- iPhone controls
- Requires 2 DIN installation
- CD receiver with built-in MOSFET amplifier (20 watts RMS or 50 peak x 4 channels)
- Included Bluetooth adapter for hands-free calling, music streaming, and app control
- Plays CDs, CD-Rs, and CD-RWs, including discs loaded with MP3 and WMA files
Originally looking at the Clarion X501-(which had great reviews) and then stumbled across the JVC KW-XR810 4 x 50 Watts Dual USB/CD Receiver for my 2012 Nissan Xterra. Just about when I was going to purchase the XR810 after reading countless reviews I decided on the KWR900BT. Everything was the same across the board except two things: This unit came out March of this year, and it had 6V instead of 3V for the sub...and was only $6 more. This is my first car stereo purchase and after reading all the amazing reviews for the XR810, I decided on a JVC.
In this world of ANTI-Android and PRO-Apple world-it was nice to find a deck that could do android-I have a ATT Galaxy S2 skyrocket mounted on a holder on my driver vent near dash. Wanted to talk bluetooth first and stream music second. Wanted a deck that looked stock-so it wouldnt get stolen. Wanted it to be Android user friendly.
Pretty happy with this unit-here are my pros and cons!
PROS:
LOVE LOVE LOVE the total control of color scheme to match your dash at night and during the day-little hard to see 1. during the day but whatever. Gorgeous Display. No annoying flashing demo going "LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!" like some of those cheaper decks that rely on that to look good.
2. I'm not a big EQ fan, I just use the preset settings, but it definitely has a LOT tweaking you can do on the settings
3. Love making calls through the blue tooth, people said it sounded pretty good and has three mic settings
4. Love the Double display-Clean, easy to read, and looks great at night.
5. Enjoy the fact that it mutes music when calls come in, and resumes when done talking.
6. Don't use the DVD player at all, and like that I have a cable in the Glovebox for Ipods-Flash drives what not
7. I like the look of this unit over the Clarion and the XR810X.
8. Glossy black finish looks nice
9. Happy to have a phone that will work with and designed with Android in Mind
10. Stock Xterra Speakers sound 100% better than OEM deck-pretty clean.
11. Ordered the Scosche Mounting harness and it looks stock, and my install guy said it was quality, matches the car to a tee....the only thing that doesn't looks stock is the Glossy black of the JVC-but If I was a car thief I'd consider it-but would probably move on to a car with a DVD screen-so good job there.
12. I use my phone for Googlemaps GPS and like the fact that the volume of the streaming music can be set at a different level than the voice of the GPS Navigation. Props there. Though you have to manually set each one-in it's own app.
13. 6V preamp vs 3 on the X810 for six more bucks made this year? yes please!
CONS:
1. Beautiful Double Din face-and JVC doesn't use all of it!! WTF!! Names of songs, Stations and playlists scroll in this tiny 1 line 1 inch part of the entire face. What a waste of real estate.
2. IF you DO NOT have an apple device connected-whenever your connected blue toothan ugly PAUSE in a box flashes continuously right in the DEAD CENTER of the face all the time-there is no way to remove it. What engineer thought of putting this right in the middle blinking ALL THE TIME!?!? Come on people did you drive around with it in an actual car for five minutes and see how annoying this is!?!? You couldn't put it in some box to the right, the side? anywhere but dead center-it even covers the time and is in all faces and modes. So Dumb. Rewards I phone users, and not Android-definitely one of the most annoying aspects of this unit.
3. The Bluetooth is AWESOME...when it feels like pairing. It was a breeze to set up, and get both the phone and head unit to pair...from there-it feels like an on again off again relationship with a girlfriend that wont give it up. One minute working fine, stop for 2 mins to go into seven eleven and will not pair for the love of god when I come back out-wtf!
Turn off bluetooth, start bluetooth, turn off radio, turn on radio. Hope that one finds the other-Sometimes it takes a minute at least to find each other and they are literally less than a foot away. Really?
4. Bluetooth should have been integrated not included. I don't notice the little bluetooth receiver in the front USB slot anymore-but I don't want to put it in the glovebox-so might as well have called it 1 or the other USB. sometimes I jiggle it to make sure its blinking otherwise throw another shrimp on the barbie and good luck trying to get the devices to pair. For the love of god DONT change your device name AFTER youve paired them-I had to do a factory reset just for it to find it again. And go slow and read all the screens for bluetooth.
5. JVC Unit will randomly disconnect from my phone after a short or long conversation-just because it feels like it. But here's what's crazy, I will go into the submenu of the JVC and manually choose to connect to the phone-and it will blink CONNECTION ERROR-yet the second manual connection screen for Audio is still connected?!?! WTF!! So it's connected and stays that way for one part of the unit, but disconnects after a call? well that defeats the purpose of Bluetooth calling and streaming music. So it will still play music, but when someone calls it rings on the phone (Which you can set) but I didn't set that-It just chose to disconnect-I push the button and think I'm gonna hear their voice any second-nope. Sorry.
