Sony - MEX-BT2500 - in-car head unit - Bluetooth
See it at Amazon.co.uk for £63.99Average Customer Rating
(5.0 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
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(4 out of 5)Very Impressive
This is a nice bit of kit. I sepcifically wanted it for the bluetooth hands free calling and for the iPod connection through the front Aux input and these both live up to what i expected. My main concern was for the hands free calling as i thought the fact the microphone is located within the front panel, and therefore quite some distance from the drivers mouth, would mean you would have to raise your voice somewhat to be heard clearly, but apparently this is not the case as all the people i have called so far say i come across loud and clear as i talk normally. I was also impressed at how quickly the stereo will connect with your phone once you get in the car and turn the ignition on (providing you leave bluetooth turned on on the phone of course). It is only let down by the amount of control you can have of the phone from the stereo itself - you can only answer calls and make a call to the last number redial, and there is no caller display, but it is not difficult to make the calls from the phone itself or pick the phone up to see who's calling, asl long as its not deep in your pocket, and for this price you can't really argue.
The iPod connectivity is straight forward and offer a whole lot beter sound quality and is certainly more reliabe that the FM transmitters i have previously used.
I have not really had chance to review the overall sound quaity of the stereo itself but it is certainly no worse than the factory fitted Clarion i had in before.
All in all a good purchase.
(5 out of 5)An excellent replacement for you stock stereo!
I got one of these on fleabay for a tad over £90 and it is dead easy to fit, even a Halfords muppet can do it. We replaced the Peugeot 106 stock unit, absolutely cra*!, (but suprisingly good sound quality) , with this unit only needing a ISO loom connector from autoleads. The microphone is just behind the panel so you dont have to run a microphone behind the dash and the headlining.
Bluetooth: - When first fired up, it is easy to pair to a bluetooth phone. We have an array of Nokias in the family and the wife's one is a 6111. This paired instantly and up and running in no time. It appears in the paired device as 'xplod' and off you go. It will pair up to more than one phone, and it will do it instantly as soon as you turn the stereo on, good news there. The main issue is that if you finish using one phone , then get in the car with another phone , you have to connect the new phone , despite it all ready being paired. A slight annoyance, and very minor. The best feature by far is that the unit uses A2DP. This allows you to play music from your phone over bluetooth in CD quality stereo. Not all phones can do this , but some can with firmware updates. The quality in call (and ours is a diesel, so very noisy) is very impressive considering it isnt a noise cancelling microphone, or directed right at head height.
CD/MP3/WMA: - Havent done WMA tracks yet, but MP3 sound quality is awesome, for a budget unit, and it has various equalizer settings and also custom that lets you set bass/treble. I used a Steely Dan album (Gaucho) to test with and my mate said that "they couldn't have been stock speakers" in the little 106. No problems at all and Sony doing their usual greatness.
Display: - Can be very bright, especially on dark country roads at night, and difficult to see when the track ID is scrolling, this can be turned off though.
All in all a superb bit of kit. Only a pedant would give it 4 stars, but you have to look at the price.
My only gripes, and to be fair, they are only minor and I should have bought the vastly more expensive one BT5000 if this really mattered, is the lack of pre-outs for amplifiers etc, or IPOD input etc. It does have a 3.5mm jack AUX input , but frankly if they update this model it should be a USB job next time. This is only a budget stereo and the missus loves it.
I like it so much for the money , my Volvo 850 estate is due one at Christmas, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it, and believe me I spent a lot of time looking for a good quality stereo that does everything.
(5 out of 5)Brilliant
I got this after, installing a piece of an alpine( which is brilliant by the way)
After installing one, and picking up a leaf let from some dude that was giving them on my way out, of the shop, i suddenly saw something about the blue tooth, and wondered if i had just made a mistake.
I straight away to to Halford who did it free of charge and paid a little more for it.
Sound output , is brilliant, navigation is excellent, user friendly its exception(especially with the remote control). The i pod AUX is handy, (only problem it doesn't charge the i pod, but you cant have everything can you), The blue tooth is awesome.
Too many pluses compared to minuses, i would strongly recommend this, and with sony, you hardly get anything wrong
Its a ridiculously good toy to have in your car, and i cant wait to get to my car everyday.I got to give it 5
(4 out of 5)Sounds fantastic, great connectivity, too bright!
I agree wholly with the other three reviews posted already.
This is a well made unit, easy to install sounds great, and the connectivity is tops!
However I do have one gripe with it, and it's that it's just too darn bright. There is a function to dim the display screen slightly but the rest of the unit still lights up like the Blackpool Illuminations. This obviously isn't much of a problem when driving during the day, or in urban/lit areas at night. But as soon as you start driving on unlit/rural roads at night you reaaly notice how bright it is. Put it this way, it's so bright that if you put your hand in front of it whilst driving at night in an unlit area there's so much light that it'll reflect off your hand and noticeably illuminate your dash-board.
There may be a simple solution to this issue and I've just not found it yet.
However apart from the brightness, excellent.
(5 out of 5)Sony BT 2500 pros and cons
I bought this unit and have installed it.
Please note this unit does not have an autochanger input. I realised this as I was installing it, having already opened it. Not a huge problem as these days I use an iPod.
The sound is excellent, I tried Genesis Live on it and you can hear the guitars clearly.
I compared the build quality to the Sony unit I replaced which served me well for many years, I wonder in the back of my mind if this unit will last that long, looks great but base unit a bit plastic for my liking.
That said for the price, its a great unit.