Pioneer FH-X720BT Double DIN MIXTRAX, Bluetooth, Android, iPhone - Audio CD Receiver

I'd like to start by saying this is a great radio. I had purchased others for various cars, including the one I have this currently installed in, and this is by far my favorite. So much so I bought a second one for my mother's car. I highly recommend it.The playback sounds amazing, even with factory speakers, and there are endless adjustments you can make to give just the sound you want. I listen to various genres, from classical to hip hop to rock. All sound great and clear on this unit. My mother listens to audio books, and the voice is crystal clear and easy for her to understand. With equalization settings, base boost and more, you can get just the sound you're looking for.The large display has many options to chose from, so you can select just what you want to see. With two lines of info, you can have your clock always present while still seeing artist and title info of the song your listening to. I love the many options for the button and display colors, and the effects while on Mix mode and great! One of the complaints I see a lot about the display is that it is too dim to see during the day. Yes, this is true - IF YOU LEAVE IT ON FACTORY SETTINGS. Simply go into the system settings (by pressing the MC button) and go to your brightness setting and turn it all the way up - problem solved! Easily seen during the day, not too bright for night time driving. Also, another handy tip: There are a number of color settings for the buttons and display. You can set your favorite color or have the unit scroll through them all. Here's the tip: you can set the display for one, and the buttons for another. So, if you have trouble seeing the display (like my mother did when I bought the second unit for her car) simply set the display for a color you can see best. The white display seems to be the brightest and easiest to read. You can then set your buttons to your favorite color, or have them scroll through the colors like I do. With this little tweak, anyone can easily read the display day or night!The unit is loaded with helpful features. The bluetooth has been outstanding. My old unit was hard to hear, and people couldn't understand or hear me sometimes. They always knew I was on bluetooth in my car. This unit has none of those problems. Having received calls from my mother while in her car, I can tell you at times you don't even realize the person is on bluetooth. Very easy for both parties to hear! The external mic allows for optimum positioning for making calls. And the six preset speed dial buttons make calling your frequent contacts easier then ever!The unit works great with an iPhone! You can make and receive all your calls with ease. You can also control your music, your Pandora and iHeart Radio apps, and full use of Siri (I had to read through the manual for a bit to figure out how to use Siri, so I'll share it here to save you the time - while in any music mode (not in phone mode), simply press and hold the MC button (the large central knob) and Siri will activate). My old unit had to constantly be paired to my phone again and again. Not so with this one. In fact, both my phone and my mother's phone are each paired to each other's cars, and they connect seamlessly back and forth whichever car we are in (Note: she has an iPhone, I have Samsung, so this works with all phones).My favorite feature, by far, is the USB port. I can copy my music files to a thumb drive and take them with me. My mother copies audio books to one and does the same. You can create playlists for yourself on the USB by creating folders (yes, you may end up with duplicate files, but it's worth it). The USB playback stops when you switch modes, receive a call or turn off the unit, and starts up again right where you left off when accessed again (good for music, GREAT when listening to audio books). Make sure your music is in .mp3, .wma or .wav format; the unit only recognizes these so far. I had to convert some of my music from .mp4 and .acc, but this can be done quickly and easily online for free at https://online-audio-converter.com/. One other thing: most thumb drives tend to stick out, which doesn't look nice and can get in the way. Get yourself a low-profile USB drive. I bought this one from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005FYNSZA?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s01 Another little trick I learned after fiddling around and checking the manual: While in USB mode, in order to shuffle just the folder you are on, and not the entire drive, first select the folder and start playback; next, set the repeat setting to "repeat folder"; finally, and only after setting the repeat, put the unit on shuffle. This will shuffle just the folder (or "playlist") you are in. If you switch folders, you'll have to reset this, but it takes two seconds. You can also plug in your iPod or phone to the usb port to charge them or gain full control via the unit's controls, similar to other iPod accessories. The USB charging is a nice feature, as it gives an additional charging option helpful when we all need to charge our phones at the same time.MIXTRAX mode is an interesting feature. While playing back your music, it adds a "light show" to the display, scrolling colors and patterns and flashing things, much like a club. It blends songs together, like a club DJ, so the music never stops, just fades from one song to the next. A fun feature probably more enjoyable to the younger users. There is one aspect to