New Dual inexpensive in dash HD receivers

skeets13 · 09-25-07, 11:35 PM

Can't seem to find any retailer that has these. Looks promising to compete with JVC.
http://www.dualav.com/receivers/index.html

TydalForce · 09-26-07, 09:14 AM

seems decent... too bad it's so ugly

RCbridge · 09-26-07, 12:03 PM

Great find I hope these are the beginning of a new trend!!

mikemikeb · 09-26-07, 12:56 PM

The problem with the Duals (and the JVC) is that they don't have a three-line display (one for the station/HD1/HD2/HD3, one for the artist, and one for the title). I won't buy one of those integrated units until they can do that. Well, that, and provide a front auxillary input as well.

skeets13 · 09-26-07, 01:16 PM

Looks like the Duals at least have the front aux. input.

RCbridge · 09-26-07, 02:02 PM

The higher model also has a USB port!

goldenrod · 10-02-07, 06:21 PM

I'm definitely interested in the higher-end model -- aux input, HD, CD/MP3 and USB -- sounds great!

skeets13 · 10-04-07, 10:15 PM

Found in stock at Crutchfield. Ordered lower end model as didn't need the bluetooth or USB. Decent price with all the included mounting hardware, no tax or shipping. Will post amateur review when installed.

Master Theseus · 10-05-07, 12:46 PM

Yeah, that is a great price!! I don't know how they do it. . .

goldenrod · 10-05-07, 07:42 PM

I ordered the one with USB. It will be installed next weekend and I'll also post an amateur review. I previously had the JVC in-dash HD and left it in a car that I traded and was about to get another one until I saw the Dual unit was a little lower priced and added built-in aux and USB ports.

One difference noted in the owner's manual is that the Dual will allow you to set an HD-2 or HD-3 as a preset. The JVC wouldn't do that. I'm guessing that the sound quality on the JVC might be better -- the circle surround sound feature that it has is really nice. I'll be putting it in an '07 Hyundai Santa Fe.

skeets13 · 10-10-07, 08:33 PM

Received the unit from Crutchfield yesterday. My son has the JVC in his car so I can compare. Simple install in my Dodge Pickup with one gotcha. On the Dual unit the "violet" wires are almost the same color as the blue wire and picking out which had the black line was almost impossible. I made my best guess and got lucky.

On the FM side reception was at least as good as the stock unit. Some of those iffy analog stations from far away tuned in fine. The HDs also were captured and no loss of signal noted in my first day of driving around.

The seek function can seek all stations or be set to just find HD stations. It will find the HD2 and HD3 as well (which can be good but also bad if you want to skip that country station you must run through all their broadcasts). On manual tune you can stop anywhere. The tuning control control is on the side of a ring surrounding the volume knob that you must push. I would have preferred another knob. You can preset the HD2 HD3 stations but it fills up the 18 presets fast.

AM reception was OK. Not a lot of good AM in my market, mostly sports talk amd political BS so not a priority for me. Seems good enough to listen to the football game.

Sound quality of HD was good but not excellent. Overall sounds a little compressed or distant. Haven't had time to play around with all the preset EQ curves and only has bass and treble adjustments plus a loudness button. Using stock speakers but still doesn't sound quite as good as the JVC HDR1 in my sons Pontiac with stock speakers. The volume/power seems adequate. There seems to be too fine a volume control. Have to really turn it to make noticable volume change. The volume encoder displays from 0-46. 46 is way too loud but the difference between 20 and 25 is not much.

CDs sound fine but not displaying info other than track number on a burned CD that the JVC displayed fine.

The display is easy to read and the buttons are fairly easy to read. The only problem is with my polarized sunglasses the display will dim if I look at it just wrong. The info diplayed is only one line and you have to push the display button each time you want to find out different info. Unlike the JVC you can't show both artist and title at the same time.

Haven't had a chance to try the aux input yet.

