This is a review and detailed comparison of two car head units: the Sony MEX-XB120BT and Dual AM505BT. Yes, you read that right: car stereos! I needed to replace the Pioneer car stereo in my boat with something that had bluetooth and much more power to play over the loud engine noise. I was pleasantly surprised to see both of these models sport much higher power/more efficient class-D amplification. This allowed me to get more volume without having to mess with an external amplifier.
The Sony MEX-XB120BT retails for $200 with Prime shipping on Amazon. The Dual costs more at $253, again with Prime shipping from Amazon.
Searching I was surprised to see that there is no measurements or detailed review of either unit. Specs are wild in car stereo and is hard to know what is real, and what is fantasy when it comes to power and such. So I decided to buy both from Amazon and return the one that didn't perform as well.
The Sony is a traditional CD player plus new formats such as bluetooth and USB drive playback. The Dual is part of the newer generation that does away with the CD drive since it gets used so little these days. I have no need for the CD drive so that was not a factor in my decision. Deletion of the CD drive makes the units less deep which is nice bonus. Here is what the two look like (the Sony is powered down):
The Sony has the traditional light pipes and teenage styling which is a big turn off for me. That said, they have really nailed the RGB LED light pipes with the unit softly changing its color all the time. The display is dot-matrix and while OK to navigate, is still a pain given the single line LED display.
The Dual as you see, has a full color LCD. It is not an OLED display like your phone but it is attractively designed and a joy to navigate. Menus show up and as you navigate between them, you can always see what is before or after unlike the single line in the Sony. I suspect the extra $50 has gone to pay for this fancier display and processor to drive it.
The volume control is a rotary encoder and rather loose on the Dual. The Sony has a tighter feel but I got used to both so no differentiation there.
I love the Bluetooth pairing on Dual. It is always in "auto-connect" mode meaning if you set up your phone the same way, it auto-pairs automatically all the time. In a boat environment, you shut down the power completely to the head unit so having it wake up cold and pair is wonderful.
The Sony is fancier with NFC pairing and such, but requires manual intervention every time you power it on to pair.
Alas, whoever designed the Bluetooth in Dual goofed as it has a range of 8 to 10 feet at best. In a boat (which is the target market for the thing), you want to walk around the boat with the phone in your pocket and this just doesn't work in that scenario. Amazon reviews are horrid due to this. The Sony has an amazing range up to 30+ feet. Luckily our boat is small and I will likely just put my phone on the dash near the unit so not a major barrier for me.
As noted, the Dual is made for boats so it comes with conformal coating on the PC board. And has all of its outside enclosure shrouded in clear plastic. The efficiency of class D amplification allows it to work without venting.
Sony makes a high-power version of this series for boats just the same. But the new iteration I am testing here has not made it there so has no protection against moisture ingress. I have had a normal car-stereo in my boat and it has been fine since the cabin is enclosed. So not a big deal either way but is nice to have the extra protection.
All in all, it was agonizing to choose between ease of use of Dual versus the longer range of bluetooth on Sony. The former won out, pending measurements.
From installation point of view, the older version of the Sony had a beefy block where you powered it with heavy gauge wiring. That is gone now, replaced with super thin wiring. I was surprised to see this. The Dual on the other hand, has the dedicated terminal for heavy gauge wiring.
The manual for Dual is horrid when it comes to installation. If you have done such installs, then you are good but otherwise, have someone else do the work. The rest of the manual is just a few pages but seeing how easy it is to use the device, it is adequate. The Sony manual on the other hand, is much more extensive.
Measurements
Both units come with line-in AUX input which I used for my testing. For amplifier load, I used a 4 ohm dummy load. Here is the dashboard view of Sony MEX-XB120BT:
Coming from testing a ton of desktop audio products, these measurements are sure depressing. Just 62 dB of signal above noise and distortion (SINAD)? Distortion of -.08% while outputting just 2 volts (1 watt)? I need to test other units to see how typical these are or whether performance is degraded due to use of class D amplifiers.
