Hey all

I currently own an F700BT and am for the most part unimpressed with its overall lagishness and enormous bluetooth issues. For what its worth, the boot time is not a concern as I am patient

After doing a bit of reading in these forums it seems that the later model Z2s and Z3s are identical in hardware with the exception of drive size issues. I also understand that I can have the AVIC playing a DVD with video and audio going to a headrest monitor in the back seat (she has some childrens headphones) while I play my music/nav through the rest of the car. I also understand that I will have to purchase a seperace bluetooth module.

So.. down to business

Is the Z2/Z3 really a "perfected" headunit or is it still as flawed as the newly released F series? What is the boot time like? How well does the bluetooth work with Motorolas (if anyone could get that specific?) How do you transfer MP3s to the units harddrive?

I would greatly appreciate all input I can get.

I'm not sure what you mean by drive size issues? Z1, Z2, and Z3 all come with a 30GB drive and all 3 are identical hardware.

I can't comment on the multi-zone since I don't use it.

Boot time I think is around 30-40 seconds, but it starts playing sound immediately.

You don't transfer MP3s to the hard drive, it doesn't support MP3 on the hard drive. The only way you can get music into the drive is by converting your MP3s to WAV by burning to an Audio CD (74-minutes max per CD) and then loading that into the Z3. Internally, it stores the audio as ATRAC3. iPod is the best solution for MP3s, but it's got drawbacks too, like the very slow browsing speed.

I have owned both and neither are flawless. I like the F900 better than the Z3. Just my opinion though.

Many problems you find in the F900 are shared by both. Multi-zone is not my forte'. Can't help you there.

I purchased my F900 with the two-year return policy/warranty 'for whatever reason.' I hope that pioneer gets their stuff together before then or I am going to consider a change.

My friends that aren't car audio-philes they were impressed by the Z3 and absolutely blown away by the F900 (MSN Direct, iPod interface, etc).

It all depends on what is important to you.

Looking at the Z3, it all depends on what your deal maker is.

Here is mine

1) Has to have a 7 inch screen

2) HDD

The bluetooth isn't bad, and I use the voice command from time to time.

I do like some of the new features in the F series, but I did not want a smaller screen sized unit.

If Pioneer was smart, they would create a hybrid unit that has a HDD , 7 Inch screen with F series type screen resolution, MSN direct, and finally a bluetooth that works!

Hopefully that will be the next Z4? Maybe?

thanks for the input