- CD-DA/CD-R/RW Ready Built-in Bluetooth Handsfree and Audio Streaming MP3WMA and iTunes AAC Compatible with ID3-TAG Display
- USB Digital Media Streaming Capability 18 FM/ 6 AM Presets USB Audio for iPod (Rear) Front 3.5mm Aux Input
- Volume Control BBE MP for Compressed Audio Sound Improvement Beat EQ for Sound Adjustment Built-in LPF/HPF
- 728-variable Color Display & Illuminated Keys 13 x 10 2-Line High Visibility LCD SAT Ready 4ch RCA Output (F+R/SW)
- 50W x 4 Built-in Amplifier Sirius Satellite Radio Ready XM Mini-Tuner Direct OEM Steering Wheel Remote Ready Handsfree Microphone
I purchased the CX609 for my 2008 Nissan Frontier. Having high end audio systems in my past two cars, I initially was going to just leave my truck stock, but then I got a new phone (Samsung Omnia) on which I can store 16 gigs of music, and the Bluetooth audio bug bit me hard. I picked this stereo because it does everything I want it to do (I will discuss the functions in detail later) and it's Double Din, so it fits perfectly in my dash. In fact, its worth noting that I didn't need an install trim kit to fit this into my dash. Despite Crutchfield telling me I'd need a $20 Metra kit, I found that all I needed to do to install the chassis was to unscrew the 2 brackets from my stock HU and screw them onto the Clarion. Clarion's install instructions clearly explain how to do this for Nissan and Toyota vehicles, although I did not use the thin spacers that the instructions said to use. Didn't need them as the stock and new HU chassis were both exactly the same width (I believe Clarion makes the stock HU).
The main reason I bought this unit was for the Bluetooth abilities, and because in addition to hands free functionality, it also supports A2DP Bluetooth audio streaming, so I can play music from my phone right through the stereo with no wires. I am really impressed with this technology. I did some testing with a CD burned from MP3s, and with the original MP3s streamed via BT. I honestly can't hear the difference. When connected, the HU controls the phone by changing tracks, pausing, playing, stopping, and it also can FF/RW through tracks, which is something my BT headphones can't do.
The CX609 works well as a hands free unit as well. When a call comes in the HU pauses the music and rings through the speakers. I ran the microphone up through the A pillar and headliner and popped it out next to the map light/sunglass holder. This is about where a stock MIC is found on a Frontier with factory BT, and it works fantastic. Everyone who I've spoken to says they can hear me better on the HU than on my phone. The MIC gain can be adjusted easily from 1-5, but I found the stock level of 3 too soft, and my preferred level of 4 is just a bit too sensitive. I just need to speak at a normal conversation levels rather than "yelling" into the BT which is what I often tend to do. Once connected, the stereo is ready to take calls in any mode. To initiate calls you are supposed to be able to browse your phonebook on the stereo (I haven't loaded mine yet, and might not bother), or you can enter numbers directly, or of course use the phone, which is how I do it.
However, all is not perfect. My major gripe with the HU is also Bluetooth related. The HU can be set to auto connect to the phone, or do it manually. Autoconnect works great, and if you want to listen to the phone right away, it handles everything for you. The problem is that if you are listening to any other source, it goes to Bluetooth mode every time you turn it on as soon as the phone connects, and you need to switch back to your old source. If you shut auto connect off, it stays on the previous source, but to connect you need to switch to BT and go through a menu to select the phone as there is a disconnect button, but no connect button. If you don't connect it, you don't get hands free capabilities if you get a call, so its kind of a no-win. For now I just let it connect (which it does VERY fast) and then switch to another source if I don't want to listen to the phone.
The attatched USB cord is very cool and allows you to connect your ipod up without an adapter (haven't tried it), or plug in your thumb drives and stream music off of them. I plugged a Kingston 4gb micro SDHC chip into a thumbdrive adapter, loaded up some albums, and plugged it into the cord (which I snaked into my glovebox), and it works great. The read speed is almost instantaneous, and it navigates folders easily. Very cool.
The stereo works fine, although as the less than stellar FM sensitivity specs would suggest, it doesn't pick up stations quite as well as the stock stereo, but out on the road its fine. In my basement garage I was able to pick up all the stations I would expect, although 1 came in scratchy until I pulled outside. It does not have RDS or HD radio, which would have been nice, but you can program station titles which in a way is better because you don't end up with your stations named incorrectly the way many RDS receivers do it.
