Sony CDX-GT300 Car CD / MP3 Player
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- MP3 / WMA Playback: MP3 Playback WMA Playback ATRAC Playback
- Anti-Theft Protection: Detachable Face Panel
- Player Type: CD
- Controlled Devices: CD Changer Mini Disk Player
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Read my review before looking elsewhere...
Pros
Great display. Many features. Great CD mechanism.
Cons
A little shrill sounding. Blue light may not match vehicle interior.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Very nice sound and large easy to read display. Good SONY quality. Much better than generic or house brands.
Recently, I replaced the factory in-dash unit in my Chrysler/Infinity system with the SONY CDXGT300.
I liked the SONY, but ended up returning it and buying a PIONEER unit, which I will also review.
Bought the SONY for under $130 at Circuit City online.
I was looking for a unit that had decent tone control features, Text display for CDs that have Text encoding and good overall quality.
I've read several reviews at various sites that make complaints of this unit incorrectly. This unit has quite a few features.
What I liked:
It features 7 preset EQs, but one of them is CUSTOM which means you can adjust the tonal qualities. I believe ALL the SONY in-dash units have this feature, even their cheapest. The CUSTOM control allows adjustment of BASS, MIDRANGE and TREBLE. To my knowledge, if the SONY unit has a CUSTOM setting, you can adjust its tonal balance as you can this one.
I've read that this unit does not have user adjustable tone controls. Nothing can be further from the truth.
The CUSTOM setting features BASS at 60Hz. That's very good in my opinion. By boosting bass at 60Hz instead of the standard 100Hz, bass sounds a little smoother and deeper. It also tends to give an impression of widening the sound spectrum. The MIDRANGE setting is at the typical 1kHz and treble at the typical 10kHz. What you basically have is a 3 band equalizer user adjustable. I think the range of each band is +/- 12dB, which is quite a bit.
CD section boasts some great specs such as 120dB noise ratio. The CDs I played sounded very good. No skipping when driving over bumpy roads. Very quiet motor. I could not hear any motor hum.
CD TEXT. This feature is for both CDs with Text and MP3 type CDs. I don't burn MP3 CDs because I don't like the compression, so I can't comment on the MP3 aspect. I do burn CDs with Text describing title/artist/name of track, and this unit displays that information on its screen.
HUGE SCREEN. Very easy to read. Very easy to see in any light situation. The characters are WHITE on a BLUE background.
AUTOMATIC DIM and MANUAL DIM feature. Apparently, people don't know how to read the manuals. This unit's screen is very bright. It may be too much in low light conditions. But, it features both manual dimming, and auto dimming. If you install this unit yourself, as I did, you can connect the illumination wire from your existing wiring to this unit's lighting system. I think the wire was orange/white-striped(?). If connected properly, when you turn ON your lights, the screen on this unit AUTOMATICALLY DIMS. It works. I tried it.
Buttons are well defined and easy to locate even though they are small, as is typical of aftermarket units. Buttons have a RED backlight, as does the volume control.
Remote Control makes up for the small buttons.
This unit can memorize 18 FM stations.
Rotary volume control.
Features some type of BBE circuit which is supposed to give the impression of expanding compressed music, such as on MP3.
DSO circuit is supposed to give the impression of lifting the music to a higher point in the vehicle, so it is closer to ear level. There are 4 selectable positions for this feature.
This unit's screen can show a left/right spectrum analyzer (3 band) which will move to the music.
Output was clean and distinct. Very sharp highs. Good bass. Great midrange.
What I did not like:
This is trivial, but I didn't like the blue color. Many in dash units now have the blue backlighting. It doesn't match my vehicle's other electronics, which are green. It stood out too much for me.
The TEXT only showed the first 7 letters. Needless to say, much of the titles, artist names and selection names were omitted. This unit did not scroll the TEXT for the CDs I play. I think it might for MP3 type Text(?).
Highs were very sharp, almost too much so. In my opinion, many SONY audio products feature over-emphasized highs. They tend to sound a little shrill.
Radio reception was a little disappointing. Did not sound as good as I expected.
I liked the spectrum analyzer effect, which can be turned OFF too. I liked the overall sound. I really liked the size and clarity of the display.
