I got this unit as a birthday present for a new car, for the price I couldnt fault it, but like anything, it does have minor flaws.
I had installed a few car stereos before so ovcourse i decided I would install mine. I estimated it would take a day, to install the unit and the matching 6x9 speakers in custom boxes. It ended up taking 2 days, but it finally got there. I started reading the installation guide, I found it rather unhelpful only showing diagrams for 2 different brands of vehicles. If I didnt know what the wires were for already I would have a lot more trouble. Once Id stripped the wires of the stereo harness, I removed my old car stereo and found the bundle of wires to be dealt with. I looked up the car wiring diagram on the net, which turned out to be half right (which was expected, never trust the internet) which gave me the constant power wire, I easily guessed the accessories wire as it was the only thicker gauged wire there. green was the natural choice for the earth. After connecting the wires I tested the unit but.. nothing. No power meant a fuse problem. The fuse was not blown in the car or the stereo, so i guessed it could have been the earth. I tried connecting the earth directly to the car body. still nothing. I got out the trusty phase pencil* which showed me for certain there was no power. I checked the fuse again, and found it was too low rating for the new car stereo so I replaced it with a 7.5amp and like magic the stereo lit up like a christmas tree.
Now its all installed I can offer my opinion of the product. When its cranked up there is little distortion, crisp His and deep low end. The CD player is good, it takes a little while to read but it plays well and has never skipped from a bump or read error. The tuner has excellent reception, without a booster aerial. The auxilary input, which is my mp3 player is good as long as you have the EQ on the mp3 player off, and about 90% volume, too low will create more noise and too high will create distortion. I have the non MP3 version which cant play MP3s, so an mp3 player connected via a jack works just fine. The 3 band EQ on the unit is good as you can edit it from +10 to -10db. All the setting hold and can be stored. The only flaws I have with the unit are a fairly basic display, which is typical of a budget sony, but still a spectrum analyser would be nice. The detachable face is also a problem, easy to remove but a hassle to get back on, the golden connector is hard to line up with the spring loaded connector and takes a few minuted to put back on so I dont bother. The manual is very basic, on the outside you might think its huge but the inside reveals a few pages of english and the rest foreign. However this is a simple unit and a manual is not really needed.
Overall this is a very reliable unit which does everything you expect it to do, If you find this unit at a bargain price jump on it.
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Car Radio - Panel Release, Panel/Quick Release - with CD Player, With CD-Player - without CD-Changer, With changer control - with MP3 Playback, With MP3 Player - 208 Watt
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