Things looked up a bit when testing the Dual AM505BT:
It was nice to see my power supply noise not bleeding to the output of this unit.
Let's push them units and see how they do going to full power:
Please ignore the jagged response. The high frequency carrier noise in class D amps is confusing my analyzer auto-scalar. I need to build a filter for it for more accurate measurements.
Relative data though is accurate showing the Dual to be much quieter than the Sony. At clipping point, the Sony produced 40 watts driving both channels simultaneously at 0.2% distortion. The Dual produces 42 watts at 0.1% distortion.
CEA allows distortion of 1% for power ratings. Eyeballing that, both units produced over 50 watts while driving both channels which is impressive for such small units.
During the testing, the Sony got slightly warm but the Dual stayed cool at room temp!
Subjective Listening Test
I have a pair of sealed outdoor Niles OS6 speakers in my boat. The Dual had no trouble blowing the cobwebs off the drivers. It played very loud and very clear. It definitely had everything I needed there.
The Sony didn't sound as good to me. It just sounded distorted but this may just be imagination as I had no ability to do a level matched AB test. It too got quite loud.
Conclusions
It was nice to have some "me time" with my analyzer solving a personal problem of which stereo to pick for my boat. On usability front, the Dual wins easily over the Sony. In a car situation where the range for Bluetooth is not an issue, it would work quite well and not cheesy looking. In a larger boat where you want to roam with the phone in your pocket, streaming via bluetooth, not so much.
Measured performance of both units is poor compared to home units. Fortunately in a boat or car the ambient noise is quite high so I don't think this is a major issue. The much, much higher power output is a delight, simplifying wiring, brining efficiency (big deal in smaller boats), and simplicity compared to using traditional head units with outboard amps.
If you need an aftermarket unit, I highly recommend looking into these two units. For me, I decided to keep the Dual AM505BT and sending the Sony back to Amazon.
Hope you found this little side trip into car audio useful. If you like to see more reviews in this domain, let me know.
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As always, questions, comments, corrections, etc. are all welcome.
----
If you like this review, please consider donating funds for these types of hardware purchases using Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/audiosciencereview), or upgrading your membership here though Paypal (https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...eview-and-measurements.2164/page-3#post-59054).
The Sony MEX-XB120BT retails for $200 with Prime shipping on Amazon. The Dual costs more at $253, again with Prime shipping from Amazon.
Searching I was surprised to see that there is no measurements or detailed review of either unit. Specs are wild in car stereo and is hard to know what is real, and what is fantasy when it comes to power and such. So I decided to buy both from Amazon and return the one that didn't perform as well.
The Sony is a traditional CD player plus new formats such as bluetooth and USB drive playback. The Dual is part of the newer generation that does away with the CD drive since it gets used so little these days. I have no need for the CD drive so that was not a factor in my decision. Deletion of the CD drive makes the units less deep which is nice bonus. Here is what the two look like (the Sony is powered down):
The Sony has the traditional light pipes and teenage styling which is a big turn off for me. That said, they have really nailed the RGB LED light pipes with the unit softly changing its color all the time. The display is dot-matrix and while OK to navigate, is still a pain given the single line LED display.
The Dual as you see, has a full color LCD. It is not an OLED display like your phone but it is attractively designed and a joy to navigate. Menus show up and as you navigate between them, you can always see what is before or after unlike the single line in the Sony. I suspect the extra $50 has gone to pay for this fancier display and processor to drive it.
The volume control is a rotary encoder and rather loose on the Dual. The Sony has a tighter feel but I got used to both so no differentiation there.
I love the Bluetooth pairing on Dual. It is always in "auto-connect" mode meaning if you set up your phone the same way, it auto-pairs automatically all the time. In a boat environment, you shut down the power completely to the head unit so having it wake up cold and pair is wonderful.
The Sony is fancier with NFC pairing and such, but requires manual intervention every time you power it on to pair.
