Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I recently bought this deck to go into a '93 Miata. I did the install myself, which wasn't too hard. The metal box that the radio slides into was slightly too wide at the front so I had to cut it down a little, but I think that's just because there's very little room in a Miata.
The radio comes with a single connector with all the wires you should need (front/back speakers, main power, clock power, power antenna, etc.) There's a plug for the FM antenna, but that's it. There's no pre-amp output, cd-changer control, etc. (I didn't care about these things, so that's just fine with me.) The previous owner cut the factory wiring harness, so I had to solder the wires together myself, but anyone with basic skills can do that. (Or you can get it installed by a car stereo shop.)
The picture shows red lettering on the buttons and a red backlight on the "source" and "mode" buttons. Mine came with green lettering and green backlight. (This matches the car better, so I'm happy with that.) The blue display is back lit and looks the same as in the picture. One nice feature that isn't on a lot of radios in this price range is the fact that you can dim the back light on the main display. I've seen a lot of people complain about the displays of other radios in this price range as being too bright or too dark, and there's no adjustment. The GT-120 has a button on the lower left that allows you to switch between and bright (daytime) and more dim (nighttime.) It is just a two position dimmer though (you can't vary the amount of brightness other than bright or dim.)
The radio sounds great, and is plenty loud for my car (though I'm only driving a pair of 6 1/2" speakers in the doors and a pair of 2 1/2" speakers in the head rests, so I don't really need a lot of power. It would work fine as a replacement for a factory stereo in a standard car or van. Don't expect it to drive those 12" subwoofers in the trunk.
There are 18 FM presets (three groups of 6) and 12 AM presets (two groups of six). The CD player is supposed to play CD-R's (haven't tried that yet) but it will not play MP3's or WMA's stored on CD's. It does, however, have a standard 3.5mm stereo jack on the front which you can use to plug in an MP3 player. This works great, and as a nice touch you can vary the input volume of the aux input in comparison to the radio and CD inputs. This allows you to switch between CD, radio, and your MP3 player without huge differences in volume.
Like other Sony receivers in this line, when you turn the car off, the radio beeps three times as a reminder to remove the face plate of the radio. There's no way to turn this off, and it comes through the car speakers, so there's no way to disable it from inside the unit itself. Some people find this very annoying, but I don't really mind that much. It isn't very loud, and you can avoid hearing the beeps all together if you pop the face off halfway and immediately pop it back on. I usually don't bother and only remove the face when I'm parking the car in an area I don't trust. (e.g. not at work or at home in a locked garage.)
I found the controls really easy to use. The volume knob isn't too sensitive, and there's enough resistance to the knob when you push on it that you don't accidentally enter the settings menu when you just want to turn the volume up or down. One complaint is that it isn't easy to fine-tune radio stations. By default it wants to seek to the next station, and you have to hold the button in for a sec until it starts to scan, then hit the + or - buttons quickly to go up or down manually. If you wait too long, the radio switches back into scan mode. You can choose between several different eq settings, but there is only one custom setting. However, your choices under custom are pretty limited. As compared to other brands in this price range, I found the Sony to have the least cluttered interface and to be the simplest to use. There are no frills, but if you are looking for a good, basic, radio with an aux input on the face for your MP3 player, the GT-120 would be a good choice.
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Sony Xplod CDXGT120 GT Series Head UnitWith Sony's CDX-GT120 CD receiver, you'll get 52 Watts high power through 4 channels, a full-featured CD player, MP3/WMA support, AM/FM radio, and a front panel auxiliary input, all packed into an attractive gun-metallic case. While the CDX-GT320 keeps things simple, it also leaves room for expansion, as it's compatible with Sony's iPod adapter.
Detachable Faceplate The CDX-GT120 features a detachable faceplate with clock and LCD display. Red-key illumination makes control in the dark a snap.
Front Panel Aux In The auxiliary input is built right in to the face of the head unit, so to use external devices like MP3 players, all you need to do is plug-n-play.
AM/FM Radio Always have your favorite stations at hand with 18 FM and 12 AM presets.
Customize Your Sound Dial in your sound using Sony's EQ3 parametric equalization, eight preset tone curves and a 3-band equalizer, or make individual Low/Mid/High adjustments.
For a more powerful system, use the preamp outputs with an external amp/subwoofer.
What's in the Box Sony CDX-GT120, installation hardware, manual
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