Free

Hi CL,

The only suggestion I can think of is to press the Reset button with a pencil in the lower right of the unit.

I have the 256GB version and it works great on my NEX4000 formatted as FAT 32.

Thanks joe. Did you get a Samsung again or did you buy a different brand SD card?

Sorry to hear of your pain. If possible, I would send it to Pioneer instead of an authorized repair center.

I have heard of cold delaying the screen from working until it warms up.

I purchased a Samsung pro 64 GB sdxc card and formatted to fat32, filled with flac about 2 months ago, and have had no issues whatsoever. I am going to purchase 256 GB sdxc card and put movies and try it out next.

Nice. Let us know how the 256GB SD card works.

It has USB 2.0 per the owners manual on page 85.

Good input, I guess the question is this?  What is actually happening when you transfer a file using yur iphones lightning adaptor into the USB1 of the Pioneer unit.  is that what you mean by "bits are bits"   And Is that bypassing your phones DAC altogehter and only using the superior DAC on the headunit?

 

Here is what I noticed which is what got this entire string going.  Up until yesterday, I was using a iphone 4s and it connected to the Pioneer using a ligntning cable with a 30pin adaptor so it would fit my iphone.  When I compared the audio quality by playing the same song (file) via the SD card, the SD card version sounded considerable better.  Yesterday, I got the Iphone 6, got rid of the 30 pin adaptor, and now the sound quality between the two sound nearly identical (still need to test a bit more).  So that tells something in the phone or perhaps the cable/adaptor was having an impact on the sound quality.

Great post.

Based on your observations, it would seem (my guess) that the connector you used (not the connector quality) with your 4S is not bypassing the iphone's dac.

I found this on Crutchfield's website.

iPod/iPhone Control

iPod Connectivity w/ DAC Bypass: The Pioneer AVH-4000NEX supports direct connection of your 30-pin or Lightning-connector iPod/iPhone through its rear-panel USB port, HDMI input, RGB port, and 3.5mm jack. The AVH-4000NEX offers audio/video playback, music navigation, information display, and charging of select Apple iPod/iPhone models. It also provides a special AppRadio mode for iPhone 4/4S and iPhone 5/5C/5S users which allows you to access a variety of online music, navigation, and other helpful apps. The AVH-4000NEX allows your iPod/iPhone's music library to be loaded instantly to the head unit and sound quality to be maximized through the head unit's 24-bit D/A converter (bypassing iPod/iPhone DAC), allowing for a Signal to Noise ratio up to 96dB.

• Lightning Dock Connector: If you have a newer iPhone with the Lightning-connector; you can use Pioneer's CD-IH202 HDMI cable and CD-IU52 Lightning-to-USB cable, plus the Apple Lightning-to-Digital AV Adapter (all sold separately) to access stored music and videos, music and video apps, plus AppRadio Mode for playback of advance applications on the Pioneer AVH-4000NEX. This setup also requires your iPhone be paired via Bluetooth to the head unit. You can substitute the CD-IH202 HDMI cable for another manufacturer's mobile-grade HDMI cable and the CD-IU52 cable with the Lightning cable that came with your iPhone. If you desire only music playback from your Lightning-connector Apple device, simply use Pioneer's Lightning-to-USB cable (130CDIU52, sold separately) or the Lightning-to-USB cable that came with your Apple device to connect your iPod/iPhone to the AVH-4000NEX.
• 30-Pin Dock Connector: If you have an older iPhone 4/4S with a 30-pin dock connector, use the Pioneer CD-IU201S RGB/USB cable (130IU201S, sold separately) to enjoy playback of stored music and videos, music and video apps, plus access to AppRadio Mode for playback of advance applications on the Pioneer AVH-4000NEX. If you do not own and iPhone 4/4S, but do have another older 30-pin dock connector iPod/iPhone, use the Pioneer CD-IU201V iPod Video cable (130IU201V, sold separately) for playback of music and movies files stored on your device, as well as music apps. Simply use Pioneer's dock connector-to-USB cable (130CDIU51, sold separately) or the dock connector-to-USB cable that comes with your Apple device if you desire stored music and music app playback only.

Just to be clear, I was referring to the Aux out of the phone where the phone is converting the music from digital to analog via the phone's DAC. (phone aux out, head unit aux in)

I would agree that if you are using the phone's digital connector and the head unit is receiving the digial data and converting it to analog in the head unit, then the sound quality should be the same as using a USB hard drive directly plugged into the head unit. (using like for like as the digital source)

Happy holidays.

Use the DAC in the head unit whenever possible. As I stated in my post above, the DAC in the 4000 sounds much better than my Samsung S4 phone, as I am sure it's the case in most/all phones. I used the same flac file in my comparison.

I have a NEX 4000. I compared my Samsung S4 aux-in connection to the USB1 Input using a 256GB SS hard drive using FLAC (44khz, 16 bit). I played the exact same FLAC file on both my phone and NEX 4000 USB1 and I will never go back to the phone aux-in again. There is a significant sound quality improvement playing the FLAC files directly on the NEX unit. The bass is deeper and tighter and the mids/highs are well defined. The unit has a great DAC.

I now realize that a phone is not an audiophile device!