Customer Reviews

Sony CDXM60UI Marine CD Receiver MP3/WMA/AAC Player with USB Wire for iPod and USB Devices (White/Silver)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is the third stereo I've had in my boat and I like it. It has lots of features and was very easy to install. Based on the other two stereo's I have used, this one plays cleaner, loader and allows my kids to use their MP3 players. I especially like the ability to put an MP3 CD in and let it play on shuffle for the whole afternoon. Some stereos take awhile to find the next random song, this one does it very quickly which is a big plus. The wireless remote is a nice feature but you have to be facing the stereo. The only drawback is when you change the volume if you accidently push on the volume knob, you go to the setup menu. Just a bit of a nuisance.

I bought a Ski Centurion Elite V 22' boat and wanted to upgrade the stereo system from the existing Alpine unit (which didn't have an i-pod port) and the older marine speakers. I installed this Sony Amp, along with the Sony CDXM60UI Marine Stereo and 6 Polk DB-651 speakers (4 in the boat & 2 on the tower). This combination has a clean crisp sound, even at a higher volume, with a nice bass. I'm so impressed with this Sony Stereo and all of its features. My installer was also impressed with how this system sounded. I would recommend it highly.

Purchased this unit to replace my old one. Chose it for the USB iPod interface. Great unit. Local iPod interface is a bit difficult to use, but holding the MODE button down for a few seconds switches the UI back to the iPod, which is a MUST with teenagers on the boat. Added a USB extension so the kids could plug in behind the drivers seat and change the songs so I can concentrate on driving. Unit has plenty of power, separate sub outputs. One thing I recommend is shortening the 'auto-off' feature so you don't run the boats battery down at night.

Solid marine stereo. IPOD interface could use some work. You have to play with it a little to get used to the interface. Leaving the controls on the IPOD would be much easier.

Installed this on my Harley and had to buy another one after the first time I washed my bike. Apparently, marine radios shouldn't get wet? If water gets in between the body and detachable faceplate, game over.

I also don't like the fact that you have to choose between the clock being displayed or title/track/artist etc... The clock should be displayed full time and then the user can choose between displaying song title or artist etc.

One positive about the receiver is the ability to add on an iPod and sattelite. There is also an AUX in for other MP3 players. I like the fact that I can set the iPod to be controlled from the iPod and not the receiver face.

I would not have bought this radio again if it wasn't for the fact that all my after-market gear was designed for a Sony. I am able to keep my handlebar controls which is great on the bike. Fortunately, the company that designs and manufactures the integration components makes a clear "rain cover" that fits over the radio face that keeps it safe from rain and washing.

I received this marine CD player/receiver quickly from the supplier. The packaging was quite descriptive of the unit's features, and everything included in the package made it easy to install. The wiring diagram enabled me to easily cut my old unit's harnessing, and connect the new unit's wires into place. Once installed, it worked fine. I plugged in a CD and was REALLY impressed with the superb quality sound. A major improvement over my old unit. The features are pretty easily understandable, and I was able to access most functions without even readig the manual. It's attractive as installed in my boat.
It also is very sensitive to incoming FM signals. I live on a small, 3000 acre lake in the Catskill mountain foothills in central NY. The elevation is 1300 feet, with hills blocking direct line-of-sight to the east and west. I operated the "BTM" auto tuning function, and all the storage channels competely filled in with usable signals. I can receive 18 FM channels, twice as many as what I got with my previous unit. When I didn't find my favorite channel - one which only has a barely adequate signal for my area, I set the unit to "mono", and repeated the "Best Tuning Memory" function. This time, my chaneel had been captured, and the unit produces reasonable quality sound from this weak station.
I'm sure that as I plug more sources into the unit, my satisfaction with this unit will only increase. Great job, SONY!

OK Sony CDX-M60UI. I wanted to put a good stereo in my Malibu VTX, I wanted at least one sub and 6 speakers. After looking at just about every Marine (and car audio) deck I decided to go with the Sony and here is why.
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Requirements:
1. Music can be played from a thumb drive or a some type of personal music device through a USB interface.
2. It should be a marine deck, however my boat only sees fresh water so a car deck might be OK. (The salt combined with water is the real killer)
3. Must have sub output and sub control built into the deck. Must have front & rear (R & L) 4 volt low level outputs (the Sony doesn't have this however).
4. MUST have quality wired remote capability for at least 2 remotes.
5 Must fit in a reasonable space, I decided to install it in the glove box in a custom enclosure (I built it).
6. I did not need a CD player.
7. Keeping in mind that Marine decks don't last forever, I wanted to keep the price reasonable. This way I could spend more on the amps and speakers.

