VR3 AM/FM Car Receiver & CD/MP3/WMA Player, VRCD400SDU

First off, I am not some electronics guru and won't pretend to be. I'm just a guy who wanted a new stereo on the cheap for his work truck.

At first blush this looked like a great unit. I loved MP3 capability especially with the memory card reader. It looked decent, and was certainly affordable. Installation was as simple as any other radio, and all connections were clearly marked. The unit works great, although the functions are a bit clunky and the right hand volume knob really takes some getting used to. This is where the love affair ended.

Now, a lot of people will say "you get what you pay for" and I agree with that... the problem here is that the unit by and large *isn't* chintzy. It feels solid enough, the fit and finish is right there, and it is full of features. The devil is in the details. Almost everything about it is a case of "that's great, but I wish it did X". For instance the clock -- it has one, but there is no way to keep it displayed and the 12/24 hour selector is a hard switch on the back of the unit instead of an option. It displays file info for MP3s, but it *always* (no option) cycles through Folder, File, Title, Artist... even if all are in the root folder. And it displays DOS-style file names (8 char) instead of the whole thing. And it doesn't understand lower case or any punctuation. I know these little niceties wouldn't have been so hard to add in, given the number of options and features that are in there.

Another peeve is the blatant lie on power output. Printed right on the chassis it states 16W per channel (64W total), even thought the box boasts 180 watts. And lets not even talk about the chunky remote... who needs this in a car?

To me this would be a nice unit for an RV or similar use, but falls short of being ready for car duty.

sound quality was OK.. good for the price

I bought this stereo to hot wire with a computer power supply to play my music and get great radio reception. I already owned one for my vehicle and knew this would be a great product. It is easy to use and the display is bright. The USB port and SD port make it a money saver as far as CDs. NOTE: REMEMBER TO FORMAT THE MEMORY DEVICE AS FAT OR FAT32, NOT NTFS. I made this mistake and found the solution in the manual. Otherwise, this stereo is great and the sound quality is very good.

This is a great buy for all it's features.
I really like the SD card input for all my MP3 music.

This is a very practical product... I have so many options for media to play... Other people wish they had my options...
I like it ... hopefully it will last a long long time.

I installed this with no problems. Everything works fine. The sound is good and powerful. The controls are intuitive (although reading the manual is helpful). Everybody likes the blue LED's. I'm not sure why you need a remote, but it is included and works.

Now the parts I don't care for:
*The mp3 player WILL NOT PLAY VBR MP3s. If most of your mp3 collection is variable bit rate (VBR) then do not buy this product. fortunately most of my collection is constant bit rate. The mp3 player doesn't seem to have a problem with any particular bit rate, so 360 kBps will work just as good as 128 kBps.
*The display will always default to telling you about the track information instead of being a clock.
*Whenever you start the car, the CD track or mp3 track that you were listening to last will start at the beginning. not good if you listen to any long tracks (e.g. audiobooks)
*There is still a 1 second gap between mp3s. this is only a problem if you like dj mixes or anything that has a continuous song parsed in to tracks.

All in all, a very good product. I would recommend this.

My Background of Experience first:

I have installed many pro-audio systems, and I am certified in industrial electronics.

This is an inexpensive head unit (radio), and the best I have seen in the- "I want it all for $1.00" price range. This unit does require some technical thought and has a slight learning curve even for the experienced in audio, electronics, automotive, and computing.

You WILL need to read the manual; due to some of the buttons, functions, and even operations are not "logical or self-explained enough" to just figure out without it.

This is actually a reasonably high quality product. VR3 is a respected audio company. Yes, I know the parent company for these units are Roadmaster. Which is why the product doesn't display that Roadmaster makes these units. The radios with the VR3 logo should not be associated with a budget quality image.

My only disappoint is:

You have to turn the sub-out on the deck after you install/power on the unit. This is minor though, do it once your done.

I can see many people without read the manual - returning the product due to a "bad" rear pre-out. I thought this too, press and hold the bnd/snd for 3 secs. and or wait until you see the sw appear on the screen of the unit.

This fits in my car perfectly. I can connect my laptop to it and get more enhanced sound on what I am listening to or watching on my laptop. It is well worth the price I paid. Thank you Walmart.

You would think that in this day and age of cutting edge technology that a CD player would be a no brainer development in any system. Even the most generic of brands should be able to play a regular non cd-r based disc with no problems. For some reason, the CD player in this VR3 can't even get through a whole song on a factory (unburnt) scratch free disc - not to mention a CDR. The song will cut out and instead of resuming where it skipped, it starts all over again - most of the time, not even starting at all. The specs claim that it has a 15 second delay protection. Nowhere is this evident at all as it has trouble reading AHEAD to start the disc. By that I mean, it will display 'LOADING' on the LED display. Load?? Just play it!!

Playing CDs is not the only problem. The SD card slot and the USB port are nuisances too. They cut out and crash and you're left with no option but to switch modes and if that doesn't work - reset the faceplate.

The only two reliable features on this system are the aux plug (for your mp3 player) and the radio. That's it. THAT IS IT. Everything else is junk. Too unreliable.

P.S. I had this stereo installed professionally by a renowned service center - so it must be the quality of the system. I realize you get what you paid for but c'mon - any CD player, no matter how cheap, should be able to get through a whole song coming out of the box.