Customer Reviews

Sony MEXBT2700 CD Receiver with Bluetooth Hands-Free with Integrated Microphone (Black)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I purchased and installed this unit yesterday. It does do what it says: radio/CD/Bluetooth connection for phone and audio streaming. It does seem to do these things well, and pairing with my iPhone 3G (w/3.0 software) was easy enough. However, there are a few limitations/annoyances that you should be aware of:

1) Single-line display gives no input as to who is on the phone, or what is playing through streaming bluetooth audio. Not a problem for me, but numerous car stereos (all more expensive) will do that.

2) The microphone used for bluetooth calling is embedded in the unit. For me, this is a plus: the lack of external microphone makes my care look cleaner. For others, this may be a minus: the embedded microphone is probably less effective at picking up your voice than an external microphone would be. If you plan on talking through the phone a lot, you may want to spring for a more expensive unit that focuses on doing this task better.

3) There are a few minor user interface oddities/inconsistencies. However, every car stereo I've ever used has had its own way of doing things. This system is better than many (Pioneer!), and the buttons are nicely laid out and labeled.

4. This one bugs me to no end, though I suspect others are less annoyed: The car stereo beeps three very annoying times when you take your key out of the ignition, unless you remove your faceplate. This security/insanity feature can not be disabled. The beeps are annoying, but I'm truly annoyed that no reviews on Amazon or Crutchfield mention this. I guess I could have read the manual online first to look for this issue, but I didn't think of that.

5. With the unit paired to both my phone and my wife's phone, it is annoying to make the stereo change its attention from one phone to the other. This is, in part, an annoyance due to the way bluetooth settings are accessed on our iphones. However, it is annoying.

These are all minor issues (though those beeps do drive me crazy), and the unit does work well otherwise. I'm glad I bought it, and would happily buy it again for my purposes: radio, bluetooth audio streaming, bluetooth phone infrequent use. If you're planning on talking on the phone a lot, or if you want more bluetooth-related information from the stereo, you should probably look elsewhere.

I truly wanted this to be an amazing review, and the sound I get from this unit is amazing. Unfortunately there are so many draw backs that I have decided to return it. First let me say I purchased this unit from Best Buy, not Amazon. I got the installation kit and wiring kit so installation was truly a breeze. Connect green wire to green wire, red to red, etc. Worked great first try. Then the practical problems began.

I purchased this unit for its bluetooth capabilities to work with my droid phone.

1. The bluetooth music playback is intolerable. The music skips and has tempo issues so bad that it is not usable. I later found out that many bluetooth units are having this same issue, even the Ford Sync units which come factory installed. Hopefully this will be solved with future encoding upgrades so the bandwidth being used over bluetooth does not conflict and choke with other signals built into a phone, like wifi. For now though I had hoped the aux in would solve the problem and make this unit useable.

2. The aux in worked perfectly and sounded great but unfortunately some genius put the built in mic behind the faceplate of this unit making the audio to everyone I call muffled and full of static. The few calls that were audible to the caller were done with the engine off in the driveway.

3. To top this unit off there is a white ring light around the volume knob that is blinding at night and no way I can find to dim or disable this. I can dim the readout but not this very bright light.

Conclusion,
I truly wanted to find some workarounds to make this unit work as it was a Christmas present from my wife and kids so I could have all the benefits of bluetooth in the vehicle but it has been a complete disappointment and I will be returning it and waiting until I can justify spending the money to get a unit that at least allows me to have clear calls over bluetooth until the music over bluetooth can be improved upon.

Final suggestion. If this is the price range you are looking at then buy a unit with an aux in for music playback but use your bluetooth headset for clear calls.

Thanks
n2imagination

My main motivation for purchasing this receiver was to have the ability to stream audio from my iPhone 3GS. I've only had this unit installed for a couple of days , so I can't speak for the reliability but I find the sound quality to be excellent in that regard. Before this I was using the Motorola T505 FM transmitter, which I had for about four months. It was great at first but after a while I got tired of changing frequencies for clear signals and having to charge the battery. The Sony MEXBT2700 took care of all that and now I have one less device to deal with, making life just a little simpler which is key for me. One minor annoyance for me was that, although the iPhone 3GS has limited AVRCP support (play, pause & stop) with OS 3.0, the play/pause commands do not seem to be working for me with the remote as outlined in the manual. Play/Pause does however work for me via the receiver itself. Not really a big deal but I just thought it might be worth mentioning for the other iPhone users.

The CD player and FM stereo will get less use in my vehicle than the Bluetooth audio but they both sound great as well. I was pleased to discover that radio reception is excellent...much better than the factory unit it replaced.

As far as the phone function is concerned, so far I haven't found it to be as bad as what I was expecting after reading the other reviews. Granted, it's not stellar either which is why I knocked off one star with my rating. I have mine installed in a Ford Escape and the people I called to try it out reported that, although the sound quality wasn't the best, they were able to hear me clearly. When asked if the audio quality was annoying enough to warrant rushing the phone call, the answer was no. Not sure if these results will change the more I use this function in the future. The only time I really got less than desirable results was when both me and my wife were both utilizing hands-free calling in our vehicles. As an FYI, my experience yielded best results with the mic set to low-sensitivity.

