Guillermo
Excellent Radio!
It fits perfectly in my JMC van, has great sound quality, and offers excellent connectivity. Easy to use and works exactly as expected. Highly recommended.
BOSS Audio Systems
BOSS Audio Systems 616UAB Single DIN Bluetooth Car Stereo
$22.99 Price may change
30 videosCustomer photos & videos
From 30 customers
J24KT
Who's The BOSS Now
Today’s review is the BOSS Audio Systems 616UAB Bluetooth media player. My search for a replacement media player had a few requirements. These included Bluetooth connection, at least one set of RCA level outputs, and no CD player for under $50. After searching through several brands and models with similar features, I landed on this particular source unit. It met my requirements, with additional features, and at a cost of only half my budget.
The package included the media player, two wiring harnesses, a set of removal keys, the user’s guide, and the warranty card. The source unit without a CD player is half the size of its counterpart making it very compact and space saving. The warranty registration takes less than two minutes to complete. The installation required connecting the two harnesses, adjusting the mounting cage, and reading the directions. Total time spent from unboxing to pressing play was about 15 minutes.
On the test bench I measured several parameters and functions of the unit. First, we will start with the functionality of the media player. With a press of the volume knob, the unit turns on and automatically connects to the last paired device, and begins autoplay. The volume knob pretty much controls all the unit’s functions, at least in bluetooth mode. The knob turns smoothly, and scrolls through the functions and their respective options. The display is large and clear, displaying play information and the “dancing” LEDs. Playback functions are available only for USB mode, while AUX and BT inputs are controlled externally. The unit’s internal amplifier delivers roughly 13 watts of unclipped power to each of the four channels at 4 Ohms, and 16 watts dynamic power. The unit’s RCA signal is roughly 1.37 volts of unclipped signal, ranging from 20 Hz to 20 kHz (1.08 volts and 0.83 volts respectively).
I’m hard pressed to find something not to like about this unit, so I will nitpick. The most obvious would be the use of max power. It’s not a real number and makes it difficult to pair components correctly. The LEDs are not an actual spectrum analyzer, but do in fact “dance” to the music.
There are many things to like about this unit. The style and appearance seem to fit well with my application. Even though the LEDs are not a real spectrum analyzer, they still move to the music and it feels real, and is definitely visually stimulating. The sound quality is extremely good compared to my expectations for such an inexpensive piece of equipment. The unit functions well and performs even better.
This unit completely surprised me, mostly because of brand impression, but also because of the list price. When I found myself scrolling through products at this price point, I definitely had some reservations, especially with max power ratings. Based on my experience, I was hoping to get at least 25%, and that’s pretty much what I got. In the manual, it states the pre-outs are 1V, and delivered almost 40% more at full power. One of the biggest surprises, both the internal amplifier, and amplifier pre-out delivering clean, unclipped power at full volume with no equalization. I think that for the cost, this unit offers many useful and convenient options, and totally delivers on the performance. I think that this unit works great and is a super amazing deal that I would highly recommend to those looking for a non-CD playing, Bluetooth compatible media player, they give this product a try, you won’t be disappointed.
Kevin Mejia
Perfect
very easy to install, came with everything that was need for installment.
Ronald Clark
Good sound quality considering price
Replaced a stock AC DELCO unit in a 90 Buick Skylark.
For the price, sound quality is amazing. It's a very basic unit with Bluetooth which is what I wanted. I was specifically avoiding bells and whistles.
I have one complaint and one concern.
My complaint is that the audio settings are a PITA to navigate to. You have to press the center button once to access the clock, then hold the center button to access settings which takes you through clock/time, illumination THEN to audio. It's annoying when you're driving and want to change the bass on the fly.
My concern is that I rough installed and tested this when it was 28°F. After playing for 5 minutes at 70% volume the cooling fins/heatsink on the back of the unit was almost too hot to touch (165-175°F). I fear that excessive heat will effect this units reliability when fully installed in the dash and it's peak summer.
Also, I wouldn't run this with subwoofers unless you plan to control EQ/filters externally. Settings are very basic (bass, treb, fade, balance). There are not channel specific filters, crossovers, 31 band eq, etc. this is a very basic unit but sounds great as a cheap upgrade from stock.
Customer
Can't beat the price!
Great radio for my 2004 Dodge Ram Truck. The installation was fairly easy and took about one hour. The wires, for the wire harnesses that were included, were labeled and made wire identification very helpful. The radio is very user friendly, easy to navigate and easy Bluetooth connection to my phone. The sound quality isn't the greatest but it's decent. Good enough to crank up your favorite tunes. It's a great radio for the price
BOOBERS AUTO DETAILING AND SPA LLC
For.the price is solid
Under 40$ Bluetooth. Radio. Auc and USB. Can't beat that. Works great!!!
