Professional Features:-MOS-FET 50W x 4 Peak -20W RMS x 4 -TI/Burr-Brown 24-bit DAC -3-Band Parametric iEQ -Bluetooth Wireless Technology (USB Bluetooth(R) adapter included) -Front/Rear Dual USB Ports (WAV/MP3/WMA/WMA-DRM/iPod & iPhone Audio) -USB Audio for iPod/iPhone etc. -2-Way Control for iPod/iPhone (Headunit/iPod or iPhone) -MP3/WMA Compatible with ID3/WMA Tag (CD/USB) -CD Changer Ready -SAT Radio Ready-HD Radio Ready (KT-HD300 required) -HS-IVi Tuner -Loudness Control in 3 Patterns -5.0V Line Output Level -Gold-Plated Preout Terminals (Front + Rear + Subwoofer) |-Front AUX-IN -Full Dot LCD -Variable-Color Illumination -Steering Wheel Remote Ready
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars Great, but it would be better if…
This is an excellent car stereo for the price. With the built in crossovers, it gave new life to my old speakers and sub woofer. The bluetooth works well with my MOTORIZR phone, outside of the fact that it doesn’t auto-re-connect when you get back in the car, despite repeated fidgeting with the settings. IPod touch works well with this unit, bluetooth streaming works well, but does not display song data, however it does allow you to pause by pushing in the volume knob. When hooked up via the dock cable, everything works as expected. The controls are largely (and smartly) laid out to the left, and the technically inclined will not have any issues setting this device as they want it. I didn’t use the manual except to confirm wiring configuration.
5 Stars Great Feature List for the Price
My criteria when selecting my radio were that it be a CD receiver head unit that:
1. Plays mp3 formats;
2. Has integrated Bluetooth for phone calls;
3. Has some sort of auxiliary input for an external music player; and
4. Costs less than $200.
Additionally, this radio has the following:
1. Dual USB (plus the standard input jack); and
2. Bluetooth AD2P (music transfer via bluetooth).
I am very happy with my purchase. If I could make one or two comments based on some of the reviews for this model (and the KD-R800):
First, Bluetooth connections are really finnicky. Do your homework and make sure that your phone supports the appropriate Bluetooth version (in this case, version 2.0). My phone is a crummy “dumb phone,” and though it isn’t on JVC’s list of devices (it is Bluetooth 2.0), it works just fine. Getting your radio to link up with your phone requires getting the radio to make a connection with the phone, and the phone to make a connection with the radio. If this isn’t done correctly, your phone will not want to automatically connect to the radio when you start your car back up. It is an exercise that requires two pieces of equipment (your radio AND your phone), and so those that proclaim in their reviews that the problem is with the radio may not always be 100% accurate in their analysis.
Next, comments have been made (also in reference to the KD-R800; discussion is appropriate here because the mic is the same for both models) about the quality of the microphone and the “ugly” factor of having the exposed wire running on the inside of your car. The mic connection is a standard mic plug. If you really do not like the mic included, you can get a new one. As for the ugliness, it is really pretty easy to hide mic wire. I ran mine underneath the dash panels and snaked it out just above my steering wheel. Done that way, it is invisible. I did the same thing with the rear USB plug. It comes out next to my emergency brake and is hidden the whole way.
All in all, this is a great radio for the price and I am far from disappointed.
5 Stars Great buy!
I write very few reviews but feel this one is warranted and deserved. I purchased the Sony bt2700 previously and had terrible results with both the audio streaming via bluetooth as well as the microphone clarity since some genius engineered the built in mic behind the face plate. I was a bit apprehensive about purchasing this JVC model as it is not carried by Best Buy and the salesman told me they may not carry any JVC head units soon because the audio quality didn’t measure up to the competition.
I could not be more happy with this unit!
1. Installation was an absolute breeze. I purchased the Scosche FD1423B Pocket Installation Kit for 1999-Up Select Ford, and the Stereo Wire Harness Ford Expedition 98 99 00 01 02 (mine is 00′ expedition), and the installation was so simple. Red to red, green to green, etc.
2. Color variation is amazing with this unit. You can truly match any illumination setup in your vehicle so the unit looks like it just belongs there.
3. Blue tooth connection. The phone connection works flawlessly. The only hitch I have run into is the phone book transfer does not work on my HTC droid as of yet, but that will be fixed with the update to android 2.1 in late Jan. The external mic is placed in my gauge inset of the dash to hide it from outside noise yet be in line with my voice. The clarity is great and mic levels are adjustable. The audio playback via bluetooth is also great. Some minor freezes during song changes or if my phone is receiving emails and texts at the same time but that is the phone choking not the head unit. I love my music but am not and audiophile by any stretch of the word, but the sound quality of the music through my stock speaker system seems great for a unit that others comment on the “lack of excellence”. The only con I can really hit on the bluetooth is that it takes about 5-10 seconds to fully connect to my phone before audio playback is ready each time I start the car. Feels kinda slow but compared to the shortcomings of the Sony Bt2700 easily workable.