6. Only way to research for Bluetooth without doing it manually is to press the Function button 4 times back to BTF to search or turn the deck completely off and on again. Sometimes wont find it then. Sometimes I turn the car off at a light just for the deck to re search again.
7. I have about 1200 individual numbers in my android-and it was advertised as having a larger downloadable phone book size 2000 compared to 1000 on XR810. One of the reasons I bought it. Guess what-Its actually 400 numbers with 5 number contacts technically making 2000 entries. What?!?! Most people I know don't have more than a cellphone and work phone. Not everyone in my android is a drug dealer with a 2 pages, a lan and 2 cellphones. Uploading names errors out often and I gave up after about 10 entries. Cumbersome and boring task. And the only thing it does when someone calls is display it in the 1 inch 1 line text instead of the whole face (See complaint above) which is basically useless, and whats the point of putting it into the head unit again? I can't make calls with the headunit unless the phone is near, and it's faster to say my friends name then go into a submenu to select the name on the head unit. My android is mounted right next to me. Way more efficient.
For all my bitching its a solid deck-the Bluetooth drives me crazy sometimes though, and I just give up and switch to radio instead of fumbling with all the buttons while I'm driving. Feels like JVC thought of everything-and made it smooth...and tossed in an old Bluetooth adapter and didn't test it fully with devices before shipping it out. Hence the -1 star.
'Hope my review helps some people!
~Mike
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I bought this head unit to replace an older Alpine aftermarket single din head unit that was in my 2003 Mazda Protege that replaced the original double din factory one, in I think 2006 or 2007, from what I could gather.
Anyway, as good as that Alpine was, it lacked several features I was interested in. Bluetooth, USB and the Aux jack connectivity, now virtually universally available on even the cheapest decks, at least the USB and Aux jack anyway.
I also chose this over the other related models because it had a much better display as it was not a fixed single line display, but a dynamic 3 line unit instead. This, I reasoned would make using the search feature MUCH easier, and it was a wise choice if you plan on using thumb drives for your music storage, like I am doing. I also liked that I can stream music from my phone via Bluetooth if I want to, though I generally don't since I play the thumb drive almost exclusively.
But using a thumb drive in this unit has a major caveat emptor. There is no obvious instructions on how to not only rip your files, but how to tag them for proper parsing of folders on this unit. Without tagging, the HU won't understand that a particular file (song) goes in a particular folder, in a particular order, if you are like me, and create your own CD's and want to keep the playlist intact as you intended them to be. This caused me headaches, until I found, through Google searching the proper way to name the files to maintain track order, and how to properly tag them so they stay in their respective folders.
Some things I've learned on setting up your music on a thumb drive.
The instructions DO say how to format the drive, but I'll repeat here, don't use NTFS, but the FAT (12/16/32) file format and keep it at a single partition.
1. Set up a folder for your tracks. So if you have a CD of say, Miles Davis' "Sketches in Spain", and you want to keep it as is, create a folder named, sketches in spain and then rip your tracks to it, as files.
2. when you rip your files to the drive, save them as such. 01xxxx, x being the name of the track, so for instance, "01help me" would be track one, "02stand", for track two, and so on, through track 9. For tracks 10 and up, just do 10xxx, 11xxx, and so on, even when you get to 20 and above. I would not recommend you have more than 22 or so tracks per folder, as that's how many I can fit on a standard CD, at full CD audio if each track is no more than 3:30 long or so. If I have extended length tracks (those that go over the 3:50 minute mark, such as "In A Godda Da Vidda" by Iron Butterfly, which is over 17 minutes long), then obviously, I'll have less tracks in a folder/CD. This equates to roughly 750MB of music, as most CD's can handle 800MB at full capacity, or around 72-75 minutes of music at full CD audio max. There is a good reason for this, that's about how much the HU can support per file anyway. I forget exactly the parameters, but it's in the manual and heed it or you'll be sorry. Also, as a rough estimation, an 8Gig drive can hold about 30-32 CD's at 320bps MP3 format, more if you drop the bit rate down, but your sound quality will suffer though.
Next up is to TAG your files.
I would recommend you find a tagging program if you are using Windows XP since it lacks the ability to do album artist in its properties dialog box, a crucial aspect of tagging. Vista, Windows 7 and up will, so you can simply use the properties dialog box to tag in the later Windows OS, don't know if anything similar is available for the Mac.
