Pioneer DEH-P4600 Car CD / MP3 Player
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Similar in In Dash Receivers
- MP3 / WMA Playback: MP3 Playback
- Anti-Theft Protection: Detachable Face Panel
- Player Type: CD
- Controlled Devices: CD Changer TV Tuner XM Ready iPod / iPhone
- iPod/iPhone Compatible: Yes
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A very good unit that plays MP3's - and WMA's too!
Pros
Plays MP3's - AND Windows Media Audio (WMA) files! Pioneer quality for a good price.
Cons
Random track feature falls a bit short (read review). Changing settings is a bit awkward.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
If you're not too picky about playing your CD's and MP3's with random track selection, you'll be pleased with this unit. It's an attractive, good-sounding choice.
The Pioneer DEH-P4600MP - hereafter, the "4600" – is yet another quality Pioneer product. Its sleek, attractive design will complement any dashboard. But while it's an attractive unit that sounds good, a few usability issues knock off a few points.
Background
I am a latecomer to the MP3 revolution. I only recently discovered how wonderful it is to be able to squeeze seven or more albums on one CD – over six hours of music - and play it on a CD/MP3 combo player (see my review of the Virgin Pulse VP-05 player) so I decided to replace my factory radio unit with a full-blown AM/FM/CD/MP3/WMA solution. Having previously owned a Pioneer car stereo (which I, sadly, had to give up when I traded in my previous vehicle) I took a look at Pioneer's latest offerings. The 4600 caught my eye at a local Circuit City store; not just for its features but for its price – about $150 with free installation.
I was also wanting a unit with XM satellite radio capability, and the 4600 has it. You will need to shell out northwards of $180 to get XM, though, so if you really want satellite radio for less, you might consider getting one of the portable units like Delphi's Roady 2. If you've got money to burn, though, the 4600 already conveniently is XM-ready.
Sounds Like A Pioneer
I've been very pleased with the Pioneer 4600's sound. I happen to like deep bass in my music and the 4600 actually has two loudness settings, easily activated with the touch of a single button. An equalizer button lets you choose from several presets for different sound. The installer said he thought my speakers were on the weak side but even with my factory speakers I've been delighted with the sound (I just think he's just used to window-rattling volume). The 4600 is rated at 50 watts per channel, which is plenty of power – this is no wimpy unit.
Manual Volume Knob!
The one thing I've never been that crazy about with all-digital units is not being able to twist a knob to turn down the volume. Maybe there's been a time you've wanted to quickly turn down the volume and had the irritation of having to hold down a volume down button. Not with the Pioneer 4600 – the good folks at Pioneer thoughtfully include a regular volume knob. The numerical volume amount (a number from 00 to 32 rather than a dB rating) is shown on the display.
Random Function Needs Work
But for that delightful feature there's a couple of equal annoyances. On my old factory AM/FM/CD unit, I only needed to press one button to turn on CD random (or shuffle) track mode. With the Pioneer 4600 it's not quite so simple. You press the "F" (or function) button, then you have to scroll through several other settings before you get to "Random", and then press the ">>" button to turn it on or off. I'm not sure if the designers at Pioneer struggled with how to implement this, but it could have been done in a sleeker fashion.
Another annoyance related to random mode exists as well – suppose a tune plays that you don't happen to like. On my old factory unit, you just pressed the ">>" (Next Track) button and you were taken to another random track. With the Pioneer 4600, you're only taken to the next consecutive track on the disc only. Which means that the only way random mode really works is if you allow the unit to play every song to completion. Put another way, suppose you're playing a CD and the tracks have been played in this order: 4, 10, 1. Track 3 starts playing and you don't like it. You would expect pressing the ">>" button to take you to another random track, right? Guess what? You get to hear Track 4 again. This is one of the few times I can recall Pioneer flubbing a feature.
Display
The display is a beautiful white-on-blue (white numerals, blue background). And it's bright, too – I wish Pioneer had included dimmer controls on the 4600 for night driving. But in bright sunlight the LCD display won't wash out.
The LCD is the bar-segment alphanumeric type, which isn't as readable as dot-matrix type for letters. It couldn't be that much more expensive to engineer dot matrix displays, so for units like this capable of displaying an MP3 disc's "ID3" information (album, folder, track information), why not use something a little more readable? Not a deal-breaker, but it would have been nice.
Flag indicators on the display tell whether you're playing an MP3 file or a WMA (Windows Media Audio) file. Interestingly enough, this unit's instructions say it will also play Windows WAV files, so if you're bored enough to want to listen to that CD with 6,000 sound effects, you could do that with the 4600.
Detachable Face Plate
The Pioneer 4600 is a detachable face plate car stereo. You open the front panel and – gently, they say – extract the front plate from the base. Opening the front panel, by the way, reveals the CD access slot and eject button – a nice way of making the front seamless, and probably a way of reducing the amount of dust that could drift into the unit.
If you leave the face plate in when you get out of the car, it will emit a series of short warning tones to remind you to remove your coveted Pioneer unit, or it may not be there when you get back. If you find this annoying as I did, you can turn this feature off (when the unit is powered completely off).
Other Stuff
I have never seen a car CD unit with a Pause button before, but the Pioneer 4600 has one – I like that. The 4600 also comes with a remote control unit (I guess, for those tailgate parties where you're too trashed to stagger back to your car and you want to belt out "Louie, Louie" or something similar). The instruction manual is well-written and I suggest you at least briefly review it after having the unit installed.
