Sanyo EXCD-1000 Car CD / Cassette Player

The Sanyo EXCD-1000 is a good audio stereo. But it definitely could be better.

I installed the EXCD-1000 into a 1992 Chevrolet Silverado 3/4 ton truck, and experienced installation difficulties which were not Sanyo's fault. GM still feels that they have to do everything different. The radio in my truck which was broken is a three piece affair, which made things more difficult (for my type of vehicle.) I knew all that when I purchased the Sanyo, and I had been told that I also must purchase an additional installation kit. The truck original cassette deck had to be removed as this is the space where the new radio resides. Din type radios are deeper then this space, so the stereo installation kit includes a plastic front extending the space out. . .

But the Sanyo EXCD-1000 just barely 'fit's into this new extended space. A car stereo installation shop told us to remove the truck support bracket; and then the radio would 'fit' into the space. Albeit tight up against the air conditioning duct. This tended to try and split the duct apart, separating the sealing foam (air-condition the back of your dash...) even though I was using the special installation kit (which is required) for my truck and a din radio. (Metra kit 99-3000)

Part of the problem was the radio itself. Sanyo does not take into account the cables etc. which extend from the back of the unit, when dealing with dimensions. I already had a tight space! And the EXCD-1000 has the nice provision of being able to control a Sanyo CD Changer. (AX-300 or AX-500) The cable/plug at the back of the unit for this feature is thick, and not very flexible. And on the same side, the connector for the stereo plug in; AND the RCA phono type plugs for an external amplifier come on out (on a short cord.) All of this ended up jamming into the air-condition duct. If I had let it be, in a few months the CD changer cable would have been toast.

I fixed all of that by welding up another extension piece which I painted black, and fits nicely between the radio and the Metra stereo installation kit; extending the radio out ANOTHER .6 inches. The reason I mention all of the above, is because if space is tight in your vehicle, be aware of the protruding cables on any radio you purchase. The Sanyo EXCD-1000 conforms to the Din specifications (I assume), except that it really doesn't - since the CD/Changer cable is at the back of the unit...

Now for the actual radio... The faceplate and trim piece do not fit as well as I expected. Even on a perfect installation vehicle; you would still be able to see some of the Din cage the radio slides into; because of the way the included trim piece of the radio fits, etc. But it is not something that most people are really going to notice; I was having to fight the installation, and was scrutinizing every small detail...

My biggest complaint with this radio (which I have had installed LESS then 24 hours. Took me a week to get it installed and keep the truck supporting bracket, etc.) is the visibility of the display. This is an obvious and glaring mistake on the part of Sanyo. In daylight, there is NO visibility of display. If you squint, and look REALLY hard at the radio, you can see the station you are on... but the idea of being able to read the display - FORGET IT! I mentioned that I was forced to remove my original three piece radio to install this unit. The GM 'head' part of my radio had a clock. We're all in the habit of just glancing to the clock some times (maybe while your rushing to work in traffic) to note the time... The EXCD-1000 has a clock too! (Does not display when the unit is OFF! Not great help; maybe you just want some QUIET one morning?) But while the unit is on; it can be set to always display 'clock'. When you change volume/station etc. it momentarily will show what you are doing/ then reverts back to clock. Nifty feature; which you don't have to have enabled/ if you don't want it. But what good is a clock if you can't READ it!! And what good is a display if you can't see what is going on?!

I'm not rich; and own only one other vehicle. 1988 Toyota Camry bought a number of years ago. The Pioneer tuner/cd player installed in that vehicle developed a problem with it's lighted display after about 6 months. And I never got it fixed. Oh well. But I was looking forward to the fact that now I would finally have a vehicle with a radio display that could be read. Wrong! The Pioneer in the Toyota is more easily read then the Sanyo!

At night; you can finally see what is going on. Till then, it's look really hard, or just (which isn't all that hard) learn which buttons control which station you've programmed... but as far as having a clock, or a usable display - NOPE. Sanyo could have made this a lot brighter. Hey - put a DIMMER control on the after-market radios! Then make the display bright. Novel idea. This would obviously be really difficult for these audio manufacturer's to do. Probably some units have them; but not this one...

Anyway, at night you can see what is going on; and the display is at a light level suitable for driving at night.

The radio (and a lot of other radio manufacturers probably do the same thing) has 24 watts MAX RMS per channel. (With 10% THD (which is a whale of a lot!)) 20 watts RMS with 3% THD (much better.) Want your Sanyo to last a long time? Don't turn the volume all the way up; and overdrive the chips and clip the speakers... But the 45 Watts per channel advertised all over the place (and probably with other units too) is not RMS; and as such is a meaningless number.

As previously mentioned; the radio does have RCA phono plug cables for easy attachment to an external amplifier.

Press the release button on the upper right corner of the radio; and the faceplate drops down to easily insert a CD or a tape for your listening pleasure. Volume is easily adjusted by just rotating an electronic knob located on the right side of the radio. By default it is volume control. Nice. If you wish to modify some other setting; push 'select' at the center of the control; and the first setting is 'volume' which is redundant and a waste of time. Push again, and you arrive BASE; again and you have Treble. You get the idea. Not bad. Easily done. Just have to memorize what is going on, or pull off the road so you can squint at the display controls (unless your driving at night.)

The radio band controls are on the left; which is fine with me; since I had to install the radio to my right in the truck. I really don't have very many more comments on the controls. They are simple and well laid out. (But I haven't used it all that much.) Dolby 'B' button for tapes; AND a tape TYPE button. (normal or metal.) The tape controls include automatic music search (looks for silent portions on tape (15 seconds)) to allow you to search for the start of a particular music selection on an audio tape.

The Tape and CD eject buttons are located on the backside of the removable anti-theft faceplate. Can't accidently eject a CD or a tape. Since the faceplate must be flipped down to even access the control to eject. Major warnings on playing any CD other then standard 5 inch. No motorized CD loading tray of course; just slide the CD into the slot; and it grabs it after a bit and pulls it in. But with the display so difficult to read; and after a while if you played the radio - you forget that you had a CD in the unit. Try and insert another CD into the player with one already loaded (you forgot; you've been listening to the radio) and you can have big problems. Best to get in the habit of pressing the CD eject button first... before trying to load a cd.

I bought this unit because it included a CD player/tuner/and cassette player in ONE unit. I am glad I bought it. I'm taking my family on a trip back east this summer; and am glad I've finally fixed the radio problem. The lack of clear visibility of the display is a disappointment; but I'll learn to live with it. The sound of the radio is nice/clean/ and sharp. Much better then my old radio; (which had problems figuring out what you wanted it to do. Get it to turn on; it wouldn't turn off. Get the volume to go up/ it went ALL the way up (then it wouldn't shut off, etc.)) But the sound is more rich and clear. (Duh -old radio sounded worse...)

The Sanyo EXCD-1000 warranty is a straight forward one year parts and labor. Paid $300 for the radio; and then all the misc. stuff. (Crutchfield sells them for same price PLUS all the misc. stuff (installation kit) etc. is included for your vehicle; but they did not have any in stock.) The Metra installation kit comes in colors by the way. Most places supply it in black. You can purchase one mostly matched to the actual color of your vehicle. (If you don't have a din style opening.)

Good stereo/tape player/cd player. Bad daylight display. Excellent at night.

D.Steyh
abacus07@macol.net