Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I'm fairly happy with this unit's performance. No head unit will have everything you want, but this came close in some areas, nailed it in some areas, and was mediocre in others. I needed a DD unit for my car because the stock unit is DD. I single DIN unit would have looked spartan in the dash.
PRO:
1. Has both USB and AUX in on front panel.
2. Has a clean built in amp at 20wts RMS and a 24 bit DAC converter.
3. Has subwoofer control in panel allowing you to adjust what DBs go to the sub, such as 185, 90, and I think something like 45, which is explained in the manual, and this is read out on the LCD panel as High, Medium, and Low. Both Crutchfield and JVC said the additional Bass, Treble, and Midtone adjustments DO NOT affect the subwoofer out. This means that you can use your stock speakers in your car as midrange and treble and line out the bass to your subwoofer. Or, adjust a smaller amount of bass to your other speakers while not affecting the subwoofer bass output. This is exactly what I wanted--electronic crossovers adjustable in the deck itself.
EDIT May 30th: This is not true. The bass adjustment will increase both the bass in the stock speakers as well as the subwooofer, but the crossover samples down how much bass you get in the stock speakers. I wanted the unit to leave the stock speaker's bass, midrange, and treble separate from the woofer bass adjustment. Still, it does a good job of crossing over the stock speaker and I don't feel this limited the sound of the system too much--except that you don't get enough MID bass in your stock bass speakers for some songs. Not a show stopper at all.
4. BT unit is small and self contained with no power cord. It has a single DIN plug that plugs into the back of the deck, and that is it. My stereo installer said it was "nice and easy" and that it saved me about 20.00 bucks on install.
5. The BT is 99.00 compared to Sony BT devices at 200.00.
6. The deck's lights do dim when I turn on my headlights, just like it should. You can turn this on or off in the deck itself.
7. It has everything that I mentioned plus XM, Sirius, BT with 99.00 adapter, plays .wma 9, .aac, MP3, .wav files from my SD card plugged into a card reader and directly into the front USB panel. I have my entire CD collection in 160bit aac on one 8GB SDHC card at my finger tips. It does not play DVDs with music, but that was what I traded for the front panel USB and AUX--I never insert a disk anymore, thus I rarely need a CD player, much less a DVD player.
8. Allows you to name radio stations. Some other features that are uninteresting to me, but there if you want them.
9. Seems well built and quite when you insert a disk. Buttons feel positive and firm and the knobs feel like quality.
10. Huge knob in the center of the unit for volume and other adjustments after you hit call buttons, such as bass, treble, etc. It's a control knob of sorts, plus volume.
11. Relatively cheap compared to other units that DON'T have both AUX and USB ports on the front, which is rare. I picked it up for 180US plus 99US for the BT adaptor.
12. Professional stereo installer said he didn't like the "fancy" nature of the LCD, but the technical aspects of the deck he said were "nice" and "surprising" and "up there with the best Alpines and Pioneers that we carry."
CON:
1. Not really intuitive operation, although you get used to it and it's very easy, just not laid out as well as it could be. Random, Loudness, and several other buttons should be on the front panel, not in mode option buttons or personal settings. For instance, the Sub woofer DB setting is buried under personal settings, while the sub woofer volume is in another push first button where treble and bass are found (but this isn't too much to be concerned about). Too, I would have liked the option of different colored LCDs on the front panel, instead of 6 different analyzer bumping light options--sort of circus. You can turn the dancing analyzer lights completely off, at least.
2. The LCD read out is far too big giving it a sort of adolescent look. If the LCD were about 75% smaller, it could contain much more information (although it does scroll) and look much more professional.
3. The faceplate is not removable--hope you have insurance. It screams "please steal me."
Edited:
I've owned this head unit for around six months now and I guess there are only a couple things that are really annoying. The unit will sometimes not remember where you left off when using the USB port, skipping many folders or songs. You have to name each folder starting with 000, 001, or 01, 02, 03or the unit can't find some of the songs or folders. Also, you are not suppose to leave the usb reader plugged in when you start the car--which means you are expected to remove it each time. I've never done this and had no problems. So the main thing is that it will sometimes fail to start up where you left off.
Edited 05/27/08:
I've owned this unit for six months now, and I do have two things to report that are VERY unsatisfactory:
1. Bluetooth menu is all but un-navigable.
I can't explain why, it seems random, like pushing buttons in a carnival to get specific menu items up, where sometimes you get the same result with the same series of button pushes and sometimes you don't. Sometimes they come up (following the manual directions) and sometimes they don't. It's VERY frustrating. Last night I needed to pair a new BT phone, and one of the menu items WOULD NOT come up, no matter what--it was the Auto-Answer feature that I wanted to turn on.
After maybe two hours of trying to get this stupid menu item up, I gave up. Tomorrow I'm having the unit uninstalled and sent in for repair. I'm already looking at different units because I don't want to waste my time fiddling with incompetent navigation flaws in this unit.
The first phone I set up after I had the unit installed did go reasonably well, but this time it simply refused to bring up specific menu items. It also kept defaulting to "connect" which means you have to either cycle through the SOURCE button to cancel it, or wait for it to give you an error, then restart the procedure again.