I'll update as I gain more experience with it. So far I'm am happy with the unit especially given the price.

goldenrod · 10-11-07, 09:04 PM

Thanks for the review. I have mine here, but not installed yet -- gives me a good idea for what to expect. I'll get mine put in Saturday.

goldenrod · 10-14-07, 03:07 PM

First impression of XHD-6425 -- pretty good deck for a good price. It's pretty flexible, offering aux in, USB, HD and optional Bluetooth all in one. It seems to receive FM HD slightly better than the JVC I had, but this isn't an apples-to-apples comparison, since I had the JVC in another car and a lot depends on the antenna. Analog FM performance is also solid -- slightly better than the stock unit it replaced. The JVC was very good with analog FM, and I don't have a good enough feel for the Dual yet to compare accurately. I like the Dual's capability of presetting HD-2s and HD-3s.

AM HD reception is also better than the JVC. I can get WOWO from Ft. Wayne reliably in HD with the Dual. It was there, but not solid with the JVC. Analog AM is strange. It seems to mute weak signals and any sort of interference (ie. power line noise) causes this "feature" to engage. I think it's meant to cut general noise, but it's kind of an annoyance. The JVC was not very good on analog AM either.

Overall sound quality is not quite as good on the Dual compared to the JVC, which has more flexibility in shaping the sound. If you like bass, the Dual is much better cranking out the low end than the JVC.

All in all, good bang for the buck from Dual, and it one-ups JVC in terms of value.

The deck looks pretty good to me, but of course this is subjective. Ergonomics are a little strange, particularly the size of the track/tune left and right buttons on each side of the knob. The left and right buttons aren't big enough, making it hard to miss the knob when trying to use the right button, in particular. However, you can just use the supplied remote, which is far better than JVC's tiny, mostly worthless remote.

USB flash card playback works great so far. I loaded 1GB of mp3s on my Memorex flash and it began playing from it very quickly.

CPetty · 10-23-07, 11:27 PM

Thanks for the reviews. I am looking at the xhd6420 which is the one without the bluetooth capability. BB had this one for $99 and the higher end model for $149 this evening. - CP

atrac · 10-24-07, 12:07 AM

I almost bought one of these over the weekend, but when I learned that Best Buy no longer has free installation when you spend $100 or more on the radio, I passed.

Now they want $50 to install, plus parts. SO much for the good deal that I'm told ended about 3 months ago.

narkspud · 11-05-07, 08:28 AM

There's a thumbs-up review for the things in this month's Crawford Local Oscillator (page 20), and to counterbalance the most recent wave of thread pollution, a nice pro-AM HD rant on page 7, and a discussion of the dramatic difference between HD implementation in two NY radio markets (Rochester = good, Buffalo = WTF?) on pp 3 and 4.

http://www.crawfordbroadcasting.com/...Oscillator.pdf

eilros · 11-08-07, 04:01 PM

For those that have this head unit, do you have any updates? I'm thinking of buying one and would like to know your thoughts now that you've had some time with it.

goldenrod · 11-08-07, 08:00 PM

Still love it. It's so flexible, with HD, USB, aux in -- can't beat it for the price. FM and AM HD performance is solid. 700 WLW HD from Cincinnati comes in between the buildings in Indianapolis. I drove to Chicago a couple of weeks back. A couple of the full-power Chicago AMs with HD are solid down I-65 to Lafayette. FM HD performance is slightly better than the JVC for me, plus you can preset the HD-2s and 3s if you want.

m_vanmeter · 11-09-07, 02:25 PM

Installed the XHD-6425 last weekend in a '98 Ford Winstar. The install kit from Crutchfield was perfect, everything I needed to replace the old Ford radio. I was surprised when the wire color coding on the adapters matched the Ford wiring - damn that was easy....but the Crutchfield instructions identified all the wiring just in case. Reception is good, much better than the stock radio (but that's not saying much). Power to the speakers is more than adequate for a van. HD is very clean sound. Haven't tried a USB flash memory stick with music yet, that is for this weekend !

