JVC KD-SH99 Car CD / MP3 Player
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Similar in In Dash Receivers
- MP3 / WMA Playback: MP3 Playback
- Player Type: CD
- Controlled Devices: CD Changer
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Your MP3 questions answered
Pros
Good sound, features, rotary control, convenient MP3 player
Cons
Small buttons, specs say it has low radio sensitivity
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Highly recommend! Good quality sound, sturdy, convenient interface for most features, rotary control makes it all much easier. I love it for more than two years already.
JVC KD-SH99 has made my life in car enjoyable during long trips for a few years already. The unit has seen two cars, and survived several installations with no problems. I still love it and am not looking for a new one. For good reasons explained below.
I found KD-SH99 CD-mp3-radio after considerable research about in-dash car MP3 players. I had a JVC CD player before and was hoping that the new one will be at least as good and in addition will play my MP3 CDs. Indeed, my experience has been excellent.
I've talked about this unit in the section about KD-SH77, which was a runner up in my search for a quality radio. Unfortunately, although KD-SH77 is "MP3 capable", this only means that SH77 has a mp3 player input socket, i.e. if you have an external mp3 player such as iPod, you could potentially plug it in your car stereo system and enjoy the sound through car's speakers.
Since I had no mp3 player, and wanted a one-box solution, I decided on the slightly more expensive JVC KD SH99. This review will focus on MP3 performance and try to answer questions, which I had before buying the MP3 unit. I will also touch upon the convenience and performance of the unit.
Why MP3?
Today one can find a decent in-dash CD receiver unit for around $100-$200. Is it worth to go extra hundred dollars for the MP3? I say, yes.
Once in a while I found myself on a trip for 10-12 hours. Sometimes I listen to radio, but sometimes I prefer choice and quality of sound. What are my alternatives? Change a CD or tape every 45 or so minutes, which becomes especially annoying when reading audiobooks. Or buy a CD-changer with at most 12 CDs.
I used to have a JVC 12-disk changer. It was nice, except soon enough I got bored of the 12 CD collection and had to go under my seat (or trunk) to get the CD cartridge and replace the collection. This is an activity neither convenient nor advisable to be done while driving. As a result the 12-CD collection got kind-of "old".
However, when you have a MP3 player, you can have 12-15 albums on a CD (here goes the CD-changer). Have 10 CDRs like that in your glove compartment or wherever you keep them, and you will have most of your audio collection in the car taking up almost no space. The CDR content is fully customizable, for example, you can make a CD of your most favorite music that lasts for more than 10 hours. That's about 600 miles without changing a CD! You can put news or convert text to mp3 files, write them to CDRW disk and listen to audio books on the road, without flipping pages or CDs. Besides CDR media these days is so cheap that it's price borders with disposable items.
Choice: What else is out there?
There are a few things that I look for in a car CD receiver: Good sound quality, easy interface, rotary volume control, informative display, detachable face-plate, decent FM and AM tuner, and reliable performance. The choice must also fit a reasonable budget.
Among some of the under $400 MP3 compatible in-dash receivers I considered were the following: Aiwa CDC-MP3; Blaupunkt MP3000; Blaupunkt San Jose; Jensen MP5010K; Rockford Fosgate RFX9000; Sony CDX-MP450X; Clarion ProAudio DXZ815M; JVC KD-SH99.
The JVC unit was not the absolute winner, but the best tradeoff of the features and the price. As one of the lowest ratings was the tuner sensitivity at 11.3dBf, while Sony and Blaupunkt beat it with 9.1dBf (actually, after having the JVC, I am not disappointed with the tuner). However considering MP3 playback performance and ease of use, sound quality, display, CD signal-to-noise ratio the JVC KD-SH99 came out as the best choice.
From the box into the car
The KD-SH99 came with a credit-card sized remote (which I have never really used during these years) and a wire harness. The installation was straightforward, and with no surprises (being able to solder is a plus). It would be even simpler if you buy a custom harness that goes between your car's standard plugs and the JVC radio's standard.
The in-dash unit has FM and AM tuner, CD player, MP3 CD, CDR and CDRW compatible player, rear and front line inputs, 4-volt line outputs, and is JVC CD changer and DVD player compatible. It has lots of features including customizable 3-band equalizer where each band can have selected frequency, width and level.
Front panel also has a MP3-input socket for connection of an external audio source such as MP3, CD or tape player. the front panel is made of silver-ish brushed aluminum and seems to be quite sturdy. The removable faceplate has seen many of my pockets and bags, but is still as new, thanks to the sturdy aluminum.
