Kenwood KDC-MP919 Car CD / MP3 Player

This is a fine deck. Unfortunately it is apparently not compatible with the series 901 Sirius tuner from Kenwood. I tried two 919 HUs and two different 901 tuners and the results were identical... the face would eventually slide down and lock up, rendering the unit useless. This could only be fixed by resetting the unit (little button on front of control face) or by disconnecting the battery wire. Either would restore the unit to operation but would lose all the time consuming custom configuration settings. This failure would occur after only one hour, one day, or 14 days... very unpredictable. I tried several different power connection setups (to counter any possible ground loops, etc.) and also in two cars (99 Miata and 03 WRX).

After numerous conversations with Kenwood techinical support... their only solution was to have me buy another unit, something in the Excelon series. They also deny any knowledge of this compatibility defect. They also offered nothing for trade-in of the 919. Just SOL. I switched over to a non-computer controlled unit (KDC-MP6022) and that works fine, just not nearly as fancy/flexible. The 919 now resides in my pickup truck where it is no longer plagued with the Sirius tuner issure. Haven't tried any of the newer ones though.