First Hands On The Oxygen Audio O-Car

I was lucky enough to have a look at Oxygen Audio's brand new concept, the O-Car, earlier this month at the M.E.N. Expo 2011. This is what I thought of possibly 2011's product of the year.

To say I was looking forward to getting my hands on an O-Car was an understatement, I had actually contacted Oxygen directly months ago in the hope of securing a demo model. On first impressions the unit looks quite basic and unappealing unless you know what this product is all about. Once you dock your iPhone into the surprisingly sturdy docking system the whole things bursts into life.

The dock itself is nothing short of impressive. It comes with a special protective case for your iPhone which also helps you locate it when placing you phone into the dock. The dock comes out from the unit around 2 inches and allows you to swivel the iPhone in a 360 x 180 arc meaning that you can eliminate any glare or ensure that you can always see where your sat nav is taking you. Should you choose to, the dock will also go flat to the stereo allowing the iPhone to sit horizontally on the front of the unit creating the illusion that the iPhone is actually part of the stereo itself.

The O-Car's greatest strength comes from its lack of features and controls. This may sound like I have lost my marbles but let me explain. Unlike conventional stereos where an iPhone connects via cable and you can select songs to play using the stereos controls, the O-Car does not have any controls. The only thing you can do is turn the volume up and down. The O-Cars features and controls are purely down to what apps you have installed onto your iPhone. If you have the TomTom or similar app then you have a fully built in Satnav, if you have a Pandora app then you have Internet Radio built into your car. Changing the features is as simple as visiting the Apple store and picking up the latest apps. Oxygen Audio have even released their own apps to allow you to control the basic radio and equalizer functions.

Oxygen have meant business with this product and are set to take on the big boys in car audio such as Sony with there TuneTray DSX range. All the components are high quality and the built in 52x4w amp sounds nice and crisp. Unfortunately the demo unit I had chance to use did not have any sub woofers or tweeters hooked up so it would be unfair of me to rate the true quality of the music from this stereo yet. I will be doing a full test in the next fortnight when we receive our first shipment. In my eyes the ?250 price tag that has been placed on these units is extremely reasonable. When you consider the competition in this price bracket, the Oxygen O-Car is in a league of its own.

My expectations for the Oxygen O-Car were very high with all the hype and media frenzy that has built up over the last 6 months. On the first impression, I can see that it has been worth the wait. Despite only using the stereo for a short space of time it has given me a glimpse of what is possible and I want more. This will be the biggest car entertainment product of 2011 and rightly so. I will be testing the unit over the next few months with a full review to come soon after.

The Oxygen O-Car is set to take the car audio world by storm. This will the product of the year, possibly even the decade.

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On Hands Professional Review for the Brand New Pioneer AVH-P6300BT

The actual initial impression

Getting it out from the package it appeared quite tiny, much like some outdated car cassette device and I ended up being a bit disappointed to tell the truth. However when it had been hooked up and its huge monitor eventually got out of that tiny unit I ended up being surprised.

Its 7" LCD Touch screen is probably the very best monitor I have seen on the marketplace so far. And the way it simply slips from that little device simply blows you away. This brand new AVH-P6300BT features a WQVGA image resolution along with 480x240 pixels as well as 16:9 wide screen aspect ratio however the picture seems so a lot better than you might be expecting with this sort of screen. It is completely anti-glare coated however I did not have an opportunity to test drive it during sunlight yet.

The actual screen may be automatically changed to five diverse watching angles or may be personally set simply by altering the actual angle setting between fifty and one hundred ten degrees. Additionally, it offers numerous configurations regarding background pictures, animated graphics as well as key illuminations to keep you occupied when you get bored stiff.

A great detail is certainly its removable face security option in case you happen to be someplace where you don't wish to leave the device unattended.

Media support in AVH-P6300BT

I made a decision to go with this particular unit simply because Pioneer said it's completely up-to-date with just about all the fresh media file sorts available. Therefore the very first thing I performed was a comprehensive test of these statements. Apparently, this product can play just about everything you put inside this product. I used Compact discs, DVDs, RW CDs and DVDs, Video and audio CDs and DivX films and Pioneer AVH-P6300BT played all of them having absolutely no trouble whatsoever. It can handle MP3, WMA, AAC for iTunes, MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and JPEG files and can play them right back even from a SD card as well as an USB device. Pioneer AVH-P6300BT audio performance and quality.