The sound, including from MP3 files, is clear and rich. There are no beeps or blips or other sound artifacts. The equalizer works just the same as with the audio CDs and the FM tuner.
User interface: Not for thick fingers
If you have big bear-hands with fat fingers (no offence intended), this unit with it's tiny buttons might not be your best choice.
Most selectable functions are chosen by pushing a button and then rotating the (volume) dial. The exceptions are switching the sound source (CD, tuner, or one of the two line inputs), and selecting songs by one of the 6 number buttons or Next/Previous buttons. A fancy feature of SH99 is ability to adjust the display angle by tilting it (3 preset angles). Thus, if the unit is sort of low, you can adjust the angle so that it is perpendicular to your viewing direction. The unit will remember this angle next time you turn it on.
The interface is simple and intuitive for the basic functions, once you have learned where the muttons are located (or have extremely sharp eyesight and can read the tiny black-on-silver labels). In order to access advanced features you will need to look up the manual and eventually learn your favorite ones, such as changing the folders.
Extras: TV and DVD support
The JVC KD SH99 claims to be capable of talking to car DVD player and TV manufactured by JVC. What this really means is that there are extra inputs behind the unit for these (or other) players, and the unit is capable to operate them (providing they use the same protocol, i.e. JVC devices that are J-link compatible).
You can also hook up JVC CD-changer, but for regular audio CDs only, no MP3. However, I do not really see why would you do that. One MP3 CD holds 12 albums or more, and is easily replaceable.
The unit is also European FM-compatible (the finer FM frequency scanning step) in case you consider to take it or send it to your friends across the ocean.
MP3 navigation: convenient
The SH99 manual says that the CDRs must be in ISO 9660 format, but my experience shows that there is no problem playing CDRs in JOLIET format (with long filenames) other than the file names are displayed in 8+3 character format. The song names are displayed from ID3v1 tags anyway, if you were busy enough to add them when making MP3 files. If there is no tag, then the filename is displayed.
The navigation between MP3 files is simple: you can jump to the next or previous song, you can fast-forward the song (the sound is muted during this). The songs are ordered according to the folder hierarchy (visit folder, then visit it's subfolders) and then in the order they were written to the CD.
The folder navigation is also fairly simple. You can jump to the next or previous folder (the first song in it) by pressing two buttons: the "Mode" button and then the "Next" or "Previous" button.
Specific to this KD-SH99 MP3 player is the following feature: if you precede folder name with a number 01 to 12, then you can jump to (access) these folders directly by pressing corresponding number button, just like using a CD-changer.
Homework: let's burn some MP3 CDs
In order to fully enjoy the features of the SH99, you will need to make (or somehow acquire) MP3 CDs. One needs a computer with a CD-RW drive for this and some software to do the job. There are all kinds of software available for the task, bundled with computers, CD-RW drives and sound cards. There are also shareware and freeware available for download over the Internet.
My preference for converting audio CDs to MP3 is a program called CD-ex, which can extract audio tracks from audio CDs and convert them to MP3 files. It also can connect CD database on the Internet and download the song titles, so that you do not have to type them. The software is developed under GNU public license, which generally means that you are free to use it as long as you do not resell it.
The burning software again is your choice. Often computers and CD burners come with software, such as Roxio or Nero, which is quite sufficient. If you are out of luck, open source software can help you again, and for free. My favorite burner is program called "Burnatonce". Search for it on Internet and you will find it. It is simple, can do pretty much anything you need, and is affordable.
There are all sorts of tricks you can play making MP3 files, but that is beyond the scope of this article. I'll just say that you should not have bit-rate below 128 Kbit per second in order to have decent sound quality for music. For voice, such as audiobooks I use Variable bit rate VBR between 32 and 128 Kbps. If you need to modify your sound creations, GoldWave is a nice shareware programm for that.
Where to get audio MP3? Be creative! One of the first tasks I did after acquiring the SH99 was to convert all my audio CDs at home to MP3 and "burn" the MP3 CDs with approximately 12-15 albums per CD. That's better than a CD changer! Now I can fit considerable part of my audio collection on about 20 CDs (that's about 280 albums).
There are numerous other sources of MP3. You can convert your audio-tapes, or audio-books to MP3. Or find news articles and other media already in MP3 format on the Internet.
Why I like it: SH99 makes sense
The unit politely says "Welcome" after powering it up, and "See you" after turning it off. That's a nice touch, and impresses my friends, too.
The sound quality is very nice and customizable (equalizer) for the set of speakers one has in his car as well as according with one's listening preferences.
