Kenwood EZ-500 Car CD / MP3 Player

In late August of 2005 I decided it was time to invest in some decent sound for my 1997 Nissan 200SX. I had already upgraded the front speakers but I was still using the stock cassette/CD player 1+1 DIN units. The stock system distorted when turning up the volume high and it did not have RCA outputs to upgrade easily to an amplifier in the future. Finally, the CD player was missing the original factory harness so I had to improvise the wiring to get it to work...every time I would start up the car, since there was no clock lead wired to the unit, it would eject the CD and then draw it back into the unit. Annoying!!! Plus, I could not play MP3 or WMA files, limiting my music selection to the length of an audio CD. So I made my decision.

I thoroughly researched CD/MP3 players on Epinions, Crutchfield, and the various electronic store Web sites. Here were my criteria for the new unit:

***************** Features ******************

-Front and rear RCA preamp outputs
-Large, easy-to-read display
-MP3/WMA playback capability
-Non-motorized removable faceplate
-Remote control
-Good sound quality
-Low-pass filter for subwoofer
-High-pass filter for regular speakers
-Line input
-Factory dimmer control
-Separate bass, midrange, and treble controls
-Skip-free playback
-24FM/6AM presets
-SIRIUS/HD Radio-capable controls
-CD Changer controls
-Music Keg (tm) capable
-Good sensitivity for radio reception
-Future upgradability
-Easy installation


I was going to get an Alpine 9700-series deck, but the price was too high and I have heard that Alpines get stolen a lot. I really liked the color displays on those decks, but I heard reliability issues with some of them.

It turns out the Kenwood EZ-500 met my requirements. I called a few shops in San Diego, and it turned out a local car audio dealer, San Diego Car Audio, had the best deal. It was the end of the model year and they only had one left, so they discounted it to 190 dollars instead of the list price of 250 dollars that Crutchfield was charging. I felt like I got a good deal.

*********** What's in the box: ****************

--Receiver
--Faceplate with plastic carrying case
--Manual
--Warranty card
--Bracket for non-DIN mounting
--Cage for non-DIN mounting
--DIN mounting screws
--Wiring harness for Kenwood receiver
--Remote control with 2 "AA" batteries
--Trim plastic for non-DIN mounting
--Cardboard environmentally-safe packaging

************ Installation *****************

I enjoy wiring up electronics myself, so despite all of the warnings about voiding the warranty through non-professional installation, I gathered up some butt connectors and spent about 30 minutes splicing all the new wires to the old wiring harness. The hardest part was matching up the colors from the old harness to the correct wires on the new one. I bought a factory wiring harness kit from the store so that I could just hook it up to the receiver instead of having to sit in the hot sun in my apartment parking space figuring out how to hook up all the wires.

I LOVE DIN installations!!! All I had to do was unscrew the old receiver from the metal cage, and screw in the new one. Then, I took the whole cage and before securing it in my dash, I tested the operation of the unit. It did not work at first until I realized that the ground is through the DIN cage and not through a separate chassis connection. So I hooked the ground wire to the cage, which then screwed into the dash.

Finally it was time for a road test. I took an CD-R onto which I had copied about 150 MP3 songs in about 8 different folders, and inserted it in the unit. Although the sun was shining brightly on the transflective white dot-matrix LCD screen, I could see the reverse image of the letters and numbers perfectly. The song title and artist from the ID3 tags on the files scrolled from right to left. Sound quality was excellent and the radio has no problem picking up distant stations, FM or AM.

*********** Operation of Receiver ***************

Basic functions are pretty straight forward...in typical Kenwood tradition, the SRC button is used to turn the unit on and off, as well as switch between TUNER, CD, AUX input selections...I believe if you connect an IPOD adapter to the bus connection on the back of the unit, it will say "EXTERNAL" or something like that on the display. There is a single beep sound when switching from one source to the next. When you have gone past the last SOURCE selection, there is an audible double-beep sound and then the display reads STANDBY. In STANDBY mode you can see the clock on the display and not have any music playing, which is nice. If you are in a hurry to turn the unit off, you can press and hold the SRC button for about 2 seconds and then the display goes completely blank. Press it again and it goes back to the same source selection where you left off.

There are two large brushed-stainless-steel knobs on the left and right respectively. They are rimmed with soft rubber, so it is easy to turn them even if you have big fingers. The left is for Volume up and down...it is a rotary encoder which is nice because if one of your friends tries to crank up the volume all the way when it is off, it has no effect when the unit is powered on. The right knob advances either the preset of the station, the track/time of the CD, or the frequency of the station, depending how you have it set up. The six radio station preset buttons are somewhat small, so I find it easier to advance stations by rotating the knob.

