Philips CEM5000
Verified1 review
Great so far, especially for features verse price – Only cost me 145AUD inc shipping on Ebay, try and find a brand name headunit with the features this has for that price!!! If you look around you can save yourself a lot of cash. This headunit was 'retailing' for 280-315 at the time. !!! You will notice I have compared to a similarly priced Pioneer unit most of this review, they seem to be the leaders in car audio, especially headunits !!!
Downside- $45 extra (190AUD inc shipping [at the time of writing this review]) gets you a Pioneer DEH-8350SD with the same features, which I would have purchased had I not jumped on this straight away.
The pioneer gets you 4v preouts, where as this only has 2v meaning you can have the gains turned down on the external amps [if you are using them] and get the same volume output, thus reducing line noise, and the Pioneer has a few extra settings i.e Comp/BMX to 'revitalise' the lost frequencies during MP3 conversion.. and a high pass filter which this does not have (once again, if you are really into car audio.. you will be using an external amp... and these all have high pass filters on them anyway)
All in all.. not a huge deal of difference, but for $45 I would have gone Pioneer, not to say I'm not happy with this unit...! Finally the pioneer has a graphical display options, but I had the same 'fancy' graphical video things on my old pioneer headunit manufactured June 2006.. nothing new! Some guy playing basketball, some dolphins swimming around... and some other [censored word removed]...
Funnily enough ryda.com.au at this point in time have the Philips CEM5000 listed for 280 + Delivery, and the Pioneer DEH-8350SD listed for just 195 + delivery... The pioneer is definitely the better headunit. I always price up at quite a few places.. ebay usually wins.. but sometimes Ryda does.
Went off track there!
Back to teh Philips review, once again I'm not saying that I'm not happy with this unit...
Features - bluetooth for phone calls (though you still have to hold the phone up near your mouth), Direct MP3 streaming through the aux in jack on the front, bluetooth mp3 streaming, reads SD Cards & of course your normal CD's and MP3 CD's. With the SD Cards -It's a realllyyy good feature... I have a 32gig in mine which was about $20 on ebay and which holds a SH*TLOAD of music, however it gets annoying scrolling through them looking for a specific folder/album.. still beats carrying CD's around! (all the same features here as the pioneer) Both head units also have a USB slot, also very handy for USB memory sticks loaded with MP3's!
Has good presets, you can also do a custom one. (matches pioneer)
Has a really nicely sized & easy to read display (pioneer one is small) although the front face plate is quite bulky, large and squared off verse the nicely 'flowing' shape of the pioneer and it's buttons. Once again no major issue.. it still looks great.
Both headunits have 3 separate pre-outs (front/rear/sub)but as mentioned its 2v verse 4v. (not really a major issue either)
And that's it really.. it seems to have a lot of contrast options to change the background as well... but it looks good with stock settings.. maybe when i get bored of it!
Hopefully it stands the test of time like my old Pioneer headunit!
Final notes: this H/U has one RCA jack for sub output, rather than 2... $1.50 will get you a 2 to 1 "RCA Y Splitter" If you don't already have a 2 to 1 RCA cable.
It lost 1 star for not having a high pass filter, If you are running the speakers from the H/U and you are running a subwoofer, it's a great feature to cut the bass off the speakers, and leave this job solely for the woofer. Your only other option to cut the bass off to the speakers is soldering a capacitor between the + speaker cable and + on the speaker input (a nuisance considering it could just be a setting!)
*Pioneer also have more subwoofer options and a low mid or high boost. Feature packed for the price, 3 pre-outs, Looks high tech!, Fits 'universal' harness adapter Could do with a high pass filter setting, lacks some of the settings Pioneer offer
Sounds great through my speakers and external amplifier, you wouldn't get *much* improvement from just a head unit swap (slightly more output wattage maybe), you need to change the speakers as well! biggest difference would be external amplifiers...!!
This ended up being moved into another vehicle (years back now) and was up a lot higher in the sun, useless display - couldn't see it
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I wish I had gone with a Pioneer! First of all, the display is useless in sunlight, just too dim. And yes, I've checked and changed the dimmer settings. Second, the unit protrudes a lot from the dashboard. Installed correctly, the whole removable front panel sticks out, about 2cm. Normal units would install flush, so that when the panel is in place, the front is flush with the dash. Not this one. Also, sound is very tinny and annoying, shamefully the old Toyoto stock CD-player sounded much better!