So, I looked at many decks including the higher end Kenwood Marine systems and Fusion. I am not a fan of Clarion, Alpine, Pyle or Boss, so my list got short in a hurry. I wish Pioneer would make a Marine deck or at least update their remote control so it works with their newer decks, because I've been a Pioneer fan since....well, forever. Sadly, Pioneer finally got ruled out.

Fusion looks cool and appears to be well built, but I was a little leery since I've never owned one or known anyone who has owned one for any length of time. I guess on my next install (a family houseboat) I'll check em out again.

Kenwood has always been a mystery to me. People seem to be HOT on them or really cold. Reviews seem to be the same way. I liked the KMR-700U on paper and actually started to order one, then I took a look at the space required for the face. It was too big from my perspective, and I didn't see too many reviews, etc. So I held off.

Alpine; My experience with Alpine has never been great from a reliability, ergonomics, and features standpoint. I know, some people swear by Alpine and they have a slick RF WIRELESS remote control. Why all of the manufacturers do not use RADIO FREQUENCY wireless remotes is a complete mystery to me, cuz the IR remotes stink. Alpine apparently thinks their stuff is sooo good they charge a LOT for it too, but frankly if you are going to put in a quality amp and good speakers a lot of Alpine's deck potential sound quality advantage gets diminished IMHO. (Don't judge my grammar or spelling, I'm doing this on my time.)

I think Clarion might have an RF wireless remote, but I don't care at this point. Rockfort Fosgate; Spotty and I just think they have a cool name. Jensen; not. Boss and Pyle; I'm looking for something else.


So, after looking at Sony off and on during this process I decided that maybe I'd settle for Sony and specifically this unit. I'm not a giant Sony fan, because they always seemed to be sorta, I don't know, middling, but reliable. Then I started thinking, "Maybe that's what I need." Something that has the outputs, remotes, ease of use, reliability, and USB, but without the risk of the unknown. After all, when I use the boat I want EVERYTHING TO WORK. Also, it was cheaper than some solutions and uses a standard mount. So when it does die (yes, I said "when", because all Marine gear has a good chance of living a short life) I can pop another one in easily. No special install required like you need with the Kenwood KMR-700U or potentially the Fusion.


I figured I'd leave it to the AMPS and Speakers to make up for any deck weakness. I had to compromise on the 4 volt outs, Sony only provides 2 volt outs, but I figured the Kicker amps would make up the difference.

Jumping to the install, I paused during the install and before I hooked up the amps I hooked two of the speakers directly to the deck outputs to hear what they sound like... I would say...uh...adequate maybe. If you are buying this deck think about getting an amp for at least two channels.

Install was a breeze, as breezy as an install can be I guess. Just follow the DIRECTIONS, unlike some people who have posted reviews of this deck.

The deck is connected to two Kicker Marine 4 channel amps. On one amp I bridged 2 channels to provide a 10" Kicker Marine sub with power. BTW I built a ported box for this sub and it exceeded my expectations for a 10" sub by quite a bit, although building a custom ported box that fits in a tight area was a long process. The other six channels drive Kicker Marine component speakers. This seems to be a good match-up with the Sony.

Goodies:
The deck has two mono sub-woofer RCA outs, which is nice (I'm currently using one for now.). There are also front and rear left and right RCA outs. The deck has high pass and low pass settings, I'm currently set at 100 or 120Hz (can't remember), because that sounds about right for now. The setup includes several preset equalizer curves. You can set up a custom curve, but the control is limited. I personally like the preset options. You can also set the bass input level in + or - some number of db. I am not a bump bump bump guy, I like fairly balanced sound (a little extra bass) and I've it set to -1db right now.

You can set the display to red or blue, my boat is red and black so guess what I chose. The display is very good, and the controls are pretty intuitive. The remote control works great, I installed the display remote in front of the drive in a special mount I made. So I can control the deck while driving with no effort.

The wiring was easy, but I don't understand why most of the deck manufacturers don't think harder about the DESIGN of the remotes. A. Why round? It is hard to cut a really good round hole and even more difficult to make a round custom mount. B. Why make the remote housing so deep? If Apple can make the Apple Air Laptop like an inch thick, why can't Sony make the deck remote 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick instead of 3 1/2 with the stiff cables sticking directly out the back? If it was thin it could be mounted in many locations without cutting a 3" diameter hold in something. How about a 1/2 thick rectangular wired remote that can be mounted to any flat surface (read the boat transom) with only a small hole behind it to feed the wiring through? You might sell more if owners didn't have to cut a big hole in their boats. C. It could be wireless with NO cable, you might loose the LCD display, but that is fine for the transom for instance. Rant off.

