Customer Reviews

Sony CDX-GT630UI MP3/WMA/AAC Compliant CD Receiver

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I purchased this radio and installed it myself about a week ago. I love it. It looks great and it is so simple and easy to use!

I have no idea why people are saying the interface is bad and it takes a ton of clicks to get anywhere. Maybe they are taking the long way? It takes me no more than 5-10 seconds to make any adjustments. I also find the volume very easy to control. You don't accidentally enter any menus by adjusting the volume. You would definitely have to try to get into the menus.

The flip down to access the CD drive is great - it keeps it clean and lasts longer. The colors are great and the removable faceplate keeps the radio from being stolen.

The sound clarity is amazing as well. The USB port is great. I just plug in my iPod with the cable that came with it (same one you use to hook it up to your computer). It charges it and I can control the songs right from my radio! No sense in paying for the auxiliary cable PLUS cable to charge it because you can do it all through the USB that came with the iPod.

I'm beyond happy with my choice! I would highly recommend this radio and would definitely buy it again.

OK, I don't listen to music. I listen to books on disk/tape. I bought this radio so I could copy the book onto a USB drive and listen to it on the road. Of course, it's VERY important that the order of the tracks stay the same on the USB drive as they were on the disk. Well, they don't. I kept copying it and trying it and copying it and trying it and the tracts always seemed to be in a random order. No, I didn't have it on Shuffle. I'm kind of a computer geek, so this just drove me crazy. I finally Googled the problem. No matter what order you copy the tracts (files) onto the USB drive, they ACTUALLY are in some internal order based on the FAT table. When you look at the tracts (files) on the USB drive while the USB drive is still hooked up to your PC, you can sort the order you SEE them, but you really are not sorting the order of the tracts (files) on the USB drive; just the way they are presented to you for viewing. I also discovered that "most cheap mp3 players" don't have enough intelligence built into them to interpret the sort order of the FAT table on the USB drive. So even though the tracts LOOKED like they were in alphabetical order when they were on my PC, this Sony radio (along with LOTS of other mp3 players) will always play them in the order they were placed on the USB's FAT table. Bummer. Solution? I found and downloaded several freeware programs that claimed to actually sort the FAT table on a USB drive into alphabetical order. The sixth one I tried finally worked. It's called Mp3DirSorter and there are several others I didn't get around to trying. I'm not claiming this is the best solution. It's just a solution that seems to work.

The Sony radio is great and plays my books wonderfully. I just wish I didn't have to go through an extra step when copying the book onto the USB drive.

I purchased this and installed it at a local big box electronics store. I felt it was in the right range for simplicity. Some radios like the Duals might have onboard bluetooth and HD radio included. This one doesn't. But the front plate USB port is simplicity and useful to me right now. i can load up flash drives and take music with me quickly. I havent' tested my creative player yet, but I hope that works too.

The look of it is a little less elegant than some of the pioneers and alpines look. The knob feels ok, don't get me wrong, but when you turn it, it's not like it feels expensive. You know how some knobs are just bang on perfect and tight and feel expensive. I like how mine has both blue and green lighting. I'm using green, as I'm tired of blue right now.

the buttons are straight forward, the LCD screen is not full pixel LCD, you can kind of see the limits of it, whereas some radios you can play full motion video because it's not locked in to certain lettering.

the USB detection has been superfast. that's awesome. Sound is clear. Radio is good. I figured if I want to update it later, by then, HD add-ons will be cheaper in a couple years and i can always get bluetooth added on, or get it through a garmin navi or something. There aren't that many front USB head units. This one, the previous sony (610) and a kenwood were the few. the kenwood's usb has a plastic cap that looks really cheap. This one is nicer. The rest have rear USB piped in from the back into your ashtray or glove box. I dont' like that, I wanted it easy. And I think this newer model navigates songs much better.

This is the only iPhone 3G compatible car stereo to date. I purchased one in Circuit City for a good bargain price because I purchased the GT820IP prior to this to find out that it doesn't charge my iphone (and also the latest ipods from what I heard). So I rushed back to Circuit City to ask why it doesn't charge. Then they recommended this one which is the only one that is compatible to my iPhone 3G.

They installed it and all and it doesn't come with a Sony Ipod Adapter. It's ok since it has the USB slot in front. You can plug your iphone data cable (that comes included with your iphone) and it works flawlessly. It charges and plays music.

The accessory mode is ON when you plug it but if you want to control the music using your iphone, it has this Passenger Mode feature that lets you control your iphone to play music. That means you can also watch movies and videos from your ipod. If you have a movie in your iphone, you can play it and hear the sounds in your car stereo. It's an awesome deal! You get an ipod and a video player all in one when you get to do long drives and watch movies for hours. The iphone maps feature assists you in driving as well (hope they'll be releasing their GPS software soon).

Basically it makes my iphone the ultimate car travel companion. I would prefer this to everyone. Only minor issue is sometimes my iPhone doesn't load when plugged. It happened to me twice but not a major drawback.

