I spoke with one S2000 owner who dropped a MP3 player into his car (AIWA) and said that it skipped a lot and yanked it out! He then went on to pick up a Kenwood MP3 player much more expensive but higher quality. He says its great dosent skip and only problem he has with it is the search pad is to small.

So I now have gotten a good review on it and with all the people wanting a MP3 player for the car. I have a group buy for the MP3 player in the GB forum. If there is a large interest I can greatly reduce the price not only on the radio but even a little on the Mod for the radio.

Only problem I found so far is that I cant find a mute lead off the radio. So that means no mute button So far.

If anybody has this Kenwood Z919 let me know please.

Thanks.

 

count me in

 

I have one. It's ok. The sound quality is good and overall, it's a great head unit. BUT (and this is a BIG but), it is VERY slow at loading MP3 files. It takes about 5 seconds to load a song. And you don't see the name of the song you've selected until it finishes loading and starts playing. It is also slow at loading directories, particularly when the directory has lots of files in it. I have one directory on the cd in my car right now that has like 50 songs or so in it. Well, it takes about 15 seconds for it to finish loading that directory. Also, it's difficult to navigate through the directories. I'm starting to get the hang of it just a little, but it's really a b!tch.

The other problem is that you have to write the CD's in ISO 9660 format instead of Joliet. This means you can't use regular windows long file names. You are limited to unix-style 30 character names with underscores instead of spaces, etc, etc. If you put in a joliet cd, it will read the files, but it will truncate the filenames to 8 characters the way dos truncates windows 95 long file names (ie. beachb~1.mp3).

You will need to cut the brackets that hold the trim piece in place if you want to mount the unit with the stock mounts (which I recommend).

Anyway, like I said - as far as head units go, it does everything a normal head unit does great PLUS it plays MP3s. But the mp3 part is where it falls a little short. But, since that's really an added feature, I suppose this is definitely one time to see the glass as half full, not half empty.

By comparison, the Aiwa unit looks very cheap and the sound quality ratings from the Aiwa are very poor. I would say between the two, the Kenwood unit is MUCH better.

Anyway, don't want to steal your thunder, but if people are interested in a group buy, I might be able to help. I can get these for a deal.

[This message has been edited by The Reverend (edited October 31, 2000).]

 

Reverend that is great review. Could you look at the wiring diagram to see if there is a mute lead or cellular/mute lead off the radio. This so that the dash controls can be properly used.

I assume that you lost yours

If the interest is there I know that I can get the lowest price around because I will buy straight from Kenwood and not through a retailer/distributor. Though for Sh*ts and G*ggles get a price so I can compare if you wish.
And if you would like for your troubles and information contact me and I can arrange a mod for you super cheap!

If you dont mind I will post your post over at the GB thread.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Pinky:
[B]Reverend that is great review.

 

The KCA RC700 is the intended steering wheel remote for this head unit. It retails for $30. Now it's just a matter of figuring out how it's wired up and then making an adapter for the S2000 so that we can use our existing controls. We wont be able to select tracks or direcotries though.... not enough buttons on the stock remote.

 

True true though you can program any of the buttons to do any one command! If you want to leave the vol up and down alone and play with the mode and ch buttons you can bind them to anything on the remote you want.

 

Can you please explain how a solid state device with no moving parts can skip?

 

The player is a CD player that reads CDRs w/ mp3 encoded files. The skipping is not with the decoding, but the reading. Pinky is saying the AIWA CD mechanism is crap. It can't handle the abuse of a tight suspension. The chip is probably the same or similar to any other MP3 decoding device.

 

I have my worries long term about the Kenwoods quality but thats just my own opinion. I know of some Kenwoods that last forever! I guess its if it works fine after 2 months no skips your pretty much set.

Yea your right the reader is just like any other CD player.

I think next year you will see Sony/Alpine/Clarion/Pioneer come out with MP3 players when they get things into a idiot proof format.

Clarion and Pioneer dont put out a piece that isnt long tested and proven!