JVC KD-LH3100 Car CD / MP3 Player
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Similar in In Dash Receivers
- MP3 / WMA Playback: MP3 Playback
- Additional Features: Animated Display
- Player Type: CD
- Controlled Devices: CD Changer
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Great MP3 CD Receiver
Pros
Great display.
Cons
The volume knob is shallow with a smooth edge. A few common sense little things.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Excellent MP3 unit with a great display, which shows the artist and song title at the same time.
This is a really nice unit, especially for MP3 lovers. I have had the unit a month.
Previous units: Kenwood KDC-MP819 (also a MP3 unit)
Good:
The music is crisp and clean, with a 7 band graphic equalizer with preset and user definable profiles. So far, no skips on either normal CDs, or MP3 discs. FM reception seems pretty good.
One of the key features for me is the MP3 play and display. The MP3 display on this unit is great, outshining most competitors. A line for the album/artist, a line for the song title, and a third small line for the clock, with other display formats selectable. The instantaneous character display is 10 characters for each of the first two lines, for a total of 20 characters. It then scrolls to display the rest of the artist and song title. Most of the competition only have an 8 character single line display, and the better ones have a 15 character display. Long file names are supported. (The Alpine and a couple of other units that I looked at maxed out at 32 characters). If the ID tag is missing on a song, the song file name will be displayed. This is a nice feature that my Kenwood didn't have. The MP3 playback is as hoped for, with nothing bad noted.
There is partial screen graphics for normal use with such things as a twirling CD when the CD is playing.
There is full screen animation for the power on, screen saver, and power off, each of which can be customized and/or turned off. The screen saver comes on after 20 seconds of non-use. My personal preference is to leave off the normal animation, and still have some cool graphics on power on and off.
The unit is a standard DIN size, and I easily installed it where the Kenwood used to be.
Bad:
The volume knob is shallow with a smooth edge. Therefore it is hard to grip easily to adjust the volume, especially with big hands.
The MP3 Display groups the album and artist together in the display, displaying the album first. I would prefer to have the artist only, preserving valuable display character space. My second choice would be to have the artist first. With the display as is, if the album is Elton John's greatest hits, the display will show "greatest h", then start scrolling to show the rest. The way around it is to leave the album blank in the ID tag.
For MP3 play, there is a choice of zero, 1/3, or 2/3 of the display containing characters, and the remaining area containing graphics. I would prefer a choice of the entire display for characters. (It is still much better than the competition).
No CD Pause.
WMA is not supported (I knew this before I bought it).
The antenna port is a bulkhead receptacle (no extension or pig tail). My car antenna lead barely reached the receiver.
Previous units: Kenwood KDC-MP819 (also a MP3 unit)
Good:
The music is crisp and clean, with a 7 band graphic equalizer with preset and user definable profiles. So far, no skips on either normal CDs, or MP3 discs. FM reception seems pretty good.
One of the key features for me is the MP3 play and display. The MP3 display on this unit is great, outshining most competitors. A line for the album/artist, a line for the song title, and a third small line for the clock, with other display formats selectable. The instantaneous character display is 10 characters for each of the first two lines, for a total of 20 characters. It then scrolls to display the rest of the artist and song title. Most of the competition only have an 8 character single line display, and the better ones have a 15 character display. Long file names are supported. (The Alpine and a couple of other units that I looked at maxed out at 32 characters). If the ID tag is missing on a song, the song file name will be displayed. This is a nice feature that my Kenwood didn't have. The MP3 playback is as hoped for, with nothing bad noted.
There is partial screen graphics for normal use with such things as a twirling CD when the CD is playing.
There is full screen animation for the power on, screen saver, and power off, each of which can be customized and/or turned off. The screen saver comes on after 20 seconds of non-use. My personal preference is to leave off the normal animation, and still have some cool graphics on power on and off.
The unit is a standard DIN size, and I easily installed it where the Kenwood used to be.
Bad:
The volume knob is shallow with a smooth edge. Therefore it is hard to grip easily to adjust the volume, especially with big hands.
The MP3 Display groups the album and artist together in the display, displaying the album first. I would prefer to have the artist only, preserving valuable display character space. My second choice would be to have the artist first. With the display as is, if the album is Elton John's greatest hits, the display will show "greatest h", then start scrolling to show the rest. The way around it is to leave the album blank in the ID tag.
For MP3 play, there is a choice of zero, 1/3, or 2/3 of the display containing characters, and the remaining area containing graphics. I would prefer a choice of the entire display for characters. (It is still much better than the competition).
No CD Pause.
WMA is not supported (I knew this before I bought it).
The antenna port is a bulkhead receptacle (no extension or pig tail). My car antenna lead barely reached the receiver.
