Home > Consumer Reviews > Kenwood KDC-MP638U USB/AAC/WMA/MP3 CD Receiver with External Media Control

Very stylish with silver knobs and glossy black finish. Around the knobs glow blue, not overly bright either, doesnt bother me at night. The knobs have rubber around the edge for grip to easily turn them which is actually a nice feature because the knobs are sturdy and dont feel cheap.

The function of the screen is hit and miss. I would like to have a graphic image but if you have an image then you only get 1-line of text on the screen like artist/song title. If you want more lines of text like I do then you cant have the graphic image in the background. I want artist/song title and I like seeing the clock as well, so no background image for me. However, the text is very easy to read and you get choices of what text you want like if you want to see playtime instead of the clock, or artist album and song title.

USB works great. It comes with a decent length USB cable that I routed to a cubby hole underneath my receiver out of sight and reachable. I hooked up an 8gb flash card with only about 3gb of music so far. It recognizes it right away and begins playing your first folder. This is how the USB works. It reads FOLDERS, not playlists (or I havent figured it out yet). Right now I have 3 folders ROCK, HIPHOP, OTHER. Downside of this if you have a ROCK folder with a mix of rock music which includes Nirvana and say you have a Nirvana folder with only Nirvana music, then those Nirvana songs take up twice the space on your USB device because you cannot use playlists so the actually file needs to be on your USB device twice (one in each folder). Also, you cannot sort music, so if you only want to listen to Nirvana then you are going to have to make a NIRVANA folder and throw the music in there or just skip songs in a mixed folder until you get to Nirvana songs. You can random play songs in folders but you cannot random play ALL FOLDERS. So it wont play songs from my ROCK folder then play a song from my HIPHOP folder. This would have been a nice feature. Every now and then the USB device will just say "Reading" trying to read the next song. Doesnt happen to often and all you have to do is turn the receiver off then on and its good to go. Turning it on picks up right where you turned it off.

The Zone2 capability only works with the Auxillary input. So you cannot play your CDs in the rear speakers, and USB up front. Only the Auxillary input will play in the back speakers. Havent had to use this feature yet, but thats how it works.

Music quality inproved from my stock receiver slightly. Not a drastic improvement, but it does sound a bit more clean in the highs.

Havent tried bluetooth or sirius. Dont use the radio much but picks up my stations no problem and you can even name them on the receiver.

Overall this is a great receiver for the price.

i love the blue and red interface of it. not to bright. just right. looks good at night. it isnt that easy to program, especially the clock but its still a very nice radio. i absolutely love tha usb hook up in it. i have a regular mp3, not an ipod and it works perfectly with it. no need for cds any more. i have to buy another kenwood though because the one i had before got stolen from my car. i would recommend it. just make sure you tint your windows so that theives wont be tempted and take the face off too.

I purchased this a year and a half ago from Best Buy and put in my 2007 Nissan Xterra and coupled with the KCA-BT100. My wife and I loved it so much that we bought another set a lot cheaper off Amazon.com and installed it in her 2006 Kia Sorento. The only reason for not giving it a 5 star rating is that the right knob can be be a little irritating when working the ipod controls. I chose this the second time around over a newer model because of the separate audio controls.

Bought this to replace a Sony Xplod HU; which was trash. Don't buy Sony for your car, trust me.

Anyway, I unboxed this and installed it within minutes and had almost everything set up within 10 minutes total. Takes just a little bit to get used to the screens and controls, but once you get it down, you're good.

Only complaint I'd have is the remote is on the big size, but that's nothing to fret about.

I was a bit hesitant to purchase this unit being that it was only $110. However, I did and am completely satisfied with this unit. The shipping took a few days to process but it arrived promptly! Everything was in perfect condition. Will definitely buy from this seller again!