Sony CDX-MP80

Im planning on getting the Sony CDX-mp80 off of ebay.  I know alot of you guys hate sony products....   Have any experience with this HU? 

Do different HU make that much of a difference in a sound system?  I always assumed the Amp and Speakers determined the quality and the HU basically is just for bells and whistles....

Thanks for your advice!

I think the CDX-MP80 is really overpriced.  If it didn't have that silly motorized cd tray and anti-shock memory it would be 100 bucks less.  Personally I don't see the point really of either of those features.  Any decent aftermarket cd player will hardly ever skip--my pioneer that i've had for about 4 years now has only done it about 3 times, and i've used it a whole bunch, on mostly city streets.  Every time a customer has come back to us and said their CDs skip all the time, it was always because of a defective unit, not because of a lack of anti-shock protection.

If I were you I'd look at the new CDX-M850MP instead.  It has more features than the MP80 but is about 30 bucks less.  Only thing is that it does not have a detatchable face, but the active black panel does a fairly good job of camouflaging itself.  I think the M850MP's display looks a lot better, is easier to read, and the whole two-sided display feature is REALLY slick.  And the MP80 is not even XM-ready.  If you take a look here you can see just how they compare to each other.

Almost always if you take a completely stock stereo and want to get the biggest improvement in sound with just upgrading one component, it's gonna be the speakers, not the head unit.  Only once you have upgraded the speakers should you consider upgrading the head unit and/or adding on aftermarket 4-channel amps, if what you're looking to do is get better overall sound quality.

I personally don't think Sony head unit's are all that bad; sure they're not as good as nak or eclipse but they're really more than adequate for most systems.  The only time you can really tell a difference I think is if you have the absolute best speakers and amps possible, and have a very quiet car.  In that situation you might be able to hear a difference in the SQ between a sony and an eclipse.  Just my two cents though and I know I'm gonna get flamed for that...oh well

Hey thanks for your advice!  I agree that the MP80 is overpriced at MSRP $449.  Although on Ebay it is just under $300.  The price seems ok to me and i need a detachable face.

My biggest concern is the quality of sound and i think it will be fine just like you said.

Thanks for the quick response!

Yea it's too bad Sony didn't come up with a way to let you detach the face on the M850MP cuz I think that head unit would have become a huge hit.  But many people (yourself included) want or maybe even need the security of a detachable face.  Hell Kenwood figured out how to do it with their D-MASK head units so why couldn't sony do it with the active black face displays?

Oh well glad to help and I hope you enjoy your new head unit!  I'm sure you will be VERY pleased with the SQ.