Pioneer DEH-X8500BH

Great stereo

I put this Pioneer stereo in my big rig freight liner classic. it sounds great and it has so many different options. I also installed a sub and amp shortly after and I couldn't be happier with the sound its nice!!!

Great Value

Bluetooth and the HD radio are the great features that i love. it is easy to operate also

Great system

I had to upgrade my Sony because the bluetooth was out of date and wouldn't connect with my new Nexus 4 phone. The Pioneer streams music, podcasts, phone calls via bluetooth perfectly. Rear usb is really nice - I use usb extension cable that is hidden out of the way. Better than having the USB drive sticking out of the front face. Great sound as well.

Great mid-range head unit!

I purchased this radio and a set of Kicker DS65, DS693, and DS35 speakers to replace my son's worn-out factory speakers. My son and I worked on it together and this was his first install. Sonic was nice enough to provide a free dash kit and wire harness for the car, which I appreciated a lot. I had no issues with the installation because I've done them before, but the instruction manual was no help at all for people who have never matched up wires before. The wires that came with the radio were on the thin side - my Alpine decks have thicker wire for all their connections. This is the one big shortcoming I have for a radio in this price range -better install instructions and thicker wire would be nice.

There was a vast improvement over the factory setup, so no surprises there. The head unit was too powerful for the worn-out factory speakers, but it matched well to the Kickers. If (when) my son ever expands his system to add amps, the three sets of pre-outs are a nice touch. The system hits highs well and offers a lot of sound customization, but the big plus was the bass response - the unit fed the Kickers well and did not seem to strain or overheat after a long session of loud play (I am in Arizona, so we'll see in the summer months). Only a basshead will need more low end than this setup is putting out, and amps would be a must for that person anyway.

The BT works well - on my Alpine deck, it can be hit or miss with the controls but the Pioneer syncs up every time, has no problem with calls, and even displays song titles when it plays music from my son's phone. It also controls an iPod, but if you already have a good BT phone with a 32GB SD card, you won't need the feature. The USB extension was another nice touch, we hid the cord on the bottom of the dash and there is a perfect space for him to stow his phone and charge at the same time. Same with the wired microphone, the cord was plenty long enough for any dashboard install and we had no problem hiding the mic near the bottom of the dash. We didn't test the CD player, but he will never use it anyway. The HD radio is a huge plus, we have a decent amount of HD stations in our area and the AM does sound like FM! The FM does sound CD-quality, but I'm sure that is partly because the radio and speakers match up so well - with lesser speakers, it wouldn't sound as good.

So far, the price is right and the head unit exceeds his expectations for a first system. Sonic is the fastest, I ordered on Tuesday and had it installed by Thursday. From jazz to hip hop, this is a great radio and the features are nice.

Awesome head unit!

I installed this head unit earlier today. Face plate does feel cheaply made when you remove it. But good thing is that I dont plan on taking it off too much. I am using an re audio dts 500.4 for mids and highs kicker componet front and rear 6) kicker 6x8's with power bass asa 600.2 to push my kicker solo classic 15" so I cannot comment on the power of the unit. But the bluetooth audio works GREAT! perfect for streaming music or making a phonecall using the external mic provided with the headunit. Has a pretty cool feature for when receiving a call. The key side of the screen flashes differnet colors and displays caller id for thr person calling and has a preloaded ringtone that plays through the car. My kids loved talking on the phone in the car thought it was just the coolest thing ever. Has nice customization options for the display colors. You may want to go on YouTube and watch the videos from Pioneer on how to use the unit to see if it would be a good fit for you. I would highly recommend this unit it is simple enough to use and has a lot of cool features that I think most people would be happy with.

Decent unit, but not the greatest

This is a decent unit, I have been waiting for it to release since forever in hopes it would look and feel better than the DEH-P8400BH which it replaced. The only difference appears to be the ergonomics of the faceplate and button layout, the 8500 is much improved even though they just centered the knob and rocker lever; the right side of the unit was made a little more tacky.

Pros:
3 sets of 4v pre-outs
Great amount of features
Great sound quality for what it is
Great call quality
Bluetooth syncs and streams just fine with Gingerbread (Android) no song information is displayed however.
Ipod navigation is easy enough, and app mode works great.
Active display with fully adjustable illumination for both keys and display: totally independent or synced.
Great HD reception
Unlike several reviews of the previous model 8400, which is basically the same, I found it easy enough to adjust and go through the menus while driving, and they don't lag at all.

Cons:
Build quality: its made in Thailand but, if they make this thing and the accessories it comes with any cheaper, they'll be made out of paper. Prepare to bend or break the din tools, pray to god you never need to pull the radio out of the din chassis once mounted. It took me a couple of days to decide where to place the mic, and I had to pull the radio; more like, bend the din tools and tear the entire dash apart again because they wouldn't work.

The faceplate, I now understand why they don't bother giving you a case for it, every time you remove it, you pray you don't break the thing its so cheaply designed and made.

The wire loom looks like something that would be sold with a BOSS radio or Pyramid, not to mention the nearly non existent heatsink.

The built-in amplifier is sufficient, but its not something I would recommend using, and if you're buying a headunit with 3 sets of 4v pre-outs I would hope you wouldn't be using it anyway except for maybe rear fill.

Limited EQ adjustability, yes, you can control the level up and down, but that's about it, there's no slope, or adjusting the preset bands. I would have rather had Pioneer ditch the gimmick that is "Mixtrax" for a real spectrum analyzer and made the 5 band EQ fully adjustable.

Overall its a decent headunit with a lot of features, but this isn't the Pioneer that reigned dominant in the mid 90's early 2000's. I go all the way back to the days of Pioneer tape decks, and still have my full din DEQ-9200 which is basically a standard feature of the 80-PRS.

Rather than trying to read the horrible manual, Pioneer has made several youtube videos to show you how to operate the unit, I suggest you google Pioneer DEH-X8500BH and click on the "Video" tab for all of their video's showing you how to operate the unit.

Good item

Works good .I do like how the call mode works well . I do have to sometimes discount my iPhone 5 and reconnect it for it to read don't know why but works about 98% of the time with out having to disconnect and reconnect.

Good for the price

This head unit works as advertised. It is a good deal for the price and puts out good sound even without an amp.

perfect radio

This radio is small just perfect with all the features that I need
The bluetooth is just perfect when you are driving and also nice with my playlist for my music.

Awesome

This Radio is Awesome. one of the best one ive bought in years. it syncs in with your phone so full address book, bluetooth audio, fully function ipod controls, lots of customizing options.