how come Kenwood has now dropped their prices???
I remember I bought a 2005 HU back in 2005 for almost 300 dollars. Now I am looking to get this KDC-MP635 and it is very cheap eventhough its loaded with nice features such as USB and BT and a color screen...

what is going on? are they dropping down from being a decent manufactured to being a "cheaper" one?

It just makes a little worried to buy it and end up with a lower quality product than in the past.

 

i work at a shop that sells KENWOOD. I can tell you from first hand experience that they are still the awesome quality that they have always been. Prices of all headunits we carry are DRASTICALLY decreasing. (clarion, kenwood, alpine) Now more features are coming standard in a "basic" radio for much cheeper then it would have a year ago. Guess you can thank technology for that one.

 

Thank you for the reasurance. I just came back from bestbuy and circuit city and noticed the drastic drop in price in Hu with great features. I think i am going to order that unit then. whatcha think?

 

One thing about Kenwood is that they don't sell their top of the line at places like best buy. I dated the daughter of the president (before he went to sirius) and he explained it to me.

 

yeah I know, well I looked at their Excelons and I dont like them really.. I just need something w and USB/ SD bluetooth and MP3 =) that look nice and clean.

 

^ he speaks the truth. The have a regular line that they will sell to best buy/cuircuit city etc(all bix box stores) then for the little guys like us they will sell a "elite" models. Easy way to tell is example;
model: KDC-MP132 -basic unit all box stores can sell
model: KDC-MP1032...little better(notice these models have a "0" put in them)
difference can be very minimal such as, dual RCA preout(instead of single), remote control, cosmetic features (Usually the regular models are all silver and the more elite ones are all black) This just gives us
direct KENWOOD dealers a chance rather then whoring out every single headunit to the corporation with the biggest checkbook. Also to my knowledge they cannot get EXCELON which is kenwood's highest end models. But dont quote me

 

Profoxcg-
Look at the new EXCELON kdc-x491. LOttta cool features in a cheeep package. Its VERY clean looking, does mp3, bluetooth compatiable, and also has a front oad USB port. Best for the money...2 of my co-workers already put em in their cars.

 

Go w/ alpine or eclipse

 

that looks just like the KDC-MP435U doesnt it? and i appears this HU has more features listed

 

I've never been a big fan of Kenwood . . . generally don't like the way they work as far as the interface, and I've never been "wowed" by their SQ. Alpine and Eclipse have REALLY gone downhill in the last couple of years. The only deck manufacturer I really care for anymore is Pioneer/Pioneer premier. Always have great sound quality, whether using deck power or through RCA outs, easy to use, classy looking . . . but that's just my .02.

 

I got me a Eclipse CD5000 and I am amazed at all the bells and whistles in it. It's got at least two or three sets of DSP, surrond, time alignment... And all for below $250 street. Amazing techno gizmo for cheap. I think you can thank advancement of Integrated Chip technology. They burn all miniturized features onto those tiny micro circuit chips. It's like a cpu w/ little buttons.

Too bad it's no where as clean sounding as my 5 year old Eclipse HU w/o all the gizmos!

Sometimes, there is such thing as overkill! Some of us simply want true pure hi fidelity...

 

it'a amazing how cheap the prices are for these high end HU on ebay...search...

 

good luck with warranty issues.

Kenwood's failure rate is much higher than anything we carry.

 

He's right, that HU is the only one I would use if i didnt have a carputer