Good car stereo with tons of features for little money

When my factory installed car stereo in our Suzuki Xl-7 broke down (it decided to eat a CD and never spit it out again...) it was time to get a new car stereo. There were only three conditions that the new stereo would have to meet. First, it needed to be under $200. Second, it needed to be from Clarion as the original car stereo was a in-dash model from Clarion and I wanted to try to get the steering wheel controls to work. And third, it needed to be iPod-ready, so I could connect the iPod from my wife to it. Either as a out-of-the-box-feature or with an optional cable.

So after a while of looking online, I found the DXZ575USB. Clarion is not really a brand you can easily find at Best Buy or Circuit City so I had to buy it without being able to really check it out first. I basically went with specs on paper as I got it. So these are the specs of it:

CD Car stereo CD-R/RW ready
MP3, WMA and iTunes® AAC Compatible with ID3-TAG display
Front USB slot
Removable faceplate
18 FM/ 6 AM Presets
iPod control capability (via optional EA1276 adapter)
Subwoofer volume control
24-bit D/A converter
Digital Z-Enhancer sound customization
2-band parametric equalizer
MAGNA BASS EX dynamic bass enhancement
Built-in LPF/HPF
53W × 4 Built-in MOS-FET Amplifier
Flip-down control panel
High visibility 2-line display with Screensavers
"SLIDETRAK" for dynamic operation
RCA Auxiliary Input with Level Control
6ch/6V RCA Output
CeNET Control of: DVD changer, TV Tuner, 6-Disc CD Changer, Satellite Receiver and iPod
OEM Steering Wheel Remote Ready
Bluetooth Interface Ready (Optional BLT370)

I have to admit I was not really paying much attention to most of the technical specs. Unless you are a car stereo enthusiast, most car stereos in the $200 range will have decent sound capabilities. And if you really want a high-end stereo, you won't be looking at source units that cheap anyway.


What's in the box?

Other than the stereo itself, you will get two cable harnesses to hook the unit up to the car and to any external amplifiers you might have. Also included is a small infrared remote control, a DIN cage, the manual and of course the removal tools.


Installation...

Initially I wanted to install the stereo myself but had to turn that over to a workshop after finding out that the color codes from the cables in the car are nowhere near ISO standard. A small tip for any 2004 Suzuki XL7 owners: Don't try finding adapter harnesses, they don't seem to exist. Other than Best Buy and Circuit City, I tried five car audio shops. None had matching cables. I got three different cable harnesses from three of the stores, being assured that *ALL* of them would fit my car just fine... of course none of them did. The plug of the car is the same as of a Honda, but the cables don't match. That sadly also meant that I could not use the car wheel controls as I initially thought I could. Anyway, other than the cable problem, installation went just fine.


Design and handling

The car stereo comes in black. I didn't want a shiny silver stereo so that was a big plus for me. Like most slot-in CD-receivers, the CD slot is behind the faceplate. When you press the release button, the faceplate flips down, revealing the CD slot. A small blue button on the back of the faceplate ejects the CD's. Sadly, that button is not illuminated. So when you are driving in the dark, you might not find it right away.

The front of the faceplate looks a little different than most car stereos because it is missing the radio station buttons that most radios have. So even though you can store up to 18 radio stations (Three FM presets with 6 stations each) you cannot access them directly via a numbered button. You flip through them with two buttons on the right side. Volume is regulated with the corresponding buttons on the left side.

Clarion has built-in a feature they call "Slidetrack". You can basically slide the plastic window covering the LCD Display to the left and right. In radio-mode you can scan for stations, in CD mode you can select music tracks and if you are in some of the submenus you can choose certain settings. While this is an interesting idea for an interface it's not as intuitive as most other car stereos.

An example: When you want to store the frequency of a radio station you normally pick the frequency and then keep the station-number button pressed for about three seconds and then you're done. Since this radio doesn't have station buttons, you choose a station with the Slidetrack, press the memory button, choose a station number with channel up/down buttons and then keep the memory button pressed for five seconds to save the frequency.

Once you have gotten used to how the Clarion works, it's okay to get along. But you might find yourself looking in the manual more often than with other car stereos.


The USB connector

Clarion has given their DXZ575USB a USB connector on the front right side (hence the USB in the name). You can basically connect any USB drive to it and it will scan for playable MP3's (.mp3 file ext.) , WMA's (.wma) and AAC's (.m4a). The latter is the known format for iPods. Sadly, the stereo can't play protected content so you will be not able to just copy stuff out of your iTunes directory to a USB stick or CD and play it.

What it can do though as a funny bonus is read your regular iPod (connected with the USB cable normally going into your computer) as a hard disk and play all the tracks on there that are not protected. It can't read folder or track titles 'though, effectively turning any iPod into an iPod shuffle where you have to navigate through the tracks blindly. But it does charge it.

Anyway, the USB port is not meant as a way to connecting an iPod. Clarion has a different adapter available for that (for around $50 to $70). It connects to the CD-Changer port on the back of the unit and makes the iPod fully controlable through the car stereo, including displaying the track information.

USB memory media needs to have the FAT12, FAT16 or FAT32 file system to be recognized by the radio.


Other useful features

Of course the Clarion DXZ575USB comes with a removeable faceplate as a theft protection feature. But that is hardly a new thing nowadays. More useful and a standard with most Clarion receivers is the CeNet bus system. It makes it easy to expand the source unit with an additional CD-Changer, the aforementioned iPod interface or a Sat-Radio. Theoretically, you can even connect a DVD player/changer or a TV tuner to the source unit which then can be controlled through the CeNet bus system. Practically that doesn't make much sense as you need a separate monitor. And for the money for that you can buy a bigger source unit. But still, the CeNet bus system is a cool feature in a source unit of this price.


Connecting the source unit to an iPod

When you buy the optional cable adapter (I did) you can connect your iPod to the CeNet bus system of the car stereo, basically like you would connect a CD-Changer. The iPod get's charged through the connection and can completely controlled through the radio. Pressing the menu button gets you into the main iPod menu, pressing the channel buttons chooses menupoints and moving the Slidetrack goes deeper into or further out of menu options. The iPod's controls are disabled so you can just put it in a compartment of your car somewhere. And of course the radio displays all the titles and track information.


Good and bad things

Overall I am very pleased with the Clarion DXZ575USB. You get very good value for your money: For the $160 that I paid I got a CD-Car Stereo that is Sat-ready, iPod capable, can read MP3's, WMA's and AAC's, has a USB connector at the front and lots more. The sound is very good and aside from my problem with my car cable installation is as easy as with any other aftermarket DIN radio. Connecting the unit to my iPod was a breeze and really expands on the possibilities of the stereo.

Things Clarion could have done better? Well, I think although the Slidetrack is a good idea if you want your radio controls to be a little unconventional, Clarion could have made the controls a little more intuitive and accessible. Some of the functions are buried a little too deep into submenus. For example, setting up bass, treble, balance and fader requires more button-pressing than necessary. Some of the buttons are also too small in my opinion. I have very small hands and I am fine with the controls, but people with bigger hands might have some problems.


Final epinion

The Clarion DXZ575USB is a good solid car stereo with a lot of bang for the buck. I am not sure I would have bought a Clarion if the one that was in the car originally hadn't been one but I am not regretting it. It has very good sound and enough expansion capabilities that I can use it as source unit for a long time (after all, it has a 6 channel RCA output, a USB port and the CeNet bus system). The only thing that I would consider negative is the interface and the controls. They definatly take some time to get used to and could have been more accessible. Still, I recommend this CD receiver to anyone who needs or wants a more than capable receiver for a low price.