Best Buy radio malibu 2002 installations

good for price, May 10, 2010

The first one i ordered was apparently defective as it kept shutting off at random times while I was driving and would not turn back on until I uninstalled it, unplugged the harness and reinstalled it. I did this 3 times and finally returned it. Amazon immediately sent out a replacement and took the defective unit back. The new one is working great. Excellent replacement for the stock radio in the car. The only complaint I have, and for me it is very minor, is that to adjust audio controls and the like, you have to navigate through a menu. Its not the worst when you learn how to use it, but it can be a bit annoying especially while you are driving.

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Fantastic stereo for 90% of people, July 17, 2010

Kenwood is known for great audio and this unit is no exception. It has a lot of sound optimization features that I would have expected in a much more expensive head unit. Sound quality is pretty good. Navigation and controls are intuitive and most basic functions (play pause skip volume mute) are easy to find without looking at the face. The following are the only things I didn’t like about the deck:

Distortion at volume- At about 75% volume the deck distorts badly, even on my pioneer d series speakers. My previous Pioneer deck didn’t distort on those speakers until just before maximum volume, so I was somewhat disappointed. The previous stereo cost about three times as much, however, so I can’t complain too much. The unit is very loud even before it does distort (again, not near as loud as the pioneer) so most people wouldn’t come close to the threshold.

Audio control menu- Some of the settings were hard to find, and were only available in “standby” mode. Once I did find them, however, I was able to dramatically improve the sound of the system.

Equalizer settings- As much as I play with this deck, I can’t get rid of a tinny tone when playing rock. Any kind of acoustic sounds great, as well as hip hop or music with strong vocals. But, something is missing between 150 and 600 Hz. Bass boost only adds distortion, so that was no fix. Oh well.

In all, this is a fantastic stereo, especially at only $75 shipped. Most people won’t use or notice the things I complained about, and would be very happy with the purchase. Folder navigation is very easy on MP3 discs, and read times are okay. It is also a very good looking unit. I recommend this unit for most people.

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I love this product!!, May 26, 2010

By 

Ganeshram Sundaram “Ganesh” (Cumberland, RI) – See all my reviews

  

I bought this player for just $54 from amazon (plus $20 shipping) & it definitely beat my expectation as far as sound quality is concerned.

My review is mostly based on the comparison with Pioneer 1900MP player that I owned previosly.

Pros:

Great sound quality.

The cheapest among the great brands such as Pioneer, Sony, Alpine, Kenwood itself,..etc.

Plays various formats esp wma. This played wma files (each 2hr duration) that wasn’t recognized by my old pioneer.

Pause button – My old player had it only in the remote control. To stop the music in my old player, I either had to hold the power key few seconds or change it to AUX mode.

btw this (MP145) does not come with remote control, however I don’t need one for something that I can reach with my hands!

Cons:

Couldn’t read display during sunlight.

When you are at the last song in a folder, the “NEXT” button does NOT take you to the first track of the next folder.

Control buttons (1-6) are a bit too small.

No power off button. Have to press SRC twice (from CD mode) to switch it off.

Audio controls where a bit confusing initially but now I got used to it.

Search operation – This player has got a “One folder level up” button, just like windows explorer, which is very useful when you play a music CD with complex sub folder system. However most of the CDs that I have only has folders at one level. So to browse the folders, I have to press the Search button, then press “Folder level up” and turn the knob left or right to browse. My old pioneer had buttons for going folder up/down which would be more convenient for this situation. (btw the band button skips folder in Fwd direction).

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