Tried and True

I had low expectations for this product. Somehow I didn't believe the salesperson when he told me that the suspension would be able to handle four-wheel drive situations. I thought for sure the Sony CDX would skip and offer a terrible sound experience for my Ford Explorer. I was happily surprised.

The Sony CDX offers the best of most worlds. It offers the convenience of adding in ten CD's into the CD changer. In the Explorer it is nicely mounted under the rear seat so no one can see it (this is important when you in Beacon Hill in Boston and park on the street). You can reach back and remove the CD changer in a pinch. However, this is no advisable when driving at over 65 miles per hour in traffic. The sound quality has been great. I think I skipped a CD three times in the past four years. When I skipped it, I was driving off-road at high speeds. I was surprised it took multiple combinations of bumps to actually trigger the skipping.

Some may think the connected controlled is kluge. However, I demanded it. I knew if I had a real remote control that I would lose it quickly. I cannot lose this control device. I also requested that the control be feed through the front seat middle console. This allows me to hide the control device and make it less appealing to would be thieves.

The setup that I have configured runs through my factory installed radio. To hear the CD, I need to turn to a specific channel on my radio tuner. Occasionally, the sound quality is distorted because of radio static. This is annoying but very rarely happens (handful of times each year).

This product has been through the wars. It has survived many road trips. Sodas have been spilled on the device. But it keeps ticking. For $300 installed, I think is has over delivered and provided me with a very good sound system.