New Stereo!

[tan's2002kjlimited]

New Stereo installed today!
Kenwood KDC-MP642U

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http://www.crutchfield.com/p_113MP642U/Kenwood-KDC-MP642U.html?c=3&tp=5684&avf=N

Alpine SPR-17C, one in each door.

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http://signature.crutchfield.com/s_500SPR17C/Alpine-SPR-17C.html?c=3&tp=94&avf=N

iPhone/iTouch hook-up works thru the H/U. Super-customizable.
CD/MP3 player hidden behind faceplate.
Sounds GREAT! It's going to take some time figuring out all the bells & whistles.(woot)drive.gif

 

[JeepJeepster]

Looks good! Have you tried hooking a USB thumb drive into the USB port and playing music off of it yet? Personally I cant find much a need for an ipod if you can do that.

Gonna try the bluetooth adapter for a phone?

 

[hyde]

Tan, I love Kenwood, but these newer models don't come with preset keys on them. Luckily remote has bunch of keys, a lot more than others i've seen, so it makes up for it.

How did you hook up the speakers? No tweeters? Ran direct to H/U without an amp?

 

[ridenby]

Turn it up,can't hear it.

 

[JeepJeepster]

Turn it up,can't hear it.

Say what?

 

[Atrus]

Tan, I love Kenwood, but these newer models don't come with preset keys on them.

I am fighting with this now....

Every receiver has regressed IMO. Half of them don't even autodim anymore when you put on the parking lights! But they have bluetooth, HD radio, and are satellite radio ready!

 

[wheeee32]

That's the exact HU I've been contemplating getting. Give some more feedback on it.rockon.gif Oh and post some pics of it in the Liberty.

 

[tan's2002kjlimited]

How did you hook up the speakers? No tweeters? Ran direct to H/U without an amp?

I had a local shop do it.... wiring is not for me.
At $25 per door and $30 for the H/U it was worth it.
They know how to do it, and less headaches for me,
and the dash tweeters were wired in too.

That's the exact HU I've been contemplating getting. Give some more feedback on it.rockon.gif Oh and post some pics of it in the Liberty.

Pics later today, need to buy new rechargeable batteries for camera.

 

[JeepJeepster]

That's the exact HU I've been contemplating getting. Give some more feedback on it.rockon.gif Oh and post some pics of it in the Liberty.

Check this one out if you like Bluetooth.

http://signature.crutchfield.com/s_113KDCX993/Kenwood-Excelon-KDC-X993.html?tp=5684&avf=N

Also.. sonicelectronix.com has some pretty amazing prices. I wouldnt be able to afford half of the stuff I plan on getting if it wasnt for that site. One down side is Crutchfield includes the wiring harness, antenna adapter, and the plastic piece that goes around the hu in the dash. Ive already got all of that so its cheaper for me to order from sonicelectronix.

 

[hyde]

The question is, are those bluetooth stereos A2DP compatible, meaning can I just stream music off my bluetooth device/phone to stereo without wiring.. That's what I need. In that case I don't even need USB since I keep most of my music on my phone with 8 or 16GB microSD. If not, it has to have 3.5mm aux in some place. These kenwoods don't come with Aux Input, they come with multi-purpose jack in its own format, which you can convert to USB control, Aux Input, HD Radio or Aux Input. Luckily Crutchfield gave me free Aux Input cable, which works well. It also had very long USB cord, so I don't need to have anything sticking out the face of the radio.

Tan, you are lucky to have someone you can trust with the wiring.. With Jeep they really need to know what they are doing. They were asking for $50 per side or $75 per side with tweeters on jeep. I was afraid they would break my dash apart, especially where tweeters are.. So I decided not to get it done just yet.

So you had them wire it directly to stereo without any amp?

 

[JeepJeepster]

Im not real sure Hyedipin. Im just looking for the bluetooth on my phone so I can talk through the speakers. I read the owners manual last night for a pioneer head unit that Im thinking about buying and it breifly talked about doing that but since I dont plan on it I didnt read into it much. Im ok with using a USB thumb drive and just leaving it in the glove box till I get tired of whats on it. Then Ill add new songs.

 

[sharpy]

do yu folks find that music on thumb drives sounds as good as a cd?

 

[Atrus]

I WOULD pull the trigger on the JVC HDR50, but as I mentioned, no presets!

On the "non-HD radio" models, you can use the up and down buttons on the faceplate to scroll through presets. I can live with that.

On the HD models, you cannot and use the menu (pain in the butt) or the remote.

On the non-HD model I was considering, there is no "autodim" and a 3 band EQ. I could scroll through songs though.

On another non-HD model I am considering, it's only $10 cheaper than the HD version, has autodim, but I kick myself for not buying the HD for $10 more. I just wish I could easily scroll through presets on the HD version!

 

[hyde]

Sharpy,
The file is the exact same file, either on CD or USB.. Unless you are referring to uncompressed audio cd's, as you buy from the store. It is a big argument that those will sound so much better, and it might be true that they in fact have so much more detail since they are not compress, in a Jeep, cruising down the highway with $300 stereo and $200 sound system, you will not be able to tell the difference.

But if you are comparing same MP3 on CD vs on USB, it is exact same thing, but with one huge difference, vastly improved load times and faster skips. It can load 16GB of songs on a USB stick in less than 30 seconds and start playing, while it takes over a minute to scan through a CD with 700mb worth of music. I used to have 30GB Hard Drive hooked up to mine, you can do even more, but HDD takes even longer to scan through.

Atrus,
That's what I was thinking, but like I said, Remote has a lot of buttons, and it makes up for it.

All said and done, would I still buy this kenwood above? Probably not, since I don't use CD anymore, I would probably go with the Alpine unit. The one with fancy screen, someone here had it, I apologize- forgot his name. However it doesn't have wired remote input, which many kenwoods have (I still have my wired control interface lying in my cargo area.... laziness!) so that's another plus for kenwoods. Steering wheel controls do not go to waste. Alpine also doesn't have CD player on it, it strictly plays USB and Digital players..

 

[Atrus]

Eh, crutchfield is good about returns, right? Maybe I'll get the HD version and give it a whirl to see how much I like it.

If I hate it, I can return it.

 

[hyde]

Yep.
Just don't make the wiring harness adapter connections too long. I made that mistake, and found out there isn't much space back there. Sure I can just remove and clip, rewire them, but come on.. they fit a big tight and snuggly, but it is OK.

 

[hyde]

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[Atrus]

That's a pretty cool receiver!

 

[sharpy]

cool!! ty

 

[JeepJeepster]

I like my pioneer.

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