Sony CDX-T 69

.../> I personally had a Sony CDX-T62 already installed when I brought my second-hand Escort last year. It's been a solid performer, with one drawback; it didn't like CD-R or CD-RW discs. By "didn't like", I mean that sometimes you could play a disc just fine, and sometimes it would skip like crazy. A few discs I made just didn't work, and the unit reported there was no disc!

This isn't Sony's fault. There are differences between ...
...you get everything you need. Sony have not been stingy with the cableing supplied. If I had to re-wire the drive into my car, I could easily have gotten it under the passanger seat again (where the old unit was), or even under the boot.

I was lucky in the sense that the cableing and everything was already done for me with the CDX-T62. All I had to do was to remove the CDX-T62. And replace it with the new CDX-T69. Thankfully, it 'just ... more

Many cars stereos have the ability to link up with a CD changer of some kind. These changers tend to vary from 6 disc, to 20 disc. The most common are 6 and 12 disc. These changers are an ideal way to listen to discs, and are potentially life savers in the way they prevent the driver from manually changing disc. They are ideal for longer journeys as well, where a disc change may be required to keep the tunes coming.

I personally had a Sony CDX-T62 already installed when I brought my second-hand Escort last year. It's been a solid performer, with one drawback; it didn't like CD-R or CD-RW discs. By "didn't like", I mean that sometimes you could play a disc just fine, and sometimes it would skip like crazy. A few discs I made just didn't work, and the unit reported there was no disc!

This isn't Sony's fault. There are differences between a CD-R/RW disc and a normal disc you'd buy at the shops. When the CDX-T62 was made, these were not widespread, so it's a good thing they played at all. But either way, it was time for my to upgrade. I like to make my own mix of tracks on discs, and the CDX-T62 had to go!

In comes the CDX-T69. This unit can play CD-R and CD-RW discs without issues (as long as the carry the 'digital audio' label, which they should). It may not work with DVD discs which are formatted DVD on one side, but CD on the other, as these do not conform to current standards. This isn't an issue for me.

In the box, you get everything you need. Sony have not been stingy with the cableing supplied. If I had to re-wire the drive into my car, I could easily have gotten it under the passanger seat again (where the old unit was), or even under the boot.

I was lucky in the sense that the cableing and everything was already done for me with the CDX-T62. All I had to do was to remove the CDX-T62. And replace it with the new CDX-T69. Thankfully, it 'just worked'. As soon as the cable was plugged in, the unit came to life. with a reassureing (but short and quiet) little buzz, then it stopped and waited for me to put my CD-Laden caddy in.

The caddy is a little fiddly. And I'm very carefull with it, as I don't want to snap the fragile trays the discs sit on. They really are far too thin, and I worry about breaking it. I can get another one from Sony, but I obviously want to avoid that. Sony loose brownie points here. But it does well in the fact the discs are loaded the correct way around, the older unit wanted them in upside down!

Another thing I have a gripe with is the door. Firstly, they paint it silver. Why on earth have Sony done this? It looks awfull with everything else being black. I have a feeling that Sony are trying to appease the boy racers out there with this awfull colour scheme. Also, the door sortof 'clicks out' a bit when you close it. I wasn't expecting this, as the old unit didn't have this (but it did have a sensible door colour!). Opening the door again is a bit of a push and slide affair, which is more fiddly than it needs to be. More brownie points lost there Sony.

These are the only two issues I've had with the unit. It works well, disc changes are as fast as can be expected, and the unit is pretty quiet in operation.

Upgrading to this unit from a older one is a dream. It's literally plug and play (well, okay, unbolt, unscrew, unplug, screw, bolt, plug-in, play). But I would be cautious about doing this yourself if you don't have an existing unit already. Whoever put the older unit in the car beforehand had to drill four holes down from under the seat so the unit could be screwed in securely, I would worry about hitting something important when doing that. And the cableing runs under the carpet to the stereo, which can't of been easy to do.... And this unit needed an adapter so the Ford Stereo could talk to the Sony CD change, and I have no idea where this adapter has been fitted, I couldn't see it when I swapped the units over. It's not for the faint of heart, or the mechnically clueless like me.

Halfords are doing a deal on the unit right now for £130, and I *think* that includes an adapter and fitting (check this), so is well worth it. I brought my unit from eBay for under £90, as I knew it would be a doddle to fit. But if this was a first time installation, I would've let Halfords do it.

This isn't the fault of Sony. This is just how complicated these CD changers are to install. That's just how it goes.

This unit is pretty small for what it does. It's compact size allows you to place it in many places around the car. Common places include under the passenger seat (where I have mine, so I basically loose no space anywhere), in the boot, in the passenger glovebox, and sometimes even flush with the back seats where the floor leads up to the seat.

One thing I noticed is that not only could you mount this unit horizontally or vertically, but it can now be mounted at any angle inbetween. This is a nice innovation from Sony, and gains it a few brownie points.

This player has anti-skip on it. I'm not 100% sure how it works, but I think it stores the song ahead of you listening to it (I suspect it can read discs fater than it plays them back to achieve this). So if you go over some bumpy roads, the player can just keep playing the song back to you from it's memory as it sorts out finding it's place on the disc. Or it's just possible that there is a lot of clever mechnical wizardary in there which does it, tho the first method used a lot. Whatever Sony have done, it works well; bumpy roads pose no problem anymore, unlike with the old unit.

It's also worth noting that Sony have made a half-assed attempt at CD-TEXT. CD-TEXT is a technology which can store the artist, album and song title into the disc. Modern CD players can pick up on this and display to you what's being player. Sony's attempt poor, as this unit only shows the disc title. This doesn't bother me, as my stereo doesn't support it anyway, but it may concern others.

The instructions are the expected "Let's get as many languages on here as possible" affair. But it's enough to get you buy. I would've prefered a proper English booklet instead of the single (big) sheet of paper. But these instructions are for people who know what they are doing I suppose...

This review is getting a bit long now, so I'll wrap it up. Concluding, this unit is very good for what it does. It does what it says on the tin, so to speak. Once it's installed you'll never need to worry about it until you want to change your discs. And, well, it's a Sony, after all, so you know you're getting quality and realiability here. 

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