The radio is really nice for most applications. The HD fidelity and additional multicast stations make the HD radio worth the premium. I wish that the radio had an "HD Lockout" feature. In some areas, the HD broadcast stream and the analog stream are not perfectly synchronized. In marginal reception areas, this means that as digital reception is lost, it will revert to analog. The reception will thrash back and forth. If the streams are perfectly synchonized, this is not a problem, but if there is any delay, it makes it difficult to listen.
The radio was clearly designed with the USB interface as an afterthought. The unit plays my music (mp3 and wma) just fine, but there is really no indexed navigation capability to find the artists or albums. You have to go directory by directory to find what is up next in the file system. It is not purely alphabetical either. There is really no "album" or "artist" index function.
The limit of 127 directories is also a severe limitation if you are trying to carry your collection with you on a USB stick. My guess is that when this unit was originally designed, the idea of an 8Gb thumb drive was not in the development picture. I had hoped to do a paper catalog of my directories by track number (the only way to random access music), but found that any time I added or subtracted music from the disk, the unit re-indexed my files, making my "cheat sheet" (based on track number)useless.
USB play is fine in random mode, or if you have a co-pilot who can find your desired selections, but it has become easier to just plug in my MP3 player through the AUX port.
Still, it was a great value, but if you are looking for full integration of digital music, you may want to consider a head unit with more robust technology.
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