One thing about tagging, supposedly, you can't tag WAV files, so they have to be WMA, MP3, or AAC. This unit will do WMA and MP3, but not AAC, I don't think, can't recall right now. Anyway, I stuck with MP3, as I can run my files to 320bps, which will be very close to CD quality sound as WMA only does 190bps, and yet, still be able to tag, and it'll mean my thumb drive will work in ANY head unit, even a cheapie unit or factory HU should I need to since MP3 is universally accepted.
For Vista and up, right click on the saved file, chose properties, in the general tab, make sure the top dialogue box has the file name, in this case 01xxx (it'll probably show as 1xxx)
In the details box,
For the title, type in the track name
artist, the name of the artist/band that did the track
Album artist, if an album by a particular artist, it'll be the same as above, but if it's a mix folder of songs by various artists/bands, then put "various" in its place, this tells the HU that it's a mix, and yes, this track is supposed to be there.
All other info is already filled in, click apply if applicable, then OK and go onto your next track. That's how you tag your files. Once done it should play correctly when plugged in.
This way, when you search, you can find the folder, then the track you want as the name of the track will show up in the menu as "01help me" for instance, but when you play said track, the data will simply say, help me, joni mitchell, if you set the display to show all data info.
This unit has several options for displaying your tracks and the clock and I simply chose to use the display for the clock, the track name is at the top, but it allows me to easily root through my music as necessary, since I tend to find the folder I want, tap the volume/enter knob and let it just play, from the beginning, and onto the next folder. What this means is that when I tap on the menu button, it brings up 3 lines, beginning with the track, hit the back button, and I get the top folder and I can then switch folders, again, 3 folders are displayed, the middle one is the one you are on at any given time, the lower down models don't have this ability, as they only display a line at a time IIRC.
If you are like me, and make many mix CD's, some of them a series, you can set it up as such as well. The MASTER FOLDER will be the full CD name, and under it, sub folders with the partial name, and vol # will suffice, and each folder will contain the tracks for THAT CD volume.
As far as playing music from a thumb drive, it's much like playing a CD, except you have more music at your disposal to play, and is much like having a 6 disc CD changer on board, but really, it's just data files on a memory stick. I always play music from said thumb drive so when I leave the car, the thumb drive sits plugged into the tethered cable out of sight, the Bluetooth dongle is plugged into the front USB port (completely agree, it should've been mounted on the circuit board inside). When I get in and start the car, it automatically, after reading the drive, resumes where I had left it previously, exactly like a CD and always remains in the source I last left it in, so if I'm playing a CD, it'll remain in CD mode etc.
At least, I have not noticed it playing the source hierarchy but then again, I made sure I got ALL wires when I wired up the pigtail adapter that came with my unit as that was the bulk of the install time and this included the memory lead too, was all that soldering! The actual install was pretty straightforward, and in the Mazda, didn't need the trim adapter kit at all, as it fit perfectly as is, with the stock plastic trim in place that came on the HU and it looks great in my little Mazda.
I installed this HU back in May and it's been several months of use, and I have come to really like it. There are lots of features, including digital sound processing, namely to correct for proper stereo imaging for your car and it seems to work wonderfully. I use the dynamic EQ preset for my car as I am using the stock speakers, 6x8's with satellite tweeters in the sail panels up front, 6.5" full range units in the rear doors, and a spare tire sized sub by Pioneer in the way back, as I have the 5 door Protege5, a wagonlet and the sound is fantastic with lots of detail and decent enough bass too.
Using the HU took a bit of time to get used to as you have to hit the enter knob (volume) for just about every function, meaning at least 2 button presses to make your selection, such as source, pressing the source/power button cycles you through your sources, select the one you want by pressing the enter/volume button to go to it. The menu button does not automatically go to the top of the hierarchy structure, so having to press the back button below to get to the top of the file structure is a bit annoying at times, but once you are there, you can then scroll through the master folders, select the one you want, press enter, and let 'er rip from there, as I tend to do.
The Bluetooth functionality has its quirks, at first, and occasionally, it looses contact with my phone, but a power down, and back up of the HU seems to reset it. Occasionally, I have to reset the phone itself as it gets wonky too (and it'll be obvious which one is wonky, most of the time).
I use the Motorola Droid Razr, which does not push my contacts to the HU, fortunately, JVC saw fit to add the option of having the unit search your phone for your contacts. At first, it would not remember to look in the phone and thus had to reset that option every time I went to use the BT to make a call, but over time, it does now automatically look there, and even displays them on my HU too! I now run the latest Android OS, (Ice Cream Sandwich) and it works great with this HU.
