Kenwood KDC-MP438U Car CD / USB / MP3 Player

I have an Apple iPod Nano and like to listen to it in my Toyota Tacoma. I used to have it connected through an adapter device that made my Toyota factory stereo think the iPod was a CD Changer. A couple of months ago, it stopped working. I don't know if it was the adapter or the stereo. Another adapter would cost me $60, and I wasn't going to buy another factory stereo, so I decided to just upgrade my whole system. After spending a couple of weeks browsing Crutchfield.com, I settled on the Kenwood KDC-MP438U MP3/WMA CD Player.

I chose this stereo for a variety of reasons. First, it is made my Kenwood. I've owned Kenwood products in the past and have been happy with them, plus they are a very well known brand when it comes to electronics. Secondly, this stereo has iPod controls which let me control my iPod through the stereo. It also has an auxiliary audio-in port to connect most anything, and it even features a USB port. Finally, the internal amp pushes a whopping 22 watts RMS. Most CD players average 15 or 16 watts RMS power.

Installing this stereo was very easy for me. I ordered it from Crutchfield.com and they threw in a wiring harness adapter to plug into my old Toyota factory connection. This meant I didn't have to cut or splice anything on my truck. I highly recommend you get an adapter for your vehicle if you install this. If you are not familiar with car stereo installation, you may want to get some help before installing this yourself. You could easily short the thing out and ruin your new radio if you don't hook things up correctly.

So how does it sound? In a word, good. Not great, but good. The highs and mids are very crisp and clear, and I'm already hearing new little things in my music. On the bass side, it seems to amplify the midrange bass more than punch type bass. By that, I mean you'll feel a bass guitar over a bass drum. My factory system had a more rumbling you-can-feel-it bass response, but it was kind of muddy. This stereo has a cleaner sound, but it is a little weak on the bass end with the same speakers. Luckily, it has three sets of pre-outs for connecting an amp for a subwoofer. I may eventually add a subwoofer to my system – if my wife will let me.

This CD player pretty much does it all. It has a radio which works quite well. It will play regular music CD's as well as data CD's filled with MP3 or WMA files. The auxiliary audio port will let you connect anything that uses a 1/8" stereo cable, such as an iPod, cell phone, Game Boy, portable DVD player, or whatever you might want to listen to. The USB port will let you take a USB Flash Drive full of MP3 or WMA files and play them as if they were on a CD. I think this is an awesome feature. You can also connect your iPod using the USB port, or just get an audio cable to connect to the auxiliary port.

The display on this unit is only one line, and it has a limited number of characters, so long titles on your MP3's don't always show up. It does have a nice scrolling feature to expand the text out, but sometimes the limitations of the screen make browsing through music folders a little tedious. That's why I just use an audio cable to connect my iPod so that I can still control my iPod through its own interface. If you do this, please be careful not to play with the iPod while driving.

I was disappointed that the display does not change colors. In the past, I had a Kenwood stereo that would let me change the backlighting on it so I could match it with the interior colors of my old truck. With this one, it is just a bright whitish blue color with red buttons. I also found that the dimmer doesn't work well with my Toyota Tacoma, so it is just a little too bright. I got used to it pretty quickly, though at night it can be a little distracting when sitting high up on my dashboard.

The interface on the stereo is kind of neat, though it takes a little while to learn where everything is located. The main knob serves as both a volume control as well as joystick. You can push it up or down and left or right to move through menus. Pushing it in will bring up one menu while pushing it in and holding down for a few seconds will bring up another. Some of the other buttons function the same way. I thought the knob was just a little too stiff when turning, but that does help keep you from turning the volume up too high or low while driving. Kenwood also include a wireless remote control so that you don't have tough the stereo to make adjustments.

Besides a somewhat weak bass response, my biggest complaint about this stereo is the instruction booklet. I don't know what the people at Kenwood were thinking, but for some dumb reason they combined four different model car stereos into one booklet. The result is page after page of features all jumbled together with asterisks all over to indicate what feature is on what model. It's a complete mess and totally unnecessary for when the book is only ten or so pages long.

In the end, I am happy with my Kenwood KDC-MP438U MP3/WMA CD Player. It sounds good and has a huge variety of features that make it stand out among similarly priced models.