# Clarion NX603 Navi Head Unit review



## nanohead (Oct 21, 2013)

Clarion NX603 - Double DIN top of Clarion's line Navi HU (2013 model)

This is a fancy head unit, with everything in it including the kitchen sink. It replaced a JVC NX600, which I will also review shortly. FYI, this unit is the model that has hard buttons and a dial volume on the left side. Like most HU manufacturers, they have full touchscreen, AND a bit smaller touchscreen + hardbutton models. This is the hardbutton model (which I happen to prefer)

Display: Decent, when running on full brightness. Clear enough for head unit service. It has an "auto" setting that changes it based on headlight dimming, which could work, but my car has auto headlights, which go on and off at higher light levels (gray sky, heavy rain), which dims the screen and makes me not be able to see anything. I have to rummage through layers of menus to change it to always bright. It also seems to not hold that setting, changing itself to "auto" when you turn the car off.

Software: Its decent, albeit a bit slow. The GUI is a little tough to navigate, there are no shortcuts to important settings, but there is a quick access menu for 5 sources. The main screen is clean, and this unit is clearly intended for "smartphone" users. There's a giant "Smart Access" hot spot on the left side of the screen, that does nothing unless you're phone is linked. Mine won't link (Motorola Moto X, bone stock Android 4.4) You can't rearrange the home screen, which is pretty silly IMHO. 

The one super bad part of the software is the "Nannyware" features. Basically, if you install it as intended (without a park brake bypass), you will NOT be able to do ANYTHING, other than play the radio. No USB/SD navigation, no Navigation address settings, no Equalizer or other audio settings, etc. It is the most intrusive "Driver Protection" I have ever seen in my life. It also has the clever "ground delay" sensing for the park brake, so if you use a switch for bypass, you need to wait a few seconds, or get a small gadget that waits for you. It also INSISTS on having passcodes for SiriusXM channels, which I have yet to figure out how to completely disable. Very frustrating. Once past the nannyware, its actually decent.

Also, the screens are NOT configurable as far as I can tell. You have to use them the way Clarion set them up, other than some color selections.

Sources: It has an awesome amount of sources. I mostly use SiriusXM, USB sticks and SD cards, all of which this unit has. It also has a CD/DVD transport, which I will probably never use. I do use BT streaming sometimes, and it sounds decent, but as usual, its compressed. The AM radio reception is solid (northern NJ, so a gazillion channels). Navigating the sources isn't tough, you push the home button on the side panel (a hard button), and the source selection screen comes up. You can set a shortcut menu of 5 different sources that you can access on the side of the screen.

Navigation: I love Google Nav, I've tried MirrorLink and its too limited for real use. So I decided that I'd buy a real Navi head unit. I've used the Navi about 5 times so far. Its solid, pretty responsive, average recalc speed, and decently detailed. Its classic Navigation, where you need to enter the address hierarchically, rather than some random stuff, which Google nav spoils you with. The Navi maps come on a micro SD card, which I assume Clarion will maintain. The Navi has tons of features, and mostly it talks too much when you don't want it to. It has a "Verbosity" setting, which is supposed to meter the amount of talking it does, which doesn't seem to do anything.

It can't stop telling me that its lost its GPS signal. I keep looking for a way to turn off that warning, but I can't find it. It also has 5000 other warnings, like speed limit, etc. It is whiny if you let it. All in all, I like having it, no real complaints so far.

Bluetooth: I do a ton of conference calls, and need decent bluetooth. I'm amazed that Bluetooth sucks as bad as it does after more than a decade. I've tried 10 head units, 25 different microphones and 4 different cell phones, and they all suck. This combo, of the Moto X a vintage Eclipse mic (stereo/w noise control) and the NX603 finally doesn't suck according to the people I talk to. Phone control is solid, nothing to write home about. The slow GUI makes phone book navigation somewhat cumbersome, but its usable. Finally BT streaming control is really great. It controls the Moto X, running Poweramp like a champ. I can control the phone from the steering wheel controls, which is awesome. Complete 2 way BT phone control for audio.... nice.

Audio: Sounds great so far, but I run it through a Mosconi DSP, Zed Leviathan and PPI 900.4. If you're not using a processor, it has an 8 band equalizer, with only 1 setting. It also has 6 presets that are decent. I haven't used the internal amps, so no idea what they sound like. There are a decent amount of processed sound features like "Sound Restorer", which I presume is like Pioneer's Sound Retriever, which interpolates compressed MP3 patterns and tries to fill in the blanks. I like Pioneers' quite a bit, but the Clarion doesn't sound any different on or off. I haven't run pink noise with a spectrum analyzer to see if this feature actually does anything yet. 

