Kenwood KDC-MP438U In Dash CD/MP3 Receiver

Almost The Best CD Player For The Price

Strengths: USB connects Sansa MP3 player flawlessly. MP3 CD's play easily. MP3 player and MP3 CD's scroll the name of the song etc. Easy to set radio favorites. Menu easy to use. Good buttons.

Weaknesses: When on a radio station the name of the artist etc does not scroll.

Summary: It's going to be really hard to beat this CD player for the price of $125 as of 9-4-08.

If you have an MP3 player that you plan to connect to your head unit then you must get the USB port on the head unit. It allows you to control your MP3 player with your head unit buttons and remote. Using the plane old AUX (auxiliary) port wont let you do that.

The only downfall I see is that when you are on a radio station the name of the song and artist do not scroll. The name of the song and artist do scroll when connecting your MP3 player and playing an MP3 CD, but not when using the old fashion radio. I think this is a big deal and that you'll be able to find it in the next higher model up so I would recommend spending an extra $20 to get the next higher model.

Not sure if this is the same for Satellite radio or not.

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Fine Head Unit

Strengths: Front USB input, Easy to Use

Weaknesses: Single Control knob, Only one line of text

Summary: 2008-11-28 06:43:17 When I was looking for a new head unit, I wanted an easy way to plug in an Ipod or other MP3 device. Every head unit out there seems to have a front AUX input, but this one had a USB which I thought was great! I don't have to find somewhere to run a wire from the back of the unit to an accessible location in my car!

The front USB recognizes Ipods, but my Sansa MP3 player was only a "mass storage device" to this head unit. That's ok, because the MJOG feature allows me to search through the Sansa's files.

On a minus, the only way to use a playlist is with an IPOD. I got around that by just getting a jump drive and putting all the MP3's on it. The head unit can randomize the files, so it works out just fine.

The control of this unit is quite easy, and I had all the basic controls figured out within minutes. More advanced controls are actually quite easy to get to after you find out how to access and use them, such as the built in High and Low Pass Filters. My only complaint about the controls of this unit would be that if you are trying to press the knob IN, you might accidentally press it to the RIGHT or LEFT, causing you to skip to the next track of music. The remote really helps with that, though, so it's not a really big issue. Just an annoyance.

The only other real weakness of this unit is that it has only a single line of text, albeit VERY easy to read. Sure it scrolls, but when you're using the MJOG function,

you have to wait for longer titles to scroll before you know which song you're on. Really slows you down when searching for a specific song.

Overall, though, this is a really easy to use unit with a front USB connection, so you don't have to have wires sticking out of funny places.

If you're considering this unit, I would recommend spending a few extra dollars and getting the KDC-X492, since it has a larger range of High and Low Pass Filters and some other functions the 438U doesn't have.

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