perfectly in all lighting conditions. The controls are easy to navigate and the volume knob is sturdy and easy to grip, unlike the slippery knobs from previous models. Again, this is easily the best unit I have ever owned, especially for the features and price.

It seem like very good product. I bought it and installed it for my little sister so I haven't used it since then, but she's extremely happy with it.

What I like about it is the front USB and it allows you to adjust your bass, tremble AND mids, unlike my cheap radio (someone broke into my car and stole the nice one I use to have). Plus, it also outputs 22 RMS, most receivers seem to only output 18 rms or less.

The sound quality is decent. My sister has stock speakers so I imagine its a lot better than decent since the previous radio she had was a Panasonic which the Pioneer seems to blow away according to her, but again with stock speakers its hard to tell, especially with very old stock speakers.

Note: When your adjusting your receiver use the remote control, I found it to be extremely easy using the remote control, usually I find it easier the other way around.

Great sound, good features, simple install though instructions were skimpy. Be sure you get the wiring harness for your car and a compatible install kit (not included). My biggest gripe is the navigation buttons that are VERY small, hard to read, and overly complicated. The unit comes with a wireless remote that is much better organized and labeled but is very easy to loose or not available when needed.

I just bought this CD receiver to replace the stock unit in my '05 civic. Amazon had the price down to $105 when I purchased it, making it one of the best values for quality CD receivers out there with USB capability. I mainly chose the Pioneer due to the solid reviews (many other brands out there have similar sub-$100 units, but they get regularly thrashed by buyers).

Did the installation myself, helps to buy an aftermarket dash unit (I used a Metra kit) so you can fit the unit in snugly and blend it in to the car. Very straightforward wiring, especially if you buy a wiring harness plug for your car model.

Plays off CDs, thumb drives, and most ipods pretty easily. Very nice to have the USB capability so I can play off a pocketable thumb drive, they are so much easier than CDs and you can get an 8GB for under $20 these days. My old-as-stink iPod turned out to not be compatible, but I'm not really all that torn up as I never use it anyway, and would rather just keep a flash drive with me or in the car. It integrated just fine with a friend's iPhone and a more recent iPod. Controlling the iPod is not bad if you have organized playlists, but since you only have one display line, it's not as nice as just using the iPod alone. And if that's what you prefer, you can just use a 3.5mm headphone male/male cable in the AUX slot and plug any old iPod or mp3 player in, enjoy the easy interface - only upside of the USB slot is that it keeps the iPod charged for long journeys.

User interface, as might be expected, takes some getting used to. Expect a couple of trips or checks to the instruction manual before you remember how to adjust everything. There's more buttons than your average car stereo, so it's not super-intuitive like an iPod, but it's simple enough to be automatic after a while. Also comes with a remote, which I haven't used much, but the buttons are definitely more clear. It would be nice to maybe have two knobs (volume, tuning/adjustment), but I suppose there's not really room in a single-DIN unit to make it sensible.

I'm no audiophile, but it sounds fine to me. Lots of adjustability in bass, mid, treble. Was playing with the radio just after I installed it, and it seemed a little more staticy than I remember. But might have just been me, I will have to find a way to test it more categorically. Was working in my driveway behind a stone wall, and to be honest I can't even specifically remember plugging the antenna jack back in before fitting the dash back together, so who really knows.

I bought this CD Player when it came on Amazon Gold Box Deal to install in my 2005 Nissan Altima.

Pros:
1.) Has tons of connectivity features like playing music from Flash drive/USB, Ipod connectivity, CDs , Radio and AUX in
2.) Easy to install (Pls. use Metra Kit and wire harness to make life easier).
3.) After installing my factory speakers sounded very good and diff, could not believe such sound loud and clear could be produced from my factory speakers . Could hear many more details in my music which never heard before.

Cons:
1.) Buttons are bit smaller in size, could have been bit bigger.
2.) Need to go through the manual few times to get hold of complete functionality.

I would definitely give it a thumps up for replacing your factory radio.

I bought this as an update for my 2001 Honda Accord. I bought it even though it received mixed reviews. I got the head unit in its original Pioneer packaging with the wiring harness. The unit itself is heavy though I agree with a few of the other reviewers in that the buttons and ports feel a little cheap but they seem like they will be long-lasting. The unit also lets you pick what color you want the illumination to be (either red or green). The problem is that the way the light passes through the buttons makes it a little difficult to see from the side. I use the USB cable directly to the unit and it works great. You can browse your music right through the unit. You can switch from using the head unit to browse to the iPod through a setting on the unit itself. I haven't used the audio jack to listen to music. The unit picks up the stations a lot better than the stock unit and the Pioneer actually makes my stock speakers sound 10000x better. I also installed the unit myself (which is a lot easier than people make it out to be) but I had purchased a converting harness to make the wiring a lot easier. Overall, I would definitely recommend the unit to others as a cheap, quick alternative to getting a higher end alternative.

I've had this unit for almost three months now. I got it to replace a DEH-445 from around 1998 that worked pretty well but I was tired of the various cons of CDs, like skipping, protecting them from and dealing with scratches, physically storing them, buying them, and being limited to 80 minutes' worth of songs. I wanted to be able to use a USB drive. As such this review will focus on that, as I have spent exactly no time on the radio or CD capabilities of it.

