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Review on πŸš— BOSS Audio Systems 612UA Single Din Multimedia Car Stereo - MP3, USB Port, AUX Input, AM/FM Radio Receiver (No CD DVD Player) by John Swain

Revainrating 5 out of 5

Do not be afraid! About Car Electronics

Yes, ordering a stereo for $36 is pretty scary. My main wish was SD card capability and for some reason decent stereos don't offer that. I also wanted the USB drive to allow the use of a flash drive and not just an ipod like most $50-$100 stereos offer. The sound quality is excellent. Much better than expected. The volume is loud enough, I installed it on a 1st gen Isuzu Trooper which has a lot of road noise. No volume issues, even with windows down. It sounds as loud as the standard stereo in any car. If you have subwoofers, you need an amplifier. If you need it louder, you need a hearing aid. The radio picks up long-range AM better than some, as well as some. Seek picks up pretty weak stations compared to any other stereo I have. Since I live in the middle of nowhere, almost 50 miles from the nearest radio station, that's pretty cool. Yes, the clock doesn't show all the time. Put on your watch or check your phone. It's a $36 stereo. You can not have everything. The lighting is fairly bright without dimming, but probably no brighter than most other modern stereos, none of which are dimmable. Luckily the stereo is on my lap. If you never dim your dash lights while driving at night, it won't bother you. Yes, and that would probably be an issue if the stereo was installed in the dash. But that's how it would be with almost all retrofit radios. As others have pointed out, there's not much to do with folders, it finds folders, even hidden units, but treats songs as if they weren't there, finding them in the order they were added to storage. Again, this is a $36 stereo. I don't think I tried playing in AAC format. I work on Windows and only deal with AAC when making ringtones for my iPhone lol. Great sound with AUX. Both with Pandora radio and iHeart. I haven't tried the iPhone via the USB port and I don't need to. I thought the kit had a lot of instructions despite having been installing my own stereos for 40 years. All cores are marked. I recommend getting a install kit and adapter if you can make the install much cleaner and easier. When you're in trouble, Google is your friend. I don't know how much documentation is needed to install or operate a stereo, but I'm tech savvy and don't typically use manuals. I think I should add that this is quite difficult. My Trooper was unplugged a long time ago and the colors of the wires have changed from year to year. It's not that easy to figure out which wire is which. I wired it wrong, +12v goes to speaker ground on the boss. Accidentally touched with my meter, the chassis was hot 12v. Still worked when I hooked it up properly. You can't go wrong with this stereo.

Pros
  • Car Stereo Receiver
Cons
  • Damaged