Kenwood KRC-X657

I've owned this Kenwood deck for almost two years now. (You're gonna have to excuse me if this is typed sloppily; my space bar doesn't appear to want to cooperate today.) I bought my T-bird and decided that with a car so fine, I needed a system I could be proud of. I'm frequently told that it's not loud enough by my neighborhood punk, but it's loud enough for me. Most of the time, anyway.

I got this deck, a 6-disc Kenwood changer, Kenwood eXcelon 6x9"s all around, 2 12" JL Audio's and a Kicker amp in the back (and the mighty Viper alarm, complete with remote start, to protect it all). When I went to get this system, I actually still listened to tapes (amazing, huh?). So, I wanted something with a tape deck that would also control the CD changer. I don't know much of anything about car stereos, so I had no idea if my request would be fulfilled, but it was. When I went to pick up the car on the day they installed everything, I got into the car and was befuddled. I was in love with the deck because it had lots of buttons, a big display, and just generally looked really cool, but it didn't seem to have a tape player. And how the hell did I turn it on, anyway?

(That's what the big blue Source button is for; you have to hold it down.)

Finally I found out that the faceplace flipped down and the tape player was behind it. Oh, wow! Genius!

And what's even more genius is all the neat...stuff this deck can do. It's capable of displaying text. You can program it to display names of all your favorite CD's (and maybe songs too, I'm not sure, I don't play with it too much because I'm usually trying to drive and I try not to get distracted by the radio...well, that much, anyway). What is really cool, that I didn't even know about until I took this spur-of-the-moment trip to New York City one night, is that if any radio stations transmit any text or anything, this thing displays it, scrolling across the screen. It can show the call letters of the station as well as phone numbers or any other message they might be broadcasting. I'd never heard of that before, and I know there are decks out there that can do a whole lot more including make you a peanut butter sandwich, but I thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. I still think that. Another thing is, you don't have to worry about this stereo clashing with your interior lights. You can change the color of the illuminated buttons from green to amber. And while I have to stick with the green, since my interior lights are green, I have to say that the amber looks really cool. And it has a remote control, too, which is really helpful if you're, say, anemic, and barely have enough energy to drive, let alone reach for the buttons on the stereo.

The buttons! This thing has so many buttons. I've always adored things with a lot of buttons. It's very helpful for me too, because usually if I have a passenger, they hate the kind of music I listen to and want to put their own horrible music on, but can't figure out how to work the radio =)

One problem I have had recently with this deck though is that you can either turn up the front speakers or you can turn up the 12's in the trunk. I had the 12's turned up and I think something was overheating somewhere, because every time I hit a bump, I would lose all my bass, and then it would fade back in gradually. I turned it back down so everything is level (I still have quite a bit of bass, so it still sounds good) and the problem is gone. I'll have to bring it to Boomer McLoud (who did a great job with it and are very courteous) and ask them what's up with it.

It's a shame I don't know anything about the technical side of these things, so I guess you get the amateur's review or something. Poor you. Oh well. But there you have it. Kenwood...dude! sweet!