[aalaap]

I'm looking for a Pioneer DEH-P8450MP (8450 for short) CD/MP3 Receiver. I've been fascinated by the concept of the dual faceplate 8450 ever since I first saw it and it is, pretty much, the only deck i've ever really wanted to have. Kinda like my Lancer obsession! This model is about two years old (at least one and a half, if not two), and was succeded by the 8500 the next year and now by the 9650. The 9650 has a color display, and hence way out of my budget.


Pioneer DEH-P8450MP CD/MP3 Receiver

Now if there's a old stock but brand new 8450, I feel it would be a good buy for around 10-11k. Jesal told me that theres one dude at Milan Subway who still has a piece, but he's asking for about 13-14, which i think is not a good price. Not sure how much bargaining will help. I have a 3550 which I'd like to trade in, and I hope to get about 4k off it. So essentially I'm looking at spending not more than 7k on top of the 3550.

Has anyone come across any place selling this 8450? Let me know. I'm also open to offers from anyone looking to sell a used 8450. Of course, it needs to be in perfect working condition. A few scratches I can live with, but anything more, for eg. completely faded button silver plating, is a strict No.

Thanks!

- Aalaap

[jesal]

gettin zen soon im finding out those 2 din players now.

[Tarun]

There is one similar available in Blaupunkt. A close pal has got one in his sxi. Really fascinating ! i must say. Will check and post details, if that helps you.

Tarun

[Sahil]

A friend of mine has this one in this skoda... its expensive you could get a double din at this price...its a great panel no doubt but a 2din is a 2din man that look, the presence is much more that this wannabe double din

[Rtech]

Hey alaap,

I'm with you on this one! I was in love with the look of this when i first saw it, but it was priced way outa my league at the time (about 18 or 19K if I remember). I much prefer this to a 2 DIN. Who plays cassettes anymore!

I'm sure you could bargain the guy down from 13 to 11K.

Rt

[aalaap]

I think a 2 din in a Zen would really be overkill of sorts. Most of my friends think even this 8450 is too classy for my zen. They also say that it'll come in the way of changing gears when in "open" position. But what they don't realise is that you only need to open it for extra controls and maybe to pop the disc in, which is still a mystery to me .. how DO you pop the disc into this one? does the rear face also drop down creating a cascaded faceplate 3 din lol ? Anyway, getting back to the point. My 3550 also drops down to pop the disc in, and that has never interfered with my gearing since i never chance cds and gears at the same time.. heh. Similarly, I'd be at home with the 8450's dropping faceplate.

I think i'll go to this Milan place very very soon...


- Aalaap

[jesal]

prices are same all around the deck is not available everywhere too. no problems puttin in zen since i saw one at speedrun this yr. i have vids too

[Sahil]

Sorry,didnt know which you had a zen so i guess u were right the double din panel would look too big for that cars console.

[aalaap]

Hey guys,

Sorry for bumping up such an old post, but I haven't been around this forum for a while, so I thought I'd just update you guys on this one - I did indeed buy the 8450 from some guy at Milan sometime around Jan or February 2005. I paid 15k for a brand new piece, but I sold off a few things and also my 3550 to a friend so I didn't really feel the pinch on this deal.

The deck is awesome and is everything I ever imagined it would be. Everytime I drive, it never fails to impress me. Sure, it doesn't have color oled, but the sliding concept still thrills me everytime. I was wrong about one thing though - the deck looks a lot better in open state than in closed state, so you'd want to keep it open even when you're not actively flipping the tracks or whatever. But I was right when I said it wouldn't come in the way of my gearing, so I leave it open all the time! It also gets a bit hot when used in a closed state, so I prefer to leave it open.

It's been almost a year now, and the deck hasn't given me any problems, except for the one time (around four months ago) when the outer panel kinda got stick and didn't flip down even after repeatedly pressing the Open button. Now you can only remove the faceplate after its slid down, so it was a bit risky the way I finally managed to remove it in its closed state. But this actually happened because I didn't attach the faceplate properly to begin with, which introduced some loose contact and hence the malfunction. Since then, I've been careful and I haven't had any problems.

I don't use the car a lot (mostly only on weekends), so the deck itself doesn't get used much. I've never needed to clean the lens. But the lens is not as strong as a regular desktop player lens, so not all of my semi-soiled re-writeable CDs work in it. If it encounters any scratches or the like, it starts popping and crackling or sometimes doesn't recognise disks. I mostly only write mp3s on known re-writeable discs before I leave for a drive, so I don't usually face the dreaded "Error 13" issue.

Down the line, I would like to upgrade to a color OLED 9650 or whatever the hell the new 2005 or 2006 model is called, but that's definitely not on the top of my priority list right now!

- Aalaap
www.aalaap.com

[aalaap]

My 8450 is now in my Esteem and it still works! It's been 5 years now! It's still as fascinating as it was back then! :-)

<3 Pioneer