Made Entertaiment on Your Car

Let me clearly explain that I am not using an external amplifier with this unit. Consequently, I have no experience with the pre-outs and bass control. The audio qualities are not my top interests for this

purchase. Features, ease of use, and the display are my main tagets. That said…

I am building a portable radio using a car head unit to provide input sources and amplification along with a pair of Polk db651 speakers . My requirements were to be able to listen to AM/FM (HD radio and Bluetooth at some future time), CDs, MP3s on CD, AUX input (MP3/portable DVD player), USB thumb drive, wireless remote, and the ability to control iPODs via the head unit. Another critical feature for me was a display that was visible in sunlight (at the beach) and could be read from a distance.

I demo’d two Pioneer Premier units (P610BT and P510B), an Alpine unit (CDA-105), two JVC units (KD-HDR50 and KD-R600), and this one. I liked the Pioneer units a lot for features. The 510 had two USB ports, which I

really liked. It was a bit more expensive and had a crummy display, however. The 610 had a better display but only one USB port. They had a common deal killer for me, though. The user interface, specifically the

search feature for USB drives, was atrocious. Too much work to search for music on thumb drives. I expected much more from such an accomplished car audio company. One more jab, the fit and finish was not on par with the other units I considered. The Alpine was simply too much money for similar features. Besides, while I really liked the display, I hated the face design and colors. I can see how folks might like that radio, though. Nice unit. The JVCs were actually pretty nice with one common exception. The models I looked at had blue lettering on the displays. It was very hard to read them from a distance. The R600 did not support HD radio so I scratched it. Had I not gone with the Kenwood, I would have bought the JVC HDR50. In the end, I decided on the Kenwood. It has all the features for which I was looking, was priced far better than I anticipated it would be, and included a two year warranty.

I received it yesterday via UPS. While I am not a fan of the scrolling red dots on the bottom of the display, I like the appearance otherwise. I really like the included wireless remote. It is a little thicker than

most car radio remotes but that makes it easier for me to hold and use. It has all of the key functions on it. I know some people don’t like the faceplate interface of this radio, and I understand, but the remote

provides just about anything I need. The controls on the face will take you some time with which to become comfortable. Nothing terrible but a few things were not intuitive.

I hooked the unit up to a 12V power supply and some small Klipsch loudspeakers. The connections were clearly marked on the leads. The radio came up alive quickly. It reads and plays thumb drives in a snap. I like that the artist name and song title scroll accross the display in large, easy-to-read letters. I had no problem reading them from ten feet away. It was difficult for me to determine anything about sound quality

with the speakers that were connected but it seemed perfectly adequate. CDs and MP3 CDs loaded and played quickly, much faster than and older Alpine head unit I had on hand. The tuner had no problems out performing

my home audio receiver, which I expected. Stations locked very quickly and solidly. The AUX input worked fine, albeit at reduced volumes. My source may have more to do with that than the radio, though. I have not

had a chance to hook up an iPOD yet.

I only played with the radio for a few hours but I am impressed with what I saw. It hosts a bunch of features for the cost, is very quick, and owns the best display of all the units I tested. The two year warranty

doesn’t hurt, either.

Rating: 5 / 5

Sorry Kenwood, I’ve gotta be harsh. Before this model was out, I had found the previous model (X492) and read the reviews. One of the most common complaints was the difficult-to-maneuver menus. Despite this, I decided to give this model (X493) a chance, since I normally don’t mess with controls too much while driving. But I have to agree, it’s intolerable to use this unit, especially when you’re driving a manual shift car and just want to do something simple like change playback from normal to random. I suppose my biggest complaint is that there are too few buttons. So many features, I’d prefer more “dedicated” buttons to access them!

I also did not like that the unit cannot randomize ALL my mp3s on my USB drive across ALL folders. It will only randomize within one folder, which forced me to dump all my mp3s into the root folder of the USB drive, since I usually like to listen to a mix of all my music. (This also forced me to create a special folder on my hard drive with copies of all my favorite songs, and rename the files by artist, album number, and track number for those times I want to hear only one artist!) However, according to the manual, hooking up an iPod WILL allow you to randomize all the music! Not an Apple fan, so I will never own an iPod. Controls are also different for each type of audio source… CD, mp3 CD, iPod, USB device… it’s annoying.

The manual is another matter. It needs a thorough re-writing, but then again, this whole unit should have been scrapped in the planning stages and started over, with ease of use and convenience in mind.

Another negative, I found the sound output to be wimpy. My car had an older JVC CD player in it when I bought it, and I swear it made my Rockford Fosgate Punch 6½” speakers, well… punch. This Kenwood barely puts out mid-range bass, and this is with all the bass tweaks cranked to the max on the RF Punches. My friend claims my JVC might have a fault in it, but I don’t know about that because it sounded great, not distorted. If that unit played mp3 CDs or had a “pause” button, I would not have replaced it!

One good thing I can say about this, the spring-loaded door on my del Sol’s console can fit over a very small USB microSD card reader (which I bought here — Kingston 4 GB Class 4 microSDHC Flash Memory Card with USB Reader MRG2+SDC4/4GB). If you pull out a USB device, do not alter its contents, and later place it back into the unit, it will play back from where it left off. That is definitely a bonus in Kenwood’s favor (it earned them a whole star for this review). Also it’s great to have pre-amps for all the channels, though I haven’t used them yet. I will have to use the sub outputs in order to have some decent bass. The fact that the sub can be turned off relatively easily from the front panel is also a nice feature.

I’m going to take this out of my del Sol and put it in my Toyota wagon, with its four 4″ speakers, I won’t notice the “wimpy” sound output I’ve mentioned before. Besides that I was planning on adding a sub to the wagon anyway. But if I find a car stereo I really like, most likely I will just sell this thing and be done with it!

In conclusion… Kenwood, you need to consider ease of use and convenience the next time you design a CAR stereo. Keep that in mind — we don’t want to be distracted from DRIVING just because it’s a pain in the *** to change something that should be simple!
Rating: 2 / 5