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I have known of Crutchfield for many years and even visited the store once or twice in central Virginia. In fact, I applied for a job there some time back. In case you don't know, Crutchfield is a mail-order and Internet retailer of consumer electronics, with a strong background in car sound products.

Thus, when I bought a new car and decided that I needed a stereo with more features, I checked the local stores as well as Crutchfield to see what was available. I wanted a car stereo that had front-panel slots for both CDs and cassettes, as my wife and I frequently listen to books on tape, which are still primarily on cassette.

I decided to buy a JVC KW-XC777 CD/cassette stereo, which has the features I wanted. The unit was available at the local Circuit City for $350 and Crutchfield listed it for the more tempting price of $300. Offsetting Crutchfield's low price was the fact that installation would be free at Circuit City, which is something that has value. However, Circuit City was going to charge me $17 for an adapter that Crutchfield provided at no additional charge, so the difference is really more like $67. Since I'm an old hand at installing car stereos, I decided to go with Crutchfield and install the stereo myself.

The company's Web site (www.crutchfield.com) was easy to navigate. I clicked on "car stereos" and then "Cassettes," and was given a list of products that met these rough criteria. There was also a search window to type in a specific product but, at this point in my search, I was still looking.

Sure enough, one of the stereos in the list was the JVC KW-XC777. Clicking on its link gave me multiple tabbed pages of information, including a delightfully high-resolution image of the front panel. I went over the information and images with my wife and we decided that we liked this particular stereo.

I ordered it through Crutchfield's Web site on Sunday night and received the product on Tuesday, which I thought was good service. The checkout process on the Web site was smoothly handled and went quickly. I decided to not establish a password account with Crutchfield, as I already have too many such accounts to track. In any event, establishing an account was not a requirement for making a purchase over the Internet from Crutchfield and everything went smoothly in just a few minutes. I selected the standard ground shipping.

In addition to the relatively low cost at Crutchfield and the free adapter cable, the company also has free shipping. Perhaps more significant, the company prints out a nicely detailed installation guide that is specific for my car. This no-cost document is very good and it would have saved me some head-scratching when I took the dashboard of the car apart in preparation for getting the stereo. I was very impressed by these no-cost installation instructions, which are detailed and professionally printed, and not just some badly copied pages from a guide book.

I received the package on Tuesday, less than 48 hours after I placed the order. The package was tidy and well-packed and -- in addition to the helpful instructions -- contained a couple more things that make me think Crutchfield is a class act. First, there was a letter addressed to me and apparently signed by the company's founder, thanking me for my purchase and assuring me that the company stands behind all its sales. The other included item reinforces this thought by supplying me with return shipping labels in case there is a problem. Very nice.

I will install this stereo this weekend but I'm already highly impressed with my Crutchfield experience. Shopping on the site was easy and well organized, purchasing was straightforward, the product arrived promptly and in good condition, and the included materials delighted me with their thoughtfulness and thoroughness.

None of this makes the car stereo sound any better, but I sure have a nice warm feeling about Crutchfield. My experience was as smooth as warm butter and I have confidence that any questions, comments or returns will be handled professionally.

I recommend shopping for car stereo equipment at Crutchfield.