Historias y Palabras Blog
Excelente
Funciona y encajo perfecto en mi Chevrolet Aveo 2011.
Amanda J
2010 nissan rogue
Bought harness adapter and dash kit as well , plugged everything up and zero issues. Wish display screen was a little bit brighter but overall a good buy for the price for my teenagers car
Master Apprentice
Great for the money
I recently installed the Boss Audio 616UAB into a 2013 Case 140 tractor as a replacement to old one that burnt out. To my surprise it was plug and play the included wiring harness had the same plug end as the factory tractor plug, so no wire stripping or splicing was needed. The tractor am/fm antenna plugin also fit. The sound quality is ok, you definitely get what you pay for but since I only needed a cheap replacement for a tractor I'm satisfied. Its easy to use and navigate the menu, pair a device or set presets. Overall good purchase
Kumar H
Doesn’t work
Radio is cheap and I thought it would’ve been an easy simple unit to play radio. The speaker harness doesn’t work when plugged all the way in. Seems to be an issue with the harness. Will have to see if I can replace harness
Judeah brown
Decent stereo
Don’t have a recent pic but just figured out the screen dimness so it’s more visible during the day. It has some basic eq controls and audio settings. Nothing crazy and it is pretty basic. But with that being said. For $20-$30 I paid for Black Friday deals it’s worth every penny. It auto connects when you start your vehicle, has a handy little remote, has shortcut button for Siri incase you’ve got iOS. USB and aux in cable. Almost chose a different stereo for more money but I’m glad I tried this one. So on that note if you get this on sale, go for it 🤙🏻
XF_Clifford
Cheapest plug & play radio I could find…
…that wasn’t from a “fly-by-night” company with no reputation, that is. Boss isn’t known for high end audio equipment so make no mistake, this 616UAB isn’t high end and hardly qualifies for anything other than a basic music player.
1. It’s got AM/FM, an auxiliary input, and Bluetooth. That’s about it.
2. It tells the time which is convenient.
3. It has preset audio profiles like “pop, rock, and flat”… they all sound about the same.
4. There’s a USB port to CHARGE a device, but not play anything off a device.
5. The most important one for me is the ISO plug on the back of the radio.
The ISO plug allows you to directly plug the vehicles radio harness into this Boss radio. It’s that easy. The only adapter you’ll need is an antenna adapter. It’ll take you more time to remove the factory radio than to install this new one. ISO connectors are found on a ton of cars from the late 1980s through the early 2000’s. European cars specifically.
For the cost of a meal for 2 at your local fast food restaurant, you too can own this little radio.
Reviewed in a Chrysler Crossfire.
lisa arrigo
Volume knob doesn't work and the volume adjusts itself.
Worked great for about 10 minutes. Now the volume knob does nothing and it randomly adjusts the volume up and down. We'll see what the seller does about it.
It is also lacking illumination and dimmer signal wires. The clock is very dim with the unit off.
ronald
Lo recomiendo y buen precio
Le quedó bien a mi Toyota Sienna 2008 por el precio fue buena comprá lo recomiendo
Msergiogr
Excelente
Excelente sonido
Britton
Now I just need to get some speakers for it.
This radio replaced a fully working 2001 Honda Odyssey stock AM/FM CD player. It does not fit exactly in the bay and the included mounting option was not applicable in my situation. In fact the instructions mounting procedure was not actionable at all. Thankfully I was able to bore the small holes on the side of the unit open some and use the factory brackets and two of the four screws off of the original head unit, to keep the new one in place.
It ended up looking decent enough but the storage bay below it has no where to latch onto now and is basically just held in place by pressure from the plastic frame and the bottom of the Boss radio. Since it only has 2 screws to hold the radio in place on the sides now, the whole double bay assembly is kind of wobbly and can move up and down in the bay, but no one will be pressing it from that angle so it works good enough.
The unit is a bit to small for the bay, or I need some kind of frame to go around the bay itself. I seen those on here but didn't think I'd need it. It's also no where near as long from front to back as the original one and is as light as a couple of pieces of paper. I though it was a prop or something at first. I am happy with it since it replaces that outdated radio and lets me link phones and other Bluetooth players directly to it.
Also, the internal amplification is far better than the factory model. In less than a day It has already finished off the right front passenger speaker just from turning it up with the bass boost and stuff on, pushed the speaker so hard it cracked the cone and now it rattles. The speaker sounds well enough at lower volume, but I'll be changing both of the front speakers next. It was good buy for a very reasonable price. If you need a cheap radio to update or replace your own car radio then check this one out.