CDs play fine. I haven't tried an MP3 disc yet since I have the phone and USB port, but it does read track titles off my CDA discs... cool.
Overall sound quality is good. I still have stock speakers so I can't say for sure how good. The preset sound schemes didn't please me, but the custom function works well. You can set your low, mid, and high levels, and for each you can select the frequency center and Q ratio (I believe this means how wide your adjustment is). I believe lows can be set at 50, 100, or 200. mids at 500, 1000, or 2000, and highs at 5000, 10000, or 15000. Q settings are .7, 1, 1.4, or 2 for each. I prefer smaller Qs. While it's nowhere near as nice as the 12 band EQ I had in my last vehicle, it does work pretty well. It also has a Bass Expander and BBE processing but only for CDs and MP3s. I wish you could use BBE on everything.
The display is ok but not as high end as it could be. The color on black screen looks good in some of the colors, but not all. My interior lighting is amber but the amber looks bad on the display, so I set it to Red which I find is easier to read. Ford owners with green illumination would like the green, and blue looks cool but it doesn't match my car. You can customize your color (R0-8, G0-8, B0-8), but most colors are pre programmed. My HU is mounted right at 30 degrees, so I need to crank the contrast to be able to read it at that angle... but it works.
The remote that comes with it does enough, although it wont navigate menus which might be more useful than anything. Warning... when installing make sure you plug the MIC into the correct port. It also fits in the remote port which is the same size. I made that mistake and only figured out the problem after the MIC and IR remote both didn't work. This suggests to me that the IR remote may not function if you hook up a steering wheel adapter... although I can't be sure.
Overall, for $230 + $25 in harness and antenna adapters, this radio is an affordable unit that really does the trick, especially if you want to maintain a stock look. You can get much flashier units in a single DIN, or go with a touch screen DVD player for more money, but to have a radio that looks like it came in the vehicle, but does stuff that most factory radios cant, look no further!
Buy Clarion CX609 2-DIN CD/MP3/WMA/AAC Receiver with USB Port Now
I've had mine for two weeks and have really learned to like it. Unfortunately, it does not have a way to initiate voice dialing from the head unit. As a consolation prize, it is pretty straightforward to transfer my phonebook from my phone (Note I use the 'selected categories only' option from my Blackberry so I only transfer over about a dozen. Any more than that and it gets tedious scrolling through the entries and dangerous.)
Pros:
Nice double din size to fill the dashboard
Can change display color more fun than I expected
Bluetooth telephone and Bluetooth audio work great
USB connector from rear of unit allows iPod to be stored in glove compartment.
ISR Button allows 1 button to select favorite radio station
Can enter radion station names into headunit.
Navigation through the Bluetooth Phonebook and iPod Playlist is easy.
Incoming Bluetooth phone calls will activate the unit even when it is in 'off' mode (note car has to be running or in ACC mode).
Cons:
Can't initiate voice dial from head unit
Also another quirk is that if I initiate voice dial from phone, subsequent voice dial attempts are muted. Voice dial still works, but you can't hear the prompts (Resets itself next time you get in the car.) Odd, but consistent.
If Bluetooth Audio is set to autoconnect, then the unit will automatically switch to it as the source when you start your car. If you were listening to the radio and stop your car and get out, when you get back in a start the car, you will hear the radio for about 5 seconds, then the Bluetooth audio will connect and automatically switch over. Again, odd but consistent.
Display screen is execellent when viewed straight on and loses contrast when viewed from angle. Driver and front seat passenger generally have an angled view that can make the display difficult to read depending on your car/seating/dash configuration.
I would definitely buy this unit again. Sound is great. Bluetooth is easy and reliable. If voice dialing could be initiated from the headunit, this would be a 5 star system.
Read Best Reviews of Clarion CX609 2-DIN CD/MP3/WMA/AAC Receiver with USB Port Here
Overview the great Blue-Tooth sound quality, the nice factory look, and ease of basic use (due to button layout) are the main reasons why I would recommend this product.
I basically wanted to add Blue-Tooth, USB, and MP3 player AUX in to my factory stereo, and this unit did the job (it says that it can control an I-Pod plugged into the USB input but I have not yet tried this). This unit looks just as good as a factory installed unit in my Toyota Sienna. The basic operations are easy to use (because they provide enough actual buttons that you are not constantly stuck reading a context-sensitive-menu while you are trying to drive).