I tried the BBE sound on my regular CDs and I thought it made them sound too harsh. But others may like the sound. At least it's a choice you have.
I also tried the DSO feature. It too made the mids and highs a little harsh. Again, it's a sound that might appeal to some, depending on your speaker systems and type of music. It's another choice and a way to manipulate the sound output.
This is a nice unit at a good price.
I liked the SONY, but ended up returning it and buying a PIONEER unit, which I will also review.
Bought the SONY for under $130 at Circuit City online.
I was looking for a unit that had decent tone control features, Text display for CDs that have Text encoding and good overall quality.
I've read several reviews at various sites that make complaints of this unit incorrectly. This unit has quite a few features.
What I liked:
It features 7 preset EQs, but one of them is CUSTOM which means you can adjust the tonal qualities. I believe ALL the SONY in-dash units have this feature, even their cheapest. The CUSTOM control allows adjustment of BASS, MIDRANGE and TREBLE. To my knowledge, if the SONY unit has a CUSTOM setting, you can adjust its tonal balance as you can this one.
I've read that this unit does not have user adjustable tone controls. Nothing can be further from the truth.
The CUSTOM setting features BASS at 60Hz. That's very good in my opinion. By boosting bass at 60Hz instead of the standard 100Hz, bass sounds a little smoother and deeper. It also tends to give an impression of widening the sound spectrum. The MIDRANGE setting is at the typical 1kHz and treble at the typical 10kHz. What you basically have is a 3 band equalizer user adjustable. I think the range of each band is +/- 12dB, which is quite a bit.
CD section boasts some great specs such as 120dB noise ratio. The CDs I played sounded very good. No skipping when driving over bumpy roads. Very quiet motor. I could not hear any motor hum.
CD TEXT. This feature is for both CDs with Text and MP3 type CDs. I don't burn MP3 CDs because I don't like the compression, so I can't comment on the MP3 aspect. I do burn CDs with Text describing title/artist/name of track, and this unit displays that information on its screen.
HUGE SCREEN. Very easy to read. Very easy to see in any light situation. The characters are WHITE on a BLUE background.
AUTOMATIC DIM and MANUAL DIM feature. Apparently, people don't know how to read the manuals. This unit's screen is very bright. It may be too much in low light conditions. But, it features both manual dimming, and auto dimming. If you install this unit yourself, as I did, you can connect the illumination wire from your existing wiring to this unit's lighting system. I think the wire was orange/white-striped(?). If connected properly, when you turn ON your lights, the screen on this unit AUTOMATICALLY DIMS. It works. I tried it.
Buttons are well defined and easy to locate even though they are small, as is typical of aftermarket units. Buttons have a RED backlight, as does the volume control.
Remote Control makes up for the small buttons.
This unit can memorize 18 FM stations.
Rotary volume control.
Features some type of BBE circuit which is supposed to give the impression of expanding compressed music, such as on MP3.
DSO circuit is supposed to give the impression of lifting the music to a higher point in the vehicle, so it is closer to ear level. There are 4 selectable positions for this feature.
This unit's screen can show a left/right spectrum analyzer (3 band) which will move to the music.
Output was clean and distinct. Very sharp highs. Good bass. Great midrange.
What I did not like:
This is trivial, but I didn't like the blue color. Many in dash units now have the blue backlighting. It doesn't match my vehicle's other electronics, which are green. It stood out too much for me.
The TEXT only showed the first 7 letters. Needless to say, much of the titles, artist names and selection names were omitted. This unit did not scroll the TEXT for the CDs I play. I think it might for MP3 type Text(?).
Highs were very sharp, almost too much so. In my opinion, many SONY audio products feature over-emphasized highs. They tend to sound a little shrill.
Radio reception was a little disappointing. Did not sound as good as I expected.
I liked the spectrum analyzer effect, which can be turned OFF too. I liked the overall sound. I really liked the size and clarity of the display.
I tried the BBE sound on my regular CDs and I thought it made them sound too harsh. But others may like the sound. At least it's a choice you have.
I also tried the DSO feature. It too made the mids and highs a little harsh. Again, it's a sound that might appeal to some, depending on your speaker systems and type of music. It's another choice and a way to manipulate the sound output.
This is a nice unit at a good price.
