Sony MEX-BT2500 CD Receiver with Bluetooth

I recently bought this stereo and was really surprised with all the features it has for such a low price. I have used the bluetooth and am able to voice dial and I also have it where it tells me who is calling through the phone's speaker, so there is no need for the caller i.d. feature which is lacking on this unit. The voice commands and dialing have to be set up by your phone first before you can start using them with the stereo. I do have a Sony w580i phone which might work better than others. Overall the sound quality is great and it does everything it says it would. Definitely worth the price.

Works well. Really hands free when *receiving* calls. (but won't display who calls)

It has several inbuilt operations, but not intuitive, so you need to dig the manual.

Plays all CDs well ; Does the job!! :-)

The display and navigation are not very easy; does not display local time when playing, but shows play back time. some things are unnecessarily complicated.

People get irritated and complain when I talk to them using Blue Tooth phone. Neither they say I sound 'tin' nor 'inside a well' nor 'breaking'. But they say something irritating. the reason is : the mic is placed behind receiver head.

Though easy to pair, you have to 'reset' BT streaming, BT phone one by one, if the system is disconnected, car battery is changed etc..

I am rating four star, just for the cheap price for BT, aux input, sony reliability.

Sound Quality, easy of operations, BT quality (lack of phone listing, poor voice quality) will make it 3 star.

I like Sony innovations, but when they screw something up, it's almost as if aliens were designing the thing you don't like, that's how foreign its utility seems to you.

Let me give you an example. The radio has a detachable face. It is impossible to put this thing back on with one hand in the dark. Or two hands in the dark. On the first try. It's far easier to steal the face off of the head unit than it is to re-assemble it.

Another qualm: no support for all Bluetooth handsfree/ headset profiles. So, your Nokia 3650 will not work with this, despite the pairing. I'm stuck using a cheap Kyocera Bluetooth speakerphone until I get a new phone.

Do you like your displays to scroll smoothly and legibly? Then forget this device. It uses old-school LED/LCD, so you don't see pixels, you see pseudo-LCD versions of LEDs, block-style. Scrolling is some weird alien analog of real scrolling. Yuck.

So why three stars? Well, the AUX input is a must-have these days, and Sony has it. The Bluetooth audio really works, and if I couldn't AUX in, this would be my second choice. It plays any CD that can fit in the loader, which is reassuring since some units balk at different CD-R media. The radio pulls in stations and locks them very well, and I really can't complain about the audio fidelity. It's very good, even with its rudimentary equalization choices.

It's a bargain Bluetooth radio for people with newer Bluetooth phones or devices. It's probably not a radio I'd buy again, but it's a radio I can live with for the next five years.

-C

Researched beforehand and knew that it wouldn't mix my cocktails, walk my dogs, and do my oil changes. Bluetooth capacity is limited to conducting phone calls through the car speakers and redialing only, but this was foreclosed in the description and works like a charm. LOVE dialing a phone number and then being able to set the phone down and talk. Unit does not support phone book transfer or caller ID, but at least if somebody steals my truck, they won't have all my contacts....to me, a plus. Sound quality of supported mediums is excellent and interface/button layout is very easy to use and understand. Great value for the money, and front aux input means I can connect my MP3 player and cancel my $170 a year satellite subscription.........cost effectiveness!!!

I did some pre-purchase research for an A2DP-capable headend unit that is reasonably priced, and this was one of the few that I saw. A key factor for me was the capability to stream audio from my phone to the headend unit, in addition to take phone calls thru the unit. This product does all of that nicely. But, it certainly would be nice to see the phone number displayed on the unit when an incoming call arrives, as well as enter phone numbers from it.