4. USB inputs. The USB connections are great as well. My wife has an Ipod touch which I connect to the usb extension cable which I ran under the dash and comes out just fwd of the center console. It scans, reads, and controls the Ipod touch from the head unit perfectly and is charging the Ipod while connected. The sound from it is amazing also as it it using the digital audio out on the Ipod vs the analog headphone jack. It of course can also connect to the Ipod touch via bluetooth but we prefer the usb connection for this. The front usb jack is where we plug in the bluetooth dongle (which I am convinced is why the bluetooth works so much better than built in bluetooth systems).
All in all I am very happy to write this review and have this unit.
2 Stars Designed by school children, don’t buy if you use XM
I’ve waited for over a month before posting this, hoping that my desire to leave a heated comment would be lessened with time.
Not so.
I’m not sure who designed this thing, but they must not have been thinking that the product would be used with a car. In fact, I’m almost positive JVC just sourced the design to a local high school’s 9th grade weight training class. I’ve had to put up with some pretty bad UI’s, but the last place I want to have to deal with “quirks” is when I’m driving on the road. I don’t want to have to pull over to look for a preset. That’s of course assuming that the XM module decides to play ball that day. Otherwise I won’t have to bother changing presets at all.
1) XM support is HORRIBLE with this thing. Assuming your module works 100% of the time (and, it’s possible that is a problem with the Terk adapter, and not the radio), the XM functionality of the Radio is *ss-backwards. More often than I’d like, I’ll turn my car on and get nothing from the XM module. Mind you, I used the same tuner (not the same adapter) with a Sony radio for years without any issue. I’ll have to turn the radio off, wait a second, then turn it back on before I get anything. And every once-in-a-while, that won’t work either. Supposedly this is a problem with the Terk module, at least I’ve seen others complain specifically about it, but it’s still unacceptable.
2) It constantly refreshes the name of the station anytime you attempt to do something with presets. This gets especially bad if your reception at the time you wanna change presets is bad, because you’ll get kicked out of the preset screen before you can make a choice. The programming decisions when it comes to the sat. radio were pretty bad.
3) Changing XM presets isn’t like changing radio presets. In radio mode, one of the rockers on the face of the radio lets you scroll through your presets. Therefore even though you can’t go directly to preset 3 from preset 5, it’s fairly easy to hit the rocker “down” twice to get there. That’s great. Not so with XM. In XM mode that same rocker now scrolls through the categories. I don’t know about anyone else, but the thing I care about LEAST is the categories. Most of the time I have stations that I like and I wanna listen to them. The only time I really “browse” through the 100+ XM stations is when I’m either bored or I have a passenger that is bored (at which point they can browse it themselves). Oh, and the bug I mentioned in #1 makes browsing ESPECIALLY bad because at some point you’ll get kicked back to channel 1 because the radio got all confused because of lack-of-signal. Despite this piece of wisdom, you’d think JVC would choose to use the same methodology between radio and XM mode simply for some semblance of uniformity and consistency. No, not gonna happen. Seriously, I don’t know what they were thinking.
4) Time is not persistent on this thing. “What do you mean?” you ask? Well, I suppose there must be some sort of mechanism keeping time when the car is off, however it doesn’t do it well at all. If I leave the car for an hour or two, the time is typically only 30-40 minutes ahead of the time when I left it. Now, the radio will set it’s own time off the air… somehow… I don’t know how but it does it. As long as your time zone and DST settings are proper, the time will be set perfectly. This is great in theory, except the update can take as much as a minute to happen. And when the time changes to a new hour (i.e., 8:59 to 9:00), it will go to the non-DST time first (i.e. 8:59 to 10:00) and not change until the following minute.
5) The “red” color is not readable NEAR sunlight (mind you, I didn’t say IN sunlight, just NEAR it). In the day time, unless I’m in a dark tunnel, I can’t read the display if I set my color to red. Fortunately this thing lets you have different colors for dimmed and un-dimmed modes. So, when I need to have the lights on, the radio is red, like the rest of my dash, and in the day time it’s an inverted white(ish) color.
The ONLY reason I’m giving this thing 2 stars instead of 1 is that if you don’t use XM, and can deal with a slightly flakey time, it isn’t a bad radio. The bluetooth works well enough, though I still haven’t found a place to mount the mic. The various sound modes work ok. And the fact that you can work the colors to change depending on dim mode, as well as having the inversion be dimmer-dependent (i.e., if the background is black and the wording is colored, or the wording is black and the background is colored) is pretty cool. Also, the fact that you could choose to have your USB port in the front or back is nice too. I really wish it had presets.
In the end, this thing is suffering from some pretty bad programming. If you really like the looks of it, enough to deal with the above, then you’ll have a pretty radio in your car.
4 Stars A good product in both quality and performance, especially for the price.
I would like to start off by saying that I am a professional IT tech and have background behind what I present to you today. I believe that the one and two start reviews on this product are simply Wrong. Blatant arrogance and lack of intelligence do not warrant a low rating on a clearly functional and impressive product.
The product has fine functions in every aspect that the users before me have said it doesn’t, they just simply can’t read a manual or figure out how to use what they paid for. It would be a shame to let this product slip by because of the lack of utter competence on the part of a half-hearted user.
Amazing product. I highly recommend for any user.