Final Verdict
The Pioneer DEH-4600MP is a very good car audio system for the street price of about $180, even better if you can catch a sale (I got mine for $150). It gives you wonderful sound and some nice features as well as XM-compatibility for the future. My biggest complaints about the unit are about control, such as the random track feature. The engineers need to make changing the audio settings easier to do. But other than that, this is an audio system I'll be enjoying for some time.
Background
I am a latecomer to the MP3 revolution. I only recently discovered how wonderful it is to be able to squeeze seven or more albums on one CD – over six hours of music - and play it on a CD/MP3 combo player (see my review of the Virgin Pulse VP-05 player) so I decided to replace my factory radio unit with a full-blown AM/FM/CD/MP3/WMA solution. Having previously owned a Pioneer car stereo (which I, sadly, had to give up when I traded in my previous vehicle) I took a look at Pioneer's latest offerings. The 4600 caught my eye at a local Circuit City store; not just for its features but for its price – about $150 with free installation.
I was also wanting a unit with XM satellite radio capability, and the 4600 has it. You will need to shell out northwards of $180 to get XM, though, so if you really want satellite radio for less, you might consider getting one of the portable units like Delphi's Roady 2. If you've got money to burn, though, the 4600 already conveniently is XM-ready.
Sounds Like A Pioneer
I've been very pleased with the Pioneer 4600's sound. I happen to like deep bass in my music and the 4600 actually has two loudness settings, easily activated with the touch of a single button. An equalizer button lets you choose from several presets for different sound. The installer said he thought my speakers were on the weak side but even with my factory speakers I've been delighted with the sound (I just think he's just used to window-rattling volume). The 4600 is rated at 50 watts per channel, which is plenty of power – this is no wimpy unit.
Manual Volume Knob!
The one thing I've never been that crazy about with all-digital units is not being able to twist a knob to turn down the volume. Maybe there's been a time you've wanted to quickly turn down the volume and had the irritation of having to hold down a volume down button. Not with the Pioneer 4600 – the good folks at Pioneer thoughtfully include a regular volume knob. The numerical volume amount (a number from 00 to 32 rather than a dB rating) is shown on the display.
Random Function Needs Work
But for that delightful feature there's a couple of equal annoyances. On my old factory AM/FM/CD unit, I only needed to press one button to turn on CD random (or shuffle) track mode. With the Pioneer 4600 it's not quite so simple. You press the "F" (or function) button, then you have to scroll through several other settings before you get to "Random", and then press the ">>" button to turn it on or off. I'm not sure if the designers at Pioneer struggled with how to implement this, but it could have been done in a sleeker fashion.
Another annoyance related to random mode exists as well – suppose a tune plays that you don't happen to like. On my old factory unit, you just pressed the ">>" (Next Track) button and you were taken to another random track. With the Pioneer 4600, you're only taken to the next consecutive track on the disc only. Which means that the only way random mode really works is if you allow the unit to play every song to completion. Put another way, suppose you're playing a CD and the tracks have been played in this order: 4, 10, 1. Track 3 starts playing and you don't like it. You would expect pressing the ">>" button to take you to another random track, right? Guess what? You get to hear Track 4 again. This is one of the few times I can recall Pioneer flubbing a feature.
Display
The display is a beautiful white-on-blue (white numerals, blue background). And it's bright, too – I wish Pioneer had included dimmer controls on the 4600 for night driving. But in bright sunlight the LCD display won't wash out.
The LCD is the bar-segment alphanumeric type, which isn't as readable as dot-matrix type for letters. It couldn't be that much more expensive to engineer dot matrix displays, so for units like this capable of displaying an MP3 disc's "ID3" information (album, folder, track information), why not use something a little more readable? Not a deal-breaker, but it would have been nice.
Flag indicators on the display tell whether you're playing an MP3 file or a WMA (Windows Media Audio) file. Interestingly enough, this unit's instructions say it will also play Windows WAV files, so if you're bored enough to want to listen to that CD with 6,000 sound effects, you could do that with the 4600.
Detachable Face Plate
The Pioneer 4600 is a detachable face plate car stereo. You open the front panel and – gently, they say – extract the front plate from the base. Opening the front panel, by the way, reveals the CD access slot and eject button – a nice way of making the front seamless, and probably a way of reducing the amount of dust that could drift into the unit.
If you leave the face plate in when you get out of the car, it will emit a series of short warning tones to remind you to remove your coveted Pioneer unit, or it may not be there when you get back. If you find this annoying as I did, you can turn this feature off (when the unit is powered completely off).
Other Stuff
I have never seen a car CD unit with a Pause button before, but the Pioneer 4600 has one – I like that. The 4600 also comes with a remote control unit (I guess, for those tailgate parties where you're too trashed to stagger back to your car and you want to belt out "Louie, Louie" or something similar). The instruction manual is well-written and I suggest you at least briefly review it after having the unit installed.
Final Verdict
The Pioneer DEH-4600MP is a very good car audio system for the street price of about $180, even better if you can catch a sale (I got mine for $150). It gives you wonderful sound and some nice features as well as XM-compatibility for the future. My biggest complaints about the unit are about control, such as the random track feature. The engineers need to make changing the audio settings easier to do. But other than that, this is an audio system I'll be enjoying for some time.
