Home > Consumer Reviews > Pioneer DEH-P6900UB AM/FM CD and iPod Ready Car Stereo Receiver Head Unit

In terms of raw capability, this thing gets a 5/5. It is good, in that it can do almost everything you'd want a headunit to do. It gives you very specific control over your car audio system's sound - something extremely important to me, and I'd say probably for most people who are going to buy an aftermarket headunit. It technically connects to your iPod directly, allowing you to control it from the headunit's interface. I say technically because it's the same sort of thing as saying you can "technically" use a hammer to drive in a screw. You can do it, but you'd really rather not.

It's cool, it's got visualizers, it's pretty, it sounds good, you can hook all kinds of stuff up to it. The hookups are even all located in the back, which means less clutter on the face and allows for creative stealth-wiring solutions. It has all the components of a good headunit. But the implementation is horrible.

Here's the thing. There are not very many buttons on the unit, which at first seems really cool. Sleek is good, right? The only problem is, that means that essentially everything is going to be controlled by one big multi-button, and it's all in a twisted hierarchy of menus that you seriously need to hire a sherpa to navigate. To change your super-specific sound settings, you have to press the big button straight down - not necessarily an easy task, as it also pushes up, down, left and right, creating a tendency to push in a direction when you'd rather it just push in. Once you do this, you have to use the button as a combination dial-arrow key-button to navigate, and it doesn't do any of these very well. The dial is stiff and doesn't rotate easily and it's hard to push it in as a button (as I've said). Honestly, it's best at being a 4-directional arrow key, but an actual arrow key could do the same thing a far sight better.

So if you do manage to get into the sound settings menu, there's about 30 different options, including fader/balance, high-pass filter, Source Level Audio adjustment (SLA - a backwards acronym, what they really mean is Audio Source Level), a bass booster, a "loud" mode (basically cranks up the high and low ends of your sound), several subwoofer-specific options (all contained within the same menu item) a fully customizable host of EQ settings and even a high/low pass filter. But they're all damn near impossible to use, thanks to poor arrangement and the horrible button, which I've come to refer to as "the knob from hell". Fortunately, thanks to "EQ" and "SW" (SubWoofer) being two of the several limited shortcut buttons on the unit's face, once you do get all your sound settings tweaked the way you want them, you shouldn't really have to go back into that menu page ever again - which is really a grace of mercy, as having to do it once is painful enough. These two buttons allow you to cycle through your EQ options and tweak your subwoofer's boost and LPF, respectively. And I mean "cycle" literally - there is no way to go backwards in the cycle, and since there are something like 8 different built-in EQ settings, it becomes quite a pain to alternate between the two custom ones you're given to program.

To make it perfectly clear just how crazy their menu system is, the pause function is only accessible from within a menu that is two layers deep.

Okay, so that's how the sound and function settings on the unit are used. So far, not so good; while having a lot of capability, it's extremely difficult to use. So what about some of the features?

It reproduces audio from AUX input very well. I have no problems whatsoever with its ability to act as a go-between for your portable audio device and your car's speakers. Awesome.

Using the "iPod-ready" USB input, though, is about painful enough to make a grown man cry. You can hook up a flash memory stick or even an external hard drive to it, if you don't mind waiting for several minutes for the hard drive to spin up. But selecting a song to listen to is about as fun as looking for an earring in a grassy patch that's never been mowed - where every single time you start looking again, you have to start from the very beginning. Pressing the "List" button will take you to the root of your device - always. No matter where you might have stopped off your search before, it will take you back to the very top directory when you press the List button. So let's say you'd like to listen to a song by a particular artist; for the sake of discussion, we'll choose "Nine Inch Nails". You can fully expect to be spinning the stiff dial all the way from Alice in Chains to the middle of your artist list, which on a 16gb iPod like mine is 100+ names long. With no way to scroll by letter, this process can take up to 9 or 10 twists of the knob, occupying one of your driving hands (and your eyes) for a pretty considerable number of seconds. You can push the "down" button instead, but it does not pick up speed as you hold it down, meaning you essentially just have to push the button 50 times. Once you do find the artist, you can either press the knob to the right or press straight down (originally, I thought you had to do the latter, which was awful because I would constantly push the "up" button just before pushing the button in, causing me to select Nickelback instead of NIN). Then you have to repeat the process again to find the album you want, and again to choose your song. And you should hope that you don't get a phone call during this procedure, because to turn down the volume, you have to cancel out of the "List" view and return to the display, meaning you get to start all over again when your call is over.