The FM radio works fine it doesn't have a built in HD Radio, but many waterways have terrible radio coverage anyway. One thing all Marine radios need is station memory that is non-volatile, because many boat owners disconnect the battery when the boat is not in use to prevent inadvertent battery drain. So you loose the stations and sometimes your setup. If they put the stations in non-volatile memory the station presets would be kept, you loose them with this unit.

The USB works OK for me, I just use a thumb drive so I don't get a lot of function. Haven't tried it with an IPOD or anything. It sounds very good, but all digital media is very sensitive to the type of encoding. MP3, for instance, is a low quality encoding and your sound will vary depending on the quality of the decoder and electronics behind it. I use high quality formats and the sound is very good. BTW The USB is not in the front, there is a cable that can be pulled out from behind.

I'm actually glad this unit has a CD it sounds very good and has a memory buffer to eliminate skips. I was not planning to use the CD very much, but a lot of people still keep CDs in their cars and bring them on the boat.

I haven't tried everything, but the unit worked great during a 7 day Shasta Lake trip. It got a workout and so far its been great. Everyone seems to be able to figure out how to operate it, and the system cranks. The wired remote works well, you never get all the info on the remote's LCD that you get on the deck display, but I didn't expect to.

Oh, I don't have tower speakers yet and I may not get them (not really something that has been missed), but I'm thinking of adding a less powerful sub in the rear side well, like a small Bazooka just for fill, but it isn't necessary. Maybe I'll use the money for gas...that is necessary.

So far I'm very happy, It is an all around nice deck. The price is a tad high and I'm not seeing much discounting which probably means they are probably selling well. Anyway, I can recommend this deck for the things I use it for.

Cheers---

After an Alpine none marine radio I had in my boat started messing up I purchased this Sony CDXM60UI marine receiver for my boat. The Ipod/iphone cord alows me to enjoy hours of music and control the music eather from radio face, wireless remote that was included, or a wired transom remote mounted on the back of the boat all while keeping iphone 3GS or ipod charged. Controlling sub is easy and coupled with two large amps, the sound is unbelieveable. I was so impressed that I bought a secound one for my Harley Davidson. Ipod/iphone cord is long enough that I was able to run the cord down backbone of bike just outside of the sadlebag and while riding put my phone in saddlebag with short ipod cord extension and listen to itunes while rolling down the road. None amplified on the bike receiver still sounds great feeding two titan 6.5 faring mounted speakers.

I was hesitant to purchase this unit since a less expensive Sony Marine stereo failed me after about two years. The radio still worked, but I had to press the face plate in just to get the buttons to function. However, the stereo is mounted in my Jeep Wrangler, which seldom has the top up or doors on and is driven off-road in rough, desert conditions regularly.

Replacing this stereo with my old Sony was a breeze. The wiring adapter and mounting sleeve were identical, so I just used the supplied keys to pull the old one out and slide the new one in; a 5 minute job at best.

After using this stereo for a week now, I'm already blown away at its sound and features. I have aftermarket speakers but I rely on the stereo's built-in amp. It sounds far better than the old stereo with plenty of volume to make freeway listening enjoyable.

The USB capability is very convenient. I reformatted an old USB thumb drive and loaded over a thousand songs in folders named according to genre. The USB drive plugs into a long cable that is permanently connected to the rear of the stereo, which I fed to end in the glove compartment. Songs play off the thumb drive immediately and the stereo scrolls by artist, album or title. Finding one song out of the thousand is possible with a well-designed feature, too. After hitting the search button (magnifying glass), you use the volume knob to scroll through the folders and press the knob to select it. Next you scroll through the songs within that folder (alphabetical by artist) using the volume knob and press it in again to play the song. During this time, the current song still plays so there's no interruption in music. Just be sure you don't rear end somebody while doing all this.

For those of you with Droids, to play songs off your phone you'd set it up to act as a simple USB device and plug it in (USB adapter necessary). I haven't done this yet, but it should work like any other USB thumb drive. You can also output your headphone jack directly into the radio's auxillary port but I haven't had a need to.

My only gripes are that the left side of the unit is rather complicated, so it's possible to accidentally hit the wrong button. It also feels like you have to crank the volume knob just to get a slight difference of volume, so when a great song comes on, you may need to crank that knob 15 or so clicks. Finally, when in the settings mode to make EQ or fader settings, that mode stays there until you press the volume knob multiple times to cycle through all the settings rather than just timing out to volume again.

I haven't messed with it's CD player and never plan to. No more skips, dirty discs and multiple burns to add new songs with this thing. Time will tell how it'll hold up, but I need all the water/dust/shock protection I can get.

I installed the receiver this sunday on my 25' grady white which houses the stereo in the head. Unfortunately, I can't control the volume of the receiver via the iPod in manual mode. USB functionality, sound quality, and power are excellent for the price.