Surprise from Sony
Written: Dec 09 '02
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Pros: Pricepoint, easy controls, radio still works fine
Cons: Quality, reliability of CD mechanism
The Bottom Line: A good looking CD receiver plagued by problems and ultimately failing.
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| openroad's Full Review: Sony CDX-L550 X Car CD Player |
Overview
To give a brief background on my Sony experiences, I have purchased at least $5000 in Sony products over the years. From TVs, VCRs, DVD players, Digital cameras, Video cameras, Playstation 1 and 2, Receivers, Boomboxes... well I hope you get the picture. They are definitely my preferred brand, and for a reason. I have had excellent results with 95% of their products.
Now on to the CDX-L550X receiver. I bought this unit in the spring of 2001 to replace the stock stereo in my Subaru wagon. I was tight on cash at the time, so I didn't go to high up the product line. I liked the features this unit had, and assumed it would last several years like the other Sony car audio components I had before. I will explain in the following sections my likes and dislikes about this model. I am just a guy looking for a good CD player, not a car-audiophile so I may be a bit vague about the expansion possibilities of this unit. I never had any amps, subs, capacitors, or equalizers connected. I replaced the Subaru speaker wires with those that came with the receiver and ran 5-1/4" Alpine front speakers with 4" Boston Acoustics in the rear.
Pros
The display on this unit is what I liked at first. It has a full screen display, with the CD load slot hidden behind the faceplate. A quick button push and the faceplate drops down allowing you to load or remove a CD. The CD slot is lit by a little red LED underneath it, but is still hard to locate at night.
The volume control is a rotating knob that I love instead of the - buttons so often used on car stereos. It allows you to quickly grab and spin the volume down if you get a phone call or need to hear something, instead of hunting for the mute button or pressing and holding the volume down button.
Power output is decent, with 52WX4 from the receiver. This model includes a detatchable faceplate for security. It also has outputs to connect an amplifier if you want more power to your speakers. Repeat, CD naming, station naming, and song text display are included features.
Cons
About 3 months after this unit was installed it began to stutter when loading a CD. The drive motor would grind for a split second and then pull the CD in. I took it to Circuit City where I purchased it. While attempting to show them the problem the unit worked just fine. They once again tried to get me to purchase their "extended service contract". I considered it, but decided not to based on my good experiences with Sony products. It continued to do this intermittently all summer long.
Only when winter set in did things get worse. When car is cold a loud grinding sound is heard when loading a CD. CD will be spit back out and repeated loading attempts are required before CD will play. I returned to Circuit City and demonstrated my problem, but they said to take it up with Sony as I hadn't purchased a warranty through them. This made sense to me, and they gave me Sony's contact number. I called them and found out they have a $100 fee to disassemble, repair, and ship the unit back to me. This hardly seemed worth it as the unit was now down to $150 or so brand new.
I have continued to use this unit in a different truck and it has gotten worse over the last 12 months. This winter (2002) it has completely failed in the cold weather. 30 attempts to load a CD and it would not accept it. I believe the motor that loads the CD onto the read hub is damaged, or something else internally. I have treated this unit well, and not done anything that would have caused this damage.
Final comments
I would not recommend this model to anyone, as I did not last near as long as it should. I replaced the CDX-L550X with a Rockford Fosgate CD/MP3 player which has worked wonderfully in the 7 months I have owned it. I still continue to buy Sony products and have good luck with everything else. Maybe my unit or this model had a specific issue that caused problems, I don't know.
I don't think the rest of Sony's car stereo components are this faulty, so I still give them 5 stars ***** for their company overall.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 179
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