Review on Dual XDMA6355 AM/FM/CD/MP3/WMA Receiver (Black): Immersive Audio Experience for In-Car Entertainment by James Lighting

Update 11 Jun 2012 Auto. Everything seemed to be working fine, but would go off from time to time and never come back on. So now I had to take it out, pull out the fuse or mains plug and plug it in again, and then it came back. Unfortunately, this quickly became obsolete. The weird thing is that it works fine when it's back on, but I just didn't want to mess around with it anymore, which sucks, since I'm used to it. I also wanted to use Bluetooth, which wasn't included with the radio, so I went with a brand new head unit with built-in Bluetooth and a microphone instead. So you don't have to buy anything anymore and it works great. I don't like talking on the phone while driving, but the new device allows me to answer calls without touching the phone and I can also hang up. The music also stops automatically so now that I have experience I won't be without this device. I bought it elsewhere for $49. I wanted a cheap radio for my car, but with a bruised tooth. So, here is a review of this radio station. Benefits1. Radio is pretty basic for the most part. It comes with a remote control which I don't need yet. The manual recommends using it to dial numbers as you only have 1-6 on the radio and I don't think it can be used to dial numbers.2. The main screen for the display is the only blue part of this radio. I hate all the blue LEDs on everything but this one had the fewest of them and the features it has. The rest of the lighting is all red as you can see in the picture. So it looks a little better than all the radios in blue.3. The blue display can be dimmed, it's always there, but it helps at least a little. My old car's lights are green, but since the radio was cheap, had a USB port, and one of those headphone jacks, it was fine for my basic needs. The USB port isn't covered, which is good as you just plug and unplug it and nothing gets in the way. The radio played the last song. I noticed this on the CD and USB port which was a good thing as I've read that some radios just start at the beginning of the folder. The manual also states that some songs might not play on this thing, but so far so good. It's like copyright. It's also supposed to play Windows files and you know everything Windows related has that kind of protection I guess. But so far all my mp3s play fine.5. I like the fact that this display is easily visible even in direct sunlight. I have a convertible and even when the sun is directly behind my back I can still read it. It was very surprising as I couldn't see the old cheap cassette deck that was there before. Many radios have very thin letters which also make them difficult to read. So I love that part. You just need to add other colors and then it's just right.6. At least so far the radio sounds good and loud enough to my ears. I may need to lower the decibel settings on my component speakers, but otherwise everything sounds good so far. I have 0 decibels and the sound is good. I may need to lower it to -3 decibels. We'll see how it holds up over time.7. It comes with a very simple 8 wire connector that plugs into your speakers. The rear and front sub RCA connectors and fuse are built into the back panel so bulky cables other than speaker/power etc don't come out the back of the unit. Unfortunately, BT is not included with this radio, so you need to buy it separately to use it.8. This radio also appears to support iPod direct USB control, but I don't have anything from Apple so I can't tell you how. The radio also has a clock, which will come in handy if your car doesn't have a clock like mine. You can change the display to always show the clock, the title of the song currently playing, or other song information. You have to go through a few menus so most of the time I just leave it next to the song title, it just takes a bit to navigate through all the menus but they work. 10. This is a detachable face radio that also comes with a case. When you photograph your face, the red LED will flash on and off, which is pretty cool.11. This radio has a mute button which I like as the volume knob isn't adjustable once you start turning it. But I like my old ones with the mute button, they just come in handy when you need to turn everything off at once. 12. By the way, I installed it myself. 13. Volume and buttons are almost in the middle. At first I thought it would suck, but having a manual transmission car is really convenient as I can just put my finger out and shift to what I want. i love it now Disadvantages1. The volume on this radio is quite odd because you really have to turn the knob a bit before you hear it change up or down. The handle also seems cheap, but I think that's just another compromise.2. If you turn off the radio, then the car, the radio turns on again when you start the car again. This surprised me when I turned the volume up a bit, so that's another downside of this case. You have to hold down the power button to turn it off or turn down the volume. There's no point trying to be quiet as you pull out of your driveway because everyone can see how brightly the radio is on. Not to mention listening. But if you leave the volume down before exiting it will only turn it back on when the volume is low, so I think you can at least do that. Not critical, but it would be nice if it didn't turn on until I turn it on.4. This radio is bluetooth enabled which basically means you need to buy another adapter to be able to use this feature. This really sucks because I was hoping it would work right away, but then again I wasn't expecting it. I believe this uses a BTM60 module which I saw for another $30 or so. So even if I paid about $50 and now another 30, this cheap radio is still 80+ if I ever need to add that bluetooth. Maybe just looking at a stereo with built-in Bluetooth isn't so bad, either. The blue-toothed part of this walkie-talkie looks pretty chunky, needs to be mounted on a visor, and doesn't have an end call button. You have to press the end button on the radio within about 3 seconds from what I've read, which I think is fine. Being a Blue Tooth in California just comes naturally as you can't use a cell phone if you just need to make a call. I don't even look at it when I'm driving, but I guess you just never know when you might need it. I don't know where 200W is coming from, but although it says 200W on the box, the bottom actually says 18W RMS x 4ch.6. Another quirk I don't like is the layout of the forward and back buttons. They are located under the volume control and are sometimes a bit difficult to reach. It is what it is. I think the above would be better as they are used more than the mode and display buttons that are above the knob. Finally, the front panel is sometimes difficult to remove and seems stuck. Other times I'll be driving and if I hit a pothole or something hard the faceplate will pop out.