Sony XAV5000 first impressions
#21
10-07-2018, 07:03 PM
Grand HDF Member
#23
10-07-2018, 08:50 PM
Grand HDF Member
#24
10-18-2018, 02:58 PM
Intermediate
So, finally had time to get the Sony installed and test ride. Unit got delayed in mail because of holiday, then I got busy at work and took a week to get around to install, than after install work got in the way again for test ride. Here's my first impressions: easy install with kit, took longer to tuck and clean up wiring than to pull out stock HU and install Sony. I did the clear contact paper around unit like most, plug and play harness in kit was very easy install. Sony fired up right away, very fast loading and very fast response navigating around the menu. Almost instant response. Very easy to set up SQ EQ and other items, though I would say they are a bit limited, but I could spend a lot more $ on a HU to get more functions, and price vs SQ was my goal. I'm currently running B52 amp, and ARC Moto 602 speakers in faring with the Sony, SOUND IS FREEKING AMAZING! I can not believe the difference in SQ vs stock, it's like going to car show and listening to the guys that spend thousands on their car stereo vs AM radio from decades ago. Sounds great at any speed, even at 70, clear separation and plenty of bass from a two speaker setup, and I could still clearly here bass at 70. Really, I was totally surprised at the sound! I was just listening to radio for source, really amazing. Then switched to mp3 on my phone, sound was not quite as good, messed around with my phone EQ setting, helped a little, but made me think my mp3's are crap and time to get better quality sound files. With decent sound files I would imagine the Sony SQ will just keep improving. And, I wear 3/4 helmet, sound was still amazing with two speakers.
Daylight screen has a little glare, but not terrible, it's hard for me to see because I wear prescription polarized sunglasses all the time, and it was hard for me to see stock HU also with glasses on. At night or at dusk, Sony is really beautiful screen. Yes you have to use the touch screen for somethings but not all, switching tracks, or radio stations, mute, + - volume is very easy with thumb controls. Apple car play is very easy to use.
At first, I was very disappointed to try touching screen with gloves on, it did not work. That bummed me out. I thankfully have heated grips which are so wonderful, but I thought about ditching the Sony because of the gloves. After more experimenting, gloves DO work on the touch screen, but they can't be really thick gloves, and I have to touch screen with the tip of my finger and not end of my finger to get it to work.
Second disappointment was in navigation mode in Apple car play, screen is just basically white washed with little contrast. I was just leaving navigation on while riding to tell me where I am, but in all fairness, the stock HU was just about as hard to see. However, I stopped for a sec, and it took just seconds to enter a nav route, (vs minutes with stock HU), and off I went with GPS navigation en-route. What a difference over stock HU navigation! So easy to see and understand! The stock navigation was really hard to understand the route and next turns and stupid directions. Wow the Sony Apple play was awesome, so easy to see and understand, there was literally night and day difference between the two! It was almost like looking at my iPad compared to stock HU. I would like to see if I can figure out how to get satellite maps to work on the Apple car play, but as of yet I have not figured that out. I did mess around with the dimness control on the Sony screen, but did not test ride that yet, but it might help improve the daylight visibility on the screen maybe. The sound of the navigation vs my tunes was lacking a little, I wanted just a touch more volume from the navigation, and my phone was set to loud. So, I don't know if thats an issue or not yet.
Is the Sony worth keeping? Well, at first I thought no. But after first test ride, I think so. Sound Quality is just absolutely fantastic, and I just have two speaker fairing setup. Do you need amp? Yes. SQ without amp would not be worth the trouble to spend the money on this. Do I miss the stock functionality? No, not even for a sec, the positives of the Sony out-way the stock even with some of the thumb controls missing. Time will tell about weather durability, but there doesn't seem to be any threads about people ditching the Sony because of water damage. It will take a little while to get used to plugging in my phone when I want to use the apple car play for navigation, but if you don't plug your phone in bluetooth works very well indeed.
So I'll keep testing in the next few days, the Sony is not for everyone, but then again neither is the stock HU.
Daylight screen has a little glare, but not terrible, it's hard for me to see because I wear prescription polarized sunglasses all the time, and it was hard for me to see stock HU also with glasses on. At night or at dusk, Sony is really beautiful screen. Yes you have to use the touch screen for somethings but not all, switching tracks, or radio stations, mute, + - volume is very easy with thumb controls. Apple car play is very easy to use.
At first, I was very disappointed to try touching screen with gloves on, it did not work. That bummed me out. I thankfully have heated grips which are so wonderful, but I thought about ditching the Sony because of the gloves. After more experimenting, gloves DO work on the touch screen, but they can't be really thick gloves, and I have to touch screen with the tip of my finger and not end of my finger to get it to work.