Very happy camper so far !

kevtronics · 11-09-07, 06:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by goldenrod

Analog AM is strange. It seems to mute weak signals and any sort of interference (ie. power line noise) causes this "feature" to engage. I think it's meant to cut general noise, but it's kind of an annoyance.

I noticed the same thing with Best Buy's "Insignia" house brand HD car radio. I suspect the Insignia and Dual use the same HD receiver chipset.

The muting on marginal AM signals is especially annoying at night, where many signals come in strong enough to stop the Seek tuning, but the muting makes them too choppy to be intelligible.

The Insignia (and probably the Dual, too), also receives analog C-Quam AM Stereo, but its audio bandwidth on analog AM is far too narrow to yield any real useful benefit from the stereo sound.

goldenrod · 11-11-07, 09:11 PM

Yes, it is particularly annoying on AM at night. It seems to think that any station carrier underneath another stronger station is interference, and the muting kicks in. Otherwise, it's a great stereo for the price.

skeets13 · 11-11-07, 11:37 PM

Generally happy with my unit but analog AM is pretty horrible sounding. Talk radio sounds like it is coming from the bottom of a deep well. Probably is

. The best sounding setting for most music is the "classical" with the loudness button pushed

. Compared to the JVC I would take the JVC for the same price.

eilros · 11-16-07, 04:20 PM

I installed the Dual 6425 in my Camry on Wednesday and I'm impressed with it so far. I can't wait to get the Bluetooth module. That was the main reason I got it.

I still need to clean up the XM Roady2 install.

aznspiki · 11-20-07, 10:53 PM

I was gonna order Dual XHD6425 last monday from crutchfield.com but it's sold out already. Reserved one anyway with bluetooth addon. anybody reserve one also?

Thanks

eilros · 11-21-07, 01:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aznspiki

I was gonna order Dual XHD6425 last monday from crutchfield.com but it's sold out already. Reserved one anyway with bluetooth addon. anybody reserve one also?

Thanks

I just received an email from Crutchfield saying that my Bluetooth module shipped. It was originally on backorder until 11/30 so I'm happy to get it ahead of schedule. The XHD6425 is also back in stock.

plasmaman4 · 11-21-07, 06:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aznspiki

I was gonna order Dual XHD6425 last monday from crutchfield.com but it's sold out already. Reserved one anyway with bluetooth addon. anybody reserve one also?

Thanks

Website said in stock today!

aznspiki · 11-21-07, 10:09 PM

Thanks for the updates... my unit shipped today also.

eilros · 11-25-07, 08:47 AM

Crutchfield has two coupon codes that you guys might be interested in if you place an order (thanks aznspiki):

$20 off a $100+ order: Code 3A706
$25 gift card with $150+ order: Code 3A252

I didn't use either when I placed my order earlier this month. However I called Crutchfield this morning and they honored the coupon and credited my Visa. Crutchfield's customer service is one of the main reasons I've been a customer for 15+ years. They might be a little bit more expensive than some other online retailers but their customer service can't be beat.

eilros · 11-30-07, 05:01 PM

I've got the Bluetooth installed and it is crystal clear. I couldn't be happier with the Dual receiver and Bluetooth module.

hdmi4ever · 12-04-07, 08:05 AM

Does it allow you to lock it to analog or digital, so it doesn't switch back and forth between ana/digi when the signal is weak?

09-25-07, 11:35 PM	#1 \| Link	<a href='http://rev.avsforum.com/phpAdsNew/adclick.php?n=a4ac4393' target='_blank'><img src='http://rev.avsforum.com/phpAdsNew/adview.php?what=zone:30&n=a4ac4393' border='0' alt=''></a>
skeets13 Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 22	New Dual inexpensive in dash HD receivers Can't seem to find any retailer that has these. Looks promising to compete with JVC. http://www.dualav.com/receivers/index.html

09-26-07, 01:16 PM	#5 \| Link	<a href='http://rev.avsforum.com/phpAdsNew/adclick.php?n=a591f81a' target='_blank'><img src='http://rev.avsforum.com/phpAdsNew/adview.php?what=zone:36&n=a591f81a' border='0' alt=''></a>
skeets13 Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 22	Looks like the Duals at least have the front aux. input.

