Sony's new car CD deck lineup

[pata2001]

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-Ku6PN0uHUmv/c...%7CSony#see_all

Crutchfield has them on sale already. In addition to MP3 and AtracCD, not they support WMA too. Seems to be priced well, the $200 unit has fluorescent display, a feature usually kept on high end units only. The only question is whether they will support seamless/gapless with AtracCD or not. Another "missing" feature is the 7 band EQ. Seems like all of them only feature 3 band EQ. Crutchfield's info says paramaetric EQ, so maybe it will be similar to the parametric EQ on the PCDPs (which is a 3 band EQ anyway)?

Edited January 6, 2006 by pata2001

[Guest Stuge]

Pata2001 the link you have given is not a direct link

Direct link http://www.crutchfield.com/S-no3t3mWBUKw/c...ipvs=T&g=266150

[Richard_p]

I may get one of these for my car (need the car first though...). The CDX GT300 is a little over £100 making the price very competitive and it has all of the features which i'd require, being mainly connectvity to my walkman.

It looks to possible in three ways:

1 - Front Aux

2 - Rear RCA Aux

3 - Walkman adapter (seem to be hard to fine on UK websited though)

[Ginger T]

Hi,

I'm new here (posted a few times on the Minidisc forums), Anyway my old In-car MD is on its last legs so i though i'd check the Sony CD Atrac3 units out in my local Halfords.

I burnt an Atrac CD to test and to my disappointment i got gaps.

Tried the following units:

Sony CDX-R6750 Sony CDX-GT300S Sony CDX-F7750S

All had gaps, i couldn't find any settings to change (a little difficult with the display units hidden behind the plastic). Do the Atrac disks have to be burnt a special way? Or are they all Non-Gapless?

Edited January 30, 2006 by Ginger T

[Christopher]

I saw pretty much everything about these at CES. If you guys want some more info and pictures I can throw down.

[pata2001]

I burnt an Atrac CD to test and to my disappointment i got gaps.

Tried the following units:

Sony CDX-R6750 Sony CDX-GT300S Sony CDX-F7750S

All had gaps, i couldn't find any settings to change (a little difficult with the display units hidden behind the plastic). Do the Atrac disks have to be burnt a special way? Or are they all Non-Gapless?

All previous AtracCD car decks CANNOT play AtracCD gaplessly. I'm not sure about these new lineup, since my local Bestbuy refuses to show a demo unit, since they still have the older units in stock, even though they do have the new ones in stock too.

[MDX-400]

Oh wow I didn't realise they had realased a new set of models for 2006 yet. I was very impressed with last years offerings particularly the Specialty Series, after 5-6 years of solid crappy Sony mobile products. Hopefully the Specialty Series is still around? Really liked the CDX-M7815X and above from last year's lineup.

The only thing I don't like the "GT" name prefixes--makes them sound cheapy. Dunno why but that's just the way it sounds to me. Some of them are also rather disappointing now that I look at it. Seems the GT705DX is supposed to be the replacement for the M7805X from last year? But the GT has only 2 pre-amp outputs?

pata, I noticed the EQ thing too. However, at least some of them seem to have a new EQ13 13-band EQ, but it looks like instead of the lower-cost units having EQ7, they have EQ3? That kinda sucks for those who would purchase the lower-priced models.

Oh wait, once again Crutchfield is wrong... The GT705DX is the replacement for the M7815X (it is an SS model) and does indeed have 3 sets of pre-outs, plus the X-DSP (which I think facilitates EQ13).

I do have to say I liked last years' styling better though--the 2006 models look a little plain and boring. I'm not really feeling the swing slider things on the RA series.

Nomenclature is also a little weird. Like last year the 7-series had the M7805X as the standard model and the M7815X as the SS model (15 instead of 05 generally meant SS). This year they are replaced by the 705DX and GT705DX respectively. But then the GT designation has nothing to do with it being SS or not because there are several non-SS models that have "GT" on them. Makes it confusing too, like say for example that you wanted to get the GT705DX, it's easy to see how you could accidentally buy the 705DX instead as they look pretty much identical and the model name is nearly the same.

Also the GigaPanel one is certainly stupid as I said when it was first unveiled/announced. I can't believe Sony actually released that in the US. What's the point? No ATRAC3/3plus on the FP (MP3 only for unknown reasons) and 1GB isn't much more than a 800MB CD-R/RW can hold. Why they didn't just stick with the MS slot that a few earlier car units had, is beyond me. MS would have supported MagicGate and therefore ATRAC3/3plus and would have been more versatile (you can carry more than one MS, sizes are bigger than 1GB, etc.). Plus I'd hate to see the replacement cost for that FP, in case it gets broken/lost/stolen. Most of them are already in the sky, that one is probably even worse!

PS, everyone: Here is the Sony USA Press Release--seems to be a bit better than the Crutchfield info right now (I'm sure Crutchfield will update as they get these things in.)

http://news.sel.sony.com/pressrelease/6420

3 - Walkman adapter (seem to be hard to fine on UK websited though)

The Walkman adapter from Sony has actually been cancelled I believe, in favour of them releasing (of all things) an iPod adapter instead. Absolutely stupid? Yeah I'd say so.

However you can still get the Connects2 ASONWHD001 (known in the US as the MSC-01) Adapter which will give you Walkman integration. It's like Sony figured since Connects2 made one they didn't need to. But then again Connects2 also has a Sony HU to iPod integration adapter as well.

