This is being installed in my ’93 Jeep Cherokee. I previously had a Pioneer DEH-P3000 in there which has been great up until recently. Since I have no real use for CDs anymore along with a surplus of SD cards, I figured I’d give a mechless unit a try. Also, this vehicle is more of a backup so I’m trying to keep costs down.First impressions out of the box are great. The unit is small but has some weight to it (obviously much lighter than the previous Pioneer). Plastics feel good, no rough edges. All the buttons have a solid ‘click’ to them. The harness is comprised of two connectors. One is for the speakers, the other for power. Everything matched my existing aftermarket harness so wiring took no time. It also has 4 pre-amp outputs for each speaker. I plan on testing these soon…Audio quality is good. I can tell it’s not quite as sharp as my previous Pioneer but it’s really not too bad. It still produces decent highs but lots of bass. Pretty dirty sound if you really try and max out the tones for an audiophile, but fine for background music. The tuner does sound really good. I’ve not tested it tremendously yet but some of the weaker stations I listen to came in just as well if not better than with my previous head unit. Now MP3 playback is rather primitive with audio sounding a bit muffled but still fine for what I want.Now for appearance. I had another unit on order but changed my mind… I really dislike those flashy units that have crazy displays and all as they are very out-of-place in my old Jeep. This unit, with its fairly simplistic design and simply display fits in quite well. I do wish the lights were red rather than blue, but seeing today’s trend is blue LEDs, I’m not complaining too much. The display is decent as well. Basic letters using LEDs (not a matrix display). It does smear more than I wish it did but still readable. The bars along the bottom do move according to the audio. It’s basic, unwanted for me, but not as bad as some cheap radios I’ve seen.So in short, if you’re looking for a decent mech-less radio on the cheap, you really can’t go wrong here. If you do want the best audio quality or a CD/DVD drive…look elsewhere.