The whole procedure takes so long and occupies your vision and hand so completely as to become a fair safety hazard, to the point where you almost hesitate to do it while driving at all. For something that's supposed to make your iPod more conveniently integrated into your car's stereo, it really does a poor job of it. So much so, in fact, that I took to velcro-mounting my iPod to my dash, connecting it via the AUX-in cable and using its interface to select music, which is infinitely more convenient and simple. I only use the USB connector now to charge my iPod on long drives. For a while, I just made "driving" playlists that I could shuffle and play, but I really do like being able to select a particular song, and frankly I got tired of making CD-length playlists every time I wanted to go somewhere - I thought that was why I bought an "iPod-ready" headunit in the first place.

Say what you will about "space limitations" and what-not, this headunit is poor, poor poor. It would be so easy to make one that takes all of the cool, useful features of this one and implement them in a convenient, intuitive way. I'll start with a few simple suggestions:

Want to make your headunit's dial act like the iPod touch wheel? Use a touch wheel! The dial on this unit only clicks six or seven times with a good hand twist, and you have to twist it - it's way too stiff to twist with a finger, and if you try, you'll wind up accidentally pushing it in one of its directions. Why not make a touch wheel that works the same way as the one on old iPods? Spinning your finger around in a circle (even without scroll-by-letter) would be infinitely preferable to this twisting abomination. The iPod touch wheel even had directional buttons and a center "menu" button integrated into it. I don't understand why all these headunit producers insist on putting giant, clunky dials on their devices. It's infuriating.

Here's another crazy concept: make the "List" key return to your previous position! It's really not that difficult of a concept; if you want to return to the root, push it twice! Let's say I'm in the mood for Nine Inch Nails, and I want to listen to a song off one of their albums. I play the song, and now I'd like to listen to a song off of another NIN album. Should be easy, right? But it's not, I have to scroll all the way back through 50+ artists to get to it.

And a third idea: Add a few more buttons! Yes, I understand that sleek, simple-looking interfaces are good, but I'd much rather have a simple interface than a simple-looking one! If limiting the number of buttons on the face of your device means that you are limiting its usability, don't do it! I'd at least like to be able to conveniently reach the EQ tweak menu from the face without having to find it in a menu two layers deep, and then have to mess with the extremely confusing interface once I actually find the menu option. I'd also like to be able to cycle through my stored EQ settings in TWO directions, so I don't have to cycle through the whole list every time I alternate between two of them. And hey, if you're gonna put a touch wheel on there, why not add a small dial somewhere to let me turn my sub's gain up and down? Maybe you could even make that dial customizable, so that by pushing it, you could change what it controls? You know, sorta like the "Sound" knob on every other headunit?

And while we're talking about stored EQ settings, why is it not possible to store entire audio setups? My two custom EQs are programmed for hard rock/metal music (with extra kick in the low bass range and increased mids and low highs for guitar and vocals) and for electronic/house music (with reduced low bass/low mids to get rid of that drowning bass hum). With each one, I also tend to turn up or down the sub's booster by 3 or 4 points and change the setting on the high pass filter. It would be really sweet if I could store those settings with the EQ and just flip between the two settings.


Right, so here's the final results:

Pros:
-Lots of functions
-Can take AUX input as well as USB
-Can charge your iPod
-Very detailed sound options
-Several fun little visualizers

Cons:
-Horrible, horrible interface
-Options controlled by menus within menus within menus
-Using it while driving is a severe hazard
-"Multi-button" knob possibly the worst design I've ever seen
-iPod control interface so terrible that it's easier to hook an iPod into the AUX in and use the iPod's interface
-Pause button is in a menu two layers deep
-The two visualizers that are "music-reactive" are pretty uninteresting


Yep. Don't buy it. It's a huge waste of money. I read several of these reviews, one of which said "it's a bit complicated, but good if you're a bit nerdy and like to have a lot of control over your sound." That sounded good to me. I like control. I didn't realize it meant "complicated" as in "prohibitively dense and poorly designed". The only reason it gets two stars is because one of the visualizers is a guy jumping out of a plane. I figured that deserved at least one extra star.

Great unit, comes with a long female usb cable to connect up to a usb stick or a drive. I like the fact that it can do the usb sticks and IPOD at the same time. I also like the faceplate feature being highly adjustable, I've had several units where the faceplate interface wears out but the method of removing the faceplate is genius.

The technical features that come with this unit like the one touch nav-knob, 5v preouts, and simplified equalizer really set this unit apart. I can say I'm definitely not impressed with the menu interface -- quite frankly it wasn't thought through well, and the screen themes/skins are really lacking.

