Cheap Pioneer head units.

[JimX]

I was going to write this up after my head unit arrived safely, to ensure that I don't inadvertedly cause other people to get ripped off. But I thought I would post up what I've done anyway, and then follow up with posts if it doesn't arrive quickly or at all or damaged or whatever.

The story: I need to buy a new head unit, because my old one is going into my gf's car. At Strathfield Car Radio, I found a Pioneer DEH-5650MP, RRP $579, on sale for $379. Not bad I thought, considering this was an impromptu upgrade and I needed to spend as little as possible but still have it better than my old JVC mp3 unit. Before buying it though, I checked out Ebay, and discovered the next model up, DEH-7650MP, for the same price including postage. The RRP of this unit is $999. Since it's coming from overseas I might have to pay GST and import duty, but even with that thrown in it's still going to be less than the $699 that JB Hifi want for the same unit. By my calculations it should be under $500 including all fees and postage when all is said and done.

As I said above, I will be wary of this until it arrives in good working order, because I only deposited the money yesterday and it obviously hasn't arrived yet. But I thought I would tell everyone about it in case they decided they wanted to take a risk like me before the guy ran out of stock. His ebay store is here, and he has a high positive rating so I'm pretty sure I won't get ripped off. At time of this writing he has 17 7650's left, but there are plenty of other brands and models there if you want to spend more or less money. The 7650 is just in the right price range for me and with the right features I want for that money.

I'll keep this thread updated as to what happens with delivery and any extra fees I get hit with, in case people want to hold off getting anything from this guy.

[Jay95R33]

G'day Jimx,

A mate bought a pioneer unit from OS and he got it with no problems (apart from the customs duty etc..).

Remember that Australia has a trade agreement with the US now, so anything coming in from the US hasn't got any import taxes. But you still need to pay GST.

A good buy I say

J

[JimX]

Phew that's good to hear! I had a look at the guy's FAQ and he says that GST is usually only payable if it's >$50, so anything under $500 is usually GST (and duty) free. I can only hope, I won't know until I get either the package, or a slip saying to pay $X before I can receive it.

The deck is coming from Thailand or Malaysia from what I can see, so it's probably going to have duty payable, unless it slips through.

[raz0r$harP.UK]

Insert standard grab here about supporting local industry

It's definitely cheaper buying it off EBay but can be a hassle if you need to have it repaired as local repairers normally won't honour an overseas product unless you bought it from an approved outlet.

My friend has bought heaps of stuff from that guy you've mentioned JimX in the past. No problems.

[JimX]

I've read all the fine print and definitely recommend anyone considering buying off this guy do the same. He says that warranty won't be honoured locally, but will be honoured by shipping the thing back overseas at a cost of $100 for the buyer. Even if that happens it's still cheaper than $700. Yes, much more of a hassle I know, but hopefully being Pioneer it's not going to die within the warranty period anyway. It's a calculated risk of course but one I decided to take. All I can hope is that it doesn't bite me in the ass

Update: Got an email from the guy this morning, he said the payment's cleared and it gets shipped by EMS today or tomorrow. So I should have it by mid next week.

[JimX]

Ok the head unit arrived this morning, with no extra taxes or fees. So that was $379 delivered to my door.

I fitted it this arvo and it seems to work fine. The only major gripe I have with it so far is that there is only 1 remote wire which means you can only run either a remote amp, or an electrical aerial. Or be a dodgy bastard like me and wire both things into the one wire I think it should be ok, no fuses blown yet. Kind of annoying that the aerial doesn't go down when I switch to CD, but that's not a major concern.

For the price I'd say it's excellent, but I wouldn't want to pay $700 for it. The biggest things it has over my old head unit are WMA file playing and the extra DSP stuff. I don't think that's worth the extra $300+ that shops are asking though.

[Jay95R33]

Good stuff JimX.

Don't worry about pairing up the aerial with the amp wire, I had two amps a cross over and an aerial hanging off of mine They don't draw very much current, so you can pair them up with no problems.

J

[Nizzkid R32]

i ordered one of these on Sunday.

JB Hifi wanted $800+ for it....so :kick: to them !!!

[darktranq]

Thanks for the tip guys

[someonestolecc]

I ordered my 7650 from that guy ages ago. Got it no prob.

2 things tho - the fuse is different than any other fuse i've ever seen (i'm not sure if this is a thai fuse).

The other thing is, as mentioned it pissed me off the antenna and remote aren't different wires - I'm not sure if this is the same on the aussie version but it's crap either way. I ended up putting in a battery cos I always listen to my cd and hardly ever listen to my radio so it'd be stupid for my car to keep putting the aerial up.

Other than that pricewise yeah it's nice. Makes me wonder how much they make. Oh, and mine had some weird sticker on it - I'm not sure if pioneer thailand uses them as a QC/QA sticker or if its a recon.

[OBaYBe]

Cheers for the headsup.

[WhiteR33]

From what I see, I am very tempted to buy from the States. However I wanted to buy a subwoofer and an amp from them, instead of the head unit. (Alpine Type-R 12" for less than US$100 and an Amp for about $200...) apparently the shipping fee will cost about US$150 including insurance. Would this be cheaper than AU by alot (given that sub and amps are heavy stuff)?

What I mean is, has anyone bought subwoofers from the US? is it worth it, compared to the head unit?

Cheers...