I love how if the HU is powered up, and I go to use the phone's dialer to dial something, it automatically puts me in speakerphone mode, muting/pausing all music playing, and when done, it resumes where it left off. Nice. Calls on it are clear for the most part, though I do wonder if most of that is the poor phone connection than anything else, because when everything is fine, people, even my largely deaf mother can hear me, and understand what I'm saying for the most part, and she has hearing aids too.
Overall, this is a great head unit, and has lots of features to customize it, like the display through various color combinations, both the buttons and the display itself separately for the money. I have my buttons in red, to closely match my dash lights, and have a blue display, and have it automatically dim when the lights are on, which is ALL THE TIME, this is good for night time use, though it sometimes means the display washes out, but it has enough contrast that it becomes a negative image in bright light, though the glare from the shiny bezel can hinder viewing at times during the daytime. Overall, the face of the unit works well with my car's dash, and looks like it might be a stock HU even though it isn't, exactly what I was after since I live in the city, and park on the street.
Overall, a great head unit for the money and am glad I bought this when I did, as it came in very handy for several small road trips I took this past summer, like when I had to call my best friend, while on the road to discuss where I was after he'd left me a text message to call him at the cabin. I was taking a long time to reach their beach cabin, due mostly to the awful traffic on the first leg of the trip, and taking the long way around, as previously discussed to AVOID said traffic on a Friday in late July, only to have a huge event making the situation even worse. Nice to just press the phone button, and speak, no fumbling for the phone, or a BT ear piece, or a clip on unit who's battery decides to die while in use etc. Bliss.
One last suggestion. I'd recommend you backup your thumb drive with another thumb drive or a dedicated portable hard drive using an app called robocopy, if you have Vista and up, or a similar mirroring program as it will not only mirror your files and folders, but it's hierarchy structure, and all tags too so if your drive were to fail (and they will as they have finite read/write capabilities), you can grab the spare, and mirror it to a fresh spare drive and resume as if nothing has gone wrong. Beats having to re-rip/tag everything, especially if you are using more than an 8GB drive.
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This stereo was exactly what I was looking for, when I first set out to upgrade my car audio system. After installation I immediately connected a small USB hub to the back of the unit and ran it through my glove box, now I can have more than two items connected to the stereo. I do not have any problems viewing the screen during the day, even in direct light. The directions for setup were very helpful and do a favorable job of guiding a new owner through the setup process. The blue tooth connection works great and my phone connects instantly (Motorola Atrix 2). I have had some people say that it sounds like there is a little bit of static when I speak through the microphone, yet others do not. I think it may just be the phone connection.
The one quirk that I have experienced with this unit that is more bothersome, is that the unit automatically switches to different audio sources when you turn it on. For example, if you shut the car off while listening to the FM radio and you have a USB stick plugged in. When you turn the car back on, the unit will automatically go to the USB drive and start playing. So, you just have to switch back to FM, if you want to listen to that source. After owning the unit for nearly six weeks, that is my only issue with the stereo.
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I didnt know what to expect when i ordered this item even though i had seen some good reviews for it. Installing was an an easy job even though it was my first time installing a head uint. The instructions that came with this HU were easy and straight forward. My biggest highlight is how the bluetooth works on this HU, its fast and has clear connection both with calls and streaming music.All in all this is a great unit for the price, and it sure does add loud crisp music to my factory speakers.
This is a great replacement for a stock stereo. I installed this in a 2005 Chevy Cobalt. My car has a stock sub woofer in the trunk and a six speaker system. The sound quality is fantastic. I use the bluetooth and really like it. It links to my phone about 95% of the time. If it does not link I just turn in off and back on and it seems to be fine. It is very rare that it does not link to my phone and it is the only bluetooth connection I use with my phone at this time. I have a samsung phone. It plays and controls google play after linking with my phone. I can choose the song on the phone or just hit forward or reverse on the headunit to change songs (on a playlist). Since I don't have an Iphone I don't get a display of my tracks, but I'm more than ok with that. The only thing I don't like about the unit is that it will not change the time on the display if the temp of the unit is too low or high. Well, I'm not sure why but in the winter to see what the actual time is I have to adjust the volume or change the display (hit a button on the headunit) and then the clock will show the correct time. It usually takes about 15 min in cold weather for the inside of my car and thus my headunit to warm up. JVC reps let me know that this is part of the design to protect the display..... does'nt make sense to me, but that is the only issue, if you want to call it that for the stereo. Let me just say againg that I love this stereo, it has totally changed my driving experience. I may upgrade my speakers at some time but the sound clarity is amazing with this thing. Amazon had the best price on this unit that I could find. I saw a review that said I would not need a mounting kit(crutchfield)...but I did for my car and a local stereo shop charged like 30 bucks for it... amazon was like 12 for the same thing. It was easy to install and I am glad I got it. Check more reviews on line for the stereo, I did and everyone seems to be happy with it.
