gdgates's Full Review: Kenwood KDC-MPV7019 Car CD/ MP3 Player
**UPDATE** My CD-RW drive on my PC bit the dust, and I bought an external burner. This Kenwood absolutely will not play CD audio discs made with this drive. Although I have no problem playing them on other CD players, and CD audio discs made on other burners play fine on the Kenwood. They are just incompatible for whatever reason. Although it does continue to play MP3 files burned with this CD-RW drive flawlessly, which is pretty much all I listen to now anyway. In fact, the idea of ripping all 800 of my CD's and selling them is starting to sound more and more appealing all the time!
**ORIGINAL REVIEW** Having had some low-life steal the 5-year-old Sony ES stereo from my Honda Accord, I was in the market for a new head unit. I looked at every make and model on the market and kept coming back to this Kenwood unit. Once I made it past the cosmetic bells and whistles, the specs seemed pretty solid, the online reviews were all thumbs-up, and the sound in the showroom was at least as clear as anything I listened to. And while the MP3 feature was intriguing, having had a first-generation DVD player that "plays MP3's", very sporadically, I was a bit skeptical about how that was going to work.
I've had the Kenwood for about 4 months now, and I can't recommend it highly enough. I can't believe I almost bought a stereo without the MP3 capability - it has played every MP3 file flawlessly. And while I've heard some grumbling about finding the file you're looking for (understandable given the fact you can fit on average 140 songs on a disc), I've solved this problem by grouping MP3 files into folders and burning 8-10 folders on a disc. This makes the most sense when each folder contains a particular album or artist, but they can be grouped other ways as well. The unit's search capabilities lets you step through the disc by folder, which is extremely handy - it's like having a 10-disc changer, without having to worry about the 9 other discs.
As for the controls, they weren't exactly intuitive at first glance, but like most electronic devices, they've become second nature. And as for the most striking cosmetic feature, the color-changing backlighting? It seemed really gimmicky at first, but I gotta admit, it's kind of cool.
There are a couple of minor issues that keep this thing from being perfect. The CD access time, especially with MP3 files, seems a litte slow, and the 'source' button cycles through Off-Tuner-CD in that order, which is a little cumbersome. Finally, the silver finish isn't going to go very well with any auto interior that I've ever seen. But unless it's going into your wife's car, that's probably not that important.
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