I also took some photo's for this review so please review those for visual details. The pictures should say a lot about it. I do wish I had noticed the review about one of these units attempting to catch on fire sooner. Yikes. Thanks to their review I know to look out for that or to be ready to replace this unit eventually.
No-name-no-money
You get what you pay for really holds true, here
This is a cheap head unit. If that's what you're after, then this is for you. Unit is very small, only about 5 inches deep, single DIN. Sound quality is fair, but it seems to vary on AM with voices modulating pitch like they're going in and out of a tunnel. Big issue for me is the display brightness. Even on the highest setting, it's too dim to read in normal daylight. I have to constantly cup my hand over the display to read it (at a stop light :-)... I don't know if I have a bad unit or not, for the display brightness, but it does change from lo-med-hi on the settings. At night it's fine.
UPDATE: I tried it for a few weeks but returning due to too many problems. I like to listed to AM talk radio and the sound quality was awful. FM and USB was pretty good. Never could get the fader to work.
Display was also too dim and created a hazard if trying adj settings or station while day driving.
Installation was in 2001 Corolla. There are NO threaded mounting holes on the Head Unit so I had to drill holes in the stock brackets and use short sheet metal screws to mount in the stock location. If I had known any of this before, I would have just bought a better head unit with better mounting attachment points. If you do get this, don't forget the Metra Toyota harness adapters so you don't have to be 'that guy' who butchered the stock wiring. Also, and I checked all my connections for continuity before I finished the install, but the front to rear fade doesn't work. Could be my install, though I was very careful, but I haven't torn it apart yet to diagnose.
enotsremmah
Upgraded our RV radio- adjusted fade, works great!
My goodness there are a lot of reviews that say this radio is junk. That didn't scare me. I've thrown more money at less. We only get to use our camper a couple times a year, and decided to upgrade to a unit with Bluetooth. I didn't want to spend a lot since we don't use it that much and was pleased to find this model at $36 with a handy remote. I hooked it up today- and couldn't believe I had gotten it right. Tested radio, bluetooth and it seems to work as expected. I'll update my review if that changes. We have 2 more camping trips before the end of the summer and that will be the true test. It's definitely better than what we had.
I upgraded the speakers, and noticed that max volume wasn't very loud. Another user mentioned this. Well, in the camper we only have 2 speakers and the default setting is balanced between 4 speakers so I adjusted the fade and it was super loud! I was afraid I blew one of the brand new speakers I got, but I determined it was vibration in the ceiling. Fixed it with some craft foam. I love it. Love that the pause button on the remote pauses video on the iPad in Bluetooth
Dalton Thomas
Better quality than I was expecting.
Perfect fit like a glove in 94 Ford Escort. After reading other reviews saying how cheaply built this was I was expecting just that. The build is better than my 2 Kenwoods and as good as my Alpine. I really like the layout of the radio memory buttons on the side way better than the bottom horizontal layout on other radios. You can change channels with gloves on. The BT connectivity is really simple on the setup. On one of my Kwds I use the Aux now because it's such a PITA to get a connection. Sound quality is good but if you want thumping base you'll need an amp because I do notice distortion if I use the loudness or some of the EQ settings. The standard setting is good for the music I listen to. I was replacing the factory cassette stereo and figured for my needs the 616UAB would be fine. If you have special needs spend $$$ on something else if you're the hard to please type. I couldn't be happier and told my buddy he should get one of these to replace the OEM stereo that melted in his Ford.
Delia g.
Honestly pretty good for the price
I think its worth the price ive had it for about 2months and it works good but its not too loud but it could also be my speakers
Ryan K.
Great head unit for the golf cart
Put this in my golf cart. Pushes two 6.5 marine kickers pretty well. Am/fm radio seems to work good, Bluetooth has a range of about 15 feet or so, and has enough settings for my use. Blue lights matched my cart theme. Id recommend it for the price point.
Brandon H.
For the tight budget wanting good quality
For the amount of money this costs, paired with a set of Infinity Primus 650w speakers in the rear, I have no complaints. For a cheap quick and decent replacement head unit I highly recommend this!
Tony Cole
If screen goes white, use wd-40
I finally installedd this in my car... I like to clean my car with 70 percent rubbing alcohol, the plastic on the screen went completely white.. and it now looks like an old stereo, but i just installed it 2 days ago... This stereo is using some glue residue on the plastic on the screen, my other stereo or any part of my car has no issues w rubbing alcohol.. or any plastic i have cleaned.. this is sad, i don't know what to use to clean it... I hope Boss fix this quality issue....
