Kenwood CD/MP3 Player for a 2003 Toyota Tacoma
Written: Jun 09 '04
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Pros: Lots of features, sounds great
Cons: Don't put labels on your CD-R's
The Bottom Line: For the money, features, and performance, this is a great system.
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| phungus's Full Review: Kenwood KDC-MPV619 Car CD/ MP3 Player |
This is the third in a trilogy of reviews regarding my effort to upgrade the factory stereo system in my 2003 Toyota Tacoma. All three of these reviews tie in together since I use all of this hardware together, so you may want to read them all in order to understand how this equipment works together. I’ve had all this stuff installed for about a year now.
If you have a newer model Toyota vehicle and want to upgrade the factory system, you should look into selling your factory stereo on Ebay. Last year, I sold my CD/Cassette system for @ $150 to some lady that just bought a Toyota Matrix that only had a cassette player and she wanted to play CD’s too. She got a great deal and I got almost enough money to buy this new CD/MP3 player.
This is a CD/MP3 player. What this means is that it will play regular music CD’s, but I can also use my computer to burn a bunch of MP3’s to a CD-R or CD-RW and play them that way. I can usually fit at least a dozen full-length albums onto one CD. In other words, I can go on a 12-hour drive and listen to different music the whole time without ever changing the CD. For safety concerns, this is great. CD cases are dangerous to fumble through while driving.
MP3 music files have built-in identifiers called ID3 tags that can label the name of the song, the album it is on, and the band who plays it. On this Kenwood player, you have several options for displaying the music. You can list the folder name that the file is in, since most MP3’s are stored in folders named after the album. You can list the actual file name. I prefer to list the ID3 tag where it shows the name of the band and the song. If it is longer than what can display on screen, the text will scroll to the right after a 3-second delay. Skipping between tracks or folders can be done with a single button.
The display supports 67 different colors, allowing you to match the color to the rest of your car’s interior lights, if you so wish. It can also be set to cycle through the colors, giving a psychedelic effect, or it can react to the music you listen to. I’ve yet to figure out how to make it react to the music, but the feature is supposed to be in there.
The menu system on this deck is a little bit cumbersome because there are so many different menus but only a few buttons to get to them. Like most interfaces of this kind, you can press a button to get to one option, or press and hold for more options. The buttons all have small labels so you’d best just memorize their location. After installing this deck, I would recommend you take some time with the instruction manual and go through all the menu options to get things set like you want them. Don’t attempt to do it while driving!
I was really glad to see this unit has a built-in equalizer that lets me adjust bass, treble, and midrange sound. There is also a loudness function, which I never use because it unnaturally overdrives some music. It does feature some preset equalizer options for different types of music, but I never use them.
To insert a CD, you hit a button and the faceplate folds down to reveal a slot. A small red light lies just below the slot so you can see where to put the CD at night. The silver faceplate on this deck is removable, but it is a little hard to get back into place. A small plastic case is included to hold the faceplate when it is removed. I can’t help but feel like this system is a little on the delicate side, so I am always very careful when handling it. If you are rough on your equipment, you might want something a little more durable.
This unit supports Sirius satellite radio, but I have never used it and don’t know anything about satellite radio other than it doesn’t have commercials and it costs a monthly fee. On the back of the deck is a plug where you would hook up a satellite radio receiver.
The back of the deck also features two sets of RCA plugs, which will allow you to easily connect to an amplifier. There is also a separate line to automatically turn on the amp, if you are using one. If you do plan to use an amp with this system, you will greatly appreciate having those connections already there.
The sound quality of this Kenwood deck is phenomenal. It bears absolutely no comparison to the sorry factory system I had. The bass response and high end sounds are excellent, and the midrange offers excellent clarity. Many of my CD’s sounded completely different after I listened to them on this unit, because I could hear extra parts of the music that I didn’t know were there. In a way, it was like listening to them for the first time again. Stuff by artists like Nine Inch Nails and The Crystal Method, both of whom use a lot of electronic music, deserve a second listen after you’ve upgraded from a factory system.
The built-in 4 x 50-watt max power amp is more than adequate to push some basic speakers, though you might want to add an external, more powerful, amp if you are going to use a subwoofer.
Also included with this system is a small, flat remote control that lets you adjust volume and switch between folders or tracks on a CD. It also controls the radio station presets. I’ve found this remote to be very helpful while driving on long trips, but most of the time I don’t use it other than to show off to friends.
The only problem I’ve ever had with this deck is when I printed some labels to go on a couple of CD’s that I burned. Maybe it was the label I used, but it made the CD too thick and I could tell that it was straining to pull the CD into the deck and then it performed slowly while it played.
I am using this deck with a set of Kenwood component speakers in the front, a pair of Kenwood 5x7’s in the back, a JL Audio 8” subwoofer, and a Kenwood 4-channel 350-watt amplifier. I am not really partial to any brand, but the Kenwood stuff had the best prices and features and I liked the looks of their products, so I went with them.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 200
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