MP3 questions answered: JVC KD-SH99
Written: Jan 22 '02 (Updated Jan 23 '02)
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Pros: Good sound, features, MP3 CD replay.
Cons: Small buttons, low radio sensitivity specs.
The Bottom Line: The best in-dash car MP3 CD player in $300 range.
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| elomage's Full Review: JVC KD-SH77 Car CD/ MP3 Player |
After some research on in-dash car MP3 players I ordered JVC KD-SH99. I had JVC CD player before and was hoping that the new one will be at least as good plus will play my MP3 CDs. Now, I’ve had the KD-SH99 for a few months, and I am quite satisfied with it.
This review will focus on MP3 performance and try to answer questions, which I had before buying the MP3 unit myself. I will also touch upon the convenience and performance of the unit. These comments might be interesting for those considering KD-SH77 and KD-SH55, since these units do not differ in much more than MP3-CD capability. Note, that KD-SH77 is “MP3 capable”, however this only means that there is line-input labeled MP3 for an external player. As for the basic specs, you can find them on JVC website or other reviews.
By the way, why isn’t there a separate page for JVC KD-SH99 ? It’s been a while since the model is out, and it seems to be worthy to be placed in the reviews database...
Prelude: Why MP3?
Today one can find a decent in-dash CD receiver unit for around $150-$200. Is it worth to go extra hundred dollars for the MP3? I say, yes.
Once in a while I found myself on a trip for 10-12 hours. Sometimes I listen to radio, but sometimes I prefer choice and quality of sound. What are my alternatives? Change a CD or tape every 45 or so minutes. Or buy a CD-changer with at most 12 CDs.
I used to have JVC 12-disk changer. It was nice, except soon enough I got bored of the 12 CD collection and had to go under my seat (or trunk) to get the CD cartridge and replace the collection. This is an activity neither convenient nor advisable to be done while driving. As a result the 12-CD collection got kind-a stale.
However, when you have a MP3 player, you can have 12-15 albums on a CD (here goes the CD-changer). Have 10 CDRs like that and you will have most of your collection in the car taking up almost no space. The CDR content is fully customizable, for instance make a CD of your most favorite music that lasts for more than 10 hours (that’s about 600 miles without changing a CD :-) You can put news or convert text to mp3 files, write them to CDRW disk and listen to audio books on the road, without flipping pages or CDs.
Choice: What else is out there?
These are a few things that I look for in a car CD receiver: Good sound quality, easy interface, rotary volume control, informative display, detachable face-plate, decent FM and AM tuner, and reliable performance. The choice must also fit a reasonable budget.
Among some of the under $400 MP3 compatible in-dash receivers I considered were the following: Aiwa CDC-MP3; Blaupunkt MP3000; Blaupunkt San Jose; Jensen MP5010K; Rockford Fosgate RFX9000; Sony CDX-MP450X; Clarion ProAudio DXZ815M; JVC KD-SH99.
The JVC unit was not the absolute winner, but the best tradeoff of the features and the price. As one of the lowest ratings was the tuner sensitivity at 11.3dBf, while Sony and Blaupunkt beat it with 9.1dBf (actually, after having the JVC, I am not disappointed with the tuner). However considering MP3 playback performance and ease of use, sound quality, display, CD signal-to-noise ratio the JVC KD-SH99 came out as a winner.
From the box into the car
The KD-SH99 came with a credit-card sized remote (which will probably be never used) and a wire harness. The installation was straightforward, and with no surprises (being able to solder is a plus). It would be even simpler (just plug it in) with a custom harness for your car.
The in-dash unit has FM and AM tuner, CD player, MP3 CD, CDR and CDRW player, rear and front line inputs, 4-volt line outputs, and is CD changer and DVD player compatible. It has lots of features including customizable 3-band equalizer where each band can have selected frequency, width and level.
Front panel also has a MP3-input socket for connection of an external audio source such as MP3, CD or tape player. the front panel is made of silver-ish aluminum and seems to be quite sturdy.
The sound, including from MP3 files, was clear and rich. There were no beeps or blips or other sound artifacts. The equalizer worked just the same as with the audio CDs and the FM tuner.
User interface: Not for bears
If you have big bear-hands with fat fingers (no offence intended), This unit with it’s tiny buttons might not be your best choice.
Most selectable functions are chosen by pushing a button and then rotating the (volume) dial. The exceptions are switching the sound source (CD or tuner, or line input), and selecting songs by one of the 6 number buttons or Next/Previous buttons. One fancy feature is ability to adjust the display angle (3 preset angles).
The interface is simple and intuitive for the basic functions, once you have learned where the muttons are located (or have extremely sharp eyesight and can read the tiny black-on-silver labels). In order to access advanced features you will need to look up the manual and eventually learn your favorite ones, such as changing the folders.
Extras: feel like watching TV or DVD?
The SH99 claims to be capable of talking to car DVD player and TV manufactured by JVC. What this really means is that there are extra inputs behind the unit for these (or other) players, and the unit is capable to operate them (providing they use the same protocol, i.e. JVC devices).
You can also hook up JVC CD-changer, but for regular audio CDs only, no MP3. However, I do not really see why would you do that. One MP3 CD holds 12 albums or more, and is easily replaceable.
