H&B CA-5555 Car Audio CD/MP3 Player

[shakenNstirred]

i thought i would do a quick review of my new car stereo.
its made by H&B (there a French company)
model # H&B CA-5555
the spec`s are

- MP3/FM Car Audio
- Audio CD / Audio CD-R/RW
- MP3 CD-R/RW
- MP3 USB interface (1.1 & 2.0 compatible)
- MP3 SD/MMC Card reader
- Power Output 4x45W
- RDS (Radio Data System)
- TA/TP (Traffic Program)
- EON (Enhanced Other Networks)
- PTY (Program Type)
- AMS (Auto Memory Store)
- MP3 - ID3 Tag Display
- MP3 track search
- 4 DSP Equalizer Modes
- Loudness
- Anti-Theft flip-down detachable panel
- Multi Colour VFD Display
- Subwoofer Line Out
- Amplifier Line-Out x4
- RCA Line-In x2
- Telephone Mute

more info and pic`s here
http://www.hb-direct.co.uk/EN/P_68.html

it came well packaged and with all the connections needed to fit it.
1 nice touch was that any connections not used have covers to stop dust and dirt
very easy to fit in to my 600 diesel as you get the ISO lead suppled
and it also works with rovers electric aerial which is good(rovers own CD80 doesn't)
i had it fitted and working in less than 10mins.(you also get the removal tools too, so no need to use a screw driver to get it back out the dash)
turn it on and the buttons & around the dial light up in a nice red.
you control most of the functions with the dial, pushing it in and selecting what you want to change etc.
i made the purchased because of its SD & usb2 memory slots and i can connect my MP3 player
you can search tracks in files or single songs, which is good as you can keep songs together in albums of there own (saves searching the full CD/SD and USB for a particular song, you just go to the file marked for the group/album your looking for)
i still have the standard rover speakers in my 600 but the audio sound quality was still very good, i don't have a sub fitted but the bass was still good from the standard speaker setup.
all in all a good buy for just £79

edit
ebuyer now has them for £77

[Y2K5]

good review. i've got one myself. had it for several months now.. i love the sd/usb connectivity

[shakenNstirred]

Originally Posted by Y2K5

good review. i've got one myself. had it for several months now.. i love the sd/usb connectivity

yeah me too
that was the main reason for me buying it

[Vincero]

Has anybody tried plugging in a usb hard drive into it?? They use the same basic USB driver profile as a normal USB memory stick would so technically speaking should be recognised, the only issue being their huge size. If it does work I have 2 USB (laptop IDE drive conversions) drives that would be great at 40GB and 60GB a piece for masses of music. One would probably do the job fine.

[shakenNstirred]

Originally Posted by Vincero

Has anybody tried plugging in a usb hard drive into it?? They use the same basic USB driver profile as a normal USB memory stick would so technically speaking should be recognised, the only issue being their huge size. If it does work I have 2 USB (laptop IDE drive conversions) drives that would be great at 40GB and 60GB a piece for masses of music. One would probably do the job fine.

that was a good question
i have just been outside and checked.
it did recognised the usb2 drive but i couldn't do a search on it.
maybe if the drive just had MP3`s on it may work.
it does need to be a usb port powered drive, so only 2.5in drives will be recognised

[Vincero]

Well, if that is a possible workable solution then that is quite cool. Definitely a possible shopping list item....

[Y2K5]

i've tried a 256, 1gb usb key. 16mb sd, 256mb sd and they have all worked fine.

i also tried a 20gb 2.5" hdd-but since majority of small hdd's require external power (not enough power from standard usb port) it spins up but does not detect anything. BUT- i've tried my iriver which is a 20gb and it works fine (its got its own battery source)

havent tried my ipod though-but i recon it would work fine.

[shakenNstirred]

[IMG][/IMG]

Originally Posted by Y2K5

i've tried a 256, 1gb usb key. 16mb sd, 256mb sd and they have all worked fine.

i also tried a 20gb 2.5" hdd-but since majority of small hdd's require external power (not enough power from standard usb port) it spins up but does not detect anything. BUT- i've tried my iriver which is a 20gb and it works fine (its got its own battery source)

havent tried my ipod though-but i recon it would work fine.

i have a 2.5in external drive that is powered from the USB port, its seen by the stereo but wasnt able to search the drive, but it maybe how the drive is formated.
i use a 512mb SD card in mine, for anyone that doesnt now about SD cards,
there only £15 at the momment and not that much bigger than a postage stamp so easy to carry around

[Vincero]

Yeah I think the drive has to be FAT formatted.

[david wade]

Nice review.
Does anyone know if this player will work with the Rover 75 steering wheel controls?

[shakenNstirred]

only just noticed in the manual that you can also fit a Sanyo CD changer
so it covers most ways to listen to music in the car

[Y2K5]

Originally Posted by Vincero

Yeah I think the drive has to be FAT formatted.

nope- tried and tested.. still doesnt work.. it spins the drive-but requires more power to run corectly- have tried ntfs and fat32 but no joy.

[shakenNstirred]

i have connected a lead with a 3.5mm jackplug to 2 RCA phono to the audio phono in sockets, switch the headunit to AUX and you can play any audio player with a headphone out though the car speakers

[shakenNstirred]

it looks like retailers may have seen a opportunity to up the price of the H&B CA-5555, by calling it the H&B CA-5555i (the i is for ipod compatible) don't you just hate when they do that
strangely the H&B website doesn't list it and the spec is just the same as the old version.
price has now gone up from £77 to £97
the 5555 has always been ipod compatible(or so i believe, i don't have one.. but my archos works fine ), so i don't know what there playing at.

i have just emailed H&B to see what they have to say lol

[shakenNstirred]

Originally Posted by shakenNstirred

it looks like retailers may have seen a opportunity to up the price of the H&B CA-5555, by calling it the H&B CA-5555i (the i is for ipod compatible) don't you just hate when they do that
strangely the H&B website doesn't list it and the spec is just the same as the old version.
price has now gone up from £77 to £97
the 5555 has always been ipod compatible(or so i believe, i don't have one.. but my archos works fine ), so i don't know what there playing at.

i have just emailed H&B to see what they have to say lol

well after almost 3 week i havent had a reply email from H&B so i guess i hit the nail on the head

[madona]

Hi ,

I’ve bought the H&B 5555i, it is really fantastic, the sound is very nice and I like the SD & USB interfaces . But my problem is the following:

when I program the radio channels (saving 1-6) and than take out theAnti-Theft flip-down detachable panel, the radio channels get lost; it means I have to reprogram them every time when I want to use it . Any ideas please????

Thanks a lot

madona

[itm]

Has anyone worked out what the difference is between "TA Alarm" and "TA Seek"? I've read the manual several times but can't make sense of the franglais! I've noticed that it interrupted a radio broadcast last night to go to a traffic report on a different station, but then never returned to the original station.

[shakenNstirred]

Originally Posted by itm

Has anyone worked out what the difference is between "TA Alarm" and "TA Seek"? I've read the manual several times but can't make sense of the franglais! I've noticed that it interrupted a radio broadcast last night to go to a traffic report on a different station, but then never returned to the original station.

i`ll have to have a look at that, as i have it turned off