Clarion HX-D2 (import)
Clarion’s best unit. A very high end approach sees a copper chassis and no removable face. It uses a deterrent flashing LED so is not suited to UK inner-city parking environments. Sold in the USA as DRZ9225 and also in the eastern markets with the same FM steps and passband as the UK and called HX-D2. (THIS IS NOT UK PRODUCT*) The packaging is simple and the manual and installation diagram are kept in a Vinyl leatherette pochette with gold print on the front that says HX-D2. The manual is written in the simplest clearest fashion I have ever read and explains quite complex issues like the time alignment facility and the slope and Q of crossovers and equalisers with simple ease. The unit has a glossy high end look to the front drop and yet uses very few controls, even less than the button count on the neat remote control. You navigate the menus system by the six buttons normally used as radio presets or by the up-down etc keys on the remote. The display is not flashy but bright and easy to read.
It has four super-quality RCA outputs on very high quality cable and also features two audio auxiliary inputs. The main RCA outs can be set to be simple front/rear/sub out or else configured in a two-way front plus full range rear and sub or a full on four way actively crossed over system. The remote control is finished in brushed black anodised Aluminium. A separate DC-to-DC converter box connects to the electrical system of your car via good eight gauge cables which are included fully ready terminated – and has a serious loom to connect the converter to the unit.
– High end internal amplifier-free design
– Copper chassis
– 24 Bit 64x Over sampling Analogue to Digital converter
– Burr-Brown 96kHz/24Bit advanced segment Digital to Analogue converter
– Burr Brown 0.5dB step volume control
– Selectable 48kHz or 96kHz sampling frequency within deck
– 2 sets of RCA Audio Inputs, Aux 1 and Aux 2
– Auxiliary input sensitivity control
– Selectable Direct, (full range F/R/Sub) Standard (front two-way plus Rear & Sub) or Multi mode (actively crossed over) RCA outputs @ 8V
– Four-way crossover filter frequencies, @ 6/12/18dB per octave selectable as below
– High HPF 315Hz to 20kHz;
– Mid LPF 250Hz to 20kHz or Through & HPF Through or 200Hz to 20kHz
– Low LPF 250Hz to 10Hz or Through & HPF Through or 25Hz to 250Hz
– Sub-W LPF 25Hz to 250Hz or Through & HPF Through or 16Hz to 80Hz
– Active crossovers have adjustable Q and slope
– Five band full parametric Equaliser
– Bass control @ 50Hz plus or minus 12dB and Treble plus or minus 12dB @ 10kHz
– CD or DVD Changer control, TV control
– Clarion Ce-Net connectivity with Balanced Audio Line Transmission and Dynamic Noise Cancelling
– Phase adjustment and time alignment, with pages of helpful tables in the manual (0 to 512.4cm in 7mm steps)
– Signal to Noise Ratio on CD 112dB (awesome!)
– Dynamic range 100dB
– RCB 169 Infra Red 22 button remote control included
– Best written manual in English this tester has ever seen (startling!)
– Flashing LED ‘security’
– Dimensions: Deck 178 x 50 x 155mm : DC-DC converter 163 x 42 x 98mm: Remote 52 x 125 x 12mm (all whd)
Review by Adam Rayner
Never in my career has a head unit been so anticipated nor startling. I knew Clarion made some of the best stuff around for in car use. I knew that the legendary Macintosh unit with its ancient styling was simply made for Macintosh to the quality they wanted by Clarion and this very day I learned that a Clarion DVD changer and headunit have been made into a modular box for rocketing into space and slotting into an accessories bay on the International Space Station. How utterly cool is that? However, I didn’t really grasp the reality of this Clarion sonic flagship, having never heard one.
Bear with me but it was analogous to losing my virginity. I kind of knew what was involved and had a fair idea of how nice it might be but actually experiencing it was something that (like all blokes) I will remember to my dying day. The reality was wonderful and I went around with a small gap of air beneath my feet for a while.
