Pioneer DEH-P680MP Car CD / MP3 Player
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Similar in In Dash Receivers
- MP3 / WMA Playback: MP3 Playback WMA Playback AAC Playback
- Additional Features: Animated Display
- Anti-Theft Protection: Detachable Face Panel
- Player Type: CD
- Controlled Devices: CD Changer DVD Changer TV Tuner Sirius Ready XM Ready iPod / iPhone
- iPod/iPhone Compatible: Yes
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What was Pioneer thinking?
Pros
Decent sound quality
Cons
Insanely bright buttons, counter-intuitive controls, buggy iPod interface, no attenuate or pause button on face
Recommended it?
No
The Bottom Line:
Surely there are other manufacturers who offer better products. Shop around.
I should have know better than to purchase an in-dash car stereo that played videos but with Pioneer being generally known for quality car audio devices I figured the DEH-P680MP would be a well-thought-out product. I was wrong.
I chose the DEH-P680MP primarily because it claimed to be compatible with iPods. It is compatible but it requires the addition of an adapter unit to make the stereo think that the iPod is a multi-disk player. This set-up works well enough for the most part but from time to time, while attempting to select a certain artist, song or album from the iPod, the system suddenly jumps back to the main menu for no apparent reason. This is wildly annoying when you have been scrolling through your iPod's music collection for three minutes to get to an artist in the middle of the alphabet.
This task can easily take 3 minutes of spinning the multi-control button with a 40 gigabyte iPod full of music because the multi-control button does not feature accelerated scrolling. In fact, the button is completely counter-intuitive. The faster you turn the button the slower it responds weather you're scrolling through albums or adjusting the volume! Also, going over a bump while selecting a function with the multi-control button can easily cause you to press it in the wrong direction yielding completely unwanted results.
The insanely bright buttons on the DEH-P680MP are perhaps the worst feature. The LCD brightness is adjustable but the control buttons on the left half of the face are not. They are so bright that they interfere with the driver's vision when driving at night. What was Pioneer thinking?!?! I'm surprised this condition hasn't caused accidents and resulted in lawsuits for Pioneer. When I expressed my concern to them and asked how it could be remedied they were of no help. Initially I resorted to taping a piece of cardboard over the face to block the bright light. Realizing how ridiculous this was I decided to take the face apart and paint over the LEDs with black paint. This fixed the problem but, of course, voided the warranty. I should have just replaced the entire unit but was on a summer-long road trip which made that impractical. The bottom line is that no-one should have to make these modifications to a new car stereo. Shame on Pioneer.
The stereo does sound good although it does not have the distortion-free volume I was expecting from a "high-power" head unit. The unit's face does not have features as basic and useful as attenuate or pause buttons. Instead Pioneer included a sub woofer off/on control which I have not used once. I would NOT recommend the DEH-P680MP unless, perhaps, you are a 17 year old racer boy who is more concerned with impressing your friends with a car stereo that plays silly "movies" than purchasing a reliable and user-friendly iPod-compatible car stereo. Some of the other Pioneer stereo models like the DEH-P6800 and P4800 seem to be of a similar, if not identical design to the P680MP. I would be wary of them too.
I chose the DEH-P680MP primarily because it claimed to be compatible with iPods. It is compatible but it requires the addition of an adapter unit to make the stereo think that the iPod is a multi-disk player. This set-up works well enough for the most part but from time to time, while attempting to select a certain artist, song or album from the iPod, the system suddenly jumps back to the main menu for no apparent reason. This is wildly annoying when you have been scrolling through your iPod's music collection for three minutes to get to an artist in the middle of the alphabet.
This task can easily take 3 minutes of spinning the multi-control button with a 40 gigabyte iPod full of music because the multi-control button does not feature accelerated scrolling. In fact, the button is completely counter-intuitive. The faster you turn the button the slower it responds weather you're scrolling through albums or adjusting the volume! Also, going over a bump while selecting a function with the multi-control button can easily cause you to press it in the wrong direction yielding completely unwanted results.
The insanely bright buttons on the DEH-P680MP are perhaps the worst feature. The LCD brightness is adjustable but the control buttons on the left half of the face are not. They are so bright that they interfere with the driver's vision when driving at night. What was Pioneer thinking?!?! I'm surprised this condition hasn't caused accidents and resulted in lawsuits for Pioneer. When I expressed my concern to them and asked how it could be remedied they were of no help. Initially I resorted to taping a piece of cardboard over the face to block the bright light. Realizing how ridiculous this was I decided to take the face apart and paint over the LEDs with black paint. This fixed the problem but, of course, voided the warranty. I should have just replaced the entire unit but was on a summer-long road trip which made that impractical. The bottom line is that no-one should have to make these modifications to a new car stereo. Shame on Pioneer.
The stereo does sound good although it does not have the distortion-free volume I was expecting from a "high-power" head unit. The unit's face does not have features as basic and useful as attenuate or pause buttons. Instead Pioneer included a sub woofer off/on control which I have not used once. I would NOT recommend the DEH-P680MP unless, perhaps, you are a 17 year old racer boy who is more concerned with impressing your friends with a car stereo that plays silly "movies" than purchasing a reliable and user-friendly iPod-compatible car stereo. Some of the other Pioneer stereo models like the DEH-P6800 and P4800 seem to be of a similar, if not identical design to the P680MP. I would be wary of them too.
