Kenwood Excelon XXV-01D Car CD / MP3 Player

For many years I was (and mostly still am) a die-hard Alpine fan and I wrestled with purchasing this Kenwood unit for about a month before I purchased it. I went to a local Kenwood / Alpine dealer to check out the Kenwood XXV-01D and Alpine CDA-9855 several times. My findings were that even though the Alpine had a cool new slider control, it was a bit clumsy to use, the Kenwood controls were easier to use. Both are menu driven for their configuration settings. The biggest difference between these units in terms of CD/MP3 sound quality is the DAC's (Digital to Analog Converters). The Alpine has a meager 1-bit DAC and uses Media Expander to help improve audio quality. Sounds good. The Kenwood on the hand, uses (2) 24-bit Burr-Brown DAC's, one for the left channel and one for the right. The sound quality (using the same set of speakers and the same song)is astounding! The music had a fullness and clarity I'd never experienced before.
The 4,096 colors the OEL display uses is also quite cool. Lots of customization options and can even be read when its very bright outside! You can even download pictures provided by Kenwood to it!
As stated before, the Kenwood unit is very easy to configure with its menu driven system. I had the crossover and personalizations set up within a few minutes. The instruction guide is also helpful but lacks in the explanation of what some of the settings actually do. Another great thing about this unit is its simplicity, unlike the Kenwood units of the past, there are very few buttons on the unit itself. They finally got smart and went to the menu-driven system. The only downside I've found so far is the Media Manager software that comes with the unit. It can be difficult to get working properly if you are not technically inclined. Online support for the software is good.
I could go on and on about how much I enjoy this unit, so I'll sum it up like this, find the unit on ebay and get one! You will not be disappointed!