Kenwood Excelon KDC-X959 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 Sirius Ready
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A step in the right direction
Pros
Improved filesystem, WMA/MP3 support, highly adjustable audio settings, security code
Cons
Navigation not the best, screen too bright at night, smart ID3 tag display (more later)
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Excellent unit! Lot of engineering in the audio processing block. Interface could use improvements, but it does what its supposed to do better than other car MP3/WMA-CD players.
History:
A few years ago I reviewed the granddaddy of this unit, the Kenwood Z919. I gave the Z919 glowing reviews, which at the time were based on the 919's pioneer status in the world of mobile digital audio. I gave it (919) 5 stars, mostly because of the wow factor. This one however, Im going to review more as a functional device than simply as a way of easily bringing thousands of songs on the road. One of my complaints about the Z919 was its lack of a removable faceplate, which led to it being stolen from my jeep a few months ago. With the insurance money I purchased a KDC-X959. There are MANY noteable improvements over older models, however, there are some things Kenwood could have and should have improved.
File System/Interface
First, the unit support Joliet file systems, the same standard used in Windows. No more renaming everything to 30-char. max ISO9660 names. It also supports lowercase as well as caps, giving the unit a more pleasing filename display. One problem I see with the X959 is in the file navigation system. My cheap $90 MP3CD handheld has a better interface. When holding 150+ songs on a disc, this is a very important feature. The X959 lets you browse folders up and down fairly easily, but you cannot actually display a list of songs and pick one. You just play the folder and use the >> button to page through. It also does not support inter-folder random play. The random feature only plays files in the current folder. (no subfolders). If you have a CD organized by band, and you want to hear a random selection, it will be of no use. The only way around is to put all the songs in the root directory, and if organization is important, use file prefixes which include a "album" number and "track" number, such as 02 03 Mr Jones.mp3 Where 02 is a album number shared by all the other Counting Crows songs from "August" and the song is number 3. This lets you play songs in order if you want, and still be able to randomize play. It makes album selection a little harder though. I do not understand why a cheap handheld can do multiple random settings such as whole disc, folder and subfolders only, intrafolder, but this top-of-the-line car unit cannot. The remote control that comes with the X959 is a plain block style with square buttons arranged in order. Thankfully, I still have my Z919 remote, which is easier to hold and had fewer buttons which were different size and shape to easily tell what was what without looking. Kenwood went with a cheaper remote on this model.
Tags:
The X959 can display ID3v1 (not v2) tag info. If your collection does not have consistent tags, I suggest getting one of the nice shareware batch utils available. You can display several layouts, such as ALBUM/ARTIST and TITLE/ARTIST. However, if there is no tag info present, the X959 WILL NOT default to displaying the file name (like my cheap portable does) but instead puts NO TEXT up on the display. You then have to go into the settings and make it display file name if you want to see something besides NO TEXT. Even if you're playing a WMA file, the unit does not know enough to default to file name for this tag-less audio format
Display:
The X959 has one of the coolest displays I've seen on a head unit. It is a bright blue-green "organic electronic display." The X959 has no shortage of options for this screen. It has a info page that displays time of day, a small 25 channel spectrum analyzer, song run time, folder/file numbers, and song title data, which can be selected from several options from the file name to fields of the ID3 tag. Screen 2 has a preset video clip (yes the OED can do 4 or 8 shade video clips) based on the mode. . (CD or TUNER) The third screen is very customizable. You can load still "wallpapers" out of the unit's memory or download dozens into a package and load it onto the X959 by means of a CD-R/W. The unit also has 2 movie clips built in, although if you do a web search for X959, you will find many others from racing cars to tropical fish. The X959 can only hold ONE downloadable clip. Kenwood has a utility available to make your own wallpaper or video clips. There is also a large multi-channel spectrum analyzer, I think its about 25 bands or so. It has several display modes, ranging from the classic falling or rising bars, to bouncing bubbles to a display that looks like an oscilloscope. One complaint about the OED- Every few seconds the screen inverts to keep the pixels evenly burned in. At night the screen is bright to begin with at its lowest dimmer setting, but when it inverts it makes the inside of my car glow. Sometimes I have to drop the faceplate because it can be distracting.
Sound Quality:
The WMA/MP3 decoder is top-notch and has no problem playing any bitrate I've thrown at it, from 96kbps to 320kbps and VBR. I'm not going to get into the sound quality of compressed audio, but the Kenwood System Es+ does everything. You can set frequency cutoffs for front and rear speakers separately, and even optimize the sound for the speaker size, 6x9 for example. It has duel zone audio control, and enough tunable EQ settings to rival a PC-based sound proc. I have not used the preamp outs, but they are all 4.5v outputs for better transmission. The audio quality, properly tuned and hooked to good speakers, is most excellent.
Other:
The X959 has a removable faceplate that cannot be obtained from the factory without a proof of purchase and a unique card included with the packaging. The unit also has the ability to use a security code that disables all functions if DC power is removed from the unit. This only happens with the X959 is disconnected from the vehicle battery, not just by turning the key off. A thief would have to enter a 4-digit code (you pick) before the unit could do anything. The code can only be reset by the factory, and if the unit is reported stolen, they will hold it for the rightful owner. It has built-in Sirrus satellite radio capabilities, but I do not know much more than that. I think another box and an antenna are required as well as a service subscription. The X959 also has a great menu system. Its one of the few things in the interface they got right. You can really customize every facet of this device fairly easily.