The user interface is not ideal, but it is somewhat intuitive. Indeed, it is a lot of functions on this feature-packed unit that needed to be encoded by a limited number of buttons.
The display shows sufficient information (10 uppercase and lowercase characters and symbols on a matrix display with ability to rotate longer text) as well as related MP3 information according to ID3v1 tags (however, no ID3v2).
After inserting a MP3 CD, the unit does a "File check" for a few seconds, (which is much faster than on AIWA and some other MP3 CD-receivers). When powered down or switched to radio and back, the unit resumes playing exactly from the place on CD where it left off (both audio and MP3 CDs).
MP3 file and folder navigation (described above) is easy and comprehensive. Very important for a CD with 150+ songs on it.
I experienced no skips with any CDs, CDRs and CDRWs on any paved roads.
Nobody's perfect: always room for improvement
I believe in rotary controls even for the digital units, and SH99 has one. However it is a bit slippery, I'd like it to have a texture. Also, the buttons are quite small, and inscriptions on them tiny and unreadable, unless you pay 110% attention to them (instead of the road) in full daylight. Thus, you'll have to learn what is what before driving. But once you get over it (took me 2-3 times to look up the manual), the buttons will be no problem.
I've seen complaints about the display and it's brightness, but have none myself. Well, may be one. There is some unnecessary information on it (just to make it cooler, I presume).
It is nice to be able to change bass-boost (s-bass) with a touch of a dial. However, changing the equalizer settings is quite an intricate procedure and not to be done while driving. You can change frequency, width and level for each of three bands individually. That would be fine for the preset music style configuration, but is quite impossible to change while driving on the road. I'd prefer some simple and fast on-the-road way to change the middle and high band levels.
When changing the equalizer settings, sound mutes for a split second for each button depressed. I found it a bit annoying. Also, the sound muted for a second or so while ejecting a CD, even so the unit was in FM tuner mode. These seem to be tiny glitches in the design of the unit.
When switching from CD-player to FM tuner by pressing "Select" button, you always have to go through "Line-input" and "Aux-input", even though there is nothing connected (and possibly never will be). This could be selectable in the setup, or auto-sensed. However, one can use this "feature" as a kind of a mute/pause button, as I have found myself doing recently.
My experience: It makes me love to drive...
Whenever I am on the road, I have a choice. I can listen to radio, or to regular audio CDs, or to any of 200+ albums I have on my 15 MP3-CDs, or to a freshly MP3-converted audiobook. And it does not take a trunk full of CDs! This makes me very happy, unless I have forgotten the receiver face-plate at home...
I found KD-SH99 CD-mp3-radio after considerable research about in-dash car MP3 players. I had a JVC CD player before and was hoping that the new one will be at least as good and in addition will play my MP3 CDs. Indeed, my experience has been excellent.
I've talked about this unit in the section about KD-SH77, which was a runner up in my search for a quality radio. Unfortunately, although KD-SH77 is "MP3 capable", this only means that SH77 has a mp3 player input socket, i.e. if you have an external mp3 player such as iPod, you could potentially plug it in your car stereo system and enjoy the sound through car's speakers.
Since I had no mp3 player, and wanted a one-box solution, I decided on the slightly more expensive JVC KD SH99. This review will focus on MP3 performance and try to answer questions, which I had before buying the MP3 unit. I will also touch upon the convenience and performance of the unit.
Why MP3?
Today one can find a decent in-dash CD receiver unit for around $100-$200. Is it worth to go extra hundred dollars for the MP3? I say, yes.
Once in a while I found myself on a trip for 10-12 hours. Sometimes I listen to radio, but sometimes I prefer choice and quality of sound. What are my alternatives? Change a CD or tape every 45 or so minutes, which becomes especially annoying when reading audiobooks. Or buy a CD-changer with at most 12 CDs.
I used to have a JVC 12-disk changer. It was nice, except soon enough I got bored of the 12 CD collection and had to go under my seat (or trunk) to get the CD cartridge and replace the collection. This is an activity neither convenient nor advisable to be done while driving. As a result the 12-CD collection got kind-of "old".
However, when you have a MP3 player, you can have 12-15 albums on a CD (here goes the CD-changer). Have 10 CDRs like that in your glove compartment or wherever you keep them, and you will have most of your audio collection in the car taking up almost no space. The CDR content is fully customizable, for example, you can make a CD of your most favorite music that lasts for more than 10 hours. That's about 600 miles without changing a CD! You can put news or convert text to mp3 files, write them to CDRW disk and listen to audio books on the road, without flipping pages or CDs. Besides CDR media these days is so cheap that it's price borders with disposable items.
