Gardening on the Moon ( GOTM )

written by Jeff

Step 3 – The Search is Narrowed

Now that the search has been narrowed to five or less models, I visited sites that had reviews of the specific radios on the list. At first I focused on reviews from companies or organizations that had no particular stake in the review (as far as I can tell). CNET, PC World and TrustedReviews are a couple of sites that review a wide variety of gear. Once I read these general reviews and any user comments offered at these sites, I visited the Crutchfield site to see if they have a review.

Crutchfield is involved with the audio and car audio markets and they write very detailed reviews. Their customers also have very positive comments about Crutchfield so I believe their reviews are reliable even if they sell the product. Once I found a review for a model on the short list, I checked their Hands-on Research section for that particular model. The Hands-on Research area provides a detailed yet understandable commentary about the major features and qualities of a particular radio. For the Sony CDX GT620IP there were many positive things to said concerning the cost-benefit ratio, http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Product/Item/Main.aspx?g=300&i=158GT620IP&tp=5684&tab=detailed_info While at the Crutchfield site, I headed for the customer reviews as these are generally very savvy users who tell it like it is.

Surprise, surprise!

Now it was off to see the wizard. I headed to Best Buy (BB) and Circuit City (CC) to check out the various models. I wanted to see how they looked and felt. Were they solid? Did I like the color of the display? Was there anything I discovered that I didn’t know or didn’t fully appreciate?

I have been so long removed from the car stereo scene that I didn’t realize that many of the new models require the user to press a button to expose the CD loading mechanism hidden behind the faceplate. I thought this would be a real drag until I considered the fact that I would be recording in wma or mp3 format which would allow me to load 60, 70 or more songs on a CD. I won’t be changing CDs that often. I will also be using my mp3 player so perhaps it was a feature with which I could live.

NOTE – In actuality my first mp3 disc was able to hold more than 80 selections, some of which were over 20 minutes in length. The total playing time for the disc listed in Windows Media Player was 6.6 hours. Now that’s a WOW!

Step 4 – The Final Candidates

At this point in the process, I came up with three car stereos that seemed to meet my criteria and in which I had some interest. They were the Sony CDX GT620IP, JVC KD-PDR80 and the Pioneer DEHP400UB.

I liked the Sony model a great deal. The Pioneer wasn’t as impressive and to be honest, I was turned off a bit by some of the user comments although it did get basically good reviews. The JVC had reviews that were almost as good as the Sony and it had a couple of other things going for it that drew me in that direction. It was about twenty dollars less than the Sony; CC would throw in free installation even though I had to purchase the mounting brackets and other accessories needed for the install. The JVC had one feature the Sony lacked that I found very attractive. It had a USB port to play songs off of a compatible USB thumb drive. I liked this option a great deal since the price of thumb drives has come down considerably. The idea of different thumb drives with various types of music on them appealed to me.

I had several JVC products before and they were all good and some were very good. In general they were all a “good deal” so my decision to select the JVC product was clear.

To be continued …

Car Stereo: How to Buy – Part 1

Car Stereo: How to Buy – Part III

This post was originally published by Gardening on the Moon