In conclusion, I'm very pleased with this purchase and if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't hesitate to buy this receiver. It suits my needs very well and didn't break the bank. I certainly feel comfortable recommending it for those whose primary use will also be the audio streaming. If a high quality Bluetooth phone function is your major requirement, then you may want to do a little more research on the other options out there before pulling the trigger on this one. I did find out after my purchase that the next higher model (MEXBT2800) supports RDS, so those who are willing to pay just a little more for that function may want to take a look at that model as well.

I just put one of these in my wife's car
The two main reasons I bought this unit was the 1/8" input so she can listen to her IPod through the speakers.
The second was the Bluetooth feature so she can talk on the phone hands free.

Installation was easy (for someone that is moderately versed in car electronics) in a Toyota Corolla took about 1.5 hours with everything.
The MEX-BT2700 is everything it claims to be at a very reasonable price.
The Bluetooth function works well in both directions your callers can hear you and you can hear them like they are sitting right there in your car.

Sound quality is great across the board.

One thing I was not too sure about was; why would you need this if you have to pick up your phone to make a call anyway? Not so; The unit has the ability to redial the last number on your cell phone with the push of a button. plus, I didnt know this when I bought it, but it can also give voice commands to your cell phone, so all you have to do is talk into the unit and give it a tagged voice command and it will call that number for a total hands free experience.

The only quirk I found in this unit is; A user recorded ringtone on a Razr v3 will cause user of the MEX-BT2700 to be able to hear you but they will not be able to talk to you (it mutes the units microphone for some reason). Solution, of course, is to change the ringtone . She will have many good years of listening and safe talking

This is easy to use and has lots of great features. It's one of the cheapest units out there with built in Bluetooth, which works great. That was the main reason I picked this particular unit.

I LOVE this stereo. I don't think you could purchase anything better for the money. I was really enoyed with the Demo mode, but that is easily taken off. I think the bluetooth is awesome. I use my Blackberry for my mp3 player and it works perfectly with the stereo. The handsfree for the phone is ok. You can hear great but I know that people calling have some difficulty hearing you. I still think that for the price, you aren't going to beat this unit.

This deck is really a great deck for those looking to upgrade their CD deck and are not interested in a USB connection. The deck has all the feature that you could think of: bluetooth, sat and HD radio ready and an aux jack. For 150$ you will not find anything better. If your looking for a great deck with lots of features and don't care about USB this is the one for you.

This is an excellent inexpensive CD Player that has everything anyone would need. Functions are easily accessed and the blue tooth hands ready is very simple to use. This is definitely worth every penny.

Installed in a Honda Civic. Unit is very feature packed for it's price point. Kudos to Sony for that.

I'm hearing streaming Bluetooth music quality issues. Not tied to this Sony deck but generally across all Bluetooth music players.

Most people will buy this deck for the Bluetooth phone/music streaming features.

Mic is covered behind the faceplate. Bad design.

If you plan on hooking an amp to this, be aware the limitations. Good stuff is you have crossover frequency controls built in to the unit. Although somewhat limited in range, it's very handy if you don't have an amp with crossover on board. Plus it's nice to tweak sound at the deck instead of running back and forth to the amp with a little screwdriver.

If you plan on hooking up a subwoofer, you'll run across this little landmine. Front RCA pre-outs are good. The rear pre-outs also double as the subwoofer out. So you're limited to two front speakers and however many subs your amp can handle for the rear. No Front/Rear/Sub capability. Not a problem in a little car like a Civic but is not optimal in say, an SUV or a decent 4-door sedan. Also, when you switch the Rear Pre-outs to "SUB OUT", you don't really get the full capability of the amp or the separation of frequencies. IE: you have to fade the front and rear 50/50 to have the head unit send any signal to the subs. A more expensive unit would allow you to send full Front fade signal AND allow the low-pass sub frequencies to go the the rear channels with full force. In summary, your sub will be crippled.

The LOUD feature on most decks, enhances bass and treble while listening at lower volume levels. This is great cause you don't have to crank it to hear nice bass and sharp treble. When really playing on a great song, you'll usually turn this off as it will distort at moderately loud levels. On this deck, you have to dive into the setup menus and scroll through the settings to turn this off and on. Most better decks have a button for this.

The manual was well layed out but lacked a little in explaining the settings and what different combinations would do.

All in all a nice deck and typical Sony quality. But if you plan on adding a subwoofer, move up in price point and features.

I would recommend for entry-level consumers.

I needed Bluetooth and a stereo that could play my iPhone/iPod in my 2005 Toyota Corolla and this Sony stereo works great! I have a 3G iPhone and I am able to use the Bluetooth phone AND Bluetooth Audio with this stereo, no wires, and it is clear enough for people to talk to me with ease and the sound of my iPod is great. I had the stereo installed at Best Buy and it was the stereo that they recommended for the price, quality and features. Happy with my purchase.