2. Blue Tooth Microphone NOISE!
People are reporting to me that the noise from the BT unit's microphone is horrible, almost to the point they cannot hear me (e.g., "Sounds like you're next to the Los Angeles International Airport!!"). I have the microphone mounted right next to the rear view mirror near the headliner. There is no option for noise canceling either, so you're just stuck with poor BT microphone performance.
Last, the BT navigation from the head unit itself, well, good luck. It's about the same level of futility as trying to get the menu to work correctly to pair and set up BT options, as commented above. You'll have a wreck long before you find the number you want.
Voice activation for calling via your phone passes the commands over well, however.
There is something else that pissed me off too: A few of the options available are not defined, such as BT muting. This menu option--in the main menu, not the BT menu--gives you three option, Muting 1, Muting 2, and Off. You won't find what muting 1&2 do, though, simply because whoever wrote the manual decided you didn't need to know--"Just pick one and STFU!"
I actually would not recommend this unit because of the way it skips around the music on the USB drive after you start and stop your car, plus the horrible menu in the BT section. On the other hand, if you don't need BT options and you don't really care if your music skips to a random folder the next time you jump in to listen, it's a pretty good unit.
To be fair, I haven't tried loading up a CD with AAC or MPs files to see if it skipped around after shutdown and startup. I did have a CD loaded with about twenty songs from two different disks and I did not notice it jumping on startup and shutdown.
I also wanted to comment on something I thought was a negative in my first update. You must number the folders with the prefix 01, 02, 03, or 001, 002 and so on. This is actually a decent condition because then you don't have to play the music folders alphabetically. You can group them however you want using the numbering scheme. But then again, if you really do just want an alphabetical listing w/o having to number the folders, you're out of luck. I use a bulk renaming utility on my home computer to set all of the folders and songs up, so it's fast. Most people though don't have the time to figure out bulk naming software in order to do that, which makes the numbering scheme a one by one act of time consuming frustration.
Well, there you have it. I hope that this helps some. You may want to look at a few newer units coming out with this technology, such as Pioneer, Kenwood, Alpine and Clarion--the higher end units, not the Target models for 99.00US
I'll have the installers remove the unit. I'll send it in, get it "repaired" and remount the microphone over the visor this time. And that reminds me!
This is another hit against JVC: The warranty is not a replacement unit, but repair ONLY using, at their discretion, refurbished parts! You don't believe me? Get a copy of their warranty and see it in black and white, or call and ask them. I couldn't believe that. The entire warranty is repair, use of refurbished parts (they mean used parts they scavenged off of other systems), and that's that!
So this means I'm out with a hole in my dash for around two weeks.
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JVC KW-XG700 Double DIN In-Dash CD Receiver with Front AUX Input and USB Port J-Bus Expandable (Black)Product Description: JVC's KW-XG700 is a great replacement for your stock double-DIN unit, with CD/MP3/WMA playback, a front auxiliary input, iPod and Satellite Radio Capability, and front and rear preamp outputs for system expansion.
A full-featured double-DIN CD receiver with room to grow. Click to enlarge. Front panel auxiliary input for external audio devices and USB for music streaming/iPod connection. Includes wireless remote. Click to enlarge. USB Port A USB port allows connection with an HDD, USB memory and digital audio players for playback of MP3/WMA/WAV/AAC audio files WMA-DRM protected music files can also be played (not compatible with DRM-protected music purchased from Apple iTunes Music Store).
Ready for Bluetooth Wireless Technology With KS-BTA200 optional adapter, Bluetooth Wireless Technology can be used with compatible devices. Use the adaptor with the KW-XG700 and you will be able to register a maximum of five mobile phones for hands-free calling. With voice-recognition mobile phones, you can dial by just saying the name in your phone book. The wireless functions work even if your mobile phone is tucked away in your bag or pocket. You can also stream music from a compatible digital audio player for listening on your car stereo.
CD and MP3/WMA Playback Enjoy your favorite CDs or burnt CD-R/RWs, or get more bang for your buck with MP3/WMA discs--burn hours of music to one disc (or stream directly from a USB device) and get ID3-TAG support for display of artist and song info.
iPod Control Enjoy even more connections and full operation with the optional KS-PD100 adapter with all three units. The iPod can be controlled from the headunit, and song information is displayed with the same categories and layers as an iPod.
AM/FM Radio with HS-IV Tuner The KW-XG700's AM/FM radio has standard features like automatic presetting of strongest signals.
The HS-IV tuner features higher sensitivity, thanks to three IF bandwidths (wide, middle and narrow). It also includes AM Noise Canceller plus upgraded IF filters that help avoid the distortion caused by interference from adjacent stations.
To get even more from the airwaves, add a JVC adapter for Sirius or XM SAT Radio reception.
Auxiliary Input Use the front auxiliary input to connect external audio devices like MP3 players.
Two Preamp Outputs With a 50W x 4 MOSFET amplifier, the KW-XG700 is ready to rock, but if you'd like to add onto the system, two preamp outputs are provided for setting up external amps.
Wireless Remote A full-featured wireless remote is include for controlling receiver functions.
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