What is really annoying is that didn't Sony market all of last years models in the UK as being "Walkman Ready"? And now they decided to just forget about that and make an iPod adapter? I wonder how they are going to back up the claim of Walkman Ready now? Just tell people to buy the Connects2 adapter? LOL

[pata2001]

My local BB finally put the Sony CDX-GT200 demo unit out. Armed with a HiSP AtracCD, I tested the unit. Alas, NOT gapless. At the beginning of each track, there is a definite gap where the unit is trying to read and buffer the next track. I don't know if the same applies to the higher-end units, but knowing Sony, all units will share the same hardware. Well, there you go, another point for Sony's stupidity. They added WMA support, but didn't even bother with their own codec. AtracCD PCDPs had gapless/seamless the generation after AtracCD was first introduced. We might have a CD deck supporting AAC and built-in iPod support out of the box, and still no gapless for AtracCD.

[Chupacabra]

I just bought a Sony CDX-GT300 from Halfords for £149. I know I could have got it cheaper but I wanted to replace the Ford unit in my Focus before the local lowlife got their paws on it. There seems to be a part in the Ford units that can be used to get free SKY TV so they are a natural target to be ripped apart and sold on the black market.

Anyway, it was fairly easy to fit. I heard horror stories of Sony car players requiring Sony speaker but not the case here. Sound quality is pretty good for the price I must say through the CD and the tuner is pretty cool too. The front AUX is well useful for docking my HD5 but to be honest, ATRAC CDs can contain upto 22 albums on ATRAC3 Plus so I doubt there'd be much call to do that, especially as it results a a wire dangling all over the place on the dashboard!

The entire front panel comes off which makes the head unit pretty useless to nick but the one thing I hate about it is it's so feckin' fiddly to remove and replace! But overall it's a very good unit for its price.

[bockers]

Well I have the MEX BT5000 and that is not Gapless either

Why is it so difficult?

[pata2001]

New model: Sony CDX-GT610Ui (note the i at the end of the model number.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-kNRLx6DuOYp/c...mp;I=158GT610UI

It looks like a low end model (face plate doesn't cover the CD slot), and price is $180. In addition to standard MP3, WMA, and Atrac support, Sony adds AAC. If you look closer, there is also a USB port on the side. Seems great! Even better/funnier, note the i at the end of the model number.

built-in iPod controls and connection — no other equipment needed

LOL Great job Sony! I guess killing you own product line is easier than supporting them. Is Sony finally tossing the white towel on their walkmen products? Oh well, making money is the 1st priority, and iPod is still the best selling DAP.

Of course, who knows how good the iPod integration actually is. Most car iPod integration are pathetic, pretty much only emulating playlists to CD changer controls. But hey, I guess it's easier than integrating the walkmen lineup.

If I see this at my local bestbuy, I'll see if it support gapless/seamless playback of AtracCD (highly doubt it).

[Christopher]

Is Sony finally tossing the white towel on their walkmen products?

No, there is quite a few things in store for '07.

[MDX-400]

Is Sony finally tossing the white towel on their walkmen products?

As I remarked on the T-board, Sony had already done this a year ago (in terms of their car support for Walkman), when they decided to make the XA-110iP instead of a Walkman adapter. This is certainly no surprise.

When someone finds the press release and descriptions for the new 2007 car HU lineup however, I think we should start a new thread for that instead of having a thread which starts out with 2006 units and then mentions the 2007 units later. This thread is essentially a year old...

[pata2001]

Why? It's still a thread about CDX-GTxxx series.

[doclloyd]

No, there is quite a few things in store for '07.

How soon will the rest of us hear about what Sony has in store? Will those of us who use ATRAC be happy overall?

[MDX-400]

Why? It's still a thread about CDX-GTxxx series.

Huh??? It's a whole new model year that's why. GTxxx means nothing. If you wanted to go by model numbers you'd have had a thread going from like 1992-2002 with CDX-Cxxx models...

We have a new thread everytime some new random flash player model set comes out, sometimes even one for individual players (and there are like 50 of those released a year ) so why would we have one thread for car audio models w/ATRAC support; and at that covering years of model lineups? Talk sense!

[BIGHMW]

I saw the CDX-GT81UW on Crutchfield's website, and it has a USB input for external devices, will it work with my MZ-NH700 Hi-MD (and other NetMD/Hi-MD and HDD-based Network) Walkman units and will it support ATRAC/ATRAC3plus files, as I am looking for something to upgrade from my old MDX-C5970 in my 1999 VW Beetle, and I intend to use it to power my Hi-MD unit through the car deck without having to tear out the dash and install both my Connects2 Walkman (ASONWHD001) adapter and an XA-C40 to use it along with my MDX-65 6-MiniDisc changer.

It is not as easy to install it in a New Beetle, as opposed to my project fixer-upper 1963 VW Bus, which also uses an MDX-C5970, with a Connects2 in it, as it is easy to get to the dash and inner front area (a.k.a. the "crush zone" of an air-cooled VW), so this newer unit will be perfect for use with the Walkman.

Keep me posted, guys, as far as Walkman compatibility on the new 2007 GT series of car decks with the USB.

[BIGHMW]

T I think we have a winner here, when it comes to the ATRAC Walkman compatibility issue with the GT81UW, so read up fellow anti-ipod enthusiasts out there as Sony has FINALLY answered us!!!

http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9675618-1...g=blog#talkback