MIXTRAX I found strange: you can set the playback of songs, in thirty second intervals, from one minute to three minutes. When enabled, the unit will play only that much of the song before fading to the next. I'm not sure why you would want to hear only 90 seconds of a song, but I suppose this is for the "club" type experience added with the display light show. I would really only use this with house/trance music myself (which I only listen to on rare occasion), but perhaps some of you will find it useful.Finally, installation was a breeze! I looked up my car and got the proper wire harness and fit plates, and was able to install this in a Ford Focus Wagon and Toyota Yaris Hatchback in under 20 minutes each. Amazon has all the products you need for installation, but if you want to make sure you get the exact right stuff and aren't car savvy, go over to crutchfield.com and search up this unit and put in your car details, then click installation gear and search them up here. Crutchfield does offer them free, but I found the total price of buying the unit plus the installation gear here on Amazon was still cheaper than Crutchfield's price. However, they are a good source of information. To install, wire up the harness, add the mounting plates, remove your old unit, plug this in and slide in to your dash. Easy as anything. The longest and hardest part of installation (and it wasn't that hard) is running the wire for the mic to where I wanted it and hiding it behind molding. Most car molding pops right off so this was easy to do. Make sure all your connections are secure (mic, unit wire harness and antenna) before inserting the radio (I goofed and forgot to check the mic and had to remove the unit to plug it in as the dash in a Toyota Yaris is kind of tight).Overall, this is a great radio. It has a ton of functionality for a fraction of the price of most others. I researched for several months, and went through three different radios before landing on this one, so I can honestly say this is the best unit for your money. Anyone can install it, anyone can operate it, and it does everything you can possibly need (yeah, the fancier units have GPS and video and such, but with smartphones do we really need all that anymore? And who watches videos while driving?). It even has a CD player for all of you still hanging on! You really can't go wrong with this one. A great buy!

I'll admit I chose this Pioneer stereo almost solely for looks. I was looking for a double-din digital stereo to replace the stock unit in my 2012 Scion tC because the original's amber back-glow clashed with my overhaul of the interior LEDs to all-blue. I saw this unit on display at Best Buy recently and it flashed beyond the rainbow in pretty colors, so I was pretty much sold. It looks distinctly aftermarket, with the polished silver/chrome center knob and the JDM-style readout display.Installation was extraordinarily easy with a little research and a very helpful YouTube video (from Sonic Electronix). It was my first time crimping, striping wires, and using butt connectors but everything turned out great! Every wire was connected without issue to a corresponding wire from my car's adapter harness, including the blue one meant for the remote control. I also needed to purchase the small stereo kit that's basically just two bits of plastic that fill in the gaps left on the sides because my stock head unit was a tad wider than this one.I'll admit, the remote control is a little useless in a car...I guess you could hand it to the passengers in the back and let them fiddle with the stereo from there? Unfortunately this stereo doesn't come with the hardware needed to link to modern steering wheel controls, so I've lost use of those. An adapter can be purchased to make it work, but ever since I put the whole thing in I've been too lazy to take it back out and re-crimp wires.An especially nice part of this head unit is the auto-dimming feature. I was afraid there would be some issues with the stereo being too bright at night and not bright enough during the day as some reviewers have pointed out here, but thankfully the settings were already built-in to have the head unit at maximum brightness during the day. The entire unit dims to the lowest brightness when I switch on my headlights. The night-time brightness matches the brightness of the rest of my interior dash lights perfectly, while being nice and readable during the day. (Pictures attached for reference).There's a definite difference in sound between this and my stock stereo, but I've had this one for so long that I honestly can't remember if it's better or worse. There are several settings in the equalizer, but so far I've been pretty satisfied with the music quality. Bluetooth is standard, though it takes nearly 30 seconds to auto-pair with my phone after I turn the car on. The little flip-open USB port is also really neat, especially with the jack inside back-lit by the lights.All in all, I've lost a bit of utility with this stereo over my stock one (I actually don't have radio either...even though there's a radio port in the back of this head unit, my car didn't come with a traditional jack so I have to assume it was somehow integrated with the stock unit) and I do dearly miss being able to adjust volume and skip tracks from the comfort of my steering wheel, but the sight of my interior finally coming together and matching up in color is worth it. I should also mention that you can adjust custom colors for both the text display and main button displays with an RGB scale too!