Hearing this unit fire up was like that inasmuch as the knowing about it was one thing but the experience was simply fucking wonderful. (Pun intended for once.) First off, the thing just oozes understated class. Yes it is glossy and metallic but not in a cheap-amp sort of way. The remote is smart, the chunky DC to DC converter really reassuring in a Donald Gennaro kind of way (Geek quote ‘Are they heavy? Then they’re expensive. Put them down.’ Jurassic Park 1’s accountant who gets eaten by a T-Rex) and the display is good without being a Times Square/Piccadilly Circus/Shibuya/The Strip neon perpangular affair.
I did have a worrying moment with this deck which I shall confess. It’s a bit sad and funny really.
Being horribly lazy and not really realising that the unit I had got in especially to award to a keen TA forum poster (called Barnie) was a rare no-amp god-amongst-machines, I had intended to set up a three-way product testing rig. The huge PowerBass three kilowatt amplifier was hooked to a box with the Kenwood beastly �500 WPS1D 12 inch woofer in it and the deck was set up to feed the system. I had to use the mighty one over gauge StreetWires power feed tails on the Odyssey PC925 super duty battery. The fullrange speakers I wanted to monitor on could not be used as there are no watts on board the HX D2 and I only had this mono bass amp hooked up. I fired it up and the subwoofer growled, wobbled and dropped. I turned it up. There was a P-DINK noise and it all went quiet although the lights on the amp and headunit stayed lit. I peed myself with fear thinking I had screwed this incredible rarity without even hearing it properly.
So I turned it off and built an entirely new rig into my big old multi-sectioned computer desk to hold the Diawa 30A laboratory power supply I have used for years and a Genesis Stereo 100 amplifier that I will be writing up imminently (it is all but a straight wire with gain). A pair of Bowers and Wilkins nearfield monitors complete the rig on thick speaker wires. I still have chills at worrying if I have blown the Kenwood or simply dislodged a banana plug. Later matey on that one.
The worry had compelled me to do the plugging in of the new rig on New Year’s day, though. I peeled the cellophane off a never-heard Focal loudspeaker company test disc and Frisbee’d it into the slot with hope in my heart that no harm was done. It was then that the Epiphany occurred. The deck was just fine I think the PowerBass ate the Kenwood. But Omigawd..
I could write reams more about just how gorgeous, rapid, sweet yet accurate the sound of this deck is. I could crap on about dynamism, staging, space, rhythm and potency of leading edge impact but I won’t. Instead after all the lead up, let me just tell you that the experience was so bloody awesomely good, so exciting to realise this was indeed a State Of The Art piece that all of my mad obsession welled up and my eyes filled with tears. I was far too embarrassed to admit what furtive pleasures I had been experiencing in my office but after half an hour of the middle of new Years day 2008 I turned it down and off and went downstairs to apologise to my family for abandoning them. Apparently I look a bit odd with glassy eyes and every hair on my body standing on end.
The Clarion HX D2 or DRZ9225 is a fabulous machine and if there is any justice in this world some way must be found for you to be able to buy one of these here if you want it. At a round grand it won’t be cheap, but it still represents good VFM at the level of fidelity we are talking here.
A well deserved first ever TA State of the Art Award.
I love my job.
Sound Quality 10.0
Appearance/Display 10.0
Ease Of Use/HMI 10.0
Features 10.0
Value For Money 9.0
Overall rating 9.8
*This is our very first subscript! This unit was obtained to award to a Talk Audio Forum poster named Barnie who responded to the thread to discuss the Clarion showcase article of a few months back. He was talking about the USA model DRZ9255 but after finding out, we got him this Eastern market unit due to it’s FM UK compatibility despite the lack of RDS. All it took was a call to the top bloke in Clarion and he is a top bloke.
However, the unit has no CE rating and may just fail to comply with the July 2007 hazardous materials in components regulation. Thing is, I’m so excited by this unit that we have instigated questions from the very top of UK Clarion to ask why we cannot have this unit here in Blighty. It is an utter brand statement, a fabulously easy unit to access the very best performance available in-car and if possible, we would like to see it available. Even if by specialised ‘personal importation’. Issues of warranty support and a new set of parts bins (hopefully like the Carlsberg dusty complaints department with the 1950s telephone) are also in the mix.