Sony XAV-72BT

Love it

I own this and I enjoy it sounds great, plays movies clear best head unit ever.

Slow!!!!

Unit had all the features i was looking for. 6-channel 4V output, Bluetooth, Time Alignment but all those features are useless if it takes 5 seconds to process every request.
Compared to touchscreens from Kenwood and the likes, this HU is definitely not ready for mass production. Really surprised Sony's Quality Control didnt notice the amount of lag in this HU or maybe it was just the unit I received that was too slow but I will not be giving Sony a second chance. Going back to Kenwood

Nice Radio

Item is just as i wanted .Nice system.i would recommend this product to anyone.

Awesome!

I was looking for something to replace the stock JBL unit in my wifes 02 Sequoia. My main requirements were full touchscreen, Bluetooth voice dialing, and obviously good sound. I couldn't be happier. The installation was a breeze, the screen is gorgeous, and the sound quality is 10x better than the stock JBL unit. As an added bonus, my wife finds it very easy to use and loves the fact that it integrates with her iPhone...couldn't be happier.

Unusable

On paper, this system has all the features I wanted, but in execution, this thing is terrible.

The lag on the system makes it unusable. In a car, such a lag is just unsafe. I don’t have time to push a button and stare at my head unit to make sure it’s doing what I just told it to. Originally out of the box, the touch screen was even worse because it wasn’t calibrated. After calibrating, it was still bad. The screen would look like the icon was pressed, and the button chime would sound over the speakers, and then nothing would happen. I’d hit it again, and EVENTUALLY, the unit would respond, ever so slooooowly.

There is a problem I’ve noticed with other head units, and it happens on this head unit as well. When you set a preset station, the station will briefly show the station frequency, and then start streaming the station data on the preset button as well as across the designated area at the top of the screen. This is fine, until you change stations, and the preset button no longer shows what radio station is it set to, instead the display on that button freezes on the last set of characters that was showing for that station info. This could be a fraction of a song title, artist, or when the transmission is messed up, it might show nothing at all. So, for example, when you’re curious what preset 5 is, you look down and it’s “etroit Ro”.

I’m not sure if this is a byproduct of the slowness, but my iPod nano 2nd gen would freeze, and the unit would get stuck on the first note of a track, and then stop reading the thing. The head unit is supposed to work with that model iPod, and the iPod checks out fine on all other computers and readers. Additionally, I had a Sony from 3 years back, and they still haven’t gotten the message to put an alphabetizing algorithm for searching by song titles. The Sony’s still don’t alphabetize track titles, but just display the list in the order on the device, which happens to be grouped by artist. If I wanted that, I’d search by artist. Speaking of alphabetizing, I noticed when I transferred my phonebook to the Sony, the names are pseudo alphabetized. The first letter was in order, but beyond that they were I think backwards in order within the first letter group.

Even getting the phone synced with the head unit was a major pain because of the lag. The phone would be waiting for a pin entry from the head unit, and the head unit would be lagging, and it was like a nightmare game of tag. Once they were synced, however, Sony displayed the one good quality of the head unit, the Bluetooth hands-free calling. The mic has 3 gain settings, 3 echo/noise cancellation settings, and a higher quality microphone than some other units. I tried this unit initially because my other unit had such bad clarity of my voice on the calls, and from my short time with the unit, it was much better than the other unit I tried. Additionally, when on a call, the head unit displays a touch pad, so if you need to input a touch tone number press, you can do it from the touch screen, a good feature not available on all other head units.

In the end, the call quality wasn’t enough to redeem the unit of its negative characteristics (also, did I mention the display was quite bland--lots of grays, and not very customizable.) Some of these maybe could be fixed with a firmware update, but it could very well be a limitation of the processing capabilities of the device; otherwise, good luck waiting for Sony to release a firmware update for this. I personally am returning this unit, and still searching/waiting for something that addresses all of these functions in a head unit.

SO so and slow...

For the enthusiast, the HU is slow. Mine always is in the off mode when you shut the vehicle off and then turn on the ignition again. I don't think I'm impress with this unit. Functionality is slow and there's a slight delay in every operation function you execute. Bluetooth works good. Movies are good too. iPod operation is slow to track and execute.

Ipod Integration is slow

I've had this unit for about a month now. The overall functionality of the unit is good. However, as the other poster has noted, the unit is painfully slow, especially the iPod integration. I really want to like it but cannot get over the slowness. If Sony does not address the issue I'm going to pull it from my system.

As it stands, the XAV72-BT is the achilles heel of my system.

Does sound quality matter? Picture Quality?

Yes, everything you read about the menu display is correct. It's way too slow. On the other hand, the sound is unbelievable and the video lives up to the Sony name. You won't find a better head unit. The sound is crystal clear, and it powers up my subwoofer with no distortion whatsoever. Try getting that kind of sound for under $800. EZ installation with all RCA connectors.

great product

I own this product it works great. I suggest this product to anyone you won't go wrong.

Good features but too slow

Experience level: car audio hobbyist for 25+ years. Have worked in car audio industry distributing high end car audio.

As per the other reviews, this unit has a lot of features but is far too slow. Been using it for about 2 weeks now. BT has great clarity, probably the best BT unit I have used (but I haven't owned many BT units). Screen resolution is good and paired with an Alpine reversing camera it works very well.

Where this unit is a disaster is the menu system and lag. The iPod interface is painful at best. Press a button, the unit wakes up, gets out of bed, stretches, has a coffee, misses the bus, walks to work and finally does something. Spoke to the man at the shop and he reckons the 72bt is about 50% faster than its Sony predecessors. It plays movies off my ipad1 and iPhone 4. With my iPod with video (which the manual says is compatible) I get the video feed but no audio. I'm using the Sony RC-200IPV cable. Maybe this problem would be cured with the RC-202IPV but none can confirm that for me and I'm not going to shell out cash for no definite gain.

Can't comment on sound quality due to rest of system being factory.

Rating notes: 1 star for durability because I had to give it a rating - unit appears solid but have had it for too short a time to comment on durability. 1 star for look/design - clean looking unit once you get rid of all the stupid graphics, but menu design is awful.

In summary, great on paper but destroyed by the lag and iPod interface. Would not recommend to anyone.