Second disappointment was in navigation mode in Apple car play, screen is just basically white washed with little contrast. I was just leaving navigation on while riding to tell me where I am, but in all fairness, the stock HU was just about as hard to see. However, I stopped for a sec, and it took just seconds to enter a nav route, (vs minutes with stock HU), and off I went with GPS navigation en-route. What a difference over stock HU navigation! So easy to see and understand! The stock navigation was really hard to understand the route and next turns and stupid directions. Wow the Sony Apple play was awesome, so easy to see and understand, there was literally night and day difference between the two! It was almost like looking at my iPad compared to stock HU. I would like to see if I can figure out how to get satellite maps to work on the Apple car play, but as of yet I have not figured that out. I did mess around with the dimness control on the Sony screen, but did not test ride that yet, but it might help improve the daylight visibility on the screen maybe. The sound of the navigation vs my tunes was lacking a little, I wanted just a touch more volume from the navigation, and my phone was set to loud. So, I don't know if thats an issue or not yet.
Is the Sony worth keeping? Well, at first I thought no. But after first test ride, I think so. Sound Quality is just absolutely fantastic, and I just have two speaker fairing setup. Do you need amp? Yes. SQ without amp would not be worth the trouble to spend the money on this. Do I miss the stock functionality? No, not even for a sec, the positives of the Sony out-way the stock even with some of the thumb controls missing. Time will tell about weather durability, but there doesn't seem to be any threads about people ditching the Sony because of water damage. It will take a little while to get used to plugging in my phone when I want to use the apple car play for navigation, but if you don't plug your phone in bluetooth works very well indeed.
So I'll keep testing in the next few days, the Sony is not for everyone, but then again neither is the stock HU.
#25
10-18-2018, 03:43 PM
So, finally had time to get the Sony installed and test ride. Unit got delayed in mail because of holiday, then I got busy at work and took a week to get around to install, than after install work got in the way again for test ride. Here's my first impressions: easy install with kit, took longer to tuck and clean up wiring than to pull out stock HU and install Sony. I did the clear contact paper around unit like most, plug and play harness in kit was very easy install. Sony fired up right away, very fast loading and very fast response navigating around the menu. Almost instant response. Very easy to set up SQ EQ and other items, though I would say they are a bit limited, but I could spend a lot more $ on a HU to get more functions, and price vs SQ was my goal. I'm currently running B52 amp, and ARC Moto 602 speakers in faring with the Sony, SOUND IS FREEKING AMAZING! I can not believe the difference in SQ vs stock, it's like going to car show and listening to the guys that spend thousands on their car stereo vs AM radio from decades ago. Sounds great at any speed, even at 70, clear separation and plenty of bass from a two speaker setup, and I could still clearly here bass at 70. Really, I was totally surprised at the sound! I was just listening to radio for source, really amazing. Then switched to mp3 on my phone, sound was not quite as good, messed around with my phone EQ setting, helped a little, but made me think my mp3's are crap and time to get better quality sound files. With decent sound files I would imagine the Sony SQ will just keep improving. And, I wear 3/4 helmet, sound was still amazing with two speakers.
Daylight screen has a little glare, but not terrible, it's hard for me to see because I wear prescription polarized sunglasses all the time, and it was hard for me to see stock HU also with glasses on. At night or at dusk, Sony is really beautiful screen. Yes you have to use the touch screen for somethings but not all, switching tracks, or radio stations, mute, + - volume is very easy with thumb controls. Apple car play is very easy to use.
At first, I was very disappointed to try touching screen with gloves on, it did not work. That bummed me out. I thankfully have heated grips which are so wonderful, but I thought about ditching the Sony because of the gloves. After more experimenting, gloves DO work on the touch screen, but they can't be really thick gloves, and I have to touch screen with the tip of my finger and not end of my finger to get it to work.
Second disappointment was in navigation mode in Apple car play, screen is just basically white washed with little contrast. I was just leaving navigation on while riding to tell me where I am, but in all fairness, the stock HU was just about as hard to see. However, I stopped for a sec, and it took just seconds to enter a nav route, (vs minutes with stock HU), and off I went with GPS navigation en-route. What a difference over stock HU navigation! So easy to see and understand! The stock navigation was really hard to understand the route and next turns and stupid directions. Wow the Sony Apple play was awesome, so easy to see and understand, there was literally night and day difference between the two! It was almost like looking at my iPad compared to stock HU. I would like to see if I can figure out how to get satellite maps to work on the Apple car play, but as of yet I have not figured that out. I did mess around with the dimness control on the Sony screen, but did not test ride that yet, but it might help improve the daylight visibility on the screen maybe. The sound of the navigation vs my tunes was lacking a little, I wanted just a touch more volume from the navigation, and my phone was set to loud. So, I don't know if thats an issue or not yet.
