NEW VR3 CD WMA MP3 PLAYER RDS CAR STEREO w/ EQUALIZER

5 Comments

1. Chris E. Hanson says:

   September 22, 2009 at 5:53 am

   Buy ANYTHING else.

   My first unit had really poor control response and stiff rotary controller. After a few months it stopped playing SD cards or USB media with Error 13. Sent it back, and they replaced it under warranty. My new unit plays SD/USB fine, but now it exhibits the seek-to-next-station problem when listening to FM radio. After about 30 seconds on a station in locks into seek mode and won’t stop.

   It forgets that shuffle mode is on every time the power is off. It forgets where it is within a MP3 track when power is off. The MP3 metadata display is crap. On the plus side, my replacement unit receives and displays RDS station metadata, which is nice — first unit didn’t.

   There’s SO many things wrong with this unit I don’t even know what to tell you. You will hate it.

   This is a pretty decent design with good features on paper, but implementation, UI and build quality reduce it to total uselessness. I wish someone would break into my soft-top Jeep and steal it so I have an excuse to buy a replacement. It’s that bad. Just don’t trash my dash when you steal it, and DON’T bring it back if you do steal it.

   Rating: 1 / 5
2. Luis B. Delos Santos says:

   September 22, 2009 at 6:54 am

   I had such high hopes for this unit. I was very disappointed. First off, unit turns on and off when it wants to. I installed the unit myself, so this could be a wiring problem. I’ll take the blame for that. Then, a cd was placed into the slot and did not play, nor can it be ejected. When I try to eject it, the unit turns off and back on several times. I tried listening to the radio. It would stay on my station for a few seconds then start searching through all the radio stations. It would keep searching and would not stop. The only thing this unit is good for is the aux. input. Then again, these days, just about every unit has one now. This was the worst unit I’ve ever owned. It’s going back to the store. This was the first and last time I’ll ever buy anything vr3.

   Rating: 1 / 5
3. jackhammer1968 says:

   September 22, 2009 at 9:54 am

   I’m not going to repeat much of what everyone else here has said or add much to it. I’m just going to say that I’ve had this stereo several months with absolutely no problems except one minor one that I’ll elaborate on later.

   I’ve had my son install Kenwood’s, JVC’s, and an Alpine stereo in my Jeep. I hated all of them. When I saw this model at Wal-Mart I was skeptical at first but it had every single feature I wanted so I bought it. I’ve loved every mile I’ve driven since I bought this stereo. I mostly use the SD card slot, but everything else seems to work great. I’m not sure how well it would work with high-end amps and speakers, but I’m not looking to thump people out of thier cars. Everything I have is what came in the Jeep except for this stereo.
   
   The only complaint I have is that for some very strange reason, and I have witnesses to this phenomenon, is that the faceplate pops off sometimes when I go over a bridge. I can hit other much more severe bumps all day and it stays in place, but when I hit a bridge the faceplate will just pop off. Maybe it can’t swim and has a fear of water? Very strange anyway.
   
   The remote control is very easy to operate although there are a few buttons I haven’t figured out yet. It would have helped if I hadn’t tossed the instructions in garbage by mistake when I installed it.
   
   Great stereo for the price.

   Rating: 5 / 5
4. Mr. Evil says:

   September 22, 2009 at 11:06 am

   The Roadmaster VR3 supports many features that no stereo should go without. There are a couple of drawbacks with this car stereo, however, that may prevent it from standing out to some. Keep in mind that I like this car stereo a lot in case you missed it in my header.

   This VR3 does not remember what part of the song it was last playing on after the car has been off and then turned back on whenever in CD/USB/SD Memory mode. In other words, it will always start a track from the beginning after power off or after mode switch. I’ve grown used to this setup, though. Also, you have to press on the clock button each and every time you wish to view the time. But the advantages clearly outweigh the negatives, you’ll see. I have not had any problems with this product. This is definitely one clever device.

   The VR3′s many features are unmatched: it has CD/USB/SD Card access, supports mp3′s/wma’s, reads text/ID3 tags, has shuffle/repeat, possesses a mute/pause feature, and the up10/down10 buttons do come in very handy. But let’s not forget that the “Loud” button is also included. Such an innovative device, however, would be greatly improved with an incorporated feature that remembers what part of the song it was last playing whenever the unit is powered off/on or on mode change. But for the price, you can’t complain either. Trust me, this is a great apparatus by all means. I know because I’ve tried the Sony CDX-GT610Ui, the JVC KD-G830, and the Kenwood KDC-MP435U (all of these have a USB front port); yet none of them come close to my VR3. This car stereo is certainly my favorite. The advantages clearly won me over the name-brand ones…do remember that all car stereos have their cons. I’ll definitely be buying this stereo again should it ever break. And no, I do not have low expectations.

   If you pay close attention to that movie Superbad, you’ll notice that in a scene Seth has the same exact car stereo–the VRCD500SDU, to be exact–which is cool because these kids (Seth and Evan) are nerds, so they gotta know a thing or two about technology according to the stereotype. Cool movie, by the way, taking into consideration that I found Knocked Up and The 40-Year-Old Virgin boring. Now, what is the difference between the VRCD400SDU and the VRCD500SDU you may wonder…well, nothing aside from the faceplate design; otherwise these two models are exactly the same.
   

   Rating: 4 / 5
5. R. Lindsley says:

   September 22, 2009 at 12:36 pm

   The only time this thing works is out of the box…not too long after! I have had 3 or 4 of these after taking each back the store! no wonder Wal-Mart does not sell em’ any more. I am stuck with the last one cause I cannot return it – no more in store!! The features are nice but after a while the SD card slot and flash drive DO NOT WORK only error-13 is on and then they say to return it to manufacture. Well, send it back and get more junk thru the mail…no…At least the cd works (sometimes) and the aux plug in and the radio work (all the time)…Hope this helps…

   Rating: 1 / 5