Customer Reviews

Pioneer DEH-3300UB CD Receiver with iPod Direct Control and USB Input

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I bought and returned this unit. The main reason is because the screen is too bright, and the brightness cannot be adjusted. That means it cannot be adjusted in the menu and there's no illumination wire on the connector that can be controlled by the headlight setting.

The screen is very bright. Excellent on a sunny day but glaringly bright and distracting at night. The black background of the display is even washed out by the brightness to the point where it's not quite black when the unit is on.

Also this unit is lacking a High Pass Filter. My speakers were getting distorted at moderate to high volume levels. A HPF would solve this. This feature existed on its predecessor, the 3200.

Also lacking is the EQ. The 5-band graphic EQ from previous models has been replaced with a 3-band bass/mid/high.

On the plus side the mechanics on the 3300 are excellent. The buttons have a great tactile feel and there is plenty of grip length on the control knob. I tried out the 3200 in the store and the 3300 by comparison has better buttons.

But the brightness of the screen and lack of HPF were the real deal-breakers for me. I returned it and bought one of last year's models, the DEH-5200HD.

As for the DEH-5200HD it is an excellent unit. It has a HPF, which stops the speaker distortion and helps the overall sound quality. Plus the 5-band EQ allows for better fine tuning, and the brightness is adjustable. Finally, I found I really like the HD radio feature as it opened up additional FM channels that I didn't have access to before.

Overall I'd recommend buying a 2010 Pioneer model instead of their 2011 models. The 4300 also lacks a HPF, but at least the brightness can be tuned to 1 custom setting. It wasn't immediately clear though from my reading if the 4300 allows for a preset low/high setting. That could make switching brightness tedious.

Pioneer should always have a HPF and low/high brightness setting at the very least. In addition they should have an illumination wire on all their radios so brightness is set to low/high automatically when the headlights are turned on/off.

The DEH-5200HD is a better unit in my own experience, and based on looking at the specs their other 2010 models are a better choice than the 2011 models since they have removed the HPF and brightness settings.

Works great. As i could not find any info anywhere about this being compatible with Android as well it indeed does work fine. Since not everyone in the world likes or has an Apple device as it only says it will play Ipod and Iphones thru the usb port on the front.

Honestly, I don't know why some people have given it such poor reviews. Now, I just received the item and perhaps I should wait a few months to see how this thing will do, but so far, I am nothing but impressed. It took me about 20 minutes to install it, and I'm not extremely knowledgable about such things. All the complaints and gripes that make this sound like it is only decent are such minor things that I can't see why people put up such a fuss. The LCD front display is bright, but it's not blinding and I think it's needed if you want to see it clearly during the day. The controls are not overly confusing as some have said. They take a little getting use to, but like anything worthwhile, it just takes some time and practice.

Honestly, this item is great and I have nothing negative to say about it. My speakers sound as good as they are going to now, and the ipod control is amazing. Scrolling through my playlists or artists is very easy to do and I can find things quickly. A good FM transmitter and charger will cost you half this price, so why not go a little farther and get something you won't regret and makes your ipod music clear, with no static at all? I honestly love this device and for the price you really can't go wrong.

In general this is a decent entry-level car CD/USB/iPod receiver. One of the most important improvements in this model from the previous year's version was reworking the main function knob to a rotary encoder and push button only, with direction-pad functions moved to separate buttons. On the earlier unit, it would have been a frustrating game attempting to turn up the volume, for instance, without accidentally pushing the "joystick" and changing a track or station.

At this point in my ownership, the biggest drawback is the lack of AAC file support. If you're like me, you might be browsing several models that support MP3 and AAC (not to mention WMA) directly from a USB thumb drive, but fail to spot those that do *not* include AAC. Does this make (the DEH-3300UB) a bad product? No. But it feels a little bit like a fine-print gotcha.

I bought one of these today for the used Acura I just bought (unexpectedly found it on sale, cheap!). It's not installed yet, but based on a similar Pioneer I put in another vehicle last year, I expect this one to be *very* worth the price. I've been buying Pioneer decks since the early 90's because I use the radio function most of the time, and the Pioneer "SuperTuner" has consistently been the strongest FM receiver I've found,at least in the low-to-mid-level decks I buy.