It also has something called "Virtual Bass", which makes it more bassy, which I don't need anyway, so don't use it. It does have an interesting feature called "Vocal Image Control", which is similar to a Fader, but purports to move the vocal soundstage only. I suspect it implements some kind of blended bandpass/time correction algorithm that moves specific parts of the spectrum forward to the front speakers. I actually like it on certain songs, a pretty clever feature.

Another processed feature that seems somewhat useless, is called "Volume Smoother", which is really some kind of synthetic level control, or compressor. I tried it and it sounded lousy, and I really have no use for it anyway. Not totally sure what this would be used for in most cases other than extreme volume variation, which my sources don't tend to have.

Finally, it has a PRESET Low Pass filter, which just sucks. It allows ceilings of 63, 80 or 120 HZ to the sub. You can't go straight through. I hate this, even though its workable. I don't want the head unit limiting what I send to any speaker/amp. Ugh... dumb move Clarion. Also, it does NOT have a Subwoofer ON/OFF setting, which sucks too. To do main channel tuning, I had to unplug the SW lines from the amps. Not the end of the world, but an annoying thing to not include. 

Other stuff: The backup camera integration is really terrific. I have a good camera, but it looks the best on this deck that its ever looked. It lets you put crash lines in (red, yellow, green) yourself, which I haven't done yet. I don't use Pandora, so have no idea how that works, and I don't own any Apple stuff, so no idea about iPhone integration. 

Conclusion: I like it for the most part. After Pioneer, Kenwood, and JVC, I decided to try Clarion. Clarion has a large OEM business, and they actually do update Firmware here and there, unlike Pioneer that NEVER fixes any bugs..ever. I tend to like Pioneer's software on their touchscreen units, but they've NEVER EVER fixed a freakin bug. I decided to try the Clarion after I looked at their support site and saw 3 FW updates for the previous unit. At least they try 

The unit is not perfect. Overall navigation of the software is cumbersome and somewhat slow. The lack of configurability of the screens is just plain bad. There is no way to jump back to the source screen from a phone call or navi session, without going through layers of buttons. The "Nannyware" is horrible, but can be bypassed, the Sub LP filter is done for you (Huh? Really) Finally, the cumbersome "Parental" lock on the SiriusXM channels doesn't seem to be defeatable, which is mind boggling. According to the manual, (you can't make this up), you need to pull over, engage the parking brake, and then change the SiriusXM channels to ones that seem to be password protected. In other words, you realistically can't change your radio channels when you're driving.... If I can't fix this, I'll have to return the unit, as thats simply unworkable.

I seem to have a half life of about 6 months with any given head unit before I want to a new one. We'll see if this one lasts....


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## trumpet (Nov 14, 2010)

Smart Access requires an app on your smartphone, which is explained in the manual. You also need the Clarion HDMI cable for Android.


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## nanohead (Oct 21, 2013)

trumpet said:


> Smart Access requires an app on your smartphone, which is explained in the manual. You also need the Clarion HDMI cable for Android.


Yes I know. I have it. Doesn't connect. Not too much of a surprise, most of the smartphone linking protocols are not consistent. I also have a Galaxy S4 that may work, but I switched over to the Moto X. Had the same problems with the JVC NX600 and Mirrorlink. Galaxy S4 worked, nothing else did. Its not necessarily the head units issue, more the lack of standards for this type of operation and the fact (in my case at least) that Google/Moto don't care about these types of features and don't completely support full bidirectional protocol support over the HDMI port.


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## trumpet (Nov 14, 2010)

You have to do things in a certain order for this feature to work.
1. Pair the phone with BT profile 1.
2. Start the smart access app.
3. Connect the hdmi cable. 
4. Start smart access on the head unit.
5. Confirm at the warning dialog.

I'm going off memory here but I've had this head unit since release day.


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## nanohead (Oct 21, 2013)

I actually don't care that much about the smart linking. Its more of a pain than anything in most cases.

Have you figured out how to defeat the crazy "Parental" controls? I literally can't change channels on SiriusXM without entering a code. 

This unit has so much potential, but the software is just too inflexible in most cases.