I would recommend this unit, perhaps in a higher model line though.

I purchased the DEH-6900UB for its functionality. Here are the cons:
-Menu navigation is complex at first. It does take some getting used to and menu settings are not intuitive. For example, setting the clock was accomplished via the function-settings menu, not by pushing and holding the clock button, as on my previous headunits.

-The 250GB USB drive that I purchased for music did not work. It should have, according to the manual. I get the "No Device" code. This is caused by a lack of power from the head unit to the USB drive. The workaround is a USB power adaptor and a Y-cable--complicated, but it works.

-Only comes with a blue display. While the type of display can be changed to show clocks, animations, etc, you're stuck with the color blue. Other units offer a wide range of colors, but this is a minor issue.

Pros:
-Dimmable display
-USB functionality. Other than the issue mentioned above, I have been able to get WMA and mp3 files to play from a flash stick. The menues here are easy to follow. I have the artists in my root directory and the albumns in subdirectories. Works like a champ!
-aux inputs. I can also hook my non-iPod mp3 player into the aux input via the headphone jack on my mp3 player. Great function, and songs can be controlled right from the mp3 player. a stereo aux jack must be purchased separately.
-Great graphic Equalizer. While difficult to navigate, the eq options are amazing. The default settings offer a variety from talk radio to boomin' bass, but you can dial in that perfect sound if you wish.
-Satellite radio and Bluetooth ready. Although separate adaptors are needed, this is a huge benefit.

Overall, I am extremely satisfied with the DEH-P6900UB. With a few minor adjustments (and more power to the USB device), this would be a 5 star head unit.

Definitivamente es genial, este radio puede hacer de todo incluso impresiona a todos los que van en el carro.
lo unico que le puedo criticar es que el CONTROL REMOTO se daña inmediatamente cuando le da la luz del sol directamente en el altas temperaturas, cosa que en un auto no podemos controlar que esta exposicion suceda... mi recomendacion es que lo compren, pero protejan el control...y a la Pionner que haga mejores controles o fabrique un protector para ellos.

When I decided it was time to upgrade my car's audio, I sat to write my requirements list:

1- Needed detachable face (for theft reduction purposes). Face attach/detachment procedure shall be easy, and the mechanism sturdy.
2- #1 above meant that, for ease of use, no cables should attach to the front face.
3- Wanted USB input, so I could bring MP3 with easy. (USB cable at back, see #2 above).
4- If possible, easy direct IPOD control through the face controls, via #3 above.
5- Because of the large amounts of MP3 that nowadays fit on USB sticks and IPODS, the face display should allow easy navigation through folders, playlists, whatever... and the controls should be easy to use.
6- AUX input, for those devices without USB control. (AUX input at back, see #2 above).

Also good to have, but not required on my list:
7- Mute Input, so external devices can mute the audio (sometimes I am a sort of inventor)
8- Bluetooth capability

With my list ready, I started searching offers by Sony, JVC, Alpine, Kenwood, Eclipse, Dual, and others...

Amazingly, VERY few did make it to the list. Of those few, many could only meet my requirements by means of external boxes, which brought a new requirement: No external boxes if at all possible! Have you seen how little space there is in a car for installing stuff? How is anyone supposed to install the head unit plus a box for USB plus a box for Bluetooth, plus whatever else?

At the end, the list came down to a few Kenwood's an 1 Pioneer model. Pioneer won because it felt to me as much easier to use. Also, Kenwood's face attach/dettach mechanism felt cumbersome and fragile.

And so I bought a Pioneer DEH-P690UB Premier Unit. (DEH-P6900UB is the same unit, but without the IPOD Dock cable, and a shorter guarantee period).

With this unit, everything is inside the head unit, nothing else to buy, no external devices to add (unless you want an External CD Changer, which I believe are useless nowadays, or the Bluetooth adapter which I didn't bought).

I have been using it for a few days, and I think it is a great buy. It offers lots of features for a low price, it is very easy to use, the installation was easy, the instructions good enough.

I have used it with an IPOD nano, which stays hidden on the globe box, so everything is always neat for passengers and me. The IPOD is also rechaged by the Pioneeer unit.

I thought that I would miss the usual "6 buttons for station selection", but using the multicontrol is as easy, and can be done safely without looking while driving.

I haven't had the chance to try a portable hard disk, but I have read other people results, and looks like its OK as long as the hard disk's format is "FAT" (Not NTFS), and the power draw is small, as the USB power capabilities are very limited.
Also, power up time might be slow when having to scan through thousands of MP3, but this seems to be a problem with other brands as well, and not unique to Pioneer.