Cost effective MP3 Capable Dash Unit
Pros:
inexpensive, 22W/channel, MP3 capable
Cons:
*looks* cheap, no line-in/line-out
The Bottom Line:
If your ears are buying a stereo unit, they'll pick this one. If your eyes are buying, they may want a more expensive unit.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
The DEH-2800MP is an "entry level" Pioneer dash CD player. However, do not be tricked by its relatively low price. It has the same power rating (22W RMS, continuous) as the more expensive units. It can play CDs loaded with MP3 and WMA. It can display tag info of tracks, too.
The sound quality of this CD player is good. Keep in mind that much of the sound quality of a stereo system depends on the speakers, as long as the amplifier has enough juice. I doubt that the more expensive units have better sound quality. Do keep in mind that the highest end models have 7-band equalizers, instead of the 3-band equalizers of the lower end models.
So far, the CD player has yet to skip or pause due to vibration. I drive a Miata with lowered and stiffen suspension. That means the anti-skip mechanism works pretty good!
What do you miss at this lower price?
First, the face plate only has buttons, no knobs. These days, everyone is switching back to knobs for control. Although round knobs would fit the interior of my Miata better, buttons are just fine! The placement of the buttons is fairly well laid out. My only complaint is that some buttons (infrequently used) do not have backlit caption.
Second, there is no line-in or line-out. This makes it difficult to expand the stereo system. If you plan to use an iPod, for example, the more expensive units have dedicated connectors. If you want to feed the line-out signal to an external amp, you also want to look into a more expensive model. However, keep in mind that some amplifiers accept speaker level input, which means the DEH-2800MP will be fine.
The display of the DEH-2800MP feels "cheap" compared to the more expensive models. The DEH-2800MP uses a reversed backlit LCD for its display. Although it is alphanumeric, it is segmented. The more expensive units use vacuum fluorescent displays, which are brighter and have multiple colors. In addition, the more expensive units also use dot-matrix (instead of segments) for better text rendering. When I drive, I really don't look at the face plate much. Therefore, the slightly primitive look of the DEH-2800MP is not a problem to me.
All in all, I think the DEH-2800MP represents the best bang for the buck among MP3 capable dash CD players. I am very happy with mine.
