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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
Kenwood KDC-BT948HD
By Vabr
First all the positives. This is a great sounding stereo! It has very good, quality, powerful sound. The sound features are amazing. It has a cross over for each channel. The volume control is not as bad as I thought it is going to be after reading reviews. The hands free phone works well. People hear me very clear even when it is loud in the car. The phone connects easily without problems as soon as I get in the car. HD radio is also very good. The feel and looks of this unit get thumbs up. Controls/setup are more complicated when they can be but one can easily get through them. Now the negatives. The presets for radio stations are awkward. The stereo does have Bluetooth, but you can use receiver for phone only. It will not connect to audio source. Hence you will not be able to play music or hear GPS from the phone wirelessly (this is a big negative for me). Pandora Box feature did not work for me at all! I do have an Android phone and that is probably the reason, nevertheless I think it should work with all phones. If I connect the phone through USB and try to use it as a flash drive the random feature does not work well. When I play folders in random same folders/songs repeat over and over again. However the play setting on the stereo have no problem changing themselves at random. If I set it to random folders and exit menu, upon return to same menu the setting will change to continues play or something else. The JVC KW-XR810 in my wife's car has no issues working with any phone. Bluetooth connects as audio source and phone. It is also less expensive. If you have I Phone and you are looking for stereo that has good radio, can play CDs, and can connect to you phone wirelessly to be used as speakers end microphone only to talk on the phone, and you do not mind wires, this radio is for you. However if you are trying to minimize number of wires in your car, and you want to use your smart phone for more than just the phone this stereo may not be for you.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful.
Nice Feature Set, Fatal Flaws
By M. J. Phillips
I was thinking of upgrading my old stock radio to something with bluetooth (got a cell phone ticket!), as well as taking advantage of my iPhone's iPod and HD radio. This unit seemed the perfect choice. I was wrong.DISPLAY BRIGHTNESSThe most fatal flaw in this otherwise beautiful head unit is the brightness of the display. No matter how I tweak it, the display is unreadable during the day, unless I happen to be in "just the right place." The display has a beautiful, shiny, HORRIBLE GLARE that also contributes to this issue. Yes, I've gone menu-diving and changed the controls for the illumination. But there's no brightness setting! There's a "contrast" setting from 1-12, with the most contrast in the middle (5-6), which is the default. Going to either extreme either brightens the background (useless), or worse, dims the text (even more useless).I find myself concentrating on trying to read the display, instead of looking out for traffic - not what you want in a CAR radio! (No I don't have a vision problem!)Second fatal flaw: PRESETS.Kenwood, this is a RADIO first, and a COMPUTER second! Since there are no dedicated preset buttons 1-6, one has to Press the menu button, press again to List the presets, roll the wheel up or down to find the one you want, and then press the volume knob again - all while squinting madly to even read the display. Don't even THINK about actually driving while you're doing this, unless you memorize the sequence, which is absolutely absurd. And, to make matters worse, when you do find the list of presets, it doesn't always list the station numbers. It might say KFI or it might say AM 640, or it might have one or the other. It seems to be random. I haven't memorized the station names for every station, so this is an annoyance.VOLUME CONTROLYou would think the only huge round button on the unit, the one called the VOLUME control, would always control volume, right? Not so fast. The clever geeks at Kenwood has made this your multi-useless button, in which you control not only volume, but select things and scroll through menus with it. That sounds fine in theory, until you realize that it only controls the actual volume when you are in the right menu structure. In other words, if you are listening to a song and then do anything with the menu, then the volume control doesn't work at all! I can't begin to say how frustrating this is. You have to back out of the menus you are in (WHILE TRYING TO READ THE UNREADABLE DISPLAY!), and get back to where you were (no easy task until you have it memorized). How silly! I found myself reaching for the tiny remote, which DOES have a dedicated volume control as the first buttons. Apparently they realized how badly a dedicated actual volume control is, but I don't want to have to keep track of a tiny remote WHILE DRIVING!NAVIGATION INCONSISTENCIESWith all the fancy tricks up the sleeve of this unit, you end up using the Volume control, menu, and up/down/side/side buttons a lot to navigate things. Problem is, it's very haphazard and inconsistent as to when you should press the Volume control (like clicking a mouse or pressing enter), or use the up/down arrows, or use the side/side buttons. It seems like each little menu has it's own take on how to navigate, which makes it time-consuming and frustrating to make simple changes. Until you remember how each little menu likes to be treated, that is. I don't love this thing enough to do that.BLUETOOTH.I HAVE an iPhone 4. I have to resync it every time I get back in the car, or at least check to see that it synced itself - otherwise I start driving and the phone picks up the call, not the radio. This adds an extra 30 seconds - 1 minute EACH TIME I get in the car. Really? Kenwood, REALLY? It's made for an iPhone, I have the latest iPhone, and both my iPhone and the radio are brand new. What an annoyance.HD TUNERStations fade from Analog to Digital mode at random (notated by a tiny, illegible HDA or HDD in the upper right corner of the screen). While I wouldn't normally care about something technical sounding like this, what it really means is that the sound quality fades in and out in a weird kind of way, from a smooth and pleasant analog sound to a harsher, more punchy digital sound. It makes it hard to listen to, even though the sound quality is very good.CONCLUSIONI realize in this day and age we expect so much from our devices. But come on! This is a RADIO first and foremost. If I can't read the display, or easiy change station presets, or navigate easily; if the sound quality fades in and out as it switches from analog to digital and I have to resync the phone everytime I use it...the thing is an absolute lemon and time-waste, if not an all-out death trap if you dare try to use it while driving. I teach technology, folks, trust me, unless you want to invest a lot of time into babying this thing, avoid it. I'm going to take mine back to Best Buy and eat the installation fees (over $100) and get something else. I'm really sad because I love the feature set. I know some of you who love this thing will flame my review - but I'm telling you, the display is so hard to read during the day that this alone would be enough to get me to return it.Just goes to show why I should have done my homework before buying it (I usually do). Caveat Emptor.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Music to My Ears!
By LifeScriptz
I did extensive research for a new head unit for my new vehicle. I needed something with built-in Bluetooth, a Pandora connection for my iPhone/iPod, and I preferred a unit with USB/AUX connections in the front. Well, I got two of the three. I found that I actually prefer having the connections in the rear (which this unit has). The Bluetooth quality is much better than I ever imagined and I really appreciate the ability to control my Pandora and iPhone through the head unit. I had an Alpine that allowed that, but did not give me near the versatility and access to my folders and files that this unit allows. I enjoy being able to have my contacts stored in my head unit, though they are not the easiest to navigate to (so I still dial from my handset). This unit does take some getting used to, but there are a plethora of sound adjustments that allow the driver to get the exact sound desired (once you are able to figure everything out). Overall, this is the best stereo head unit I have ever owned...and it's quite attractive, too. I was a little tentative when I didn't see many reviews for this unit, as it is a newer model radio. I looked at its predecessors and felt comfortable. Also, given Kenwood's track record of superb technology, I felt as though I made a good choice. Turns out I did.
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My boyfriend loves his gift!
