Customer Ratings & Reviews

Installed on my motorcycle (VTX-1300). It sounds great even at Highway speeds.

Bought it just as a replacement for the factory installed radio, but I didn't realize how much I would love this thing. The sound is so much better and crisp. The addition of the HD stations give me more to listen to and surprisingly a station back that went off the air a few years ago. The playback of the satellite radio is almost instant, which it wasn't on the external radio I had from Sirius. And finally I've got enough presets to save every single one of my stations, FM and Sirius. The only annoyance is the HD stations take a few seconds to start playing when you select them, but I have a feeling that's just an HD radio thing. Overall I am extremely happy with my decision to get this radio.

This is a no frills, easy to use stereo. It has real buttons, no touch screen. My ipod connects wonderfully, HD Radio is great, love the custom colors! Really nice sound too!

As stated above, the sound quality is amazing for the price point. However, I for the price point, it lacks bluetooth and the programmable radio buttons are too small and unlabeled to use. The volume dial is also sensitive and activates the menu, meaning switching volume frequently locks out to menu options.

The deck I was searching for was ultimately going in my old 1985 Ford F-250, so price was certainly a prime consideration. I also needed flexibility as I had a 4 channel 50w/ch amplifier to drive the speakers, so four preouts was essential. As I wasn't sure if I was going to put a subwoofer in eventually, my goal was to find a deck with 3 pairs of preouts that wouldn't break the bank. I could have lived with two sets but three made for endless install options. Trying to find 3 preouts in an entry level deck is like trying to find the needle in the proverbial haystack. Manufacturers know that most people use the deck outputs to drive their speakers, so few brands put a lot of emphasis into things like preouts, high pass filters, or filter slopes and such. I'm a car audio-a-holic so I take notice to such attention to detail. Ultimately only two decks met the above criteria at around $100. One was a Pioneer whose decks I've had great success with in the past. The difference between the two was the Sony's inclusion of HD Radio, which I'd never used before but wanted to try. Hindsight is always 20/20, and if I had to do it over again I'd pass on the HD radio (it sucks) and would have gone with the Pioneer as it's a much more attractive unit with multi-line display and the option to change button and display color independently. It only had four preouts which I could live with, since I'm only running front door speakers and sub. That said, I have no regrets with this Sony. The only thing I'll knock it for is that their signature "beep" with bottom presses (a feature I like considerably) does not come through the Preouts, it will only work if you use the deck speaker outputs regardless if you turn the function on or off. Pretty pathetic oversight on their part, but if that's the worst of its problems, I'll let it slide. The style is kinda plain and vanilla, but that was low on the list of priorities this time around. Sound quality is excellent albeit except the HD Radio. It makes the music sound incredibly compressed and digitized, a lot like Sirius or XM Satellite Radio.. I can always tell when it flips over to HD mode and I hate it, the quality is much better with standard analog FM. Haven't figured out how to turn HD off, wish it had this option. Head unit is very easy to use, menus are laid out logically. Buttons are tiny and hard to manipulate while driving, but that's pretty typical when you stuff this many features and functions in a single DIN format. Features, features, features this thing has it all from High pass/ low pass filters with adjustable slope, to 7 band EQ, loudness setting, time delay for adjusting for listening position, the list goes on. With custom 5" / 1" [tweeter] components in the doors, and a single Kicker 10" square sub, this baby sings beautifully. Gets loud and never distorts, but I'm using a fairly powerful amp, so I can't comment on head unit amplifier. A great feature is that Sony made the USB port with more than 500ma of current. It probably is rated at one amp. So not only will it charge your phone faster than a standard USB port, it also powers an external 2.5" hard drive. I have an old ATAPI 80gb 7200rpm laptop hard drive I bought in 2006, and I plugged a USB to ATAPI converter from the deck to the hard drive. It actually worked, I haven't had a lot of success with other stereos. So now I can carry 80gb of music on a hard drive smaller than a deck of cards and play them in my truck. Note that you have to format the drive as FAT32 (NTFS and exFAT don't work), which limits you to 32GB partitions. Not sure how the head unit would react to seeing two partitions on the drive, but it's something I'll eventually try. Very glad I bought this!

I like the stereo. It has a nice sound and HD works nice, but very few stations. I hooked up new sub and pioneer speakers... sounds awesome! Don't waste your money on HD, unless you have stations in your area!

Well, I wanted to be fair, and use this Sony car player for a couple of months before reviewing. At first, I did not care for the controls, as it was different than my previous factory installed models, ie: the left-side large knob is NOT the on-off control. But I am now used to it, and the included remote will control almost everything except for initially switching the unit on. The HD radio reception is terrific, and the overall sound is great. I am enjoying changing out the screen colors weekly, until I decide on a favorite. And, you can make custom colors, too, not just use the presets. Have not used the iphone feature, nor Serius, as I do not use either. We do listen to a lot of audio books on CD from the library during our long drives, or just commuting, and had to pore over the instructions to find how to fast-forward within a track, but once you do it, it is easy. All-in-all, I am satisfied with my purchase, and feel it was a good value for the just over $100 price paid. I understand it can be bought for less, on sale.

Very technical advanced. Great funtions, easy to use. Has a remote to change functions very easily. Has colors that change by music and on its own. Face off for security, easy off and on. Looks great in my old 1999 dash, a great upgrade. I use with my factory speakers that still has a great sound. Was a great install on time and very good fit. Very satified with the install and all that it does beyond my expectations. Thanks Best Buy

Great sound... it rocks, upgraded my daughters sound system in her 1st car ... she love the features and ez use

The radio is nice I live how it changes colors and I love how my iPod connects so simple to it and displays the names of the songs

Has extra features like Pandora, usb port, mini plug, and can send of list of songs you want directly to your Ipod. Customize display to match car's existing color scheme. AM HD is a real plus. Good sound, easy controls.

Great stereo for the price. Easy install, sounds great, easy operation.

This stereo ha HD radio and is ready for use with iPod

I like this radio due to the fact that it has more features that I can use I love the HD radio because it gives me that many more clear stations to listen to the CD DVD player is great wireless head set work perfect I don't have any complains about this radio I found it to be excellent

I live and work in the St. Louis area and only get about maybe 4 or 5 extra stations. It sounds good but not a drastic difference in the sound quality to me. If I buy another stereo I will probably go with a normal radio and get the Bluetooth option instead of the HD.

I chose this over the others mainly because of the price the HD radio was a bonus. The sound quality is very good and the whole system is just very easy to use. I had best buy install this for me and they had my old one out and the new one installed in about an hour. The only thing I could say is changing the color setting was a little tricky at first and it also does not seem to be showing song titles that come on the radio like it says it is supposed to do.

This unit is pretty good for the money. For both FM and CD, the sound quality is good. The AM reception is bad, more static by far than the Ford unit that it replaced. The tone controls don't seem to have a simple base, mid, trebel, but prepackaged options that don't allow flexibility (at least that I have found). The controls for forward and reverse for sections or for smaller time steps is conveniently arranged and easy to use. However, it is not convenient to step incremental amounds of freqency when searching for a station. Generally would rate the item as fair, not bad for the money.

The only thing I have trouble with is that like all Sony radios, when using a USB cable to listen to music, it skips. Other than that. Awesome radio.

I have not used the sterio much, but my husband is very happy with it. He wanted a sterio that he could connect his iPod to, and this model was perfect

I really like this radio. It truly does enhance the sound quality in my car with its high definition features. I especially like how easy it is to change the settings to not only set it up to your liking, but also can change it for the liking of others. I would recommend this brand and product to others. Th4e technician that installed it did an excellent job.