Kenwood KDC-BT852HD

Just finished in stalling in my 2002 Grand Prix GTP along with the Axxess ASWC-1. The stereo sounds great with the Bose speakers I have in the car and the interface is easy to learn as long as you look over the manual a little. I have no problems going through the menus on the stereo. The Blue tooth streaming works great with my iPhone 4 and I use the XM radio, Pandora, and iHeart radio AP for listening. The Blue tooth phone works great and I sound good when talking to my wife on the cell. I installed the microphone on the sun visor. This is my 3rd Kenwood car stereo I haven't had any problems with them. The steering wheel control, adaptor was a easy hook up since the Kenwood already has a wire designated for it. This is one excellent sounding system. I highly recommend this stereo

This radio can and will do it all you want at a good price. I have it in an over-the-road Kenworth truck. It hardly skips the cd and has all the bell and whistles you want.

Menus are convoluted and non intuitive at best. Support is nonexistent from kenwood because they say Internet retailers are not authorized dealers. They will never put out a software upgrade for the single din head units.



In all fairness sound quality was spectacular once I got it dialed in. The rest that went along with it just soured me on this manufacturer. There are other similar head units out there that have 5 band parametric eqs for the same money. 3 is ok but 5 is better.

Kenwood has always been a favorite of mine, have had many Kenwood product's over the years.



Pros:

Sound quality is great, super clean, lots of sound adjustments, bass, treble, mids, loudness and bass boost are nice features. Blue Tooth connectivity is nice, the phone calls are crystal clear. Install was easy, nice connection features for steering wheel volume control, power antenna, extra power amps and sub woofer.



Cons:

The biggest issue I have is the screen is not very bright at all. It's very hard to see what is on the screen in daylight, which is basically EVERYTHING because all your adjustments are made via the menu screen. I have this stereo in a convertible and haven't even put the top down yet and can't see the screen. Even though you can adjust the color to anything in the rainbow, unless it's night time, you will only be using YELLOW. White isn't even offered. I can only imagine it's a total black out when the top is down. Add the fact that the face of the stereo is so shinny and reflective, all I see is reflections of the interior of the car, not the information on the screen. This is a MAJOR down fall.

The blue tooth connection is also very spotty. Connecting the blue tooth, then getting out of the car to run into the store and come out and start the car and it takes a long time for the phone and stereo to re-pair with each other, if they do at all. Sometimes the phone will pair, but Pandora doesn't work but my other music player will stream. I did download the "Kenwood" app for my phone (HTC Thunderbolt) and each time I got in the car and turned on the stereo, it opened that app automatically, but I didn't have that app set up, so that might be a way to go....but still kind of annoying. Went for a drive with my wife this weekend and was more frustrated than relaxed. Couldn't see the screen to make adjustments, couldn't connect to the stereo via Pandora, Kenwood App kept loading, just wanted to play my normal mp3 player that I use (MixZing). Finally gave up and played a CD.



During the "Tuning" phase after installation I thought there was a problem with my wiring, then thought that 2 of the RCA channels on the head unit were bad, turns out there is a setting for blue tooth streaming for either front speakers or all speakers. I assume this is for phone calls and to prevent feed back from the mic, but it wouldn't stream the music to all four corners. Spent HOURS figuring that out, no mention in the instruction book. Speaking of, the instruction book is only the very basic's. Go to Kenwoods Website to download the full manual.



There is no doubt that learning how to operate this radio through memory will be the only way to use it because you can't see the screen while day time driving. Even changing radio stations can be a chore because there are no preset buttons for the stereo.



HOWEVER, since I own it, I will have to get used to it. I'm sure over time the adjustments will tapper off and hopefully I will learn the patterns of connect-ability and that will make things smoother....I HOPE.



I would probably not buy this stereo again simply based on the dim display screen.

Bluetooth works well for audio streaming and for hands free. I got this cause i thought it would work with my samsung gs3. Well through the usb, no. But through bt it works flawless. Using as a tuner works well if not better than factory. Although i couldn't plug my gs3 in via usb it works even better through bt! =)