Music audio sound quality is fine, I did not need a unit with a huge amp, (I still have the factory speakers installed) so this unit is great for my purposes.
Blue-Tooth My mic is placed next to my garage door opener and the phone quality when using Blue-Tooth is great (all cords were completely hidden so it looks professional). The pairing process was a bit clunky, I had to read the manual as it is not intuitive. I have only 1 phone paired to this unit and so far everyone I talk to says that it sounds good from their end, and I can hear them perfectly.
Playing MP3 songs via the USB input is very good, this player displays the folder name when you select a folder which makes it easy to pick what folder of music you want to play (the no-name brand stereo in our boat does not display folder names, so I really appreciate this unit in this respect). We removed MANY of our CDs from our car since we already have them loaded on our USB stick, that will help keep our CDs from getting scratched.
Radio Sounds as good as my factory radio for AM/FM stations. One neat feature is the ISR (Instant Station Recall) button, program your favorite station to this button and you switch to that station with a single button press (as opposed to doing "source select" until you are at radio, then pressing "Band" to choose AM/FM, and then choosing your preset 1-6), so this is a nice shortcut for the 1 station that you listen to the most.
The display one of the nice features about this unit is also its worst feature. The good part is that it lets you choose from many different display colors so that it will go nicely with any vehicle, what a cool feature. The bad news is that the display is simply not bright enough, this is the reason that the unit did not get 5/5 stars. During the bright daytime the display appears washed-out, and I ended up picking a bright display color instead of the display color that matched my vehicles color scheme.
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I began shopping for a new headunit with Bluetooth handsfree calling and to listen to music from my iPhone. The Clarion unit specs seemed to fit the bill at a very reasonable price.
The radio reception on this unit is worse than the stock one it replaced. Weaker FM stations that were clear with my old headunit now have slight background static.
Although the Clarion works more or less as advertised, it did run into a few minor issues with my iPhone 3GS. I can't tell if these problems are due to Apple's operating system or Clarion's iPod control implementation.
First, the Clarion unit doesn't always charge the iPhone 3GS. There have been multiple reports on the internet of the 3GS phones not always recognizing a charger that works perfectly fine with the 3G. I never had a 3G, so I can't comment on whether the CX609 charges the 3G perfectly. Whenever I plug the 3GS into the Clarion, I'll always get one of two messages on the iPhone. The first possible message is the "may interfere with this device, do you want to switch to airplane mode?" The second, and more ominous, message is "doesn't support charging from this device and may interfere, do you want to switch to airplane mode?" Which message I get seems random and if I unplug/plug a few times, it'll eventually charge. Not sure if this is an Apple OS problem or Clarion problem. Once charging, I just choose "No" to airplane mode and everything sounds fine without any interference.
Second, the iPhone can't export it's phonebook into the headunit. This results in the headunit always displaying "unknown caller" even if you dialed from a contact in your iPhone.
Finally, the Bluetooth mode for the iPhone 3GS only supports play/pause control. Not really an issue with the CX609, it's more an Apple OS deficiency.
For people having trouble navigating the CX609 menus, the Bluetooth pairing is actually pretty straightforward once you choose to ignore the user manual. Here are the steps from memory:
1. Switch source to Bluetooth by pressing source button
2. Hold down DISP button until menu options displayed
3. Press right arrow until PAIRING menu
4. Press Play/ENT to select PAIRING
5. Press right/left arrow to choose memory slot (1 through 5 devices)
6. Press and hold Play/ENT to go to SEARCH/WAIT menu
7. Press down arrow to select WAIT
8. Set phone to search for Bluetooth devices before proceeding
9.Press AND hold Play/ENT until WAITING is flashing on the headunit
10. New device should appear on phone and use phone to complete pairing
Several folks have commented about Bluetooth auto connect issues, particularly that the unit automatically switches to Bluetooth as soon as the phone connects, interrupting the source that you had been listening to.
There is another alternative with Bluetooth connectivity. If you set up Bluetooth for the phone only (not audio) then the autoconnect will not occur every time you turn on the phone. You can turn your phone on and continue to listen to the current source. If you get a call, it will automatically switch to Bluetooth. Of course, this won't help much if you're planning to use your phone as a music source.
The reason the HU automatically switches to Bluetooth when you connect your phone with Bluetooth audio enabled is that it views it as a new audio source that you want to listen to now. It works exactly the same way as it does if you connect a USB device or insert a CD.
Hope this helps clarify the issue.