10-04-07, 10:15 PM	#8 \| Link
skeets13 Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 22	Found in stock at Crutchfield. Ordered lower end model as didn't need the bluetooth or USB. Decent price with all the included mounting hardware, no tax or shipping. Will post amateur review when installed. Last edited by skeets13; 10-05-07 at 05:53 PM.. Reason: spelling

10-05-07, 07:42 PM	#10 \| Link	<a href='http://rev.avsforum.com/phpAdsNew/adclick.php?n=a591f81a' target='_blank'><img src='http://rev.avsforum.com/phpAdsNew/adview.php?what=zone:36&n=a591f81a' border='0' alt=''></a>
goldenrod Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Indianapolis Posts: 77	I ordered the one with USB. It will be installed next weekend and I'll also post an amateur review. I previously had the JVC in-dash HD and left it in a car that I traded and was about to get another one until I saw the Dual unit was a little lower priced and added built-in aux and USB ports. One difference noted in the owner's manual is that the Dual will allow you to set an HD-2 or HD-3 as a preset. The JVC wouldn't do that. I'm guessing that the sound quality on the JVC might be better -- the circle surround sound feature that it has is really nice. I'll be putting it in an '07 Hyundai Santa Fe. Last edited by goldenrod; 10-05-07 at 07:49 PM..

10-10-07, 08:33 PM	#11 \| Link
skeets13 Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 22	XHD6420 Quick Review Received the unit from Crutchfield yesterday. My son has the JVC in his car so I can compare. Simple install in my Dodge Pickup with one gotcha. On the Dual unit the "violet" wires are almost the same color as the blue wire and picking out which had the black line was almost impossible. I made my best guess and got lucky. On the FM side reception was at least as good as the stock unit. Some of those iffy analog stations from far away tuned in fine. The HDs also were captured and no loss of signal noted in my first day of driving around. The seek function can seek all stations or be set to just find HD stations. It will find the HD2 and HD3 as well (which can be good but also bad if you want to skip that country station you must run through all their broadcasts). On manual tune you can stop anywhere. The tuning control control is on the side of a ring surrounding the volume knob that you must push. I would have preferred another knob. You can preset the HD2 HD3 stations but it fills up the 18 presets fast. AM reception was OK. Not a lot of good AM in my market, mostly sports talk amd political BS so not a priority for me. Seems good enough to listen to the football game. Sound quality of HD was good but not excellent. Overall sounds a little compressed or distant. Haven't had time to play around with all the preset EQ curves and only has bass and treble adjustments plus a loudness button. Using stock speakers but still doesn't sound quite as good as the JVC HDR1 in my sons Pontiac with stock speakers. The volume/power seems adequate. There seems to be too fine a volume control. Have to really turn it to make noticable volume change. The volume encoder displays from 0-46. 46 is way too loud but the difference between 20 and 25 is not much. CDs sound fine but not displaying info other than track number on a burned CD that the JVC displayed fine. The display is easy to read and the buttons are fairly easy to read. The only problem is with my polarized sunglasses the display will dim if I look at it just wrong. The info diplayed is only one line and you have to push the display button each time you want to find out different info. Unlike the JVC you can't show both artist and title at the same time. Haven't had a chance to try the aux input yet. I'll update as I gain more experience with it. So far I'm am happy with the unit especially given the price.

09-26-07, 09:14 AM	#2 \| Link
TydalForce Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Broomall, PA Posts: 378	seems decent... too bad it's so ugly

09-26-07, 12:03 PM	#3 \| Link
RCbridge AVS Special Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Limerick Pa Posts: 1,369	Great find I hope these are the beginning of a new trend!!

09-26-07, 12:56 PM	#4 \| Link
mikemikeb AVS Special Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: DC Area Posts: 1,834	The problem with the Duals (and the JVC) is that they don't have a three-line display (one for the station/HD1/HD2/HD3, one for the artist, and one for the title). I won't buy one of those integrated units until they can do that. Well, that, and provide a front auxillary input as well.

