Kenwood XXV-01D, a pretty nice unit overall
Written: Nov 22 '05
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Pros: sound quality
somewhat tasteful appearance
Good value for the money
Cons: ergonomics suck
could use more crossover control
could use a bit more tasteful appearance
The Bottom Line: Overall, I recommend this if you want the bells and whistles or if you want good sound quality, and one or both of those options is more important than ergonomics
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| jim85iroc's Full Review: Kenwood Excelon XXV-01D Car CD/ MP3 Player |
Like the previous reviewer, I was wrestling with the Kenwood vs. Alpine saga also. In my case, I was searching for an Alpine CDA-9835... last year's version of the 9855. It was the same head unit without the silly glide touch, nor the terrible reliability issues plagued with the early 9855s. The problem was, I waited too long and by the time I was ready to buy, USED 9835s were selling on ebay for more than the new Kenwood XXV-01D.
In any case, I decided on the XXV-01D. I found an authorized Kenwood dealer selling one on Ebay and grabbed it up.
Overall, I'm very happy with this unit. It looks good in my Corvette, and sounds fantastic. CD sound quality is excellent. MP3 sound quality is excellent considering the inherent limitations of MP3s. MP3s load and play quickly. Radio performance is satisfactory. I live in a rural area with mountains between myself and the radio stations, and this unit's performance is at least average, perhaps a bit better.
The display can be very flashy if that's your thing, or it can be relatively tasteful. I chose to forgo the included movies and picture wallpapers, and instead chose 4 lines of text display. I like this because I can see all of the cd or radio information AND have a clock at the same time. As an added bonus, you can configure one of the display lines to have a nice little spectrum analyzer that's not terribly accurate. My one gripe with the display is that even though you can configure the bottom 2 lines in almost any color imaginable (great for matching the stock illumination in my Corvette), the top 2 lines have a blue-ish grid pattern that you can't eliminate. Also, the buttons have a red illumination, but the knobs have blue. It would be nice if Kenwood would allow for selectable illumination on these as well. It's just so hard to get a tasteful looking head unit these days.]
My major complaint is that the ergonomics on this head unit are absolutely horrible. I like the simplified appearance, but at least give me back my 6 radio preset buttons! I should not have to dig and scroll through menus just to change the radio station. While very powerful, the interface of this head unit makes it virtually impossible to do anything besides change the volume while you're driving. I need to keep the remote handy for changing radio stations, but having that thing flying around my car while I'm trying to drive isn't exactly convenient either.
My last gripe is that I would like to see Kenwood offer a head unit with more sound-quality focused options and maybe lighten up on the other non-audiophile type of options. I don't need a g-analyzer to tell me how fast my car reaches 60mph. I already know my car is fast. Maybe ricers get a kick out of this feature, but I find it totally useless. In it's place, how about a more advanced filter network? Give me enough control to run an active component system like Alpine does with their 9855.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 410
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Epinions.com ID:
jim85iroc
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Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
Into domestic muscle cars, home and car audio
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