I have owned this unit for a week which included a roadtrip and I must say that this device is one of the greatest sound enhancing products I have bought for either my computer, tv, or car.
First I will say that I own a SUV with the stock system and stock speakers. I self installed the Sony xav-70bt, and I am a huge sony fan…so I am a little biased towards their products.
Now on to the unit. After installation when you turn the unit on you get your first experience on how unbelievable the video is. I saw this unit in a store next to the new Pioneer flagship unit and the new Kenwood upper ranged double din unit (both costing over $1000) and there was no comparison in the contrast ratio or color quality. This unit truelly stands out as an in-dash unit with HD quality.
Now onto the sound. I have always done custom stereo/speaker units on all of my vehicles. I have replaced all the speakers in my old Jeep attached to a mediocre Aiwa amplifier and found that the quality of sound was just OK. One of the reasons I chose the sony xav-70bt was because of the many sound features this unit offers. Besides repeating the specs sony.com has I will say that the listening position feature when used correctly creates a surround sound experience that I feel compares to top of the line quality (and I have stock speakers!) The low pass and high pass features create crisp clean sound and low non distorting bass with all genres of music. What amazes me is that with the four speakers in the car the Xav creates this fifth “ghost” speaker in the middle of your car and when you close your eyes you will think that the speaker exists…its amazing.
Lastly on to the features. The usb connection does not list the fact that the unit will only play the first 2000 songs of that device. (My 32gb flash drive is useless after the first 4gb) This feature is just plain stupid if you ask me…and has not been advertised anywhere. As an alternative people that have ipods can play their full library through their ipod, but for anti-ipod-ites a Sony Mp3 player will also do the trick.
One of the surprises I got when opening the box was that there was an included microphone for the Bluetooth feature. Let me tell you that the extra money you spend for the BT over the Xav-60 is well worth the money. With cops stepping up their cell phone tickets a unit like this serves the purpose very well. During the roadtrip I was able to keep my phone in my pocket and talk and make calls with simple, and very intuitive buttons. Not only this, but the person on the other line doesn’t even know im in my car…and I called a lot of people to test it…it works great. Actually better then great.
Overall..A++. This unit belongs in any music enthusiast who wants to enhance their car rides.
This unit could have been great, but a few poor designs keep it from being functional.
For example, The controls for the CD player and radio disappear after about 8 seconds. That means when you want to change a track or change a station you have to first touch the screen to bring up the controls, then you can use the controls to make the changes you want. This is a big distraction when driving, and can be dangerous. The only reason why I can see why they designed it this way is because the designers think the screen looks cooler when the controls are hidden. They could have easily made this unit much better if they made it selectable to hide the controls after x seconds or leave them up permanently.
Another problem is when using bluetooth, and you reject an incoming call it does not go back to what you were listening to. Also, after you finish a call it stays on the Bluetooth setting and does not go back to your music. You have to select “top”, then the source you were previously listening to. Why would they do this?
Finally, when listing to CDs it only lists the track number, not the name of the song. I thought a unit this high-end would have the capability to list the song names. Also, you do not have the option to list FM stations by their number, it lists them by some RMS that is broadcast and if you don’t know the call name of stations you are out of luck. On the bright side, the backup camera function works great.
#1 by Andrew on July 2, 2010 - 6:51 pm
I have owned this unit for a week which included a roadtrip and I must say that this device is one of the greatest sound enhancing products I have bought for either my computer, tv, or car.
First I will say that I own a SUV with the stock system and stock speakers. I self installed the Sony xav-70bt, and I am a huge sony fan…so I am a little biased towards their products.
Now on to the unit. After installation when you turn the unit on you get your first experience on how unbelievable the video is. I saw this unit in a store next to the new Pioneer flagship unit and the new Kenwood upper ranged double din unit (both costing over $1000) and there was no comparison in the contrast ratio or color quality. This unit truelly stands out as an in-dash unit with HD quality.
Now onto the sound. I have always done custom stereo/speaker units on all of my vehicles. I have replaced all the speakers in my old Jeep attached to a mediocre Aiwa amplifier and found that the quality of sound was just OK. One of the reasons I chose the sony xav-70bt was because of the many sound features this unit offers. Besides repeating the specs sony.com has I will say that the listening position feature when used correctly creates a surround sound experience that I feel compares to top of the line quality (and I have stock speakers!) The low pass and high pass features create crisp clean sound and low non distorting bass with all genres of music. What amazes me is that with the four speakers in the car the Xav creates this fifth “ghost” speaker in the middle of your car and when you close your eyes you will think that the speaker exists…its amazing.
Lastly on to the features. The usb connection does not list the fact that the unit will only play the first 2000 songs of that device. (My 32gb flash drive is useless after the first 4gb) This feature is just plain stupid if you ask me…and has not been advertised anywhere. As an alternative people that have ipods can play their full library through their ipod, but for anti-ipod-ites a Sony Mp3 player will also do the trick.
One of the surprises I got when opening the box was that there was an included microphone for the Bluetooth feature. Let me tell you that the extra money you spend for the BT over the Xav-60 is well worth the money. With cops stepping up their cell phone tickets a unit like this serves the purpose very well. During the roadtrip I was able to keep my phone in my pocket and talk and make calls with simple, and very intuitive buttons. Not only this, but the person on the other line doesn’t even know im in my car…and I called a lot of people to test it…it works great. Actually better then great.
Overall..A++. This unit belongs in any music enthusiast who wants to enhance their car rides.
Rating: 5 / 5
#2 by RICH on July 2, 2010 - 7:34 pm
This unit could have been great, but a few poor designs keep it from being functional.
For example, The controls for the CD player and radio disappear after about 8 seconds. That means when you want to change a track or change a station you have to first touch the screen to bring up the controls, then you can use the controls to make the changes you want. This is a big distraction when driving, and can be dangerous. The only reason why I can see why they designed it this way is because the designers think the screen looks cooler when the controls are hidden. They could have easily made this unit much better if they made it selectable to hide the controls after x seconds or leave them up permanently.
Another problem is when using bluetooth, and you reject an incoming call it does not go back to what you were listening to. Also, after you finish a call it stays on the Bluetooth setting and does not go back to your music. You have to select “top”, then the source you were previously listening to. Why would they do this?
Finally, when listing to CDs it only lists the track number, not the name of the song. I thought a unit this high-end would have the capability to list the song names. Also, you do not have the option to list FM stations by their number, it lists them by some RMS that is broadcast and if you don’t know the call name of stations you are out of luck. On the bright side, the backup camera function works great.
Rating: 3 / 5
#3 by Norman Fitzgerald on July 2, 2010 - 9:30 pm
This is my second Sony DD unit. I upgraded to this from last year’s XAV-W1.
Startup time is very fast including Bluetooth sync and iPod resume. Within seconds.
Bluetooth: Excellent. Pairs w/ iPhones for Talk/Contacts/Music Streaming (including
Pandora). Plus it is built-in and does not require an expensive adaptor.
Sirius: Good. Maybe the new adaptors allow more info to display (Mine is still limited to
one line of text).
HD Radio: Good. Sound is clear, but my adaptor still shows only one line of text.
iPod: Very simple and pretty display, but the interface is way too slow. This will cause
accidents slow! You can use the actual iPod controls, but this is unsafe too.
Sound & Video quality are top notch. The surround sound (w/ imaginary center channel)
still blows me away.
A very solid deck for the price, but I can’t believe Sony cheaped out on the RAM after the
XAV-W1 disaster. If Sony can fix the firmware for iPod control speed, this would easily be
the best DD deck without navigation
Rating: 3 / 5