Marine Audio Blog

The CDX-HR905IP is another new head unit from Sony designed from the outset solely for use within the marine environment.

Sony CDX-HR905IP

The unit boasts a folding, catch locked front panel, which is fully waterproofed to IPx5. Stylistically, the unit looks perfect for any modern boat’s dash area with its round display and rubberised controls. The most important development however is at the back, where Sony have incorporated a 2m cable, terminating in an iPod docking connector.

Hook the unit up to your iPod, and you can control the mp3 player from the head unit’s front panel. At least in theory. Unfortunately, connections of this nature have been plagued of late by Apple software updates which have stopped some external control devices working correctly. Many in-car units have been affected by such issues, which really leaves us wondering whether it’s a feature worth having.

In a car, moving control to the radio makes perfect sense, as this removes the need for the driver to handle the iPod – instead, just requiring adjustment of the radio’s controls. However, any such control is ultimately always going to be limited to some degree and will never match the ease of use of the iPod with its user interface designed solely for one purpose. In a car, a momentary diversion of the driver’s attention is of critical concern. In a substantial percentage of cases, marine units tend to be used in a less pressurised environment – and often controlled by passengers as much as the person at the helm.

Aside of the iPod connector, there appears to be very little to differentiate the CDX-HR905IP from the similarly design CDX-HR70MW and CDX-HR70MS. The only really notable difference is that the new model now has blue and red switchable key illumination, rather than red and green.

In conclusion, if you love leading edge technology, spend time at the helm solo at speed, or simply want blue illumination to match your other dash instruments, the CDX-HR905IP may well be worth considering – but the iPod control does come at a significant cost. If you’re not concerned about split second control, or don’t mind red or green illumination, then either the CDX-HR70MS or CDX-HR70MW may well make sounder financial sense. The latter two units can be still be hooked up to your iPod’s headphone socket using nothing more than a 3.5mm to RCA patch lead anyway….