Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony Xplod CDXGT820IP GT Series Head Unit

This is an awesome stereo, has the ipod cable and a front aux input. Sony car stereos for life! Shipped fast too! I am very satisfied!

This is a great sounding head unit. I have upgraded my sound system in car and this a great deal. The custom equalizer allows you to adjust the Low, Mid, and Hi at different decibles. This head unit powers a Sony 1000 watt 2/1 channel amp, four Sony 5.25" 4-way speakers, and Sony 12" Dual Bass Reflex subwoofer encloser in a 95 Saturn SL1. with the right adjustments of the EQ the sound is seamless. This unit also has a great display as well as it's performance. Remote control also let you control the subwoofer and DSO function. However I do plan to get a ipod in the future, so must chose the right ipod because it dose not support all Nanos especially the new forth generation. But this a steal because it has alot of sound functions. EXPLOD.

I just brought the Sony CDX-GT920IP auto radio. I am using my auto stock speakers and still sound great (Honda Civix 2-door LX). I find the interface for WM3 CD's and IPOD a little complicated. I figure it will just take time to get use to the controls. I liked the supplied remote it easy to user and safer to use when driving. Another user complained that it was hard to browse the IPOD music collection since you have to move one album or song at a time. That is not true, there is a brows option that let's you browse 10% of you music at a time, this can really speed up the browsing. My only real complaint it's hard to read the screen in bright daylight. This maybe be a big issue and I need time to decide if it's a deal breaker, since I like everything else about it. I only have had it for a day will update later.

I wanted to like this headunit: it's got ipod controls, hd radio option, and an aux input.

But:
1. ipod controls work fine, but the the song title/artist name scroll only once per song.

2. Many foreign characters are not supported, so you'll see a lot of square boxes in their place even though ipod handles them just fine.

3. The blue ring around volume/power button is way too bright at night and cannot be dimmed or changed to a different color like the other lights.

4. Unless you connect it to an external amplifier, you will always hear 3 annoying beeps when you turn your car off. This cannot be switched off.

5. HD radio is useless in my area (even though I live in NY suburbs) The radio frequently uses frequency and the sound is littered with silence. The HD radio is not smart enough to revert to analog frequency of the same station.

Overall it may have the right controls and inputs, but the annoyances get in the way of enjoying them.