Sony CDX-C90R

Year / Model Reviewed:
 C90

Summary:
Paid just over $900 (new) for the unit one year ago (12/98) and have been generally happy. However, the unreadable display (in daytime) has left me VERY unhappy. Add to that the loose trim ring (I have a friend who has the same complaints) and you have some pretty bothersome problems. I have never had any operational problems and the tuner in this head unit blows the tuner in the 910 out of the water...especially in the AM band. However, many people will be very annoyed by Sony's use of a high-blend circuit whenever the signal strength drops at all. I'd much prefer to have the option to accept some increase in hiss rather than have the stereo stage collapse into the middle at the slightest drop in signal strength. It might just be me, but the faceplate doesn't attach with the same authority as my previous C910 and especially not as solidly as my older Denon DCT950R. I'm in the market for another head unit, but the sound quality of this head certainly raises the standard for whatever I find to possibly replace it.

Strengths:
Solid chassis build; rock-solid playback; silky-smooth wired remote control; great sound quality; higly readable (and cool looking) faceplate...in the dark (see below)

Weaknesses:
Unreadable display panel in bright sunlight; trim ring falls off the front of the unit (inexcusable in a $1000 head unit); silky-smooth wired remote became stiff and erratic after one year of use; can't tweak settings of my XDP4000x crossover/eq from head unit (must use laptop)

Similar Products Used:
C910 head with XDP210eq replaced by this C90 and XDP4000x eq/xover

Summary:
This unit is great. It has one of the best displays I have ever seen. It reproduces music very accurately and does not add anything. The CDX-c90 along with the Sony XDP-210eq work very well together and creat a wonderful front end to a hi end system.

The only thing I do not like is the fact that you must use either the wired or wireless remote to control some of the functions of the unit and signal processor. I have the CDX-C910 and it was able to control everything from the Head Unit without using a remote. Other than this, this unit is a state of the art piece.

Strengths:
This unit sounds great and looks great. The DA converter is wonderful.

Weaknesses:
You cannot control all functions of the unit without using the wired or wireless remote.

Similar Products Used:
CDX-C910

Summary:
Just replaced my old XRC-500 with this immaculate head unit and the sound is unparralleled. One feature that really shocked me was the awesome clarity and reception you recieve from the tuner. This unit's tuner far exeededs that of other Sony's. The display's resolution is great due to its small pixels. The only problem is sometimes the display isn't bright enough in direct sunlight, luckly this can be overcome by tilting the motorized display to one of three positions. The newly designed wired remote is a big improvement over the old plastic wire remote, most the buttons broke on my previous model but this looks like it will last longer than my vehicle.) This deck is controling a 10-disc changer and the LIST fuction is awesome, it displays all 10 discs' titles at the same time, hit LIST again and it will list all the tracks on the disc you are listening to (if CD TEXT is encoded) and througout all this time the display shows in the corner the current disc title, disc number, track number and time.
With all of the advances features and the sweet brushed aluminum faceplate, this head unit definately is the crown of the ES line.

Summary:
This is our first advice we can give you about a well designed product of the sony mobile range. It's fitted in our demostration car this week and it was a big surprise, the clean sound of the 20-bit cd player is outstanding! This is the best sound we have ever heard in a car. Then you have to know that this product is not amplified! The product build in a Copper chassis needs to be powered by external poweramps, we used one 4 channel XM-754HX for the speakers front and rear Pioneer compo sets and the XM-2252HX ( 2X 560 watt 4 ohm ) for two Infinity subwoofers. Becouse our demo car is not to large inside this was the only posibbility to mount speakers in a decent way. So if you really like to show off with your car try this unique pice of equipment, and you even get the looks of an Space craft inside with the neon blue display and saftey remote... oh there's also an extra remote control there for your passengers...
Enjoy!