On the left of the faceplate, there is the faceplate eject button and the tuning mode/autotune button. SRC is right below the Volume knob. To the right of SRC(which is a long rectangle-shaped button) but above the preset buttons there are two smaller rectangle buttons -- AM and FM. Finally on the right of the unit is the Menu button, which is used to set the clock and access other functions. It is a small button as well. Above that button there is a small gray round button for DISPLAY SCROLL, which controls how your radio station/CD title/track information is displayed.

(In an odd, but highly logical surprise, Kenwood placed the EJECT button behind the faceplate. It prevents one from trying to eject the CD while the faceplate is still up, which would possibly damage the unit. :( This is excellent because to get to the CD slot, you must first flip down the faceplate...which is nice and smooth, courtesy of a damper, by the way. Then, the Eject button is lit up in red so it is easy to find. There is also a security LED which blinks red when the unit is powered off and the faceplate is removed.)

Oh, there are so many extra features on this unit that are "hidden"! It is like a treasure hunt...kind of fun as you figure them out. Each button can perform more than 1 function depending on if you just tap it or if you hold it for 1 second. My favorite feature is the SUBWOOFER ON/OFF switch. If you press and hold the AM button it turns the subwoofer output on or off. So if a police car rolls up next to you and you are bumping the bass, you can instantly turn off the booming sound. :)

Related to that feature is the MUTE button, or as Kenwood calls it, ATT. It really is different from regular mute, because when you turn back on the sound, it gradually gets louder instead of all at once, which saves not only your ears, but your speakers from a damaging surge of sound!

The display is nice and bright and has adjustable contrast control...it has a nice black/purple glow and brilliant white LED segments shining through. All of the buttons are illuminated, and button illumination can be changed from green to red if one prefers, at the touch of a button. I did NOT want an LCD display with the annoying backlight bleed...I would get a vacuum-fluorescent display before I got a crappy LCD display!!!

So far, the receiver has worked flawlessly for me. There is no skipping, even over large potholes. I expected this much from a Kenwood, though...all of the older units worked that way for me. The remote turn-on lead works great with the power amplifier I had installed, and the active crossover makes my subwoofer sound more accurate. I have the low-pass set to 60Hz since I am running a 12" Audiobahn tube-style subwoofer and it does not like the high frequencies...they make the music too muddy sounding. This way just the low frequencies go to the subwoofer. I have the high-pass filter set to 100Hz so my door and rear-deck speakers, which are only 6.25" units, won't get blown away by the bass.

NOTE: If you have larger speakers, you can set the high-pass filter to "straight through" and then no filtering takes place. Additionally, if you have 2 amplifiers, you can shut off the internal amplifier completely, allowing the receiver to run cooler.

A dual-zone feature is included which allows say, the CD player to play through the front speakers, and another source going through the AUX input to play to the rear speakers, and volume is independently adjustable. That should keep the rear passengers happy!

There is also the infamous Kenwood "SystemQ" system for preset sound quality adjustments....pop/rock/classical/jazz/top40/custom, maybe a little different, but I don't use it...I leave it on CUSTOM because I am always messing around with the sound anyway. :)

******* What I don't like about the unit ... *********

--The song title stops scrolling midway between the title and artist information. I have not figured how to get it to scroll continuously.

--The "clock" display is separate from the larger dot-matrix LCD display. You can turn off the clock, but I'd rather they ditch the separate display and just make the clock part of the large LCD display like other stereo makers do. Of course it is handy to see both at once, so maybe a better solution would be to buy a car that has a separate factory clock installed in the dash. :)

--The remote must be aimed directly at the sensor or it doesn't work too well. It's too big anyway to use while driving...I think if I had a bigger car like a Chrysler 300 or an Suburban then the back-seat passengers might have a use for it. :) The controls are easy enough to get to as it is, so I just leave the remote at home usually.

--In my car, the 200SX, the cupholders are right below the receiver and simply stick out of the dash. The EZ-500 did not mount flush like I thought it would, so the volume and tuner knobs protrude so far that if I put anything taller than a soda can in the cupholder, the knobs will get bumped by the container(s).

********** Conclusion *************

At under 200 dollars, I feel this deck was an EXCELLENT deal...all of the specifications are very close to the Alpine units I looked at, and much better than the cheap units you can buy at the auto-parts store. The deck is loaded with options, and has enough inputs and outputs to make the average car audio user happy.

If anyone has questions on something I did not mention, PLEASE feel free to comment....there is simply far too much information to post beyond the basics of the unit, but I can definitely answer for you. :)