I bought the Pioneer DEH-4000UB recently as a replacement for the standard radio/cassette in my BMW 3 series. I have never been impressed with the BMW stereo (Phillips), and assumed that perhaps the speakers were as much to blame as the head unit.
I toyed with the idea of fitting a CD multi player in the boot, but they can be very expensive.
I was playing by Sansa mp3 player through the head unit, using a cassette adapter, and although the Sansa is one of the best mp3 players you can buy, the adapter and head unit itself did not do it justice, so i decided to look for a new CD/radio, that would look good in the dash of my BMW, would have similar colour illumination to the orange on the rest of the dash, but more importantly, would have an input for the mp3 player.
Whilst I was looking around, I found that there are a number of players on the market that have a front USB port !!!!!!
After doing a bit of looking around, I had more or less decided on the Pioneer DEH-4000UB, which Argos were selling for just under £90. Now for the best bit, ### If You Look On 'Twenga' You Can Buy The SAME unit, AT ARGOS for only £49.99 ??? but only if you get re-directed through Twenga, if you go straight to argos, the price is the full £87.99. Needless to say, I immediately reserved one of the units at my local argos, and picked it up later that day for the bargain price of £49.99, on some websites, these are on sale for £119.
Due to my car being a BMW, nothing is straight forward, so i had to buy a dashboard facia adapter & wiring adapter from Halfords for £30.
Fitting was a doddle, but if you have the same car as I do, you will ALSO need an adapter for the aerial connector in the back of the stereo which I got for £4 on ebay.
As soon as I turned the unit on, I was blown away at the massive difference in sound quality betwen the BMW unit and the new Pioneer, and that was without fiddling with the settings. I was wrong about the speakers, ok, they would probably benefit from an upgrade, but they are perfectly fine for my needs.
There is a small 'joystick' on the front of the Pioneer that is used to alter settings, which can seem a but complicated and fiddly at first, but soon becomes quite easy to use.
You can choose from pre-set EQ settings, or create your own, at last I was hearing really deep, thumping bass, and clear treble never before heared in this car.
After a few minuted fiddling with the settings, I have got the sound spot on, and I am very impressed with the sound quality for a unit with a modest price tag.
The front of the unit flips off for security, and you get a plastic case to keep the front in.
The overall look of the BMW dashboard does perhaps loose a little of it's look by not having the original stereo in place, but the facia adapter fits very well, and overall the new unit looks good.
Now, I got a 16gb memory stick from Play.com for £16.99, and have filled it with music, so now, instead of using the Sansa mp3 player, I just plug in the memory stick, I can listen to songs 'randomly', or choose any album I want, the head unit even displays the album name, artist name, or track name !!!!, and again, the sound quality is brilliant.
It is possible to attach a subwoofer or CD multiplayer to the head unit, and if you have controls on your steering wheel, with the purchase of additional wiring, these can still be used.