well after 3 years i've decided to put in a sony moble es cd player in the dash (it took me three years of convincing myself that cutting the dash on my far from original car is ok) what i was wondering if the trim ring on the cd player will fit with the dash? if anybody has any pics that would be helpfull too.
-thanks blake

Sony car audio.... http://www.chevelles.com/forum/eek.gif yuckky.

Coppertop. Is Sony a less than ideal system or are you responding to modifying the dash?

Steve,

I work in a car audio shop (auto radio repair technician). When I first started I had a discussion with a co-worker about Sony brand car stereos. (or the lack there of!)in our store.

You see he proceeded to tell me that from the late '80s to the mid-to-late 1990s SONY head units were the absolute CRAP of the audio world. In his years of install work, he said at one point in the '90s you'd be lucky if 1 out of 5 Sony decks actually worked right out of the box.

At first I was very skeptical as my family has bought Sony home products for a number of years and has always been happy. Well...one day I had to repair a Sony deck from about '93 and I could not believe it! It seems that Sony was outsourcing to 3rd world countries to produce things as cheap as possible to compete with other brands.

I simply couldn't believe it. It seems there was barely enough solder on the entire board to make any connections--and this came like this from the factory. The FM tuner box had literally pulled away from shi^&# soldering from the wave soldering/assemlby process.

The mid 1990s FORD factory radios with CD players were produced by Sony, guess what manufacturer has one of the highest non-repairable rates for FORD cd's--Sony, just junk when it comes to the CD mechanisms, gears, switches etc, just cheapo, poorly designed, slap-together technology.


Even some of the later DELCO units utilize Sony CD mechanisms, i.e. 1996-1998 Buick, OLDS am/fm/CD/tape radios. Guess what I've been encountering again--CD problems!

While I hope I did not affend anyone, I certainly hope Sony has gotten their act together in the car audio department. They have permanently left a bitter taste in countless installers/technicians and suppliers. To this day, the shop I work in refuses to order/sell any Sony head-units.

It has certainly left me anti-Sony in the car audio dept. I will still buy sony home products in which they are still a world leader in innovation.

Joe,

What brand of car audio do you recommend?

------------------
Tony Nausieda
1970 SS 396-350hp
Frame-off Resto: Just Say No! 4 years and counting...

My #1 choice based off of experience is Panasonic. Any "respectable" brand name that isn't a "stripped down cheapo" is also a good call. Such as:

Pioneer

JVC (the JVC tape decks have a reputation of being damn near indestructable when people attempt to screw them up).

Kenwood--haven't had enough experience to make a call on those.

Alpine, seems okay, but if they have been building there aftermarket line latley like they have been building some of the Chrysler/Plymouth/Dodge factory radios--yikes! beware.

Clarion has had some pretty good stuff, but it seems they are having a hard time competing with other major brands.

well now i'm at a loss of what to do i had been looking at the pioneer/priemer stuff as well so i'm not sure where to go now... back to my main question will a standard size cd reciever with trim ring fint in the dash of a 69??
-blake

When I bought my '69, someone over the years had already hacked up the dash for a radio/cass so there was no debate about any further modification. I bought a Clarion CD player. I liked that unit because it has more subdued look. Not such a crazy techno look with a glitzy light show. It took more trimming but when I was finished, it was just perfect. The trim ring fit great. I am very happy with it. The unit wasn't all that expensive either. I think it was around $170. I'll see if I can post a picture.

Good luck

Bob

thanks bob that's what i was wondering about. i've been looking at priemier(pioneer) and the sony because of there multiple lines out and the sony has a built in crossover and is cheaper than the priemer. my dash is hacked up a little too is why i decided to go ahead and cut for a cd somebody had put a shaft-style tuner tape player in that the poles didnt quite fit and cut the original holes up
thanks again,
blake

Iwould think about buying an already-hacked-up dash bezel and saving your original. You can probably find one already cut for next to nothing. If you view the "Parts For Sale" ads at all, you'll see that a good 69 dash bezel (uncut) is gonna set you back a minimum of $250.