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Sony CDX GT23
by Craig86
About The Product
The Sony CDX GT23 is a car CD player, the dimensions are 5 x 17.8 x 17.9 cm and it weighs 1.5kg. It is black with some red buttons. Unit will light up red when turned on (perfect for red cars).
My Opinions & Experiences
I bought this nearly four years ago for my old car and had no ... problems with it whatsoever, it was at the time even one of the cheaper models but it suited my budget and basic requirement of just playing CD's in the car.
I have fitted many in car CD players in the past for family and friends so I personally found it very easy to fit, if you have never done it before or have one of those cars that makes it fiddly then I'm sure Halfords do fitting or find someone you know to do it for you properly. I still had the old cage from my previous CD player so it fitted very quickly and powered on just fine.
Like most CD players it has the removable face, sometimes can be a bit annoying and like many people I have times where I just leave it in but I would recommend removing it every time. A friend of mine recently had his car broken into and with the face still on it was easy money to the petty thief.
When I purchased it a manual was included, this details all the features and functionality making it easy for you to get the right settings needed. If you have bought it second hand without the manual then fear not as I know the Sony website has them available to download, just search "Sony CDX GT23 manual" or similar and you should find the right page quickly. Like most appliances the best way to get used to and learn how to use something is to use it, so after a bit of playing around you should have the basics at least under control.
One of the nice things about the player is that the little screen at the front will display radio station or CD track information like artist name etc. Obviously if you have made the CD yourself you will need to input this information when creating the CD.
My fiancée has in the past linked her iphone to the CD player, so if you have one that is an obvious bonus as you can play your music stored on the iphone through the player.
I haven't linked it up to an AMP but you can do this, without it though the sound is fantastic and doesn't easily vibrate unless playing at ridiculous volumes.
In Summary
In summary it is a good budget CD player, has good sound and looks nice, the fitting is simpler enough and finding the right settings for you shouldn't take long.
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Sony CDX GT23
by DirtyDonkey
This CD player was bought for me as a present from my Fiancée; I have an old car and was stuck with an old tape-player, and this CD player became a welcome substitute!
The Sony CDX GT23, as far as I can see, and from what I have found on various websites, is no longer in production, which is a shame. I lost the front plate and ... it was easy enough, and cheap enough to buy a new one on-line.
I find in particular that it has a great sound quality, due to the Xplod feature, although I have to really crank up the volume when I go over 50mph and my car starts to rattle and shake!! Even when driving, the CD player is easy to control, I just feel the large volume dial and the track forward and back buttons are almost touch-sensitive and I never have to look down to find out what's going on.
The only one negative I find with this product, although more of a suggestion than a negative, is that is has no USB port - my Dad's car stereo has a USB plug and I would find that a lot easier than making CDs of my favourite music.
Overall a brilliant product, looks stylish and is easy to use (for people like me, who are not technologically inclined!).
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Sony MEX-BT2600
by DanB7290
Back when I was 17, and passed my test, I got a Fiat Seicento. Not the greatest start to my motoring life, but certainly one of the most affordable. One of the first things I did was swap out the standard Fiat radio with this (the old one had a cassette player, for goodness sake!)
After discussion with my dad, I decided to get one ... with Bluetooth phone capability, as Dad said he could almost guarantee I would be pulled over for using my phone behind the wheel otherwise. I never did, so that just shows his complete lack of faith.
First up, the install is fairly easy, even my sister can do it without any assistance. Then you'll notice, even with the standard speakers still installed, that the sound quality is improved compared to the factory fitted head unit. The CD player, FM/AM radio, and aux all work perfectly as you would expect them to. Controls are very easy to use. I later added some custom speakers to my car (kind of got shiny shiny syndrome when Dad ordered his Audi with a Bose system), and then spent about an hour sat on the drive, making adjustments to the fade (can fade left to right and front to back if you want, I tended to keep the sound slightly focused to the back as there were bigger, more powerful speakers back there), bass and treble. It wasn't nearly as good as the Audi's Bose system, but at 20% of the cost this wasn't surprising. In general I'd say it was impressive.
Now, the main reason I bought this; the handsfree phone. Thing you have to remember is, the mic is actually behind the fascia of the head unit. In most cars this isn't a problem; but in the Seicento, the head unit is much further down the centre console, near the gearstick. So people had difficulty hearing me, but after replacing the Seicento with a Panda, people could hear me better as the head unit was placed much further up, so this is not a fault of the head unit. Incoming voice quality is fairly good, but it will depend on your car's speakers. Overall, it's a fairly good solution; not one to rival the factory installed options on newer cars mind, but on older cars without it, then it's a much more elegant solution than others, some of which require mics and speakers to be placed on your dash or sun visors.
Now the party piece. If you have a phone that supports a later version of Bluetooth with A2DP, you can play music on your phone, and it'll come through the car. Like all Bluetooth based wireless speaker systems, you do lose some sound quality, but in cars which have a lot more wind noise, like my Fiats both did, it's not too noticeable.
In short then, if you want a Bluetooth handsfree option, but your car doesn't have one, then get this, it could just save you that £60 fine and 3 penalty points.
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