Sony CDXGT50UI.EUR In-car head unit
See it at Amazon.co.uk for £86.87Average Customer Rating
(4.0 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
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(5 out of 5)Superb sound & connectivity
Aesthetics:
The removable face plate sits nicely almost flush with the surround. The majority of it is made up of semi transparent black shiny plastic with a vivid blue LCD shining through. The volume dial has a 'black chrome' effect with a rubberised edging for grip. There is even a socket cover for the USB port included if you are not going to use it that often! The LCD is pretty basic with scrolling song/radio station names and a few naff patterns, but it does the job sufficiently and who really needs fancy graphics anyway. All in all it looks awesome.
Connectivity:
There is pretty much everything you could ever ask for. Aux-in for any portable audio device, USB for a pen-drive or external hard drive and even an iPod dock connector! (on a Sony, who'd have thought). The aux-in is simple enough, you plug in your device (minidisc player, laptop, PSP etc.) via the 3.5mm headphone jack and control it via the device itself. The USB is also pretty simple, plug it into the port then you are able to navigate through folders only. The iPod connection however allows you to select tracks via Album, Artist of Playlist. Sadly you do this via the 'mode' and '1' & '2' buttons on the faceplate, while in my own opinion the volume dial would have made the perfect control device to mimic the iPod dial. Ignoring this, the method of selecting the desire song is pretty simple, just scroll through the menu till you find the one you want. What I will mention though is the fact the unit will start playing the first track of whatever you are scrolling through, which means the iPod has to load each song and slows the whole process down. Aside from this, the iPod cable works well enough and gives a crystal clear signal to the unit. For your information, I will just mention the fact that the cable cannot be detached from the unit and runs out of the back, so you will have to devise a route for the cable to run into the car. I have run my cable into the glove box but it will vary depending on your car.
Sound:
This is somewhat dependant on the your speakers, but comparing the sound quality of my last unit (also a Sony) with this one, the difference is immense. The unit provides a good bass and treble output, with a good mid-range also, all without distorting the signal. The is an EQ3 equaliser with a custom setting so you can tweak the sound all you want. The sound quality was improved so much I could hear parts in song that I had never been able to distinguish before.
I have given a 5 star rating because I don't think for the price you could reasonably ask for any better from a unit.
(4 out of 5)super!!!!!
This little head unit is absolutely super!...the base is plenty adequate (not sure what the previous review was on about) and i'm a life-long fan of D&B so i should know. No distortion at high levels and improved clarity over my previous sony make it a hit...great connectivity features to my i pod..a very good purchase indeed. I used to be a big fan of Pioneer although i feel the design has got a bit over the top...the Sony is beautifully designed without looking ponsy! You wont be disapointed!!
(5 out of 5)Impressive Unit. A*****
I already had a Sony Car Audio System (Minidisc head unit with a 10-CD Changer) in my car so installing this was simple and straightforward. As regards the unit itself well it looks good and also sounds good. I connected my iPod and was suitably impressed when it played first time without any complications.
I'd recommend this to anyone who wants a quality system that allows you to connect your iPod/MP3 player without any problems.
(3 out of 5)Sony CDXGT50UI
Its a good looking unit, the usb drive is good but the sound is flat even with the bass on full. Its sounds like its in mono.There are a lot better for the same money, My old pioneer DEH-P7700mp is much better but I wanted a usb drive.
(2 out of 5)Almost very good
Looks good, sounds good, however....
....interface to ipod is appalling. As noted in a previous review, why on earth did Sony not use the volume control to search through music library? One has to scroll up and down through artists using the +/- buttons and it loads the first song against each artist before moving on. Therefore pressing and holding the + (or -) button does not provide a fast scroll. I wanted to access Muse and it took over 5 mins to get there! Ok, so I could delete A-Ha, Abba, Adam and the Ants, and so on, but the whole point of an ipod is that it holds ALL your music, not just the stuff you are listening to at the moment.