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Sony Car Audio Equipment

endeavorc

endeavorc

Charter Member
SM 2003
Full Member
Joined
Feb 11, 2002
Messages
2,081
Location
NE Ohio
All I have seen is Pioneer, Alpine, Kenwood, etc.

Are Sony HU's any good, are their audio systems any good in general?

I found one of their head units that caught my eye, the Sony MEX-5DI
 and not for anywhere near that price. I found them on clearance at Best Buy for 699.
 
Stay away from Sony mobile audio stuff. Over the years their products have gotten worse and worse. Why the heck do you need to display JPEGs on your face plate? Buy something that does what a head unit is supposed to do: Play music
 
I worked for Sony in there mobilaudio dept for 15 years
The last great radio they made was the CDXC-90 for
$1200.00 it is still to this day one of the best sounding
with Burr brown converters and 4 digital filters.The only thing bad about it was you could not see the face in day light, I sell right now Alpine,Kenwood,Pioneer Premier,
Sony,MB Quart,Rockford,JL Audio and many others.
I get nothing but compliants with Sony :mad:My show AV
has Kenwood and JL Audio thats it! Big deal it's red try
to put some good reliabilty in sony all they care about is
selling there SH..!!!
 
I appreciate the comments folks. The responses were a little hardher than I expected.

I like Alpine quality but don't care for their controls. The Kenwood units have Sirrus instead of XM :rolleyes: Pioneer I like, just not sure of some of their integration.

The amp I am looking at is the Alpine F450 5 channel.

Still unsure on the speakers, so many choices.
 
One of my first HU's was a Sony tape deck, before CD players were popular. It did it's job fine.
Through working at local stereo shops and attending audio competitions - hardly anyone uses Sony equipment. :cautious:
On-the-other-hand, that Sony is an awesome looking unit. And it's down to $599 at Etronics.
It has all the features and peformance you need, plus a ton of EXTRAS!
Not to mention one of the best displays available.
Puts my 8400 to shame... :6:

At $599 I would have seriously considerd this, but when I got my HU I know the price was at least $850.


You know how much I love my Pioneer 8400
 
its built more for looks then for performance though. They are trying to appeal to kids in Civics and Neons, and they are doing a good job. Thats why the serious guys dont use them because they know there is better products.
 
I am having a real hard time finding what I want. The ones I am considering are:

Pioneer 9400
Alpine 7995
Kenwood 959

The pain is that I will be putting in a navigation system also and really like the features of the integration, but can't stand the HU from the Pioneer system :(

Any suggestions??
 
Alpine, its got a better internal ampliphier, except I think it's one of the HU that needs a 10gau wire for power
 
To be very honest,

I think after a cpl days you'd be able to nav the Alpine Stuff quite well.

and the Quality is there.

jw
 
As I said before I have been in car audio for 20 years. I worked first hand for Sony for 15 yrs
I go to shows from Fla to N.Y. If anybody for real has any SONY in there COMP cars it's the
cdxc-90 with the XDP-4000 eq thats it!! As for what you want now You said the pio8400 ken959
and the alp I would Go with the Kenwood It has 4.5 volts out put on all three pre outs plus
you can turn off the inside amp for a cooler radio then it would give you GREAT sound. If you go
with the Pioneer go with the higher end like the DEHP840 it to has high volt preouts.
But if you say you want Nav then I would say go with the Kenwood Kvt911dvd with the KNADV2100 nav it has everything you could want in a system and more!! It will cost a pretty penney but it's worth it with the touch screen the on board TV Tuner eq,crossover and high volt
out puts I have it with the center speaker The sound could not be better. I have 900 watts RMS
power in my av. I will be going down to Springbreak nats in Daytona,Fla at the end of March.
My truck will be in Car Sound and Performce mag soon. I will try to get some pics of the inside
soon. Right now you can see the outside in the Enkei ads.
Good luck talk to you soon Glenn
:B:
 
SNO SLYD & enkeiavalanche

Very true on the sony CDXc-90. I love the deck and the signal to noise ration is very good. Especially when matched up with their time alignment xdp4000. What a phenominal processor. But 2 problems, one Sony has gotten out of their reference series line. So getting a new CDXc90 may be very difficult. 2) with the cdxc90 matched up with the xdp4000 even though it is an excelent system you have no control with this processor. You do have 10 presets for both time alignment and eq settings but thats it. In order to change any of the eq curves or Timing set up parameters you have to have a laptop computer plugged into the xdp400 and the sony software.. My dealer wouldn't give me the software. so in order to get anything changed i had to make a trip to the shop.. I traded it for an xdp210 eq.. Not as happy with it but i do have control of the sound stage and eq setting now.
 
I'd say if anyone is using Sony gear in a comp car its going to be an XES system or a C90 as a standalone head, the 400 has been long forgotten since nothing but laptop programming can control it. I'd totally forget the Sony gear and get a Pioneer Premeir P9 combo; it's light years ahead of the Sony gear in terms of tuning flexibility and ease of operation.
 
hey i'm back well here is my list, Start off with the Kenwood Kvt911dvd soon to be the new Kvt915dvd from there the 5.1 processer and the center chennel fiberglassed in the lower dash So thats AM,FM,TV,DVD,XM,and SIRUIS. Thats right I have both sat systems in my AV. Then I have the JL Audio 300/4 and the 500/1 fiberglassed in my rear doors. For speakers I have the Three way comps in the front door
XR653csi and the XR650csi in the rear with the 10w3v2-d4 in the center. Yes it sounds like a concert hall in my truck. I will have some pics soon. Get back.
Glenn (Enkei Avalanche) :B:
 
Haven't posted in this thread for a while. The reason I started this thread was because I had looked at the Sony radioand it peaked my curiosity but did not know anything about the quality. My top choices have always been the Pioneer, Alpine, or Kenwood.

I am still undecided as to which one :rolleyes:

I would really like to see some pics of some systems :)

Bear in mind, I have the bench seat for having a place to put the kid while hauling stuff with the midgate down so no console or large subs can be done.

 
Then I would go with some good comp speakers with good mid range like JL Audio or Alpine. Give them good
power and they will sound real good. Glenn
 
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