I bought this unit after a long search for something for my garage area; I already had a spare pair of loudspeakers, and just needed some kind of receiver / amplifier to go with it.
Having received and tested it yesterday, and set it up today, I can say that this little unit is quite well featured for the price, although it does have several quirks (which I will get to later).
Overall, the unit works. It came as described, with no damages. The inclusion of remote is a nice touch - it's powered by a watch battery (looks like a CR2025) - it's small, but effective. I tried playing music from a USB flash drive, paired with my mobile via Bluetooth and FM radio -- all work. For the USB, I tried using the front panel button to 'search' the folders on USB flash drive (which had taken reading the manual very carefully to figure that out -- more on that later), and it seemed to work just fine -- odd thing is that unit seems to number all tracks on the USB sequentially, as opposed to the track number within a specific folder. I have the unit connected to a pair of Mission loudspeakers (rated up to 75w, with 6 ohm nominal load), and they work just fine - not sure what the total stereo output power is with speakers of that impedance, but it fills the area I want just fine. The sound quality seems to depends on the source: I tried streaming music from YouTube via my mobile, and it seemed raspy / slightly distorted - but that may have to do with the YouTube source, given it's compressed music. I have yet to stream uncompressed music via BT to see what happens. The FM radio can sound quite good, but it seems to depend on the station strength. The manual says it only plays MP3 and WAV files, but I tried with a collection of WMA (Windows Media Audio) files via USB, and they worked, so that's a bonus. And the sound quality was fine. One neat thing is that the unit has both a 'hard' off, and a 'soft' off -- the former is done via the switch on the front panel, while the latter is done via the remote control.
And here are the quirks I found with the unit:
- when I first unpackaged the unit, I noticed the volume knob was at 'MAX', as noted by other reviewers -- before turning on the unit the first time, ensure you look at the knobs and put them either at 'zero' or in the center of their range (i.e. bass / treble / balance);
- radio tuning: apparently you just press the 'play / pause' button once while on the radio setting, when you first turn on the unit, and it automatically scans and saves available channels (as your 'presets') - there is no manual tuning available (also note that the Source Switch has to be on 'MP3' for either the USB / SD readers or the radio to work);
- volume control: this can be adjusted both on the unit via the large knob (which has a good feel), or also the remote -- but note that when you adjust on the remote, it's doesn't 'move' the knob -- it's not motorized (in case you were expecting that);
- the supplied FM antenna does connect to the back panel just fine (push-in type), although it's just a wire, and the connector looks odd (i.e. non-standard). You definitely need it to get FM radio signal -- so don't lose the antenna;
- the subwoofer output: although I'm not using it, the manual doesn't indicate if this is a full-range audio signal or only a bass signal (and if the latter, what the cut-off frequency is) -- this may have an impact depending on a person's specific subwoofer unit;
- I really don't see the point of the surround sound speaker connections -- the unit doesn't appear to have any ability to accept / read multi-channel audio signals (either from music, or from video), and the manual says nothing about what this is for or how it works, so this seems like a bizarre addition; and
- and the last thing, which often drives me nuts, is the supplied manual: there's spelling mistakes and odd grammar. But if you can ignore that, then it's fine.
If Pyle is reading this review, here's what I recommend be changed for future models:
- remove the surround sound speaker ability -- based on the current playback abilities, I simply don't see the point, if one can't feed a multi-channel sound / video signal to the unit;
- remove the microphone inputs -- who needs this for mic usage?
- in place of mic inputs, how about a headphone output, with adjustable volume & selectable 'source';
- the screen: please make bigger, with adjustable illumination;
- also for the screen: stop the 'continuous' file data scrolling - make it intermittent, or allow an 'info' button to scroll through metadata as desired; and
- PLEASE add internet radio (with capabilities via both a hard wire LAN connection, and WiFi), as well as RDS capability for FM radio. The former is what I really, really was looking for, but it's nearly impossible to find -- so I'm left with streaming from my mobile to this unit for now.
Otherwise, quite a well featured unit for the price, and at least in the short term, I have no regrets.
| Manufacturer | Pyle |
|---|---|
| Place of Business | North York, ON M9L 2A9, CA |
| Item model number | PDA7BU |
| Product Dimensions | 25.02 x 48.31 x 5.51 cm; 3.35 kg |
| ASIN | B0777B3TYQ |
