Best car stereo for the iPhone

[darkflounder]

My truck needs a new head unit, and I want one that will work seamlessly with my iPhone. Here's my wants...

USB connection - for a clean sound stream and charging
Bluetooth - For taking calls
Does not take control of iPhone - I want to control the audio and other controls from the phone, not the head unit.

I'm looking at the Kenwood KDC-BT742U ($219 at Crutchfield.com). The only thing I wish it had was a rear USB connector. I guess I can deal with having the cable connected in the front.

Any ideas? Anything I'm not thinking of?

 

[hawaiipoolman]

check out my recommendation on another thread...

https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=7900356#post7900356

 

[meglet]

I have a Pioneer FH-P8000BT that does all that. I had the stereo put in over a year ago, and I still love it. First response from friends who haven't seen it before is still "oooh, that's a really nice stereo!"

A USB extension cable is included so you can run it to wherever you need the iPhone cable to reach. I discovered the other day that my old Belkin iPod Power Dock works with the stereo, much easier to just drop the iPhone into the dock than dig around for the cable and plug it in. The stereo and dock both give an "incompatible accessory" warning, but I just ignore it or say no to Airplane Mode and everything works fine.

Bluetooth Telephone and Music-Run the mic to somewhere along the driver's side visor or steering column, and you should have no problems with calls. I need to move mine because the installers put it on the window frame so all my callers hear is road noise. With iPhone OS 3.0, you can play music over bluetooth, but not control the iPhone (which you don't want to do anyway.) I haven't had any trouble with skipping, but after turning off Bluetooth for a while the other day, my phone still makes calls through the stereo but refuses to see the audio function. Annoying, but I've gone back to the dock so I haven't bothered to fix it.

By default the stereo controls the iPhone music playback, but changing that is a simple push-and-turn of a button on the stereo. You can sync your address book to the stereo for caller ID, and maybe use that to make calls, but I haven't done that and just call from the iPhone.

 

[iTouch]

I don't know if it's the best but I like my Pioneer F90BT. Works great and I like like the song info, pics are displayed. The only problem is it takes a bit of time to load.