Product Reviews

6.95" BLUETOOTH Media Receiver with WebLink Cast Like Everything about This Product (NICE)AAAAA+++++

I just installed this unit only to find out you cannot screen mirror Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video or any other streaming service. They say its a safety hazard even though it would only work with the car in park. Although I find it funny that Youtube will work and none of the other services will. Sounds like some sort of licensing deal to me.

Debated on a radio for a while. I liked the 5000 but felt it was missing a couple of features. When I saw the 5500 it was a no brainer and had everything I wanted. 5v preouts, WebLink, custom backgrounds and 3 year warranty. CarPlay works great and I honestly believe the xav line are the cleanest and sleekest looking radios on the market right now. Great job Sony!

The Good: CarPlay seems to work well with few bugs/issues. I like the physical buttons Sony provides for the basics such as volume and track selection. That’s always welcome in my book. The physical size of the unit is very welcome as it allows for installation into many more vehicles that have obstructions behind the dash, such as the BMW E46. The radio tuner is fast and sensitive, for those that still listen to the radio. Ability to upload your own background is a plus. The screen reproduces colors well. The Average: The capacitive touch screen responds OK. Don’t expect iPhone performance here. The screen resolution is far from high, nothing to rave about, but nothing to complain about either. The EQ user interface is just meh. You can’t choose a preset and then modify it. If you want a custom eq you have to choose the Custom preset and start from scratch. At this $450 price range, Alpine provides much more robust audio tuning to include slopes and levels for your crossovers, parametric eq, etc. Sony gives you just a basic, for dummies audio controls. The Bad: Sony chose to fail on the most basic concept: always turn the amp remote feed Off before the preamp/headunit to avoid the dreaded turn off pop. In other words, when you pull your car key out, this headunit goes off immediately, but keeps the external amp On for another 20 seconds or more and when it finally kills the power to the amp, the speakers connected to it pop. There’s only been one firmware update several months ago and knowing how little value Sony sees in updating their stuff, I don’t see too many more firmware updates in the future which means most of these issues won’t be fixed. Bluetooth Phone app in this headunit feels like an afterthought. The user interface is ugly and the phone book is very slow. It seems the unit doesn’t cache the phone’s contacts, so when you select phone book it takes several seconds to load. Did I mention the user interface is complete garbage? The USB music feature has limitations that aren’t documented in the manual. There is a folder/file limit. Depending on how much music is on the flash drive, it can take minutes after you insert the drive or turn on the unit and before music starts playing. When browsing the music on the drive, not all of it shows up due to this undocumented limitation. I’m using a 32gb flash drive.

Replaced a high end Alpine with this unit in order to use CarPlay. Works impeccably! Tidal HiFi via Carplay is incredible. Buy a nice lightning to USB cable. This deck has a very nice and clean 5 volt preout section, and it sounds amazing. The DSO feature works well for poorly designed OEM speaker locations.

I've had this installed in my Ram 2500 since 2018, and couldn't be any happier with the unit. Links up to my Samsung phone, so I am always using it in Android Auto mode. Nav is great, sound is great thru my stock speakers, plays Pandora, Google Play Music. I also installed a rearview camera, which makes hooking up to trailers a breeze.

I bought this stereo media receiver a month ago and I really like the sound and quality. It is very easy to maneuver through the buttons. The only complaint that I have is that the Sony radio is not programmed to display the Sirius XM radio station icons. (See photo) It displays the station title and songs, but not the icons that are provided by Sirius XM signal. This is disappointing. Other than that, its a great radio.