Choice: What else is out there?
There are a few things that I look for in a car CD receiver: Good sound quality, easy interface, rotary volume control, informative display, detachable face-plate, decent FM and AM tuner, and reliable performance. The choice must also fit a reasonable budget.
Among some of the under $400 MP3 compatible in-dash receivers I considered were the following: Aiwa CDC-MP3; Blaupunkt MP3000; Blaupunkt San Jose; Jensen MP5010K; Rockford Fosgate RFX9000; Sony CDX-MP450X; Clarion ProAudio DXZ815M; JVC KD-SH99.
The JVC unit was not the absolute winner, but the best tradeoff of the features and the price. As one of the lowest ratings was the tuner sensitivity at 11.3dBf, while Sony and Blaupunkt beat it with 9.1dBf (actually, after having the JVC, I am not disappointed with the tuner). However considering MP3 playback performance and ease of use, sound quality, display, CD signal-to-noise ratio the JVC KD-SH99 came out as the best choice.
From the box into the car
The KD-SH99 came with a credit-card sized remote (which I have never really used during these years) and a wire harness. The installation was straightforward, and with no surprises (being able to solder is a plus). It would be even simpler if you buy a custom harness that goes between your car's standard plugs and the JVC radio's standard.
The in-dash unit has FM and AM tuner, CD player, MP3 CD, CDR and CDRW compatible player, rear and front line inputs, 4-volt line outputs, and is JVC CD changer and DVD player compatible. It has lots of features including customizable 3-band equalizer where each band can have selected frequency, width and level.
Front panel also has a MP3-input socket for connection of an external audio source such as MP3, CD or tape player. the front panel is made of silver-ish brushed aluminum and seems to be quite sturdy. The removable faceplate has seen many of my pockets and bags, but is still as new, thanks to the sturdy aluminum.
The sound, including from MP3 files, is clear and rich. There are no beeps or blips or other sound artifacts. The equalizer works just the same as with the audio CDs and the FM tuner.
User interface: Not for thick fingers
If you have big bear-hands with fat fingers (no offence intended), this unit with it's tiny buttons might not be your best choice.
Most selectable functions are chosen by pushing a button and then rotating the (volume) dial. The exceptions are switching the sound source (CD, tuner, or one of the two line inputs), and selecting songs by one of the 6 number buttons or Next/Previous buttons. A fancy feature of SH99 is ability to adjust the display angle by tilting it (3 preset angles). Thus, if the unit is sort of low, you can adjust the angle so that it is perpendicular to your viewing direction. The unit will remember this angle next time you turn it on.
The interface is simple and intuitive for the basic functions, once you have learned where the muttons are located (or have extremely sharp eyesight and can read the tiny black-on-silver labels). In order to access advanced features you will need to look up the manual and eventually learn your favorite ones, such as changing the folders.
Extras: TV and DVD support
The JVC KD SH99 claims to be capable of talking to car DVD player and TV manufactured by JVC. What this really means is that there are extra inputs behind the unit for these (or other) players, and the unit is capable to operate them (providing they use the same protocol, i.e. JVC devices that are J-link compatible).
You can also hook up JVC CD-changer, but for regular audio CDs only, no MP3. However, I do not really see why would you do that. One MP3 CD holds 12 albums or more, and is easily replaceable.
The unit is also European FM-compatible (the finer FM frequency scanning step) in case you consider to take it or send it to your friends across the ocean.
MP3 navigation: convenient
The SH99 manual says that the CDRs must be in ISO 9660 format, but my experience shows that there is no problem playing CDRs in JOLIET format (with long filenames) other than the file names are displayed in 8+3 character format. The song names are displayed from ID3v1 tags anyway, if you were busy enough to add them when making MP3 files. If there is no tag, then the filename is displayed.
The navigation between MP3 files is simple: you can jump to the next or previous song, you can fast-forward the song (the sound is muted during this). The songs are ordered according to the folder hierarchy (visit folder, then visit it's subfolders) and then in the order they were written to the CD.
The folder navigation is also fairly simple. You can jump to the next or previous folder (the first song in it) by pressing two buttons: the "Mode" button and then the "Next" or "Previous" button.
Specific to this KD-SH99 MP3 player is the following feature: if you precede folder name with a number 01 to 12, then you can jump to (access) these folders directly by pressing corresponding number button, just like using a CD-changer.