The unit is also European FM-compatible (the finer FM frequency scanning step) in case you consider to take it or send it to your friends across the ocean.
MP3 navigation: easy
The SH99 manual says that the CDRs must be in ISO 9660 format, but my experience shows that there is no problem playing CDRs in JOLIET format (with long filenames) other than the file names are displayed in 8+3 character format. The song names are displayed from ID3v1 tags anyway, if you were busy enough to add them when making MP3 files.
The navigation between (MP3) songs is simple: you can jump to the next or previous song, you can fast-forward the song (the sound is muted during this). The songs are ordered according to the folder hierarchy (visit folder, then visit it’s subfolders) and then in the order they were written to the CD.
The folder navigation is also fairly simple. You can jump to the next or previous folder (the first song in it) by pressing two buttons: a “Mode” button and then Next/Previous button.
Specific to this KD-SH99 MP3 player is the following feature: if you precede folder name with a number 01 to 12, then you can jump to (access) these folders directly by pressing corresponding number button, just like using a CD-changer.
Homework: make MP3 CDs
In order to fully enjoy the features of the SH99, you will need to make (or somehow acquire) MP3 CDs. One needs a computer with a CD-RW drive for this and some software to do the job. There are all kinds of software available for the task, bundled with computers, CD-RW drives and sound cards. There are also shareware and freeware available for download over the Internet.
My preference for converting audio CDs to MP3 is a program called CD-ex, which can extract audio tracks from audio CDs and convert them to MP3 files. It also can connect CD database on the Internet and download the song titles, so that you do not have to type them. The software is developed under GNU public license, which generally means that you are free to use it as long as you do not resell it.
There are all kinds of tricks you can play making MP3 files, but that is beyond the scope of this article. I’ll just say that you should not have bit-rate below 128 Kbit per second in order to have decent sound quality.
Where to get audio MP3? Be creative ;-) One of the first tasks I did after acquiring the SH99 was to convert all my audio CDs at home to MP3 and “burn” the MP3 CDs with approximately 12-15 albums per CD. That’s better than a CD changer! Now I can fit all my audio collection on about 20 CDs (gosh, that’s a lot of albums I have). Now I can take my full collection on the road.
There are numerous other sources of MP3, as you may have noticed. You can convert your audio-tapes, or audio-books to MP3. Or find news articles and other media already in MP3 format on the Internet.
Why I like it: It makes sense
The unit nicely says “Welcome” after powering it up, and “See you” after turning it off. That’s a nice touch.
The sound quality is very nice and customizable (equalizer) for the set of speakers one has in his car as well as according with one’s listening preferences.
The user interface is not ideal, but it makes sense. I understand, that it is hard to make a simple few-button interface for such feature-packed unit as SH99.
The display shows sufficient information (10 uppercase and lowercase characters and symbols on a matrix display with ability to rotate longer text) as well as related MP3 information according to ID3v1 tags (however, no ID3v2).
After inserting a MP3 CD, the unit does “File check” for a few seconds, (which is much faster than on AIWA and some other MP3 CD-receivers). When powered down or switched to radio and back, the unit resumes playing exactly from the place on CD where it left off (both audio and MP3 CDs).
MP3 file and folder navigation (described above) is easy and comprehensive. Very important for a CD with 150+ songs on it.
I experienced no skips with any CDs, CDRs and CDRWs on any (paved) roads.
Nobody’s perfect: Picky me
I like the rotary controls even for the digital units, and SH99 has one. However it is a bit slippery, I’d like it to have a texture. Also, the buttons are quite small, and inscriptions on them tiny and unreadable, unless you pay 110% attention to them (instead of the road) in full daylight. Thus, you’ll have to learn what is what before driving. But once you get over it (took me 2-3 times to look up the manual), the buttons will be no problem.
I’ve seen complaints about the display and it’s brightness, but have none myself. Well, may be one. There is some unnecessary information on it (just to make it cooler, I presume).
It is nice to be able to change bass-boost (s-bass) with a touch of a dial. However, changing the equalizer settings is quite an intricate procedure. You can change frequency, width and level for each of three bands individually. That would be fine for the preset music style configuration, but is quite impossible to change while driving on the road. I’d prefer some simple and fast on-the-road way to change the middle and high band levels.
When changing equalizer settings, sound mutes for a split second for each button depressed. I found it a bit annoying. Also, the sound muted for a second or so while ejecting a CD, even so the unit was in FM tuner mode. These seem to be tiny glitches in the design of the unit.
When switching from CD-player to FM tuner by pressing “Select” button, you always have to go through “Line-input” and “Aux-input”, even though there is nothing connected (and possibly never will be). This could be selectable in the setup, or auto-sensed. However, one can use this “feature” as a kind of a mute/pause button, as I have found myself doing recently.
My experience: Busy listening ;-)
Now, whenever I am on the road, I have a choice. I can listen to radio, or to regular audio CDs, or to any of 200+ albums I have on my 15 MP3-CDs, or to a freshly MP3-converted audiobook, unless I have forgotten the receiver face-plate at home :-)
And it does not take a trunk full of CDs!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 270
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Epinions.com ID:
elomage
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Member: Leo Selavo
Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Reviews written: 15
Trusted by: 3 members
About Me:
Education and experience: graduate degree in computer science. Interests: computers, electronics, photography.
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