[4 of 4 customers found this review helpful]

Pioneer FH-P8000B AM/FM CD Car Stereo Receiver with Bluetooth Review

Does everything I want it to and more

"This is a good double-din unit. I use it for my iPod Classic, my carputer (laptop), and the bluetooth hands-free phone. I haven't used the radio or CD player much, nor have I subscribed to XM or Sirius. The iPod controls are good and fast. I was a little concerned about the speed of the interface since I have 12,000 MP3s. The bluetooth hands-free works great. It connects to my 2-year-old samsung phone as long as it's anywhere in the car. I like the indicator light for this too, so you know that it's connected. My cell phone doesn't support phonebook transfer over bluetooth, but I'm getting a new phone in 2 weeks anyway. I'm thinking LG Dare or LG Decoy, or I might go with the trusty LG EnV2 or LG Voyager. Any of these phones should transfer the phonebook without any problems. When using the phone feature, people can hear me fine and I can hear them fine. As you may know, WRX's are not the quietest cars, especially when you have a worn out wheel bearing and custom exhaust. One thing I need to figure out is how to transfer the call from the deck back to the phone. I've been on the phone then arrived at my destination and just sat in the car to finish my conversation because the previous time I tried to get the call back to my phone, I hung up on them. I have my laptop hooked into AUX1, though I rarely need to hear it. I've used it a couple times when Garmin Mobile PC was giving turn-by-turn navigation, and when testing a DVD movie (5th Element), and it sounded good.Probably my favorite feature on this deck is the high-pass and low-pass crossover. Too many decks omit these controls. I have 5.25" Infinity Reference speakers and if I couldn't control the x-over, I'd have to turn the bass way down because these speakers can't handle much bass, and then my subwoofer wouldn't be loud enough. However, with the high-pass x-over set to 150Hz, I can have the bass up to the desired level in the custom EQ for the subwoofer to be loud enough for my liking. The subwoofer volume and low-pass x-over is nice, though they could have made the volume go up more than +6. I have to turn loudness on to at least the "low" setting or turn up the bass-boost control to make the subwoofer loud enough. Bass-boost and loudness both affect the main speakers too though, so I would have preferred more than +6 subwoofer volume. Anyway, minor gripes since it works fine thanks to the x-over control. I have the low-pass set to 63Hz and turned all the way up to +6 since I have a pretty weak 480W Sony Xplode amp and 12" Sony sub (came with my car).The display is cool, I like it. It actually matches my Samsung 930 cell phone perfectly (shiny black with bright blue text). It has 3 lines of text in a simple yet effective layout. I don't like how a left-hand parenthese looks the same as the letter C, but oh well. Also, when you turn on your lights, the deck barely gets dimmer. I would like to see adjustable or more effective dimming. You can turn the display off pretty easily by holding in the display button, which is nice if you want it to be dark. Then whenever you skip a song or anything, it lights up for 5 seconds or so.I have a Pioneer steering wheel remote and it works well with this deck. I did the usual mod to the remote which involves opening it up and drilling holes for the 2 infrared transmitters since Pioneer engineers only made 1 tiny pin-hole for the signal to escape out of.I haven't listened to any MP3 CD's or XM or Sirius radio. Normal radio reception seems okay, not super great. I think GM vehicles stock radio's still have better reception.I like the big control knob, though sometimes it's not clear if you need to turn it clockwise or push it to the right or click it inward, but I'm learning. It's so big and obvious that I can skip iPod tracks easily without looking at the deck and by barely removing my hand off the shifter. It almost makes me think I don't need the steering wheel remote, but I'm keeping it in case I need left-hand control of my tunes.The installation was a breeze thanks to Crutchfield's radio harness adapter. This allowed me to splice wires together really easily. It's a perfect fit in the double-din opening of my WRX.Overall, this deck does everything I wanted a deck to do, and it looks sexy while doing it. For [$] it's a great deal. Most other decks don't include iPod controls & bluetooth with visor-mount microphone for under [$]."

Old cell phone 1 mega pixel photo of WRX interior

• Garmin on 7" touch-screen
• Steering-wheel remote
• Using Product