Pioneer DEH-P65BT

Single DIN CD Tuner headunit with Bluetooth connectivity, multi colour RGB display technology and two pairs of chassis-mounted RCA outputs. IP Bus allows connection of iPod or USB device via adapter wires and there is an audio accessory input socket as well, also rear mounted. The iPod control is direct from the headunit’s front panel and operates via a multi-control knobber that may be manipulated up and down and from left to right as well as depressed to register input of control. The device is fan cooled and has a non-motorised flip-down front panel that is removable for security. The player can read WMA, MP3 and WAV files, which may be read and played up to the following resolutions: WMA can go up to 320kbps (CBR) and 384kbps (VBR) and up to 48kHz sampling rate. MP3 to 320kbps and WAV up to 48kHz sampling rate. File names are limited to 64 characters. The unit can control a TV tuner although the images would of course have to be displayed on an accessory screen. It can store 12 broadcast stations for recall on each of two TV bands making 24. All normal CD Tuner functions.
– 4 x 50w (MOSFET Power IC) can operate 2 x 50w @ 4 Ohms, plus 1 x 70w @ 2 Ohms for subwoofer
– 16 BIT Digital to Analogue converter
– iPod Direct Control from headunit with addition of CD-I200 adapter to IP Bus
– USB Input via addition of CD-UB100 adapter to IP Bus
– Bluetooth 1.2 certified for phone pairing and audio streaming from BT devices
– FM/MW/LW Pioneer D4Q tuner with RDS
– MP3/WMA/WAV file reading capabilities
– Front/Rear RCA out @ 2.2V
– Red/Green/Blue-level adjustable multi-colour illumination to FL display
– Three band parametric EQ +/-12dB as below
– Low EQ 40/80/100/160Hz: Q Factor 0.35/0.59/0.95/1.15 (+6dB when boosted)
– Mid EQ 200Hz/500Hz/1kHz/2kHz: Q Factor 0.35/0.59/0.95/1.15 (+6dB when boosted)
– High EQ 3.15k/8k/10k/12.5kHz: Q Factor 0.35/0.59/0.95/1.15 (+6dB when boosted)
– Loudness Low setting: +3.5dB @ 100Hz & +3dB @10kHz.
– Loudness Mid setting : +10dB @ 100Hz & +6.5dB @10kHz.
– Loudness High setting: +11dB @ 100Hz & +11dB @10kHz.
– High Pass filter settable @ 50/63/80/100/125Hz @ -12dB per Octave
– Low Pass filter settable @ 50/63/80/100/125Hz @ -18dB per Octave with +6dB to -24dB gain control and phase flip control
– 0dB to +12dB selectable bass boost
– Pioneer IP Bus
– 3.5mm mini jack for audio input to rear
– Microphone supplied with 4m lead, wire clamps and mic clip
– Wired remote control ready
– Signal to Noise Ratio 94dB
– Dynamic Range 92dB
– Fan cooled
– Removable front panel for security
Review by Adam Rayner
Let’s get the display technology out of the way right away as it so cool. The DEH-P65BT has a set of Red Green Blue adjusters. This means you can have the display scrolling through all the colours of the rainbow like a Christmas tree (as I suspect most will be left doing) or you can match it perfectly to whatever shade of perpangular purple your dash needs for a perfect match. You can even specify it to shine in a different colour for each different phone you have paired up as users in your car as their phones ring. There’s even two settings of different rainbows called Rainbow 1 & 2.
The DEH-P65BT is heavily leaned in the direction of Bluetooth connectivity with a large and obvious logo and a button underneath it for immediate intuitive grasp of what to do when the phone rings. You hit the big multi control to answer and the phone button to hang up. There are a plethora of options and possibilities such as use of your own handset’s voice recognition through the unit. There are twelve pages dedicated to it in the excellent and easy to use manual. (Not often mentioned these days but manuals have got better all around the industry in recent years.)
The CD and tuner functions are pretty much as you’d expect but the DSP casually inserted into this deck would have been well more than the typical selling price quoted here, just a few years ago, even discounting the majority of the cost of this thing’s innards being likely to do with the Bluetooth technology on board. It has a sexy parametric EQ that would have cost £500 as a half DIN size unit three years ago on its own. It also has a three-level set of loudness options and this unit can do the clever Pioneer muscle house act with its phat on-board amp. This amp can run its rears in bridged mode at two Ohms and drop 70w max into one channel. Enough to throb a decently efficient subwoofer and Pioneer are wicked at super-efficient VFM speakers. (Their Accelerate affordable speaker range has been the master of all headunit powered loudness for ever.) In fact, we used this headunit to trounce a Koac ‘power amplifier’ that turned out to be purest Trade Descriptions Act Violation and utterly unfit for purpose. (You can read that here.)
The sound from the deck alone is depressing for amp sellers as it is so bloody potent and clear and sweet. It made the Bowers & Wilkins LM1 monitors I use wake up a treat. I tried it both from this sexy onboard amplifier and also through the resident reference Genesis Stereo 100 amplifier.
It has filters to act as proper active crossovers and as well as simply having a switchable selection of frequencies, the ‘rear’ set can be configured for feeding an amp to drive subs, even if the amp you want to use has no crossover of its own. The headunit can deal with the nice 18dB per Octave steep crossover slope and even has a phase flipper, which few amps below mad end have but which is so very important. There’s also a separate bass boost function of up to +12dB. I am a sad tweak and wanted to know the frequency this was set around. They are usually 45Hz but the techno at Pioneer thought it might be a much higher (and so punchier) 65Hz. The enquiry was bounced across to Antwerp after the UK technician found it wasn’t in his data and the query has gone up all the way to Tokyo as it is thought that even this might actually be a parametric control. Impressive. This sub output has its own gain level control too. All you need is a clean watt house as the ‘amp features’ that you need are in the headunit. If you work this out, the saving in extra kit is huge making this mid to high ticket item good value for money.
Another older feature that still makes excellent sense is the Front Image Enhancer or FIE. This only works through the big old onboard power amp chip but allows you to attenuate the highs and mids from your rears so as to allow the front speakers to dominate your perception while allowing the rears to offer some bass weight when in normal four speaker use.
A good looking deck, it is typically 21st Century in that the button count is tremendously low. The front panel gets just six preset buttons a couple of others and a knob. But the Multi Control is everything to all functions and you can get through the menus pretty quickly. A well featured audio deck with plenty of ‘now’ capabilities as well as being a far from me-too effort for Bluetooth users.
Pleasant piece of kit.
Sound Quality 8.0
Appearance/Display 8.0
Ease Of Use/HMI 9.0
Features 8.0
Value For Money 8.0
Overall rating 8.2