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Received my Clarion DXZ785USB friday, and hooked it up today. Here is an attempt at a review of it. Partly because I want to inform, partly because I want feedback from other DXZ 785 owners.
When first plugging it in, I was pretty happy: a clear sound, good soundstage / stereo feel, good dynamics, snares, toms etc were clear and very audible. I had heard the 785 was harsh, but nope, not harsh at all.
The look was much better than people have said. Once I tweaked the colors, it fit in quite nicely in my Audi. So far, so good. I was ready to give the unit a good review here in these forums.
The white noise:
After listening a while, I noticed a white noise effect. Is it there? Or is it the music? I turned up the volume, the noise seemed to stay at the same level. Turned down the volume again, found the point where it stood out the most. Yep, definitely a white noise effect.
Another observation was that while some songs sounded great in my first impression, others lost their charm completely. This usually means there's some sort of coloring.
The display also, as people have said, has poor visibility. This seems partly due to a low quality LCD screen, and partly due to the fact that the background isn't dark, but lit. Pretty silly.
USB: I tried playing from two different USB sticks, but the unit gave me "Error 2", which is supposed to be an error in the mp3 encoding. Unlikely, since it plays the same mp3 files from CD. I will post about this when I find out what the problem is..
The monitor headphone test:
I hooked up some Beyerdynamic monitor headphones into the RCAs. These have an exceptionally clear and neutral sound, and I can use them as a reference point. I put on some music that I have played many times before with these phones (using a hi-fi headphone amp and a hi-fi DAC).
I immediately noticed that what was supposed to be neutral, un-equalized sound, had a strong nasal quality, and that it sounded kind of "canned". Definitely colored base sound, no doubt about it. Disappointing, Clarion.
The white noise was also more audible here, I could hear the white noise switch between different volume levels in "steps". The noise itself wasn't very "digital", it sounded like good old-fashioned TV / radio white noise. This could be a bug in the mp3 algorithm, but it sounds too analogue. It is probably due to the amped 6V outs of this unit.
The highs were not very good either, and together with the white noise hiss, definitely not worthy of the Morels I will soon be installing.
It might be that this unit is equalizable, I will edit this post if the equalizing somehow does wonders.
Conclusions so far:
+: nice soundstage, decent display
+: extremely many typical "audiophile" tweakpoints.
+: nice configurability, nice random function
-: Colored base sound, amplifying bass and high mids. Probably for that first impression of good car sound. I will write more feedback / correct myself when I have tried tweaking the EQ.
-: A white noise hiss that doesn't increase by volume, but changes the volume in "steps" depending on dynamics in the music. This could be a bug in the (320 kbps) mp3 decoding, but I doubt it. The noise doesn't sound "digital", but it sounds like some sort of digital technique of managing the 6V outs. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I made a mistake, since noone else has mentioned this?
-: I can't find a way to turn the bright display off in standby mode. Annoying.
-: at best, clunkily implemented USB functionality.
Not going to rate it yet, but so far, not very happy. The sound isn't horrible, or else I wouldn't have liked it in the beginning, but after some intent listening, I feel pretty confident this unit is not worthy of being the root sound output in an expensive setup.
If you have this unit, and don't have these problems, please give me feedback here or in PMs. If what I hear is just because I have done something wrong, I would of course like to know! I will edit this post according to what I find out.
When first plugging it in, I was pretty happy: a clear sound, good soundstage / stereo feel, good dynamics, snares, toms etc were clear and very audible. I had heard the 785 was harsh, but nope, not harsh at all.
The look was much better than people have said. Once I tweaked the colors, it fit in quite nicely in my Audi. So far, so good. I was ready to give the unit a good review here in these forums.
The white noise:
After listening a while, I noticed a white noise effect. Is it there? Or is it the music? I turned up the volume, the noise seemed to stay at the same level. Turned down the volume again, found the point where it stood out the most. Yep, definitely a white noise effect.
Another observation was that while some songs sounded great in my first impression, others lost their charm completely. This usually means there's some sort of coloring.
The display also, as people have said, has poor visibility. This seems partly due to a low quality LCD screen, and partly due to the fact that the background isn't dark, but lit. Pretty silly.
USB: I tried playing from two different USB sticks, but the unit gave me "Error 2", which is supposed to be an error in the mp3 encoding. Unlikely, since it plays the same mp3 files from CD. I will post about this when I find out what the problem is..
The monitor headphone test:
I hooked up some Beyerdynamic monitor headphones into the RCAs. These have an exceptionally clear and neutral sound, and I can use them as a reference point. I put on some music that I have played many times before with these phones (using a hi-fi headphone amp and a hi-fi DAC).
I immediately noticed that what was supposed to be neutral, un-equalized sound, had a strong nasal quality, and that it sounded kind of "canned". Definitely colored base sound, no doubt about it. Disappointing, Clarion.
The white noise was also more audible here, I could hear the white noise switch between different volume levels in "steps". The noise itself wasn't very "digital", it sounded like good old-fashioned TV / radio white noise. This could be a bug in the mp3 algorithm, but it sounds too analogue. It is probably due to the amped 6V outs of this unit.
The highs were not very good either, and together with the white noise hiss, definitely not worthy of the Morels I will soon be installing.
It might be that this unit is equalizable, I will edit this post if the equalizing somehow does wonders.
Conclusions so far:
+: nice soundstage, decent display
+: extremely many typical "audiophile" tweakpoints.
+: nice configurability, nice random function
-: Colored base sound, amplifying bass and high mids. Probably for that first impression of good car sound. I will write more feedback / correct myself when I have tried tweaking the EQ.
-: A white noise hiss that doesn't increase by volume, but changes the volume in "steps" depending on dynamics in the music. This could be a bug in the (320 kbps) mp3 decoding, but I doubt it. The noise doesn't sound "digital", but it sounds like some sort of digital technique of managing the 6V outs. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I made a mistake, since noone else has mentioned this?
-: I can't find a way to turn the bright display off in standby mode. Annoying.
-: at best, clunkily implemented USB functionality.
Not going to rate it yet, but so far, not very happy. The sound isn't horrible, or else I wouldn't have liked it in the beginning, but after some intent listening, I feel pretty confident this unit is not worthy of being the root sound output in an expensive setup.
If you have this unit, and don't have these problems, please give me feedback here or in PMs. If what I hear is just because I have done something wrong, I would of course like to know! I will edit this post according to what I find out.