Kenwood KDC-HD942U USB/AAC/WMA/MP3 CD Receiver with Built-In HD Radio
4
Feb/102
Feb/102
Car stereo connectivity has come a long way over the years. and the KDC-HD942U is the perfect case in point. At the core of this receiver is legendary Kenwood audio performance, and its list of impressive attributes grows from there. This is the first Kenwood CD-receiver with built in HD Radio and iTunes tagging. In addition, the receiver is both iPod and iPhone ready, Bluetooth ready for hands-free cell phone use, and Satellite Radio ready. Hard to believe all of this comes …
Buy Kenwood KDC-HD942U USB/AAC/WMA/MP3 CD Receiver with Built-In HD Radio at Amazon
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7:05 am on February 4th, 2010
First a little information about HD-Radio…
HD-Radio is broadcast at 1% of the stations normal power, in other words if the station’s analog signal is 100 watts, the HD signal is only 1 watt! So, make sure you’ve got a top quality antenna, don’t bother with a “booster”, I’ve never seen one that works. Also make sure you choose a receiver with higher sensitivity (lowest dBf).
On to the review…
I purchased this radio to replace a JVC KD-HDR1 which also has HD-Radio but not as good sensitivity. It’s installed in a ‘93 Explorer with Kenwood 6X9 door speakers but no external amp or eq. I do not use the cell phone, Bluetooth, satellite radio or iPod features but do use the USB interface with a 64Gig “thumb drive” with over 200 albums and some singles ripped at 250K sample rate and plan to connect the AUX input to the audio from my ham radio in the future (which is one of the reasons I picked this radio).
Sound quality is very good. Even without an external amp I can get enough volume to overcome road noise from my off-road tires and wind noise without distortion. The built in EQ, is only three bands which is somewhat disappointing for a radio of this caliber. I would expect at least 7 bands if not more.
The HD-Radio reception outperforms my old JVC KD-HDR1 hands down. I can receive all the local stations (Denver-Boulder-FortCollins) without any problems, something the JVC couldn’t come close to doing. The CD player works fine although I would prefer not having to tip down the faceplate to change CDs. The USB interface works as expected and while some people prefer a front panel connector, I like the attached 1meter cable. I’ve routed the cable into the glove box and have the “thumb drive” attached at all times. I’m still figuring out the supplied “Kenwood Music Editor” and creating play-lists but that’s just getting over the learning curve of a new piece of software.
The menu system could be improved. It just isn’t intuitive and getting to some features is a pain in the behind. I also don’t like the quick access to bass-boost/balance/fader via the volume control. Once they are set, they are seldom changed so why bother. I wish it had a front panel mute feature (this would be better than the bass-boost/balance/fader in the volume control). Maybe I’m too “old school”, but I miss the six preset station buttons that none of the newer radios have. They allowed direct access to my favorite stations without stepping up and down or taking my attention away from the road to find a specific station. I would also like a way to have the data/time in place of the SPA/Clock on the bottom line of the display (who really cares about the real-time audio levels?). The manual is poor at best. It covers 4 radios and contains errors. There is very little explanation of what features and settings do, just how to change them, even then you have to be in certain modes to access them and those limits are in one place in the manual while the so called detailed information on the feature is in another.
Over all, if I had to choose again I would still buy this over any other radio in the price range, or even twice the price.
7:06 am on February 4th, 2010
I installed one of the first integrated HD Decks in 2006 (JVC). The wife’s car had a Sirius sat tuner and a 5 year old Kenwood CD Deck. For 3 years, the only way to upgrade her car HD was to replace the deck and Sat tuner module and go with another brand. The other option was to buy a new Kenwood and an expensive external HD tuner module.
Kenwood hit a home run for me by releasing this deck this year. I had talked to some car stereo installers that ensured me that Kenwood had kept the plugs consistent for harness jacks and Sat tuner modules. Installation was a simple matter of pulling and unplugging the old deck and plugging in the old harness and sat tuner module to this one.
Works perfectly and there are so many more options compared to the old one. It plays MP3 discs. It has the USB port that allows the deck to control an IPOD that is hooked via the standard USB IPOD cable (unique IPOD controller cables used to cost money and make installers rich too). It controls the Sirius Sat module as well as the old one and displays four lines of info instead of having to switch between single line displays on the old one.
There is a little bit of a learning curve learning how to access everything with fewer buttons and two large knobs. It is pretty intuitive once you play with it for a few days. You definitely need to read the manual on this one to figure out all the features.
I have not had any problems tuning in HD stations and I live 30 miles from the big city. One of the above reviewers mentioned that problem and it sounds to me like they have an antenna problem. I had the same issue on my JVC deck because the antenna jack was larger than my car antenna plug and it required an adapter to get ideal reception. It sort of worked without the adapter similar to the above review.
I am still awaiting delivery on some 3 way Kenwood speakers to see how this unit really sounds. The wife’s car still has the OEM speakers and one of them has a slight rattle on a few of the HD Radio highs.