Updated picture, i figured out how to clean the white residue, used soap didn't work, use toothpaste didn't work, then used wd-40 after cleaning it for 10 minutes w wd-40 it finally got rid of most the white residue.. I'm now again happy..
This is a good stereo, but i recommend using some wd-40 on a towel to first clean the glue residue that's on the screen.... This glue residue is something that Boss needs to fix.. if you clean it with rubing alcohol the glue residue will turn white color and you're stereo will look like it's 20 yrs old in the sun...
Overall happy with the functions of the stereo...😁
Vanity
Don’t lose the remote
Well first day in. Easy to install. Don’t lose the remote. Seems like the only ways to change EQ oR LOAD TO BE ON/Off. Sounds great for the price. 2001 Honda Accord with Kenwood 🔊
Lauro rios
Great quality specially at that price
I'm really picking when it comes to my car audio but this was for a budget project , and I truly say I'm really impressed with the bluethooth connectivity and the sound quality , it was hooked up to 2 skars 3.5s rated at 40 rms and the little raido was taking like a champ , if you're looking for a and good quality radio , this is it!!! Hooked it up on my 1983 dodge diplomat
customer
Fits and works perfectly in 2003 Suzuki Grand Vitara
It's not touched screen, but ut has a remote. This radio fit perfectly in my car, and I didn't need to buy any other part or accessories.
I just got it installed, so I'll update as I use it. Thr bluetooth works fine, but I haven't received aby calls to check the handsfree.
Roy65
Great little radio
I believe this is the best radio you can buy for under $30.00, the sound quality is better than radios I have paid over $100.00 for, the blue tooth pairs with my android phone instantly for hands-free while driving and actually works great! I put my whole CD collection on a small thumb drive along with all of my downloaded songs and did not even fill up a fraction of it, the sound quality through this radio is phenomenal. I will never go back to CD’s or using my phone for playlist. This radio is only about 2-3 inches deep so you can get it into places that other radios will not fit. The first radio I received did have an intermittent problem but I contacted the vendor and they promptly sent me a replacement(no questions ask) **I would recommend this radio; I would also recommend the installation kit “It’s a $7.00 easy button) ****Up date; from time to time the digital screen will go crazy; just pull the radio fuse and let it reset, the screen should be fine again for a while. I've been using the radio for a while now and other than having to pull the fuse a couple of times I still love it for the cost.**
Jacquez Moon
Screen issue
Everything was fine at first until the text on the screen started messing up. Im not sure what's going on with this device but I'd stay away. I would like my money back since it appears defective.
John Howard
Best "bang" for your buck!!!
I have been wanting a Bluetooth enable/compatible car audio head unit for the past several months. Like most everyone else that has a smartphone, I keep my favorite music on a memory card or on the internal storage disk of my phone. The factory installed stereo on my van that I drive for work is AM/FM radio with a standard CD player only. No AUX input and of course no Bluetooth. I was expecting to have to spend around $100 or so, and maybe if I was lucky I could find something worth having for as little as $75.
Low and behold the first item listed in my search results was this little gem: The BOSS Audio systems, 616UAB Bluetooth, MP3 compatible Digital Media, AM/FM stereo receiver. With on-board USB, AUX-in. and SD card reader all integrated with a remote control to go along. Everything I was looking for and then some. All for UNDER $40!!!!! I couldn't believe it when I saw it. I immediately placed the order. Within a week the package arrived and I was ready to bring the work van up to date with the latest technology. Installation was super simple with the assistance of how-to videos posted on other websites. I had the unit installed and working in less than half an hour. I could not believe how loud and clear the music coming from the factory speakers was. The Bluetooth paired with my phone and the controls were as simple as could be. Now I have the capability to make and receive phone calls without having to turn the radio volume down or off completely because now the 616UAB stereo automatically pauses whatever song is playing or switches from the radio station when a phone call is comming through or if you are dialing out. Even if the unit is powered down, when a call is placed or is coming in, the Bluetooth comes to life and the conversation colmes through the stereo speakers. I LOVE THIS PRODUCT!!! I would recommend this to anyone and eveyone. Great quality for such a low price. I decided to upgrade the front door speakers as well since the cost of the head unit was so low. With the BOSS stereo unit, the wire harness purchased seperately to accomodate the after-market stereo, and the upgraded speakers in the front doors I still have less than $70 total invested in my new car audio system. It is as loud as I want and then some and has all the "bells and whistles" I wanted when I decided to make the investment in a new car audio entertainment system.
July F
Awesome
I have absolutely no complain about it. Worths the money!!! My old kia spectra 05 sounds like an animal now jj in a good way
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