I wouldn't have written this review, but about the bad reviews based on losing the memory when the ignition is switched off? IT'S NOT THE RADIO'S FAULT. All modern vehicles have a constant 12 volt line to supply voltage to the radio to maintain the memory settings. If your radio is losing memory settings when the key is turned off, then the radio's main power connection is wired to something other than the intended constant 12 volt supply. So, it's like blaming your TV for going dark when a tree falls across the power lines down the road and knocks out the power to your house.

So, next time, consider finding somebody who knows what they're doing to install your car stereo. I'm just sayin'.

Cheers!

Just bought me one of these and I have to say, I am happy and impressed especially compared to the factory unit in my 2002 Honda Odyssey. I didn't have a problem with the factory head unit, it's just that I have an iPhone and I don't really listen to the radio much. They sell a GTA aux kit for around $60 or so for my vehicle but whats the point when I can put that money towards a head unit with a USB/Aux in. Doesn't it make much more sense? So after some careful consideration, I decided to go with the DEH-3300UB. I was going to settle for the DEH-1300 but come on, this DEH-3300UB has a USB port that let's you control and CHARGE your iPhone/iPod. Saves me from buying another car adapter to charge my phone. So far, everything sounds good. No complaints.

One other thing, I was going to buy a receiver installation kit but took one look at the factory mounts that holds the stock unit and figured that it should fit almost as good without the kit. I scoured the Internet but I couldn't find a thing about needing the receiver kit. I even called up Crutchfield Customer Service and the operator said, it's going to look like I am going to need it because the factory unit is bigger than the 3300UB.

B.S. It fits almost as good as the factory unit. There's a micro gap and I mean tiny between the pocket and the radio but hardly noticeable. SO people who are INTERESTED in this or similar and have a Honda, check first before you buy the kit. You'll save $20 dollars or so...

Pros:
I bought this to replace the original CD player in my 2002 Honda Civic. Installation was very easy with a few accessories. Though I didn't replace any speakers, the sound quality was very much improved over the original CD player. I'm not at all bothered by the brightness of the display, as one prominent reviewer said. Also, the receiver works excellently with my iPhone 4G.

It's a really good radio, all features needed, lot of controls, and a nice look.
I really like it :)

This is a great radio. The availability of USB and AUX is a great feature. The only complaint I have is the equalizer is a bit limited in the number of selections. Other than that, the radio is definitely worth purchasing.

There's no substitute for preparation. Based on this plattitude, I have three pointers.

1: Buy the wiring harness for your car's trim package; in my case a 2005 Altima S. It will take a soldering iron, your basic 60/40 resin core solder, a foot of heat-shrink tubing, and about twenty minutes to connect it color-to-color to the harness that ships with the Pioneer DEH-3300UB head unit. With that you have a "pigtail" that will connect easily from the car's OEM connectors to the back of your new stereo. I did a lot of poking around the Internet looking for pinouts on the cables, and discovered all the new stuff uses the EIA wire color standards, so just solder the yellow wire to the yellow wire, the brown/black wire to the brown/black wire, etc. This will run you less than $15 from Amazon.

2: Get the DIN mounting kit for your car's trim package. It ran somewhere around $18 for my Altima. Read the instructions on how to attach the radio (yea, it runs against my nature, too), and put it together indoors. Where. it's. warm.

3: Do an Internet search on how to remove the stereo for your model of car on Google or Bing. I would NEVER have come up with the procedure for opening up the dash board.

After that, there were six screws, four connectors, and a ground wire. It took all of ten minutes to put it all together.

The Pioneer DEH-3300UB is a NICE sounding stereo with more than enough power for my old ears. It's a great change from the anemia of the original equipment. The USB, auxilliary jack, and CD player function as advertised, and the Super Tuner IIId is the clearest analogue FM receiver you'll find. Aside from a slightly non-intuitive user interface, I rate this product as flawless.