09-26-07, 02:02 PM	#6 \| Link
RCbridge AVS Special Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Limerick Pa Posts: 1,369	The higher model also has a USB port!

10-02-07, 06:21 PM	#7 \| Link
goldenrod Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Indianapolis Posts: 77	I'm definitely interested in the higher-end model -- aux input, HD, CD/MP3 and USB -- sounds great!

10-05-07, 12:46 PM	#9 \| Link
Master Theseus Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 407	Yeah, that is a great price!! I don't know how they do it. . .

10-11-07, 09:04 PM	#12 \| Link
goldenrod Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Indianapolis Posts: 77	Thanks for the review. I have mine here, but not installed yet -- gives me a good idea for what to expect. I'll get mine put in Saturday.

10-14-07, 03:07 PM	#13 \| Link
goldenrod Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Indianapolis Posts: 77	First impression of XHD-6425 -- pretty good deck for a good price. It's pretty flexible, offering aux in, USB, HD and optional Bluetooth all in one. It seems to receive FM HD slightly better than the JVC I had, but this isn't an apples-to-apples comparison, since I had the JVC in another car and a lot depends on the antenna. Analog FM performance is also solid -- slightly better than the stock unit it replaced. The JVC was very good with analog FM, and I don't have a good enough feel for the Dual yet to compare accurately. I like the Dual's capability of presetting HD-2s and HD-3s. AM HD reception is also better than the JVC. I can get WOWO from Ft. Wayne reliably in HD with the Dual. It was there, but not solid with the JVC. Analog AM is strange. It seems to mute weak signals and any sort of interference (ie. power line noise) causes this "feature" to engage. I think it's meant to cut general noise, but it's kind of an annoyance. The JVC was not very good on analog AM either. Overall sound quality is not quite as good on the Dual compared to the JVC, which has more flexibility in shaping the sound. If you like bass, the Dual is much better cranking out the low end than the JVC. All in all, good bang for the buck from Dual, and it one-ups JVC in terms of value. The deck looks pretty good to me, but of course this is subjective. Ergonomics are a little strange, particularly the size of the track/tune left and right buttons on each side of the knob. The left and right buttons aren't big enough, making it hard to miss the knob when trying to use the right button, in particular. However, you can just use the supplied remote, which is far better than JVC's tiny, mostly worthless remote. USB flash card playback works great so far. I loaded 1GB of mp3s on my Memorex flash and it began playing from it very quickly.

10-23-07, 11:27 PM	#14 \| Link
CPetty Member Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Mesa, AZ Posts: 57	Thanks for the reviews. I am looking at the xhd6420 which is the one without the bluetooth capability. BB had this one for $99 and the higher end model for $149 this evening. - CP __________________ Can I help you? No thanks, I am just lurking. : )

10-24-07, 12:07 AM	#15 \| Link	<a href='http://rev.avsforum.com/phpAdsNew/adclick.php?n=a591f81a' target='_blank'><img src='http://rev.avsforum.com/phpAdsNew/adview.php?what=zone:36&n=a591f81a' border='0' alt=''></a>
atrac Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2003 Posts: 255	I almost bought one of these over the weekend, but when I learned that Best Buy no longer has free installation when you spend $100 or more on the radio, I passed. Now they want $50 to install, plus parts. SO much for the good deal that I'm told ended about 3 months ago.

11-05-07, 08:28 AM	#16 \| Link
narkspud Sheesh what a grouch Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Tustin, CA Posts: 1,733	There's a thumbs-up review for the things in this month's Crawford Local Oscillator (page 20), and to counterbalance the most recent wave of thread pollution, a nice pro-AM HD rant on page 7, and a discussion of the dramatic difference between HD implementation in two NY radio markets (Rochester = good, Buffalo = WTF?) on pp 3 and 4. http://www.crawfordbroadcasting.com/...Oscillator.pdf

11-08-07, 04:01 PM	#17 \| Link
eilros Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: South Bend, IN Posts: 68	For those that have this head unit, do you have any updates? I'm thinking of buying one and would like to know your thoughts now that you've had some time with it.