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## trumpet (Nov 14, 2010)

nanohead said:


> I actually don't care that much about the smart linking. Its more of a pain than anything in most cases.
> 
> Have you figured out how to defeat the crazy "Parental" controls? I literally can't change channels on SiriusXM without entering a code.
> 
> This unit has so much potential, but the software is just too inflexible in most cases.


Since this is the first and only review of this head unit on this site it makes sense that the "killer app" feature, Smart Access, has some coverage. It's the only head unit Clarion released in 2013 that has that feature. From what I've heard, the iPhone support is much better than Android.

I haven't seen the SiriusXM interface with this head unit. I probably would use it if it was free, but I will never pay for it. I have the Clarion dealer bias, but I find the NX603 to be very simple and easy to use. Sure, you might have to press a couple more buttons to switch between screens at times, and you can't customize the GUI much, but it just works.


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## nanohead (Oct 21, 2013)

Thanks! 

I actually found a bug in the Parental controls over the weekend. So I now know what they were trying to do. Somehow, somewhere, the head unit's parental controls decided what stations I can and cannot listen to, even though there are no stations checked off to block. I'll call Clarion today and tell them, as its reproducible.... 

Clarion and Alpine both have solid OEM businesses, so they do things a little different than the others do, and tend to support the units a little longer. I suspect Clarion wrote the SiriusXM control software to a specification of the new SXM tuner device, but didn't bother to test it.

I do in fact like the unit quite a bit. It sounds really really good. It is fairly rigid in how you set it up though, which their competitors are somewhat better at. 

Not sure I'd describe "Smart Access" as a killer app , they're about 3 years behind everyone else with this whole smartphone thing (MHL and Mirrorlink). I change head units often (plus, years in software engineering makes me whiny about this stuff :laugh, so I have a running ledger in my head of who's head units do what and how.


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## sirbOOm (Jan 24, 2013)

Every manufacturer has nanny-state lock down on it. Alpine nav units make you accept a disclaimer EVERY TIME you use the navigation. EVERY SINGLE F'ING TIME! It is the way it is and you'll have to grab yourself a PAC TR7 and program it to trick the HU into not being an overbearing dance mom.


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## nanohead (Oct 21, 2013)

Well, I actually returned the NX603 finally. It is a dreadfully undertested unit, filled with bugs and limitations. All the good things I mentioned, to me at least, are still good. But the software is so riddled with bugs, its mostly unusable as an entertainment hub in a modern car.

What broke the camels back for me were several additional simultaneous feature failures, as well as 2 spontaneous reboots that reset the unit back to factory.

The backup camera switching started failing after 3 weeks. At first, I thought it was my camera, so I changed it, but to no avail. It was the NX603, which randomly either displayed my camera, a black screen, a snowy screen, a half camera screen, or just the lines with no image.

And the SiriusXM management is simply and totally unusable. Even if you either bypass the parking brake feature, or actually use it as intended, the unit makes up its own mind if it will let change radio stations. This is the same for phone calls, as it can't decide if it will let make them or not.

All in all, a lousy experience was had by all.


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## Gov2094 (Feb 4, 2014)

nanohead...so what unit did you decide to go to next? as I just installed the 603 today and thought I was crazy with locked Sirius channels..zero tolerance.

Thanks in advance.


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## nanohead (Oct 21, 2013)

Gov2094 said:


> nanohead...so what unit did you decide to go to next? as I just installed the 603 today and thought I was crazy with locked Sirius channels..zero tolerance.
> 
> Thanks in advance.


Interesting you ask! I just yesterday, installed the Jensen VN9726BT (yep, Jensen!).

I'm so sick and tired of terrible software and poorly thought out operating environments from the usual suspects, I decided to try something that not too many car audio guys are open to. And as usual, the collective wisdom that Jensen is "low end" seems to be insanely incorrect.

I'm going to live with the unit for a little bit, and then post a review. But so far, it is EXACTLY the kind of thing I'm looking for. Simple, fast, easy to operate, easy to see, and practical features.


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## RandyJ75 (Dec 4, 2006)

How about an update on that Jensen hu?

Inquiring minds want too know...lol.


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## nanohead (Oct 21, 2013)

RandyJ75 said:


> How about an update on that Jensen hu?
> 
> Inquiring minds want too know...lol.


I posted a review a few weeks back!

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...-vm9726bt-dd-navigation-head-unit-review.html

I like it quite a bit so far, works as advertised, nothing hugely irritating, pretty solid. Easy to live with


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