The LCD display is bright...
The LCD display is bright and has large characters for easy reading, and has a contrast adjustment so it can be read from extreme angles. A set of VU meters stretch out horizontally from the center, and below that a large signal strength meter shows you how strong the current station is.
Solid. Tough. Reliable. These words come to mind when you mention American manufacturing. The new RFX8350 from Rockford Fosgate looks like it would live up to these expectations in spades.
The controls are dominated by a large knob with glowing green highlights, attached to a continuous-rotation digital encoder which handles all of the variable adjustments that the unit has available. These include volume, bass, treble, balance, and fading. Menu items are selected by pressing the encoder knob. There are three large buttons directly adjacent to the knob. The center Mode button selects between Tuner, CD player, CD changer, Aux1, and Aux2 sources. The two above and below Mode select the next/previous CD track or radio station. Above the knob are two small buttons: the first is the power switch; and the second toggles between the clock and the informational display. A row of nine buttons across the bottom gives you access to tuner and CD player functions, with the Mute button at the end of the row. Down the right side are five more buttons that handle opening/removing the faceplate, loudness, rear seat audio on/off, tuner auto-scan, and local/distance.
The unit ships with a credit card-style infrared remote that is wider than the typical ones seen with other decks. All functions except the mechanical ones (open, remove faceplate) and the deeper system presets that you typically set only once, are accessible from the remote buttons which are laid out in a simple rectangular grid.
Press the Open button once...
Press the Open button once and the faceplate glides down to allow access to the CD slot; press it again and the CD ejects. The faceplate is mechanically damped, and must be closed manually. The upside of this is that there is no motorized mechanism to break down.
This deck has a huge array of inputs and outputs for virtually any setup you care to create. All connections are made with removable high density connectors, allowing you to hook up all the wires inside the vehicle and then just plug them in as you mount the deck. A handy diagram on top of the unit shows each connection. There are four power amps built in that can power your stock speakers or component sets, or you can choose to use the Front/Rear line outputs for your external amps. A Sum output with separate level control is also provided for your subwoofer amp. The Rear out lets you play a different source from what is feeding the main outputs, so a passenger can listen with headphones if they don't have the same taste in music. A pair of mono Video inputs coupled with a single mono Video output lets you connect a VCR or DVD player and feed the sound to video monitors separate from the main source. Two pairs of Aux inputs fill out the RCA complement, and a standard 8-pin DIN connector is used to hook up Rockford's CD changer or MP3 changer (rumor has it that they will soon release a DVD changer as well).
EQ controls are simple and logical, with only Bass, Treble and Loudness to worry about. This may be a welcome sight for those who appreciate simplicity and don't feel like getting an engineering degree just so they can adjust the sound in their car.