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Sony CDXGT50UI.EUR In-car head unit
See it at Amazon.co.uk for £99.99Average Customer Rating
(4.0 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
Most Helpful First | Newest First | + Share13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
Superb sound & connectivity
(5 out of 5) by Mr. B. Grimes on Mar 15, 2008 (Jersey, Channel Islands, UK)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.
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.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
super!!!!!
(4 out of 5) by Mark Peacock on Sep 28, 2007This 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!!
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Impressive Unit. A*****
(5 out of 5) by Colin Watt on Oct 12, 2007 (Prestatyn, North Wales)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.
I'd recommend this to anyone who wants a quality system that allows you to connect your iPod/MP3 player without any problems.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Reasonable unit but hopeless for Ipod
(2 out of 5) by Mr. J. Statham on Jul 18, 2008 (London)This is a fine sounding car stereo, but the user interface is abysmal.
The buttons are tiny and indecypherable while you drive along.
The main reason I bought this stereo was price and the promise of being able to control your ipod which can be safely tucked away in the glovebox. The ipod control is absolutely hopeless, scrolling through thousands of songs is simply not feasible while driving along. I would like to have a favourites playlist on shuffle but this is nigh on impossible to set up. Everytime I get in the car it seems to revert to starting from the first thing on the ipod - so i get stuck with the sun always shines on tv by a-ha....
There must be better stereos out there ease of use. I will be reverting to plugging the ipod in through the front mounted USB interface and controlling directly through the ipod in future, but that's not what I bought it to do.
The buttons are tiny and indecypherable while you drive along.
The main reason I bought this stereo was price and the promise of being able to control your ipod which can be safely tucked away in the glovebox. The ipod control is absolutely hopeless, scrolling through thousands of songs is simply not feasible while driving along. I would like to have a favourites playlist on shuffle but this is nigh on impossible to set up. Everytime I get in the car it seems to revert to starting from the first thing on the ipod - so i get stuck with the sun always shines on tv by a-ha....
There must be better stereos out there ease of use. I will be reverting to plugging the ipod in through the front mounted USB interface and controlling directly through the ipod in future, but that's not what I bought it to do.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Almost very good
(2 out of 5) by R. Able on Apr 2, 2008 (London)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.
....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.