Is the Sony worth keeping? Well, at first I thought no. But after first test ride, I think so. Sound Quality is just absolutely fantastic, and I just have two speaker fairing setup. Do you need amp? Yes. SQ without amp would not be worth the trouble to spend the money on this. Do I miss the stock functionality? No, not even for a sec, the positives of the Sony out-way the stock even with some of the thumb controls missing. Time will tell about weather durability, but there doesn't seem to be any threads about people ditching the Sony because of water damage. It will take a little while to get used to plugging in my phone when I want to use the apple car play for navigation, but if you don't plug your phone in bluetooth works very well indeed.
So I'll keep testing in the next few days, the Sony is not for everyone, but then again neither is the stock HU.
Daylight screen has a little glare, but not terrible, it's hard for me to see because I wear prescription polarized sunglasses all the time, and it was hard for me to see stock HU also with glasses on. At night or at dusk, Sony is really beautiful screen. Yes you have to use the touch screen for somethings but not all, switching tracks, or radio stations, mute, + - volume is very easy with thumb controls. Apple car play is very easy to use.
At first, I was very disappointed to try touching screen with gloves on, it did not work. That bummed me out. I thankfully have heated grips which are so wonderful, but I thought about ditching the Sony because of the gloves. After more experimenting, gloves DO work on the touch screen, but they can't be really thick gloves, and I have to touch screen with the tip of my finger and not end of my finger to get it to work.
Second disappointment was in navigation mode in Apple car play, screen is just basically white washed with little contrast. I was just leaving navigation on while riding to tell me where I am, but in all fairness, the stock HU was just about as hard to see. However, I stopped for a sec, and it took just seconds to enter a nav route, (vs minutes with stock HU), and off I went with GPS navigation en-route. What a difference over stock HU navigation! So easy to see and understand! The stock navigation was really hard to understand the route and next turns and stupid directions. Wow the Sony Apple play was awesome, so easy to see and understand, there was literally night and day difference between the two! It was almost like looking at my iPad compared to stock HU. I would like to see if I can figure out how to get satellite maps to work on the Apple car play, but as of yet I have not figured that out. I did mess around with the dimness control on the Sony screen, but did not test ride that yet, but it might help improve the daylight visibility on the screen maybe. The sound of the navigation vs my tunes was lacking a little, I wanted just a touch more volume from the navigation, and my phone was set to loud. So, I don't know if thats an issue or not yet.
Is the Sony worth keeping? Well, at first I thought no. But after first test ride, I think so. Sound Quality is just absolutely fantastic, and I just have two speaker fairing setup. Do you need amp? Yes. SQ without amp would not be worth the trouble to spend the money on this. Do I miss the stock functionality? No, not even for a sec, the positives of the Sony out-way the stock even with some of the thumb controls missing. Time will tell about weather durability, but there doesn't seem to be any threads about people ditching the Sony because of water damage. It will take a little while to get used to plugging in my phone when I want to use the apple car play for navigation, but if you don't plug your phone in bluetooth works very well indeed.
So I'll keep testing in the next few days, the Sony is not for everyone, but then again neither is the stock HU.
#26
10-18-2018, 03:47 PM
Grand HDF Member
#27
10-18-2018, 05:50 PM
Intermediate
#28
10-18-2018, 08:46 PM
Elite HDF Member
As far as navigation, the apple map sux, try google maps with the satellite view OR try Waze , with Waze you can select the color, day or night and it is free. Just make sure your phone is up to date and you have the 1.01 firmware on the Sony.
But I really do prefer this over the 6.5, I can tell the air temp by the wind in my face and I have a oil pressure light just like my previous Harley's
But I really do prefer this over the 6.5, I can tell the air temp by the wind in my face and I have a oil pressure light just like my previous Harley's
#30
10-19-2018, 03:11 PM
Intermediate
As far as navigation, the apple map sux, try google maps with the satellite view OR try Waze , with Waze you can select the color, day or night and it is free. Just make sure your phone is up to date and you have the 1.01 firmware on the Sony.
But I really do prefer this over the 6.5, I can tell the air temp by the wind in my face and I have a oil pressure light just like my previous Harley's
But I really do prefer this over the 6.5, I can tell the air temp by the wind in my face and I have a oil pressure light just like my previous Harley's
