I hate when people buy stuff thinking that it is good when it is nothing but overpriced! My friend put a car sterio together and didn't match his components. The head unit he got was nice, pioneer, decent. the sub was fine as well, JL Audio matched to a set of Boston Acoustics all around, 9 speakers in all! I know what I am talking about since i am a mechanic and sub enclosure fabricator, the 4 sets of speakers needs a full 1000 watts, sony's amp cant drive them clean, the sub requires 500 watts min., the 1000 watt amp isnt loud enough without sounding like crap. I told him when he first purchased the system if you go cheap on the amp it is ok, its the easiest piece to replace and upgrade.
I specifacly told him to not get sony, buy anything but, and what did he do he bought sony, not only does he have a 600 dollar sub that needs to be replaced, the amp overloaded like i told him it would! if you go to best buy they wont match your system, if you go to specially auto audio store they will, none of these stores carry sony amps, the ones that do dont make the money the others do! anyway what happened was the sub was overdriven do to distortion at about halfway, not good, the second thing is when the sub finally overheated the 2 amps did as well, I went over what best buy did, since there were no burn marks on the see through ground wire, i checked the power feed, nope, all set their, i checked the fuse, was 25 amps, 5 under what sony recomends, so the fuse shouldve poped before amp meltdown. Other than the melt down they worked great, we returned the amps to best buy to get a runaround, best buy ****ing sucks!
we got them to replace the sub but they wouldnt exchange the amps for even a store credit, so i brought my friend to walmart and bought 2 400 watt 4 channel amps, what the hell , he was pissed, VR3 pushed these speakers fine and he was happy. I wanna know why a entry level company such as sony cant compete with a chinese company that makes stuff specifacly for walmart, VR3 is a noname that has an extremely cheap amp that works better than sony, while this worked for my friend, i wont recomend thse amps unless your on a budget and want to build a loud sterio, but all in all, SONY STILL SUCKS

 

Sony is a bit ridiculous with prices, especially on that, laptops and game systems.


-Matt-

 

and you wonder why they call them xplode? but their playstation is cool

 

When the converison van company I worked at was hired to build some custom suburbans for Nieman Marcus, Sony sent one of their techs in to show me how they wanted these trucks A/V system wired and setup. He told me this is the way they want them and when they come back for not working correctly, this is how you should fix it. This was Sony Mobile ES stuff no less. Sure enough we built 56 suburbans and all 56 had teh SAME issue. Ironically the guy who drove his own vehicle from teh east coast had a full Kenwood system that was LOUD AND CLEAR as possible. Sad when a tech who works for them for 10+yrs doesnt even have his companies product in his own vehice.

 

I've had problem with Sony Xplode stuff. I had one Xplode HU and I had problems with it but I figured it was isolated. That one got stolen. (along with the rest of the car[:@]) So I got another one when I got my truck and had nothing but problems with it. I just recently got rid of it and got something much better.

 

Sony Explode systems arent all bad.....they just arent all that great....

Truth of the matter is you dont run on a Sony H/U on a decent system. Sony's dont push enough power compared to say Pioneer/Kenwood/Clarion.

Their subs are decent....and sound alright....again....not top notch but better then some.

Their amps are alright so long as you push one sub per amp....

Sony tends to run high RMS's on their stuff, and no one bothers to read the fine print/instructions.... I am in no way saying that audio professionals dont know their biz....just saying that alot could be avoided by paying attn to the instructions. Truth is...if you want a Sony Explode system that sounds decent....

Clarion/Pioneer Head Unit
2 1200W Sony Explode Amps
2 12" Sony Explode Subs

2-4 gauge wiring...

That is a decent setup...I've seen it and heard it and it sounded pretty good. He paid about $600 for all of it. If you get some Sony stuff super cheap or get it at a great deal.....it's a good starter system...but its not the end all be all.....and I would upgrade it when you can afford it.....

Great systems arent the super powered top of the line equipment systems..... They are systems that are well planned, great setup, and most of all.....utilizing the most of the system at very lil effort on the hardware...

 

Not everything sony is bad, their head units and subwoofers are ok, not comp quality, speakers amps, install kits and anything that you would think sony would make right blows, the only thing sony has out that i like is the ps2, wich if it didnt have more games than x box would suck too

 

devil, sony amps suck, they distort at relativly low levels, if you get an 800 watt pioneer amp and put it next to a 1000 watt xplode amp, not only does the pioneer amp sound better, not get as hot, it also distortes around 7/10ths volume rather than sony's trademark half volume, subs once again are ok, but for 99 dollars you might as well buy a jl audio and spend the whole 150

 

I want to reiterate SONY SUCKS

 

I had a Sony headunit and hated it. I should have never gotten it. I loved the Alpine I had in my last dakota, so I went to buy another one and they were out so I picked up the Sony instead, bad decision. I plan on getting another Alpine this summer.

But Sony makes some pretty kickass TV's. We have the Sony Bravia 46" and its the best TV I have seen by far... I heard a lot of good things about it before we had it too... but thats TV's.

Their audio stuff I don't car for.