Home > Consumer Reviews > Kenwood KDC-MP342U WMA/MP3 CD Receiver with Satellite/HD Radio/Bluetooth Ready Front Panel USB/AUX Input

This is my 2nd MP3 player by kenwood. My first one was a much older model and after what seems like easily 6 or 7 years of faithful service I decided to upgrade.

The usb port on the front is what makes it worth the upgrade. I can put thousands of songs onto a dirt cheap thumbdrive and not have to worry about MP3 cd's all over my car.

The headunit also breathed new life into my 11 year old factory volvo speakers. I had no idea they could sound as good as they do. I've still got plans to put a recently acquired set of boston acoustic 6.5" speakers in the front doors but I'm re-thinking my decision to also upgrade the rear door and rear deck speakers.

As far as the things about the unit that I don't like, they're very minor. For one, the 1~6 buttons control playback options and what not. The numbers of the buttons are very easy to read as they're lit up but the functions is in a gray colored text that makes it hard to read. Before actually reading it in the manual, I didn't know how to pause playback. The number 6 button does that but you wouldn't know by looking at the unit because the little play/pause label is nearly impossible to read.

also, when adjusting the bass, mids and treble, like my older unit, these only go to 8. Why 8??? Why not 10? Kenwood, this makes no sense. Stop it. Also, I'm a little disappointed to see the attenuation button absent from the unit. I used that pretty frequently on my older one but I guess they have to save something for the units that cost more than $110. :D

Anyways, minor complaints and that's about it. The unit sounds great, and aside from initially figuring out what the small buttons do, I really like it. The music is easier to hear on the interstate as well. That was an unexpected surprise.

iTouch, CDs, tuner, flash drive all work seemlessly with the unit, with plenty of power for the average user. If you are one of those "I want to feel the bass shake the car" type of people, you will need a separate amp. Control surfaces feel well-made and sturdy, not typical for radios I've shopped for this price range.

The only drawback - not a do-it-yourself project. I ATTEMPTED to install this radio myself in our nanny's Honda Civic (I do not routinely do this because, being a doctor, I'm not schooled in car electronics.) Feeling confident after seeing reviews at ePinions.com stating how "simplistic" or "intuitive" it was to install for an "Average Joe," I took on the task. Well, if you're not a seasoned radio installer, don't attempt it - you may mar your dash getting everything hooked up. The installation guide is scant at best. In frustration, I eventually called upon my neighbor (a master electrician) to help me, and he finished the job flawlessly (and quickly, I might add).

I bought a JVC El cameleon for my car. One of the reasons was the bluetooth option for my phone. After trying to turn up the volume several times and changing EVERYTHING except the volume (because of the digital display) I returned it and Bought this marvel. Again the reason was that I needed the bluetooth for my phone (which is huge btw.) You can purchase the bluetooth adapter separately. Well, when I got installed and just turned on it was awesome, just hearing the radio I realized the difference between Kenwood and the other brands. It was crisp clear with the right amount of bass and treble and it has that punch that makes you feel you bought the right one. Also it has a sturdy feel, it seems simple but has a lot of functions, you have to learn the manual, but once you learn to program it is fantastic. it has front inputs for whatever you want to connect from a USB memory stick to iPod and you can control from the head unit or the iPod. The bluetooth also works perfect with my BlackBerry Pearl with the OS updated I can stream music from it and sounds superb. You won't regret buying this one its a sure buy!

I found the product and features as expected, and was able install for Corolla-2000 in couple of hours. It needed a harness adapter to connect Kenwood radio to car's audio cables, that has to be bought separately (about 10$). If the car is older, it might need full install kit (around 22$).

Operating was not difficult, but took a while to figure out that, press and hold SRC to switch it off.

Couple of things I didn't like is about the display, it keeps scrolling can become distracting in the night. Another thing about display is, cannot read it when
sun falls at certain angles.

Needless to say, to activate Bluetooth/HD Radio need separate Kenwood devices that are not cheap.

We purchased this in July for a road trip. We didn't want to spend a fortune and we wanted it to be user friendly to use. We went to Best Buy to actually try them out after reading reviews from other folks. We are older so we wanted something that we could see well in the dark but wasn't distracting. We wanted it to be easy to use when we are driving too. We also wanted to plug our mp3 players into it if we drove into areas that didn't have much to offer on the radio. After looking at several it was a no brainer it was this one hands down. We liked the blue colored display and the easy presets and volume control. It also has a usb connection so we can charge our mp3 players when we aren't playing them. There is a cd player but we don't use it that much if at all since it is easier to hook up the mp3 player then sifting through the cds one at a time. We were in a hurry so we bought it at Best Buy for 139.00 which included tax of 11.48. If we had time I would have shopped for a better price. Without tax here on Amazon with s&h it is I think $113.00 which is a much better deal. Also one note about installation. We had all the harnesses from previous older radio ready to go. But this unit requires that it be hooked to the battery because it has this internal clock. Ours already had the wiring right but at some point we had removed a fuse or maybe never had a fuse in this slot in the truck before. That fuse was important for this new radio to work. I posted to a truck forum and learned where I needed to add a fuse to get the clock and the radio working. I had never installed one before, just took the old one out so it took me some time to figure it out but really if I as a housewife can figure it out then anyone can do it. It sounds great and we didn't spend a fortune. We had a Kenwood before that we liked and had died after several years but we were open to any brand but we ended up with this particular Kenwood.