5 Comments ↓

• S. Chong // Jul 28, 2010 at 1:34 am

  Nice headunit…but the sony bt3700,bt3800,and bt5700 are better…not much to the added cost…plus this has no usb port…

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• K. McKirahan // Jul 28, 2010 at 2:00 am

  PROS:
  
  * Great radio reception
  
  * Easy to use
  
  * Equalizer makes my car speakers sound great
  
  * PTY functionality (really cool)
  
  * Remote control

  CONS:
  
  * Horrible Bluetooth mic

  This is a cool radio and the features it has would easily make it a winner in my book EXCEPT the bluetooth microphone on the front of the receiver is absolutely terrible! Attempting to talk to people on the phone using the bluetooth is painful, if possible at all. Although I can hear people just fine and clearly, the opposite is not true. People say that they have a hard time understanding me or my wife. We have tried both high and low mic settings. Very little difference.

  So I decided to perform a test. I left a message on our home answering machine using both mic settings while I was driving. Talking in a normal voice I could not understand a single word I said which was simply “Testing 1, 2, 3″. If I talked very LOUDLY then I could start to understand myself but two cans and a string would have sounded better. It’s not like I had the windows rolled down. I then parked the car in my driveway and repeated the test. My voice was now quite clear. So apparently this unit has a real problem with ANY background road noise which doesn’t make it a practical solution for me trying to talk and drive at the same time.

  It’s hard to believe that Sony got so much right with this radio but the one key feature that this radio has going for it is so poor.

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• DanielH_84 // Jul 28, 2010 at 3:54 am

  I love this radio!!! I managed to get it installed succesfully in a toyota echo. The sound is awesome compared to the old factory radio. I love the bluetooth features like music streamingwith crystal clear sound quality, hands free calling. I can not figure out yet how to make hands free calls from any phone using the voice dial… maybe i have to read the manual carefully to fully comprehend the features. I paired this radio with some kenwood speakers. Now im seriously considering purchasing an amplifier for adding some bass pumping power to my little car. No more cables laying around the car!!! seriously bluetooth is a mayor improvement. It has a little aux imput in the front, just in case your date happens to have an ipod in her purse and wanna listen to some music with you while driving to the local club or whatever…. Or if you want to burn an mp3 cd compilation it will play it with no issues on this radio. This radio isto very discreete, i love the removable faceplate…. its simple and easy to hide… keeps thiefs away…

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• hpa350n // Jul 28, 2010 at 4:17 am

  After I installed this in the car, music sounded a lot better than my previous head unit (Jensen). I was able to play Mp3 cds very well as well as use the bluetooth function and radio worked great!

  I like the way it looks. Firstly, it’s black so it matches the color of the cars interior and doesn’t look out of place. Secondly there aren’t flashy lights or rainbow colored nonsense like the cheaper head units. The text display is white on a black background and the button lights are blue. Though I wish the button lighting was white like my cars interior lighting but oh well. The silver volume knob is a nice touch.

  I have used the Bluetooth A2DP function by connecting the head unit with my laptop (Macbook Pro). I was able to control iTunes through the head unit. The sound quality was pretty good. I wish I had a bluetooth phone to connect it to so I could test it out.

  As far as the radio goes, the reception was far better than my previous head unit so I was able to get clearer sound and a few more radio stations. I really liked the RDS function which allows you to select the type of radio station you’re looking for. For example, if you are looking for Classical music stations, just press the RDS button until it says Classical, then hit Next and it will automatically find Classical music stations nearby. It will also display the name of the radio station and the song being played which I thought that was a nice touch.

  As far as sound quality goes, I’m not really an expert. But to my ears the music sounds very nice. There’s seems to be better separation between the highs and mids and lows compared to my previous Jensen head unit. When listening to voices on the radio, they sound more human unlike the previous head unit I had which had too much bass that distorted most of the mids and lows.

  In conclusion, this is a great CD player. So far so good!

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• D. Calhoun // Jul 28, 2010 at 5:17 am

  I have a 2003 Hyundai Sonata and before this upgrade I had the factory stereo which only featured a CD player and a radio. I own an iPhone and rarely if ever choose to listen to anything else. I tried an FM Modulator / Transmitter for about $99 that could also handle Handsfree calling, but I live in Chicago where almost EVERY station is a radio station so the quality was terrible – especially downtown where I travel several times a week.

  So, I wanted to get a stereo that would complement the iPhone nicely AND handle calls well. So I returned the FM Transmitter and was considering a cheaper stereo that would control an iPod or allow me to use the Axillary port. Then I thought about having multiple wires connected or still needing a device to handle handsfree calls and I decided upgrading to this would be a better idea. WELL, I WAS PLEASANTLY SURPRISED!

  I was able to figure out most of the functions without reading the manual — including pairing the bluetooth with my iPhone before I pulled out of the installers garage. I was amazed at how great the audio sounded through the bluetooth streaming. (I’ve had other devices that degraded the sound and made it sound like a low-quality MP3). Then I answered my first call and was impressed by the fact that my friend didn’t notice that I was on speakerphone – while driving and with my rear windows down.

  As other reviewers have mentioned, the system fades out one audio source before fading in the next. I have an iPhone 3G and the bluetooth in the stereo will control the Pause function of the iPhone it doesn’t seem to control anything else (like Skip and Back as some other BT devices are able to do). In any case, I primarily want to control music from the iPhone itself so that’s not a loss. It would also be nice if this unit supported Caller ID ( I think some of the higher-end systems do).

  Overall, I think it’s a great system at a good price. I’ve only had it for less than a day now, so I’ll be sure to update this if needed.

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