Home > Consumer Reviews > Kenwood eXcelon KDC-X692 - Radio / CD / MP3 player / digital player - Full-DIN - in-dash - 50 Watts x 4

This head unit replaced an old Pioneer unit I had in my 4Runner. This unit has great radio reception, great audio (really improved the sound of the OEM speakers), and can install USB and satellite radio in the glove box. My only complaint would be that the controls are awkward to use while driving. Overall, this is a very nice unit for the price.

I'll start with what I don't like, since that's usually what I find most useful in a review.

First, it's ugly. It's flashy, shiny, and just generally gaudy and completely clashes with the interior of my car. Unfortunately, that seems to be the going trend with all aftermarket car stereos, so I have no choice but to let it slide. All of the lights on it, except for one, are blue. Some stereos have the option to change at least the button color to amber / red / green or something, but not this one.

Second, there is a very noticeable pause between loading MP3 tracks. The stereo I replaced was a KDC-MP919 that, while it did have a tiny lag between tracks, it was more of a quick "click" sound as opposed to the 2-3 seconds between tracks with this one. If you like to listen to mixed music that is supposed to go seamlessly between tracks, this unit will disappoint. Why on earth is it so hard for manufacturers to implement seamless playback?

Third, the control knob on the right is a little tedious. There is a learning curve to the UI but that's not what I'm talking about. I really think they just put one too many functions into the control knob. I find that frequently when I press straight in on the knob to pause playback or set something, it presses a direction instead.

Finally, it lacks a spectrum analyzer visualization. It's a minor gripe but the KDC-MP919 had one and I miss it. Of course it's not like I'm watching the thing while I'm driving.

With that out of the way, here's what I liked about it:

It sounds fantastic. I thought the KDC-MP919 sounded great but this one is a little cleaner sounding.

You can browse directories on a CD or USB drive without pausing the music. Although browsing will sometimes cause the music to break up a little, it's not enough to be a major issue.

The USB port. This is honestly something I hadn't considered actually being useful until after I got the deck. I've since loaded up an 8 gig flash drive with tunes. I may never need to burn a disc full of MP3s again.

There's no ribbon cable attaching the faceplate. My KDC-MP919 had to be repaired / replaced three times (about once a year) due to the ribbon failing. Of course the KDC-X692 doesn't have the nifty motorized flip face and isn't as low profile, but I don't mind trading that for reliability.

So was it worth what I paid for it? Yes. The in-between track pause is a pretty big deal to me so if Kenwood can be bothered to make a deck that fixes it, I'll upgrade, but the pros here far outweigh the cons.

Overall, this is a good head unit with excellent sound and a plethora of features for the money. I especially like the usb feature and pack 30 or so albums on a thumb drive that I provide for endless music. Be aware though that this will only work for non-powered drives so, no portable harddrives can be used. I use a thumb drive adapter with a 2 gig SD card and have no problems. I have the USB port (rear plug in) installed in my glove box for easy access. Pre-amp outs, good power at 22w rms and a remote make this a good choice for me. It's also compatible with Kenwood cd-changers.

Radio reception is top notch and I think one of the best receivers in its class. I live in a pretty hilly area and it has no problem pulling stations in that most other stereos can't touch.

I also like the fact that it has an uncluttered appeal to it. With just a few buttons along its black face. Theft deterrent is a manually removed face plate but for the $120 I paid on e-bay who really cares about this anyway?

Finally, the 4-line text that this has is really great and you can customize how it's displayed with clock, date, scrolling song titles, album, artist, etc.

There are faults with this unit but they are mostly opinion and mostly minor. I'm in my late 30's... not exactly a kid. I absolutely can't stand the cheesy graphics dislays that come on these things and to boot, they're not exactly good quality either. The display is very legible but poor resolution at best. I have had kenwood home units before and have always appreciated the nice high quality LCD blue texts that they have. Not on this thing. I would rate the display output as very poor, very cheesy. The good thing is, you can option off all of the graphics. However if you're into that sort of thing, you can choose between a race car, and a bunch of other ridiculous nonesense that will happily glow in your face, non-stop, 24-7.

I'm a minimalist kind of guy but I also appreciate the i-pod approach of everything showing album covers, with good clean text too. So, if I could do it again, I'd probably go with the x792 to take advantage of all that. Then again, the graphics might just be the same poor quality there too.

Finally, and this is just personal preference, the controls are a bit hard to get used to without the remote. The deck has two knobs which control most of the functions. They operate by either pushing, rotating them to scroll, and joystick style. When you're driving along trying to push them in, you find that they aren't as responsive as you'd like and you occasionally miss the correct commands. It gets a bit frustrating operating this way but so far, if you're patient with the remote and figure where the redundant button presses are, you can by-pass most of this anyway.

I'd have to rate the deck a 4 out of 5 taking one away for the loathsome display.

Whoever designed the functionality of the KDC-X692 surely never drove in heavy traffic while trying to change channels or sources on this radio.

A well designed radio is one that can be operated without having to look at it. The most important functions, volume adjust, change channel, switch to CD / MP3 / Aux should not require you to take your eyes off of the road.

The design of this product usually requires your undivided attention in order to operate all but its volume knob. The channel buttons are very difficult to distinguish by feel and the marking on the buttons are very small and difficult to read without taking your eyes off of the road and refocusing to these little numbers. Very Scary!

If you've ever had a multi-function knob that can be pressed Up, Down, Left, Right or Straight In (for Enter) as choices and found that selecting Enter by pressing Straight In is difficult because it often goes a little up, down, left, or right and registers that direction instead of the Enter you wanted, then you are already familiar with this type of design flaw that is present in the KDC-X692.

Try out any radio you plan to buy and make sure that you can do all of the important functions by feeling them and without looking at the radio. If you cannot do this, then find a different model that you can operate without looking at it. Good luck!!

Great head unit. I love the USB port that allows you to plug in your Ipod, Zune, or anything else that stores mp3s. Only thing that I didn't like too much was the graphics on it. If thats a big deal for you, then get the higher end eXcelon, and if it doesn't then these do the job.