I bought the F-Series BT90 and am pretty happy

[bradk]

When I read Pioneer's note, I was a little disappointed. I've never bought a product that the manufacturer hadn't yet completed before...especially for this much money.

 

But for the most part, I'm happy. My main attraction was the iPod functions and the voice activation. I drive a lot and want to be able to say: Play Bob Dylan, or James Cotton, and not have to mess with taking my eyes off the road (and I can keep my hands upon the wheeell."

 

It does that PERFECTLY. And the sound quality, with my Hertz amp, is stunning. It also has a nice display of the album covers that are playing, and my photos.

 

The map works fine. Directions are fine, if obtrusive (it really does alert constantly, a function I'll appreciate when I'm going somewhere new.)

 

The phone...yeah, I've got some problems with that. Callers can't hear me and the voice activation isn't working on it. I've never been a big blue tooth fan. It can't touch my analog headset with a mic for clarity.

 

But it would be nice to have it work for conference calls or to have a chat with two people in the car. I imagine they will fix this or replace the unit.

 

But I don't expect to use it for that much anyway. A wired headset is so much more clear, and I can have the music on in the background with it on.

 

And it does take a while for the iPod function to warm up. But it plays music or the radio while it is doing that, so it's tolerable.

 

So overall, I'm happy that I bought this, even after reading the scary reviews here. I got it installed at Lotts in Santa Cruz, and they read this site and were up on the issues. Of six customers, two have had problems, they said, including me.

 

But for me, the issues don't outweigh how good this sounds and how useful the voice activation is.

 

I'll make a video of it and post it on youtube tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

[916Kev]

I got a F90BT as well. Enjoy!! Definitely put up that vid ASAP.

[bradk]

Check it out at www.radio-soup.com

 

enjoy...

 

catch the joke at the end...

[cranbers]

I agree some of the features are pretty cool, however if you get used to a unit that works really well, say with the older Avic-D3. The issues stand out to the point where the f900/f90 really is horrible.

 

I did like it at first, but the more you use it the issues really start to distract from the harmony of the good things. It would be nice if they at least gave people some sort of a time frame. Two weeks? Two months for the updated firmware?

 

I don't like having to concentrate to use something this expensive. It should run as you would expect, and without issues.

 

It really is surprising they put this out with these types of issues, hwo they could of done this or who made the decision to put otu a unit like this with all these issues they should take care of it and have better customer service.

 

Owell, mine is now returned, I will see what people say after the fix is put out. Until them its not my problem.

[seanthings]

Yeah I purchased an F700BT over the Kenwood DNX5120 because of the included bluetooth calling. (California hands free law July 1st) turns out the feature is completely useless if you are in motion, from a dead stop with the engine off and windows up, people on the other end can hear me but once you drive off..forget about it. I can't believe Pioneer didn't do testing on bluetooth calling before releasing this unit, it just boggles my mind. The mic is mounted directed in front of me, about 2 feet from my mouth.

 

Other than that, the unit seems to be working pretty well for the most part. The TTS where Samantha says "comma" instead of point sucks, along with the 2D map always showing north. I got used to the start up time, at first I thought it was ridiculous, but it seems to have gotten better over time, now it boots up in about 45 seconds - 1 minute compared to about 2 minutes when I first started it up. I'm scared to hook up an IPOD since I've been hearing horror stories of how it can take up to 13 minutes to catalog. You can't play music through the USB port with the map up, it will skip like mad. The whole unit reminds me of an old Pentium computer with 256mb of RAM trying to run Vista Ultimate. LOL. The screen isn't responsive until maybe 2 or 3 minutes after it boots up, when everything is loaded and settled.

 

If I wasn't familiar with Pioneer products previous D1 owner, My brother has a D3, I would assume this was Pioneer's first attempt at Navigation with all the glitches and stuff.

 

I'm not asking for much, just for Pioneer to fix the bluetooth, make Samantha say point instead of comma, heck or give Jason TTS, his voice seems more natural and not all robotic...then I'll be 90 percent happy.

[ryooki]

I think my system boots up faster now than it did at the start, too. I have an Ipod, SD card, & Sirius. Granted, I only have a 2gb Ipod.

 

It could be my imagination, but it feels like I don't get the TOS notification about the GPS until I hit the destination or map button (assuming I shut off the unit while it was on an AV source page). It also seems like it doesn't load certain things until I ask for them, like the Ipod. But, it could just be my imagination, too.