Homework: let's burn some MP3 CDs
In order to fully enjoy the features of the SH99, you will need to make (or somehow acquire) MP3 CDs. One needs a computer with a CD-RW drive for this and some software to do the job. There are all kinds of software available for the task, bundled with computers, CD-RW drives and sound cards. There are also shareware and freeware available for download over the Internet.
My preference for converting audio CDs to MP3 is a program called CD-ex, which can extract audio tracks from audio CDs and convert them to MP3 files. It also can connect CD database on the Internet and download the song titles, so that you do not have to type them. The software is developed under GNU public license, which generally means that you are free to use it as long as you do not resell it.
The burning software again is your choice. Often computers and CD burners come with software, such as Roxio or Nero, which is quite sufficient. If you are out of luck, open source software can help you again, and for free. My favorite burner is program called "Burnatonce". Search for it on Internet and you will find it. It is simple, can do pretty much anything you need, and is affordable.
There are all sorts of tricks you can play making MP3 files, but that is beyond the scope of this article. I'll just say that you should not have bit-rate below 128 Kbit per second in order to have decent sound quality for music. For voice, such as audiobooks I use Variable bit rate VBR between 32 and 128 Kbps. If you need to modify your sound creations, GoldWave is a nice shareware programm for that.
Where to get audio MP3? Be creative! One of the first tasks I did after acquiring the SH99 was to convert all my audio CDs at home to MP3 and "burn" the MP3 CDs with approximately 12-15 albums per CD. That's better than a CD changer! Now I can fit considerable part of my audio collection on about 20 CDs (that's about 280 albums).
There are numerous other sources of MP3. You can convert your audio-tapes, or audio-books to MP3. Or find news articles and other media already in MP3 format on the Internet.
Why I like it: SH99 makes sense
The unit politely says "Welcome" after powering it up, and "See you" after turning it off. That's a nice touch, and impresses my friends, too.
The sound quality is very nice and customizable (equalizer) for the set of speakers one has in his car as well as according with one's listening preferences.
The user interface is not ideal, but it is somewhat intuitive. Indeed, it is a lot of functions on this feature-packed unit that needed to be encoded by a limited number of buttons.
The display shows sufficient information (10 uppercase and lowercase characters and symbols on a matrix display with ability to rotate longer text) as well as related MP3 information according to ID3v1 tags (however, no ID3v2).
After inserting a MP3 CD, the unit does a "File check" for a few seconds, (which is much faster than on AIWA and some other MP3 CD-receivers). When powered down or switched to radio and back, the unit resumes playing exactly from the place on CD where it left off (both audio and MP3 CDs).
MP3 file and folder navigation (described above) is easy and comprehensive. Very important for a CD with 150+ songs on it.
I experienced no skips with any CDs, CDRs and CDRWs on any paved roads.
Nobody's perfect: always room for improvement
I believe in rotary controls even for the digital units, and SH99 has one. However it is a bit slippery, I'd like it to have a texture. Also, the buttons are quite small, and inscriptions on them tiny and unreadable, unless you pay 110% attention to them (instead of the road) in full daylight. Thus, you'll have to learn what is what before driving. But once you get over it (took me 2-3 times to look up the manual), the buttons will be no problem.
I've seen complaints about the display and it's brightness, but have none myself. Well, may be one. There is some unnecessary information on it (just to make it cooler, I presume).
It is nice to be able to change bass-boost (s-bass) with a touch of a dial. However, changing the equalizer settings is quite an intricate procedure and not to be done while driving. You can change frequency, width and level for each of three bands individually. That would be fine for the preset music style configuration, but is quite impossible to change while driving on the road. I'd prefer some simple and fast on-the-road way to change the middle and high band levels.
When changing the equalizer settings, sound mutes for a split second for each button depressed. I found it a bit annoying. Also, the sound muted for a second or so while ejecting a CD, even so the unit was in FM tuner mode. These seem to be tiny glitches in the design of the unit.
When switching from CD-player to FM tuner by pressing "Select" button, you always have to go through "Line-input" and "Aux-input", even though there is nothing connected (and possibly never will be). This could be selectable in the setup, or auto-sensed. However, one can use this "feature" as a kind of a mute/pause button, as I have found myself doing recently.
My experience: It makes me love to drive...
Whenever I am on the road, I have a choice. I can listen to radio, or to regular audio CDs, or to any of 200+ albums I have on my 15 MP3-CDs, or to a freshly MP3-converted audiobook. And it does not take a trunk full of CDs! This makes me very happy, unless I have forgotten the receiver face-plate at home...
