Clarion MAX973HD

A 2-DIN headunit with 7 inch motorised touch screen video panel. It opens to reveal an SD slot as well as a disc mechanism and the front plate of the 30GB HDD. This is used for the Music Catcher function that rips CDs automatically as you play them and can store 4,000 songs. It is licensed to GraceNote music recognition. It is also used by the powerful and rapid navigation system. It can be accessorised with an AV input such as a camcorder, games console or TV tuner on dedicated RCA cords and has a dedicated reversing camera input socket. It has a GPS aerial and a microphone included in the package for voice control and navigation reception. It has TMC attached to its RDS FM tuner and use Windows Automotive firmware. There is only one RCA audio output which has to be switched on via the on-screen graphics and is called 2-ZONE and apart from that, uses only the 4 x 53w onboard MOSFET power amp chip to drive speakers directly.
– 4 x 53w (MOSFET Power IC)
– 192kHz/24 BIT Digital to Analogue converter
– 7.0 inch touch panel control with full graphic user interface (336,960 pixels)
– 30 Gigabyte Hard Disc Drive
– iPod Direct Connection and Control via dedicated port socket
– Microphone and small stand included for voice control and GPS antenna for navigation.
– Parametric PEQ Equaliser on board
– Voice recognition and Text to Speech
– SD Card slot; disc mech plays DVD Video, ±R/RW, CD Digital Audio and CD- R/RW with CD TEXT
– Music catcher with up to 4,000 songs storable on hard disc with Gracenote music recognition
– Dolby Digital, Windows Automotive, Windows Media (A & V), Traffic Message Channel
– RCA video output for rear monitor and RCA video input for TV Tuner/Aux
– RCA 2-Zone audio output for rear monitor use
– RCA audio input for Auxiliary use
– Clarion CeNet terminal
– Dedicated CCD reversing camera socket
– Bluetooth handsfree with optional BLT573 unit
– Speed sensor, parking brake and reverse gear wires for navigation, screen images and rear view camera control
– OEM Remote ready
– Choice of ‘skins’ or background looks in graphics
– Signal to Noise Ratio and Dynamic range both 80dB
– Mass 3.0 kg
Review by Adam Rayner
I was told by a product manager of another big Japanese company that double-DIN as to be huge in 2007. He wasn’t wrong. This item weighs in at three kilograms. Ha! Seriously, over 50% of cars produced today have this hole in them or it is there, just behind the plastic trim. Cavernous and needy, the monocoque has a bigger aperture in it these days for those huge stock-impossible-to-replace attempts by car makers to deny the aftermarket. I can also tell you that the biggest maker of face plates for fitting aftermarket units to new cars now supplies ones just for these, so double-DIN is no quirky choice. It’s just lush. You get a bigger box to put tricks in and this is one hell of a box of tricks. The simplest review would be to just put. ‘It’s got everything.’ However, despite the fact that 90% of all sane people would agree and that it is quite plainly priced and designed to have everything, it doesn’t quite.
We’ll get the one nag out of the way. It has a two-zone RCA output. This only goes live when you ask it to and you assign the source. It’s a brilliant feature. Not unique but 100% more than one source, innit? Used for feeding another screen in the rear, so you can see the navigation in the front, listen to the radio on the system and play a DVD in the back. However, a single extra always-on RCA out would mean you could use amplifiers.
OK, you’d need a strong set of well-sealed headphones (I can see where the designers’ logic came from) but it’d open up the world of high class amps and speakers that Clarion also sell. Some Clarion amps have true audiophile specs. It seems a tragedy for such a flagship to be thus wing-clipped.
Having said that, like some other decks of such huge complexity, the DVD section’s signal to noise ratio and dynamic range is somewhat smaller than found on less electronically busy bits of equipment at only 80dB. (100dB is quite common) That’s why mad-end home hifi equipment is huge and even the power supply is sometimes in a separate box. Let alone the Digital to Analogue Converter and the mechanism deck itself.
This product isn’t about HiFi though, it’s about having just about every darn thing you could think of and also, wrapped up deep in its guts is a full-blown Hard Disc Drive Navigation system. From what I can gather, the satellite navigation is as good as the game. Very fast, with a slew more functionality than any stick-on-the-screen product. This has real muscle. It also has a tiny microphone supplied on a small stand thing that you stick into the car near your head so you can be heard speaking. Although not quite Kit out of cult TV show KnightRider, it is clever. You can say stuff like, ‘Map’ or else ask for any source, even ‘iPod’.
Slap a CD in the deck and it’ll start to rip it into the hard drive as you listen. Pop in a DVD and as long as you are parked with the handbrake on, (or have put the handbrake wire straight to earth) a picture will come up on the screen. A passenger can watch TV if you plug a separate tuner in. Or watch a DVD. The law regarding Due Care & Attention still obtains. You’d be an idiot trying to play Ridge Racer while you are driving in the real world, after all. (I know someone who actually has done this but he isn’t proud of it.)
The Manuals are fully 5cm thick but only 5mm of this is the English bit and they are brilliant examples of how the manual should be made. Even stupid people can make sense and it�s easy to grasp, which was an RTFM relief. (Which reason is one of my qualities as a reviewer. I am just like YOU when it comes to reading them. Wuuurrggghhh!)
Aimed at big family people carriers and the like, this can be an everything-box for finding your way and entertaining yourselves along the route. It is a true flagship piece but most definitely highly evolved to fit one very important niche like a glove. There’s loads of it but none of it’s fat. Unlike me.
Sound Quality 7.0
Appearance/Display 8.0
Ease Of Use/HMI 8.0
Features 10.0
Value For Money 9.0
Overall rating 8.4