Brand New Clarion Vx401 6.2" 2 Din Touchscreen Cd/dvd/am/fm/mp3/wma Receiver w/ USB and Bluetooth

I will never buy another Clarion deck after owning this unit. Sure the deck is a grand improvement on a stock deck, but for the price I'd rather own a high-end non-dvd deck (DVD being novelty in a sedan). This is the bargain barrel DVD touchscreen deck and it is not worth your time or money. The interface sucks and it is unreliable. I can't tear it a new arsehole though without giving it some positive feedback though, so here are some pros.PROS:Sounds better than a stock deck. Built-in Bluetooth mic works well for phone calls. You can watch movies on it when it lets you. Inexpensive for a DVD touch deck.CONS:AUDIO QUALITY:The first next thing you will notice is the lack of mid-range frequency in your audio (primarily where vocals are heard). You can turn up the bass and treble, but there are no controls for Mid. So basically everything is thump-thump crash-crash and nothing in between. Songs I love to listen to at home and via headphones sound totally different and unremarkable through this clarion deck. It's probably good for rap and hiphop, but sounds like junk when playing rock or anything complex or melodic.The next thing you'll notice is the sub woofer volume (if you own a sub). The range is from 0 - 7. The difference between 0 and 7 sounds like it should be the difference between 2 and 3. This is not a drastic or usable tool at all. I just keep it at 7 all the time. Dialing in the sub woofer isn't easy on this deck either as the controls are poorly documented and there is no section on dialing in a sub.ANNOYANCES:You will first notice this with the clunky behavior with iTunes. I got the separate iPod cable installed (extra $50) and the interface is horrible. I'd much rather use the iPod itself to navigate music. I usually only use Pandora, and that hardly interfaces at all, so I use my phone to navigate anyway.The unit prefers bluetooth as an audio source, so if you are using the ipod dock cable and have bluetooth turned & auto-sync turned on it will play out the dock cable for 2 seconds when you start your car then turn off and switch to the bluetooth source once it connects. This means turning your car off and back on leaving your phone/ipod plugged in you have to change the source every time you start your car back up. This is very annoying.Also, turning the screen off at night is a great feature. Except when it finishes a song and loads another one (at least on Pandora) it turns the screen back on, so you have to continually keep turning it back off to keep the bright screen out of your eyes at night. Ugh.UNRELIABLEAbout 7 months into owning this device it started acting flaky. If I took a sharp corner, the inertia of the turn would cause the CD that was playing to spin down just enough to stop the music. It never really ramps back up to speed either so I have to turn the unit off and back on. It began to get picky on what CD I was playing (legit albums and DVDs only, it hasn't ever had a problem with burned discs somehow). It makes a clicking noise when spinning CDs up. Sometimes it picks albums and DVDs that it won't even play at all and then a week later it will play it just fine. FLAKY!I tried return service first at Stereo King (where I purchased it) and they said they could only send it in for repair. I was assured buying it from them I'd be taken care of, but this is not the case. They said they could possibly help me with a replacement if I would have kept the box... KEEP YOUR BOX! I did not keep mine. Clarion has no support of their own. No replacement options, nowhere for a consumer to call in. Their "customer service" number is all automated systems that send you to authorized service centers for repair only. Stereo King said since the problem is intermittent, if the repair tech they send it to could not reproduce the problem they would just send it back "as-is" and I will have been out a car deck for up to a month for nothing. They said they couldn't offer me a loaner either. SO FRUSTRATING. So I'm just going to keep using this POS till it fully breaks and then go get something of actual quality. Actually, I can't wait until it does break.I would not buy this if I were you.

I bought this item which worked well for 8 months.Then I couldn't change from radio, to satellite, to bluetooth. I called Clarion and they said just send it to the closest service center in CT. They suggested uninstalling and pressing the reset button which I did, reinstalled it and sill no luck. So I sent it to the service center. They looked at it and said that the keypad doesn't work so they will replace it. Great, I thought.That was easy. Later that day they called inquiring about the security code that I entered. At no time did I ever enter a security code and told them that. The service center called back the next day stating that,according to the company, when you uninstall the radio the security code resets itself and that I must have entered a code to get it to work. Again,, i told them that I NEVER entered a code even when I first installed it. The service tech said that he had argued that fact with the company to no avail. They held firm on the fact that I must have enter a code and that they would not cover the unit under the one year warranty. Also that if I wanted it fixed I could have it sent to the company (at ,again, my exense), pay $230 + SHIPPING to reset the code that I NEVER ENTERED. According to the service center this is the 3rd unit that has come into them with the same problem with the same results. Wouldn't it be common sense and good customer service to figure that since there is a problem with the keypad maybe that could have miscommunicated a security code as being entered? With all of the shipping charges and the reset the "security code" it would cost less to buy a better unit from a better company. If I could give negative five stars for the company I would! BEWARE!

Before buying this i browsed way too many different sites and products while in my search to find a touchscreen receiver for my car. This clarion had the most bang for the buck with built in Bluetooth, ipod compatibility,etc. The touchscreen is responsive, easily visible, and easy to navigate through while driving. I would recommend this to product to anyone.

usb only supports something like 1500 filesfiles from usb stick get sorted in some interesting to me unknown pattern that does not make any sense. It is not alphabetical by file or tags it is just purely random. Imagine listening to the Dark Side of The Mooon by Pink Floyd and songs playing randomly.... It just does not work.So far after having this product for more than 6 months I think I had to recalibrate my touch display close to 50 times (not exagerrating) - Imagine how inconveniet it is when you are driving and your screen goes out of wack and can not do anything until you stop. Also some of the settings such as bluetooth get reset and I have to go through configuration all over again or my bluetooth is usless.There is one Pro feature of this unit and that is that it works. (it powers on almoust every time that is. about 5 times I started my car it did not power on)Please keep in mind I bought this primarily for usb feature and blutooth playback. So If you buy it in mind to just play CD's on it you will be 100% satisfied :)I tried to do return/exchange but was told I was out of luck due to fact it was already installed. Unfortunatelly I could not find out this unit is so bad before I actually installed it and saw how lame it was.One good thing about being stuck with it is that if it ever gets stolen from my car I will consider it a favour and a great excuse to purchase better head unit.

I am choosing this rating because it has a Bluetooth set up but it didn t come with a mic for the Bluetooth. That was the main reason I bought the deck.