Alas, whoever designed the Bluetooth in Dual goofed as it has a range of 8 to 10 feet at best. In a boat (which is the target market for the thing), you want to walk around the boat with the phone in your pocket and this just doesn't work in that scenario. Amazon reviews are horrid due to this. The Sony has an amazing range up to 30+ feet. Luckily our boat is small and I will likely just put my phone on the dash near the unit so not a major barrier for me.
As noted, the Dual is made for boats so it comes with conformal coating on the PC board. And has all of its outside enclosure shrouded in clear plastic. The efficiency of class D amplification allows it to work without venting.
Sony makes a high-power version of this series for boats just the same. But the new iteration I am testing here has not made it there so has no protection against moisture ingress. I have had a normal car-stereo in my boat and it has been fine since the cabin is enclosed. So not a big deal either way but is nice to have the extra protection.
All in all, it was agonizing to choose between ease of use of Dual versus the longer range of bluetooth on Sony. The former won out, pending measurements.
From installation point of view, the older version of the Sony had a beefy block where you powered it with heavy gauge wiring. That is gone now, replaced with super thin wiring. I was surprised to see this. The Dual on the other hand, has the dedicated terminal for heavy gauge wiring.
The manual for Dual is horrid when it comes to installation. If you have done such installs, then you are good but otherwise, have someone else do the work. The rest of the manual is just a few pages but seeing how easy it is to use the device, it is adequate. The Sony manual on the other hand, is much more extensive.
Measurements
Both units come with line-in AUX input which I used for my testing. For amplifier load, I used a 4 ohm dummy load. Here is the dashboard view of Sony MEX-XB120BT:
Coming from testing a ton of desktop audio products, these measurements are sure depressing. Just 62 dB of signal above noise and distortion (SINAD)? Distortion of -.08% while outputting just 2 volts (1 watt)? I need to test other units to see how typical these are or whether performance is degraded due to use of class D amplifiers.
Things looked up a bit when testing the Dual AM505BT:
It was nice to see my power supply noise not bleeding to the output of this unit.
Let's push them units and see how they do going to full power:
Please ignore the jagged response. The high frequency carrier noise in class D amps is confusing my analyzer auto-scalar. I need to build a filter for it for more accurate measurements.
Relative data though is accurate showing the Dual to be much quieter than the Sony. At clipping point, the Sony produced 40 watts driving both channels simultaneously at 0.2% distortion. The Dual produces 42 watts at 0.1% distortion.
CEA allows distortion of 1% for power ratings. Eyeballing that, both units produced over 50 watts while driving both channels which is impressive for such small units.
During the testing, the Sony got slightly warm but the Dual stayed cool at room temp!
Subjective Listening Test
I have a pair of sealed outdoor Niles OS6 speakers in my boat. The Dual had no trouble blowing the cobwebs off the drivers. It played very loud and very clear. It definitely had everything I needed there.
The Sony didn't sound as good to me. It just sounded distorted but this may just be imagination as I had no ability to do a level matched AB test. It too got quite loud.
Conclusions
It was nice to have some "me time" with my analyzer solving a personal problem of which stereo to pick for my boat. On usability front, the Dual wins easily over the Sony. In a car situation where the range for Bluetooth is not an issue, it would work quite well and not cheesy looking. In a larger boat where you want to roam with the phone in your pocket, streaming via bluetooth, not so much.
Measured performance of both units is poor compared to home units. Fortunately in a boat or car the ambient noise is quite high so I don't think this is a major issue. The much, much higher power output is a delight, simplifying wiring, brining efficiency (big deal in smaller boats), and simplicity compared to using traditional head units with outboard amps.
If you need an aftermarket unit, I highly recommend looking into these two units. For me, I decided to keep the Dual AM505BT and sending the Sony back to Amazon.
Hope you found this little side trip into car audio useful. If you like to see more reviews in this domain, let me know.
----
As always, questions, comments, corrections, etc. are all welcome.
----
If you like this review, please consider donating funds for these types of hardware purchases using Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/audiosciencereview), or upgrading your membership here though Paypal (https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...eview-and-measurements.2164/page-3#post-59054).