11-08-07, 08:00 PM	#18 \| Link
goldenrod Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Indianapolis Posts: 77	Still love it. It's so flexible, with HD, USB, aux in -- can't beat it for the price. FM and AM HD performance is solid. 700 WLW HD from Cincinnati comes in between the buildings in Indianapolis. I drove to Chicago a couple of weeks back. A couple of the full-power Chicago AMs with HD are solid down I-65 to Lafayette. FM HD performance is slightly better than the JVC for me, plus you can preset the HD-2s and 3s if you want.

11-09-07, 02:25 PM	#19 \| Link
m_vanmeter WD4JCM AVS CLUB MEMBER Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Georgetown, KY Posts: 2,805	Installed the XHD-6425 last weekend in a '98 Ford Winstar. The install kit from Crutchfield was perfect, everything I needed to replace the old Ford radio. I was surprised when the wire color coding on the adapters matched the Ford wiring - damn that was easy....but the Crutchfield instructions identified all the wiring just in case. Reception is good, much better than the stock radio (but that's not saying much). Power to the speakers is more than adequate for a van. HD is very clean sound. Haven't tried a USB flash memory stick with music yet, that is for this weekend ! Very happy camper so far !

11-11-07, 09:11 PM	#21 \| Link
goldenrod Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Indianapolis Posts: 77	Yes, it is particularly annoying on AM at night. It seems to think that any station carrier underneath another stronger station is interference, and the muting kicks in. Otherwise, it's a great stereo for the price.

11-11-07, 11:37 PM	#22 \| Link
skeets13 Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 22	Generally happy with my unit but analog AM is pretty horrible sounding. Talk radio sounds like it is coming from the bottom of a deep well. Probably is . The best sounding setting for most music is the "classical" with the loudness button pushed . Compared to the JVC I would take the JVC for the same price.

11-16-07, 04:20 PM	#23 \| Link
eilros Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: South Bend, IN Posts: 68	I installed the Dual 6425 in my Camry on Wednesday and I'm impressed with it so far. I can't wait to get the Bluetooth module. That was the main reason I got it. I still need to clean up the XM Roady2 install.

11-20-07, 10:53 PM	#24 \| Link
aznspiki Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 36	I was gonna order Dual XHD6425 last monday from crutchfield.com but it's sold out already. Reserved one anyway with bluetooth addon. anybody reserve one also? Thanks

11-21-07, 10:09 PM	#27 \| Link
aznspiki Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 36	Thanks for the updates... my unit shipped today also.

11-25-07, 08:47 AM	#28 \| Link
eilros Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: South Bend, IN Posts: 68	Crutchfield has two coupon codes that you guys might be interested in if you place an order (thanks aznspiki): $20 off a $100+ order: Code 3A706 $25 gift card with $150+ order: Code 3A252 I didn't use either when I placed my order earlier this month. However I called Crutchfield this morning and they honored the coupon and credited my Visa. Crutchfield's customer service is one of the main reasons I've been a customer for 15+ years. They might be a little bit more expensive than some other online retailers but their customer service can't be beat.

11-30-07, 05:01 PM	#29 \| Link
eilros Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: South Bend, IN Posts: 68	I've got the Bluetooth installed and it is crystal clear. I couldn't be happier with the Dual receiver and Bluetooth module.

12-04-07, 08:05 AM	#30 \| Link	<a href='http://rev.avsforum.com/phpAdsNew/adclick.php?n=a591f81a' target='_blank'><img src='http://rev.avsforum.com/phpAdsNew/adview.php?what=zone:36&n=a591f81a' border='0' alt=''></a>
hdmi4ever AVS Special Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 1,378	Does it allow you to lock it to analog or digital, so it doesn't switch back and forth between ana/digi when the signal is weak?