A few years ago I reviewed the granddaddy of this unit, the Kenwood Z919. I gave the Z919 glowing reviews, which at the time were based on the 919's pioneer status in the world of mobile digital audio. I gave it (919) 5 stars, mostly because of the wow factor. This one however, Im going to review more as a functional device than simply as a way of easily bringing thousands of songs on the road. One of my complaints about the Z919 was its lack of a removable faceplate, which led to it being stolen from my jeep a few months ago. With the insurance money I purchased a KDC-X959. There are MANY noteable improvements over older models, however, there are some things Kenwood could have and should have improved.
File System/Interface
First, the unit support Joliet file systems, the same standard used in Windows. No more renaming everything to 30-char. max ISO9660 names. It also supports lowercase as well as caps, giving the unit a more pleasing filename display. One problem I see with the X959 is in the file navigation system. My cheap $90 MP3CD handheld has a better interface. When holding 150+ songs on a disc, this is a very important feature. The X959 lets you browse folders up and down fairly easily, but you cannot actually display a list of songs and pick one. You just play the folder and use the >> button to page through. It also does not support inter-folder random play. The random feature only plays files in the current folder. (no subfolders). If you have a CD organized by band, and you want to hear a random selection, it will be of no use. The only way around is to put all the songs in the root directory, and if organization is important, use file prefixes which include a "album" number and "track" number, such as 02 03 Mr Jones.mp3 Where 02 is a album number shared by all the other Counting Crows songs from "August" and the song is number 3. This lets you play songs in order if you want, and still be able to randomize play. It makes album selection a little harder though. I do not understand why a cheap handheld can do multiple random settings such as whole disc, folder and subfolders only, intrafolder, but this top-of-the-line car unit cannot. The remote control that comes with the X959 is a plain block style with square buttons arranged in order. Thankfully, I still have my Z919 remote, which is easier to hold and had fewer buttons which were different size and shape to easily tell what was what without looking. Kenwood went with a cheaper remote on this model.
Tags:
The X959 can display ID3v1 (not v2) tag info. If your collection does not have consistent tags, I suggest getting one of the nice shareware batch utils available. You can display several layouts, such as ALBUM/ARTIST and TITLE/ARTIST. However, if there is no tag info present, the X959 WILL NOT default to displaying the file name (like my cheap portable does) but instead puts NO TEXT up on the display. You then have to go into the settings and make it display file name if you want to see something besides NO TEXT. Even if you're playing a WMA file, the unit does not know enough to default to file name for this tag-less audio format
Display:
The X959 has one of the coolest displays I've seen on a head unit. It is a bright blue-green "organic electronic display." The X959 has no shortage of options for this screen. It has a info page that displays time of day, a small 25 channel spectrum analyzer, song run time, folder/file numbers, and song title data, which can be selected from several options from the file name to fields of the ID3 tag. Screen 2 has a preset video clip (yes the OED can do 4 or 8 shade video clips) based on the mode. . (CD or TUNER) The third screen is very customizable. You can load still "wallpapers" out of the unit's memory or download dozens into a package and load it onto the X959 by means of a CD-R/W. The unit also has 2 movie clips built in, although if you do a web search for X959, you will find many others from racing cars to tropical fish. The X959 can only hold ONE downloadable clip. Kenwood has a utility available to make your own wallpaper or video clips. There is also a large multi-channel spectrum analyzer, I think its about 25 bands or so. It has several display modes, ranging from the classic falling or rising bars, to bouncing bubbles to a display that looks like an oscilloscope. One complaint about the OED- Every few seconds the screen inverts to keep the pixels evenly burned in. At night the screen is bright to begin with at its lowest dimmer setting, but when it inverts it makes the inside of my car glow. Sometimes I have to drop the faceplate because it can be distracting.
Sound Quality:
The WMA/MP3 decoder is top-notch and has no problem playing any bitrate I've thrown at it, from 96kbps to 320kbps and VBR. I'm not going to get into the sound quality of compressed audio, but the Kenwood System Es+ does everything. You can set frequency cutoffs for front and rear speakers separately, and even optimize the sound for the speaker size, 6x9 for example. It has duel zone audio control, and enough tunable EQ settings to rival a PC-based sound proc. I have not used the preamp outs, but they are all 4.5v outputs for better transmission. The audio quality, properly tuned and hooked to good speakers, is most excellent.
Other:
The X959 has a removable faceplate that cannot be obtained from the factory without a proof of purchase and a unique card included with the packaging. The unit also has the ability to use a security code that disables all functions if DC power is removed from the unit. This only happens with the X959 is disconnected from the vehicle battery, not just by turning the key off. A thief would have to enter a 4-digit code (you pick) before the unit could do anything. The code can only be reset by the factory, and if the unit is reported stolen, they will hold it for the rightful owner. It has built-in Sirrus satellite radio capabilities, but I do not know much more than that. I think another box and an antenna are required as well as a service subscription. The X959 also has a great menu system. Its one of the few things in the interface they got right. You can really customize every facet of this device fairly easily.