The next thing I needed to try was the actual quality of the playback. It is outfitted with a MOSFET amplifier that may provide you with 50 Watts on 4 channels and 22 Watts of RMS power. This will be sufficient for normal speaker systems however you shouldn't expect a lot should you have a high powered system or even a sub woofer. From the beginning this item possessed superb audio quality even prior to configuring its equalizers.

Its incorporated PCM decoder as well as its Digital-to-Analog 96 kHz/24 bit converter perform a good job and have a very large influence regarding quality of sound together with Advanced Sound Retriever program which corrects any kind of errors created during the digital compression of audio. Additionally, it arrives accompanied by Dolby Digital decoder along with a DTS digital out which generally tend to be common for this sort of models coming from Pioneer.

At this point the time had come to try its equalizers. It's got a good 8-band graphic equalizer along with Easy EQ feature which has predetermined tone curves for easy selection as well as three loudness settings. Setting up the equalizers by hand is actually quite simple and precise and may truly enhance your quality of sound if you put some effort in it. Of course, if you would like even better quality sound you may get the additional Auto equalizer component from Pioneer. Additionally, it comes with an incorporated high and low pass along with a sub woofer crossover.

Something I truly like is definitely the brand new SLA (Source Level Adjustment) software which enables you to adjust volume levels between various sources individually which generally can help you save a large amount of time.

Connectivity

Having the audio set-up to achieve finest quality I needed to give my mobile gadgets a shot with my all new Pioneer AVH-P6300BT. The actual factor which helped me select this particular unit above the P4300DVD, other than its single-din casing anyway, is actually its built-in Wireless Blue tooth adapter. This enables you to link your mobile gadgets a lot quicker and easier and also it's got built-in support for telephone call streaming via your sound system and an external sound microphone with distortion filter is included.

However, if you like cable connections better you may always make use of its USB slot on the front side for connecting your preferred units. It is specifically optimized for iPhone and iPod along with incorporated support for Pandora web radio and iTunes. You'll need one more cable from Pioneer for connecting your Apple products however it is without question worth the cash. It's got enhanced compatibility so you may even take control of your iPhone or iPod from the AVH-P6300BT big screen through its app mode.

If you're a car radio fan as I am you will really enjoy this device. It's got the brand new Pioneer Supertuner IIID with 24 stations and 6 presets. Its BSM (Best Station Memory) is actually an excellent detail that you'll definitely like. However, if you truly love listening to the fm radio you would like to acquire some of the excellent add-on modules designed for this particular product. You are able to choose between HD radio, XM satellite radio and SIRIUS satellite radio or simply have them altogether.

A sensible way to save you a lot of cash is by employing your iPhone GPS however if cash is actually not a major issue for you presently there is an extra navigation component from Pioneer for the AVH-P6300BT that will enhance it to a new complete in-dash navigation system. Extra displays or perhaps a rear view camera may be incorporated additionally as well as one more DVD player.

You additionally receive a wireless handheld remote control but you'll find it offers Steering Wheel Remote support that is often a good choice.

Summary

The brand new AVH-P6300BT is definitely a great choice, if not the greatest when it comes to in-dash devices. It's got most likely the very best monitor on the marketplace, more than enough power, superb sound equalizers and is certainly compatible with nearly every mobile gadget you connect with it.

If perhaps size is not essential to you and you simply have no need for a Wireless Bluetooth adapter you could go with the P4300DVD however if you are searching for a single-din in-dash device which has it all than the Pioneer AVH-P6300BT is definitely the solution you're looking for.

I've been working with car audio systems for 5 years and I'm a car audio lover myself. I also enjoy motocross riding, 4x4 off road riding and, of course, listening to high quality music.

If you would like to read at first hand review that I wrote for Pioneer AVH-P6300BT products, visit my website now!

If you visit PioneerAVH-P6300BT You will find Technical specifications and user manuals for all Pioneer In Dash products as well.

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