SONY MEX-5DI CD Receiver for Car Stereo

by Sony

Product Details

Product Manual [5.00mb PDF]

• Item Weight: 4 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000683BL
• Item model number: MEX-5DI
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: May 14, 2002

Product Description

Sony welcomes you to a world of color with this in-dash receiver. This CD player has a 32,000-color Thin Film Transistor (TFT) LCD screen that you can customize to show digital photos and animations. You can also show panoramic photos, pre-loaded pictures, or full-motion screen savers. It has the G-ProtectionM-^Y motorized tray mechanism, which drastically reduces CD skipping, and even features a Memory Stick« media slot so you can show off your pictures and bring your MP3 music along for the ride.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Top of the line, but not perfect., November 11, 2003

By 

"tripnotemple" (Boston, Ma USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: SONY MEX-5DI CD Receiver for Car Stereo (Electronics)

Let's start by getting the obvious out of the way. This cd player is gorgeous. From the chrome face and lcd screen, to the amount of features the Mex-5di offers, it's quite an amazing head unit. Cd/mp3 playback quality is great, but keep in mind that the Mex-5di has no built-in amplification, so for good sound quality you'll also need good aftermarket amplifiers.

The motorized cd tray is a nice touch, and coupled with Sony's G-protection, you'll never hear another distracting "chirp" of the cd skipping when you drive through a pothole.

Also nice is the ability to personalize your cd player with pictures and short movie clips. Sizing the movie clips for playback takes some work however, as the image cannot be over 64x64 bytes and cannot be more than 10 frames long. The Mex-5di is more flexible with still pictures, and will automatically size pictures to fit the display.

Most important to keep in mind is the fact that the short movie clips and slideshows will play back WHILE DRIVING, and it is completely legal for it to do so.

I do however have one complaint about this cd player, and that is the lack of a detachable face. For one, anyone who sees you drive by will most likely see your bright expensive cd player shining back at them. Sony did come up with an alternative method to deter theft, but without giving away what it is... let's just say it won't work, and without an alarm system on your car you'll spend a lot of time worrying about the safety of your cd player.

Also, I live in New England and in the winter the temperature in the car will often times drop below freezing. Without a detachable faceplate, the liquid crystal display is subject to the elements and it will freeze. This won't be a problem unless you turn the unit on while the temperature in the car is below freezing. When the Mex-5di's display turns on while the crystals are frozen, the rapid heating will cause the crystals to expand and crack, ruining the display. So remember to keep the unit off for a good 10 minutes while the car is warming up.

All in all, the Mex-5di is a top-notch cd player. If Sony came out with this same model tomorrow with a detach face, I would sell my Mex-5di and buy the new model. But as of right now, this cd player is hands-down the best on the market.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I wonder why this model was discontinued, June 7, 2004

By 

Brian Alexander Owens SR (Gresham, Oregon United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: SONY MEX-5DI CD Receiver for Car Stereo (Electronics)

The chrome finish combined with the 32,000-color TFT screen is a nice touch and ahead of it's time. However over owning this product for about 15 or so months I have slowly explored some of the features and made some disappointing discoveries. None of the "defects" with the device make it inoperable, however it just makes the Sony MEX-5DI irritating to own and the unit somewhat fussy.

Here are some of the problems in the sequence which I found them: 1) Two pixels solid blue (will not change). 2) Startup screen that used to display "Sony" simply turns on to a white grayish screen and seconds later goes from grey to bright white to the normal screen (repeats every hard and soft restart.) 3) When in CD mode combined with the "image view" of the CD jacket mode (the most complicated of the different available view modes) when switching source the image freezes. 4) Upon exiting the "Sound" menu, the screen freezes up. 5) The XM logo in XM mode disappeared and I can't get it back.

Most of the problems I have described are just irritants. Some problems can be alleviated by simply restarting the unit with a hard restart (holding the off button down.) However if you plan to compete with a $600 piece of equipment, I would probably pick a different brand. I spoke with their Sony customer care rep and they said that because I owned the unit past the initial warrantee I would have to send them $125 flat fee to look at it. Forget that... Talking to the Sony people was just about as irritating. I called them once about a year ago and again yesterday. Their answers apparently are canned off a flowchart. Most of the solutions involved resetting the CD player with the reset switch or turning the unit off which again alleviates the problem until the next time the unit freezes. For $439 I can buy the M9900 model which hopefully they worked the bugs out.

None of the problems I mentioned were enough alone to send the unit back, but for such a large investment, was a disappointment.

7 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Just missed being great, June 14, 2002

By 

SoundSyT. Audio "DH" (MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: SONY MEX-5DI CD Receiver for Car Stereo (Electronics)

Very functional with excellent sound, clarify, and esthetics. Very clean look out front but lots of solid gear under the chrome hood here.
Use of MP3, CD and including the memory stick is a nice touch. Lots of flexibility here.
Fun to take photos and download them for display. Doesnt record like Sonys most expensive model but why would you want to? For the additional $500 I would rather see see this unit include a LCD display for a in-dash roll out monitor for a GPS system. Also the ability to change the LED lighting from blue to green or red and an optional black to the chrome plated cover would be welcome additions. That said, this unit is top notch or it would not be residing in my Lexus SC400's $6K system. I hooked this Sony MEX-5DI up with Boston Acoustics top-of-the-speakers front and rear with 2 ea. additional 10" BA sub woofers in the trunk. I used 2 ea. Extant X-series amps to finish off and power the entire system. Many people tell me it's the finest system they have ever heard. That pretty much speaks for itself in my view.