Yup, I broke down and upgraded my old Sony with...

...another Sony.

I figure if it ain't broke, don't change nothin'.

The Sony CDX-GT740UI is what now resides in my dash. So far I'm liking everything except the graphics/display is BLUE and it can't be changed.
The buttons are selectable RED, GREEN or BLUE. The red kills the ability to read anything on the buttons, so it's gonna be green or blue.

Has everything I wanted, usb, front 3.5mm input, 3 pre-outs @ 4volts, built in crossovers (don't use 'em though, letting the amps use their crossovers), flip down face, wireless remote and an actual **** for volume.

Had some issues with the usb at first. I had an 8gb microSD card formatted NTFS & it wouldn't recognize it at all. Re-formatted it to FAT32 & loaded it up again & everything works like a charm...just need to catch a deal on a few more to hold more music.

Radio reception is terrible, but I'm lucky to get 10 stations to come in on any radio I have...who listens to the radio anyway?

Menus are pretty easy to figure out & navigate.
The visuals are selectable from stock images or graphics, I like the spectrum analyzer, even though it isn't that accurate.

Probably won't play another CD again now that I can load up about 150 albums on one microSD card.

I believe I can even plug in my phone with a 3.5mm M/M cable in the AUX input if I ever wanted to.

Been encoding my CD's as 224k mp3's & with a side-by-side comparison, I can't tell any difference.

No pics or vids yet, still have to replace my voltmeter/switches panel with a new one.

 

Very nice.

My Ipod practically is my radio

 

Gave up on the choke coil theory eh? lol Either way thats a great deck, i put a lot of those in customers cars in the past always loved all the features it had, how do you like it so far?

 

Actually, the choke worked pretty well on the old head unit...just a slight hint of whine only when the sound was muted.
If the truck was running, I couldn't hear it.
I could have probably killed any noise with the inline RCA filters on the 4ch midrange amp, leaving the sub amp unfiltered.
As of now, I just left the filter on the power to the new head unit.

I just got tired of hauling around that darn CD case & burning backup CD's.

With a tiny microSD card reader, I can plug in an 8gb card & scroll through tons of songs & never flip down the faceplate or dig around for a particular CD.

The Sony works pretty nice. Sounds amazing... but the clock fonts are tiny .
I have it set up for the display & **** lighting to stay on whenever the truck is running/acc so I can utilize the clock.

Is there any way to upload or change the graphics or images the display uses?

The Sony support site is vague to say the least... their info says the USB only recognizes up to a 4gb device & only specific brands.

Haven't tried a normal USB thumb drive yet, all I have are 1gb - 2gb flash drives.
It would have been nice to have a rear USB plug/cable so I could run the cable down to the console & completely hide any USB devices, but my USB adapters are so small they're hardly visible.

 

not a fan of sony HUs or anything from sony thats car audio related, but 3 pre-outs @ 4 volts sounds like a great buy.

 

Agreed.

 

here's a few pics I got today...

not the best quality, but I was in a rush.











Notice my tiny USB card reader?

Don't mind my voltmeter panel... if it looks like it's drooping, it is. It's only held in place with electrical tape until I finish my new design.

 

Here's a quick (poor quality) video:

 

Just out of curiosity, when the number display reaches 88.8 do you go back in time, if so.. where did you get such an item..

 

When it hits 99.9, you flip the correct switches & time stands still like the movie Click.

 

Little update.

After driving around a bit, I noticed the new head unit had some alternator noise even with the power filter.
I didn't hear the noise when testing it in the driveway, but on the road it showed up.
Still had my RCA filters, so I installed them right at the head unit on the front/rear outputs & now there isn't a single bit of noise at all.

I was too lazy to run a new ground for the head unit, plus I didn't want to have to re-set all my settings... maybe one of these days I'll upgrade the radio ground, but for now I'm very pleased.

 

MISSING:



One 8gb MicroSD card/USB adapter.

I was stripping down "my" parts Explorer today & when I got home & emptied my pockets, my poor USB adapter with my brand new 8gb MicroSD card was gone!!

He is only about 2 weeks old, transparent yellow in color, measures about 1" long, answers to the name "Bubba".

If you see a cow or chicken with this in their possession, stop them immediately by any means necessary. Deadly force is approved for this mission.

Just my F&@#^*! luck.
Got a truck load FULL of parts & lost all my darn music.

 

sony H.U.s are garbage. switched from those long ago.

 

This is my 3rd Sony CD head unit.
The first one lasted 8 years before I upgraded.
The last one I just replaced is 15+ years old & still working like new.

Maybe you got a bad one?

 

not saying they dont last. i have a sony from 96 that still work. dont know why i still keep it around. it was the first xplode unit. but the sound quality is not the best. you can get better so the same price. what did you pay?