JVC CH-X1500 12-Disc CD Changer

I'm surprised no one has written a review of this unit yet, as it is one of the only MP3 add-on changers available, and at one of the lowest prices. I bought it for an Acura Legend whose stock Alpine-made changer was dying. Rather than buying an exact replacement, I wanted MP3 ability. I desperately wanted to stick with the stock head unit, for no other reason than there are AMAZINGLY convenient volume and preset buttons on the steering wheel. The only real choices were an Alpine that played MP3's, but integrated poorly with the head unit (no track names, only numbers…etc.) or an RF model. I really didn't want to go with RF, being an audio freak, and as it turns out, my fears were not entirely unfounded.

You always have to read these reviews with a grain of salt as to where the writer is coming from. If it helps your interpretation, I am a 30 year old computer engineer with two bachelors, and I am a self-proclaimed audiophile, so I know my way around a CD burner. I like fast cars, loud music and aftermarket stereos, but this changer is going in a full-sized Acura to play classical music with real dynamic ranges, not a skateboarded '89 Cavalier with smoked windows, absent muffler and "gansta" rap rattling its rusted license plate. This review may not have all of the fine details some will want regarding things like ID3 tags (it supports them, that's all I know,) but I'll comment on what stands out to me. Unfortunately, at the risk of shocking countless millions, I really don't care too much about how much metadata can be crammed into an MP3. As long as the title displays, I'm happy. That being said, I'll start at the beginning:

Ordered from digitalfotoclub.com, since they had what appeared to be the best price-to customer satisfaction-per number of reviews ratio. I realize this is not a review of them, but in the end, I wasn't thrilled. Their credit card verification puked on my billing address, although it's been the same for years. To "verify" it they wanted me to fax my checking account statement to them, complete with account number. Yeah, right… After 5 days of "order processing" it arrived within 3 days (not bad for UPS.) A week later, after my father decided he had to have one just like it for his Acura, they had already jacked their price an additional $20 (they are no longer the cheapest vendor.) An email 8 days ago requesting a price match has gone completely ignored. Continuing…

The unit installed quite easily. My primary complaint with installation has to do with the cabling to and from the RF box. My changer is 10 inches from the antennae, which would be a perfect place with tons of room to locate the RF box. Unfortunately, the cable from the changer to RF box is the 16 footer, while the cable from the RF box to the control panel is a measly 3 feet or so. This meant cramming the stupid RF box behind the radio in the dash, along with the rest of the wires. The only way to accommodate a rear-mounted RF box would have been to include an extension cable for the control panel, at added cost, but it couldn't have been too much, as it is looks like a standard S-Video or PS2 keyboard cable (although, of course, it isn't.)

Aesthetically, I have to whine too, as this gleaming silver unit may look cool and techy in the box, but just try to find an inconspicuous spot on your dash where the display doesn't stand out like a chrome-plated thumb. Unless you're dash is silver and gray plastic, you're out of luck. (Owners of the Acura RSX have it made!) Again, I'm showing my age, but if subtle is what you're looking for, you may want to consider a more innocuous black design. (Oops wait, I don't think there are any RF MP3 changers with black displays…I guess we all get the Fast and Furious versions.) Also, the hot blue illumination blends with very few dash lights. (Make that 2Fast and 2Furious.)

Once all the wires were stuffed into the dash, the unit worked perfectly. (More on that in a second.) For my tastes, the sound quality deserves a dishonorable mention. It is not bad, by any means, but noticeably flat. (And yes, it's hooked up properly; I've played with the equalizer till I'm blue in the face, tried different frequencies, and different signal strengths.) Unfortunately I have only listened to a handful of RF changers in the past, and they were all on poor stock, paper speakers. I cannot say if what I'm noticing is attributable to every RF unit, or just this one. I realize you cannot get the same frequency range as a CD can, but common sense says it should sound at least as good as the best radio station. This it does not. Most radio stations sound brighter and crisper than this unit. Again, it is not bad, per se, but if you would call yourself "discerning" you will notice a difference. (But hey, in this case, it's the wife's car…hehe…oops…anyway.) It does have a "signal strength" setting, but even in its fullest setting, it never comes through as loudly as a radio station, even though it is obviously clipping and overdriving the tuner. You still have to turn the volume down when you switch back to the radio. It does have some type of "Magical, patented, super-duper music enhancement" setting you can turn on. Unlike a typical "base boost" button, this promises to digitally adjust the timing of the frequencies to compensate for the right speaker being exactly two feet further away from your head. It's junk. I notice very little bass or treble boost, and EVERYONE that has listened to it agreed the music got more distorted when "happy boost" (or whatever the heck) was turned on. Don't get me too wrong, it is still a good player, and I am mostly happy with it. I'm just being overly critical.

Operation is where the unit positively shines. It reads anything I've thrown at it; variable bit rate, 48khz, 44.1khz, (I think I've got a few 32khz…the manual says to keep it 32 or above, though) stereo/mono, varying quality discs, CDR/CDRW. I've been using the Prassi/Stomp/Sony CD Extreme burning software and I haven't closed a disc yet -- everything's multi-session. (I'm not saying it'll work on every burning solution out there, but the original Prassi engine is wonderful.) The unit switches discs almost instantly, and takes very little time to recognize a new disc and begin playing. I don't think I've caught it skipping yet, but I don't play standard audio CD's on it. I should hope it would buffer MP3s, hence no skipping. Navigation is quite intuitive, and it is quick to respond and begin playing. It has different scrolling features, but when left on the name of the track, it only scrolls once, then just sits on the first 8 characters for the rest of the song. Guess you ought to catch it the first time. The display is easy enough for the driver and passenger to see, but there's no auto-dimming feature. The IR remote's controls are all present on the wired panel, so you're not at a complete loss after you drop the credit-card sized remote between the seats. In a nutshell, mechanically it works just like you would hope and expect it to.

In the end, it probably sounds like the Cons outweigh the Pros, but for the price, it's really the only option, so I guess I'll live with it. I've gotten another for my father, simply because there aren't a whole lot of other sub-$200 MP3 RF changers. The only other one I found was the Sony CDX 565, but it had enough negative things said against it to scare me off . (That and a few previous regrets about buying Sony car audio devices. I can't imagine their X-PLOD! line being better than average considering it's name.) When all is said and done, I guess I'd buy it again simply for lack of options. I know that's not encouraging, but hey, this isn't a sales ad.