I'm an old audiophile, and am very picky about the sound quality of anything I use to play music. This radio replaced an old Denon unit in my Fiero. I normally buy Pioneer stereos for my cars, because I prefer their tuner section, but this radio managed to pull in a low power college station from 25 miles away (in the mountains), even while in the garage, with a metal roof and the steel garage door closed! The sensitivity is as good as I could hope for.

The volume/multi-function control is not as bad as some reviewers stated. If you are careful the volume control works well, but if you inadvertently press it in, you will have to locate the "cancel" button or wait 5 seconds for it to return to normal mode - not a good thing when you need to concentrate on the road. It would be better if Sony had engineered it so you have to hold the control in for a second or so (rather than instantaneous response) in order to access those functions.

Another mild annoyance is with the backlighting. The display dims when you turn on the car's lights, but the backlighting for the buttons doesn't, and that can be a distraction; I had to switch the lighting color from blue (my preference) to green to reduce the glare somewhat.

One final problem is with the MP3 playback. If you have a huge single file, there is no way to jump forward in large steps; the fast forward only goes at (maybe) 3-4 times normal speed. Most people don't have 1 or 2 hour long MP3s, though, so this might not be an issue for you.

The programming options are pretty comprehensive. The ability to turn off the animations on the display is a great feature, IMO.

Overall, I'm very satisfied with the stereo - the sound quality is equal to the quality of the Infinity speakers I have, and the sale price made this purchase a no-brainer. I think you would have to spend well over twice the price to get any better audio system for your car.

I purchased this stereo specifically to use with my iPhone via the USB connector. Overall I'm happy with sound quality and the interface is easy to use, with the exception of the next/previous track buttons which are small, hard to find, and too close to other buttons.

The iPod/iPhone integration is great. You can browse through your playlists, podcasts, artists, etc. all from the console. One important note though - if you want to play audio from other apps (like Pandora) you need to put the stereo into "Passenger" mode first. To do this just hold down the "mode" button for a few seconds when your iPod/iPhone is connected. I recommend just leaving the system in Passenger mode all the time since the default mode locks your phone and prevents you from doing anything else while connected.

If you plan on playing music from a USB thumb drive, be aware that this unit will not play back songs in alphabetical order. Instead the playback order depends on how the songs are physically arranged in the file system. Its a pain, but if you really want to control the play back order there are free tools that allow you to view and edit the ordering (you cannot do this from Windows directly.) This problem only applies to USB drives - iPods/iPhones will play back songs in playlist order like you would expect.

One last nuisance - everytime you turn off your car, the unit will beep (quite loudly) three times. I believe this is a reminder for you to remove the faceplate (no thanks) and as far as I can tell, there is no way to disable this.

Bought this for my daughter and she loves it! the instructions from crutchfield were great and she installed it herself...now this is a girl who asks: what kind of screwdriver? plus sign or minus?

I was skeptical of how well this would fit my needs. Most other 'works with iPhone' products are not as functional as they should be.

The good:
-The iPhone playlist ALWAYS resumes play where it left off! Great for podcasts and audiobooks!!
-I can control my iPhone through both the iPhone itself, and the stereo
-No need to buy another cable. iPhone plugs in using apple charging cable
-Sounds MUCH better than my previous sony 50watt x 4 stereo
-Much better radio reception than my previous sony stereo
-Simple user interface for radio preset programming. Much easier than my previous sony stereo
-Very easy to use track preview for iPod/iPhone. I didn't know I wanted this feature (Zappin), but it is VERY useful.

The bad:
-Install guide is a mix of 3 languages..... horrible!

The ugly:
-The system defaults to a DEMO mode, which displays a circus of flashing lights telling you how great sony thinks the radio is. VERY OBNOXIOUS AND DISTRACTING!!! I had to consult my operating instructions to find a way to turn off the rave lightshow.

Overall, the best under $200 car radio that I have ever owned.

This review is a bit tricky.
This stereo has a great look to it, but it also has it's draw backs.

The Good news:
> Intall is a snap, well the first time...
> Multiple configurations, Lows, Mids and Highs.
> Sub inputs are easy to integrate
> One of the few with Ipod and USB !
> Sound quality is outstanding!

The bad news:
> It went out several times after installing. We found that the wiring harness does not lock into the back of the unit. NICE SONY really NICE! can we say common sense!
> Make sure you use wire ties, tape and anything else you can to secure the harness. Also, ensure you have enough slack wiring so it doesn't vibrate out after installation.
> Buttons are small, really small. You won't be able to use gloves..
> The volume control is touchy, too touchy. It is also the same button used to set the controls. Soooo, if you touch it and press on it, you end up messing up your settings.....Again, common sense outstanding Sony engineering, not really....
3 out of 5 due to lack of thought, by the engineers.

Love my new radio. I really enjoy being able to shuffle by playlist, genre, artist, et cetera. And the usb charger also plays and charges my Samsung Rogue. No problem with installation. When I finally did read the manual it was weeks later just because I wanted to turn off demo mode. The sound quality is amazing. The radio is beautiful. And the ease of use really pleases me.