I paid about $75 for the 2200UB, and combined with a kingston microSD reader and 8GB microSD card, was able to get exactly what i wanted for less than a bill from Amazon. Very nice. I like the new unit a lot and would buy it again. Here are my pros and cons.

Pros:
1. Fast. I'm pretty close to filling up those 8GB and it loads them and plays them as fast as my DEH-445 would start the CD. Skips to the next song as fast as or faster than a CD. Works like it should, you don't sit there and go "Y U NO PLAY?"

2. Easy to navigate. You have your volume knob, which you can press to adjust bass/treble/etc. There are buttons at 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock for ffw/skip fwd and rew/skip backward, and buttons at 8 o'clock and 10 o'clock for folder down and folder up. Very easy to use by touch.

3. The remote. I was surprised a head unit in this range came with a remote, and I didn't think I'd use it, but it's actually pretty useful. If you are having an issue with navigating the player, you can bring the remote into your field of vision, rather than taking your eyes off the road.

4. The USB drive reader is just flatout cool. I know it's not exclusive to this model or to Pioneer, but I've been waiting for about 5 years from when my friend mentioned how cool that would be to just plug in a flash drive, plus two more years to come down to my price range. No software, no disks, just drag n drop on your computer (well, almost, see Con #1) and plug n play on the Pioneer.

Cons:
1. Song order! By default, the player lists and plays songs in the order that you copy them to your USB drive. If you're browsing your music collection to put on the USB drive, and one song makes you think of another so you're all over the place when you're copying, that's the order the 2200UB will play them in. Not a terrible problem with a small amount of songs, but with 8 GB, I need it to be organized logically (read: alphabetically) so I don't have to skip through 700 songs to find the one I want.

Now, there is freeware that can fix this for you (I like DriveSort, works great, very simple and fast. Paypal the developer a donation if you try it and like it), but it's annoying that it's necessary. It's kind of a PITA. It's also the reason I haven't bought one of these for my dad. He lives in a northern area and his car CD player won't play when it gets too cold. This would be a great solution for him, but he's 76. I know he *could* do it, but the extra step of sorting the drive each time he adds music is going to be a barrier to using the player, and I think it just wouldn't be worth it.

2. Displaying the clock. This may be a setting I can change, but I haven't found it. It did it on my DEH-445 also: whenever you skip to a song, or adjust the volume, or ffw/rew within a song, the display changes to time elapsed on the track for a while, about 30 seconds I think. There is a button you can press to change it to the clock immediately, but what this does is changes your main setting, so now when it reverts after the 30 seconds, it goes back to time elapsed! So you either have to wait for it if you want to see the time, or you have to remember to press it again. It may seem minor but it annoys me. Pioneer, why you do that?

3. The disk drive. This could go two ways. On one hand, it's CD only. In 2011, or even 2010 if that's when this unit was developed, why on earth would you not put a combo or even just a DVDROM in there? It reads data disks as well as CD Audio, so why not make it read *big* data disks? On the other hand, why have a disk drive at all, with its mechanical parts to go wrong? I'd rather skip the disk drive entirely and either knock $10 or $20 off the price, or better yet, put that space to use with more wattage, whatever electronics are necessary to eliminate con #1 up there, or more file-type compatibility.

4. File-type compatibility. FLAC. FLAC. FLAC. PLEASE. I don't care much about AAC, WMA, or even Ogg Vorbis as they're all lossy (MP3 is a given) but lossless would be nice and hey, why not make it an open and free one while you're in there. Did I mention I'd like FLAC?

Other issues:
Other reviewers have mentioned the small buttons. To be fair, I think the buttons don't have to be that big as long as they're spaced correctly. I will say that while the buttons themselves work fine, the labels are tiny and you'll have to memorize them. You'd risk a crash trying to read them while moving. Once memorized, though, it's easy to use or you can use the remote.

Other reviewers have also mentioned the controls are unintuitive, but I don't agree. If you need to know how to do something, just look in the instruction manual. Spend 20 minutes in your driveway some afternoon or weekend and learn it. Functions may not be obvious right away but there's nothing completely crazy, like, "hold 4 buttons and turn your car off to switch the display color." It's really not bad and if it gives you that much trouble you should probably stick with AM.

Resuming playback after turning off my vehicle. Whenever I turn my vehicle back on, the song is usually back near the start. If it's a long song, a la "Kashmir" or "Reign (Way Out West Instrumental)" or "Three Days," it'll start around 6 minutes in. This isn't a huge problem, so I didn't list it as a con. The ease of selecting prime songs to put on my USB drive ensures I only have songs I actually want to listen to, so it's not terrible to listen to the song again. It might bug other people though and it kind of surprised me.

Anyway, I am very happy with it and plan to keep it for quite some time. Like I said, I would buy it again despite the cons I listed, although I will say, if DriveSort or something similar didn't exist, the playback order issue would be a dealbreaker for me.

I bought this gift for my fiance for his birthday and he absolutely loves it! I have a car that has a usb hook up already in it and that's the best part about this CD player. Most cell phone chargers have detachable ends now anyways so you don't even need a car charger any more you can just hook the end of your USB to the front of this CD player to charge your phone. You also don't even need to buy an iPod adapter because you can just use your iPod cord and plug the USB side of the iPod cord straight into the front of the cd player and use your iPod. Absolutely love this and GREAT price for a GREAT item! A good gift for someone who needs an updated cd player with more features.