Customer Reviews

Sony MEX-1HD Car Stereo

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First off, I have read all the reviews and heard many opinions by what I believe are car audio snobs. My suggestion is to ignore anyone without pratical, first hand experience with a product.

To that end I would strongly recommend the MEX-1HD. Why should my opinion matter any more than others...I own one. I have had it since it was released - before actually, thanks to a friend.

My car audio system consists of this wonderful head unit, a Precision Power (PPI) 600W amplifier, a/d/s 365is seperates in the front and 345i two ways in the rear for fill. In addition I have a single Crossfire - formerly a JL Audio - 10" sub in a custom enclosure in the trunk. This is merely to put to rest the doubters that believe in the few key brands and to give an idea of how much money I spent all based around the MEX-1HD.

Now no head unit is perfect and this one has a few glaring flaws. Let me list its high and low points as Pros and Cons.

Pros:
Sound - regardless of what many may think, this unit sounds absolutely fabulous listening to CDs or off the hard drive.

ATRAC3 - this format allows for an immense amount of storage (I have 1000 tracks and have only used 60% of the hard drive)

CD Text - this should be self explanatory

Memory Stick and digital I/O inputs - so you can bring even more music with you INCLUDING mp3 songs.

Equalization - I keep everything flat thanks to a great install but there is a ton of room for customization.

Cons:
ATRAC3 - since this is a proprietary and secure format you can't just rip songs to your MEX-1HD and take them everywhere on another device. You can find more info about this anywhere on the net

Manually entry of titles - if you have not loaded the Gracenote library (via Memory Stick if it wasn't pre-loaded)- then you will have to enter the titles of albums artists and tracks manually. This can be alleviated by simply loading the Gracenote library before you start ripping CDs to the drive.

Steep learning curve - if you are not a computer savy user you may have some trouble getting used to all the features of the stereo (it has a LOT)

I hope this helps anyone considering upgrading to this type of stereo. There are other options out there but do not be disuaded by people who tell you Sony is junk simply because it is a mass-market brand.

I own this XPLOD and is the best car audio unit i ever tried. the management of sources is incredible fast and easy of use. With the rotating knobs you can access all the tracks, folders and sound parameters in an instant... you'll love this unit. Unfortunatelly my hard drive failed and after i replace it with the same brand, and model i can't use it because it can't be recognized. Sony from Peru can't help me with the partition... by the way is the best car audio unit.