Customer Ratings & Reviews

Great system

The sound quality is extraordinary. Love being able to use and control our Zune devices, which it wroks great with.

Nice Unit

Its an amazing unit! But, playing through an ipod, skipping through tracks has an awful delay. The bluetooth works fine but the unit from time to time keeps desplaying a message HF Error. Its very Annoying. Then you cant play mp4s or videos from an ipod or flash drive as they say it does. I have tried many times many different formats! So i just use a flash drive for all my music. Doesn't display most album art even if the song has album cover. All in all its a great unit. Amazing sound processing!

Kenwood-KIV-BT901

Good stereo for standard use.
Issues: no voltage output on rca's, a little complicated, artwork from iPod is slow to load and while loading you can't skip tracks until it has completed (5-10 seconds time varies) installation and set up is timely. Adding HD and satellite radio are a pain even if you go to kenwoods site there is no real instruction.
Positives: clean looking, sounds good, Bluetooth works very well.

Great car receiver

I have had this receiver for about 2 weeks now and I can say I really do like it. The clean looks sold me on this unit vs. the Alpine (way to busy IMO) and it goes great with the interior of my '91 MR2.
I have yet to really mess around with the DSP but once enabled, tons of settings await you! I tend to bypass the DSP right now and just listen to everything flat, I want to get used to that before I really start tweaking the EQ.
The Bluetooth is flat out the best I have ever used from a call quality standpoint, crystal clear and I dont even have to yell as my cab is not known for its quietness, (very loud engine noise and road noise) but just talking normally works, at speeds, the caller can only hear a little bit of background noise, so its a winner in my book (and I can have my right hand for shifting again)
The only downside is price, I was hoping with all the mechless that they would not be as pricy seeings how there is no mechanical drive but they are really pricy. Having said that, I am glad I picked this up.

Two Thumbs Way Up!

Very nice unit.

Install in a chevy truck. Fits good and look great.

Awesome

I got this radio for xmas this year (2011) and i have to say i couldnt be happier. I looked into this one and a Sony for a long time and finally came to want this one more. It has all the features and way more than i wanted great BT and sound quality, made my stock radio seem like an old am transistor radio.

Pros: Features galore, great sound quality w/ stock speakers, beautiful color display (will be getting a back up camera soon), ipod control is seemless along with fair ease of use with the usb to my android phone, BT calls come in clear and after a bit of manual reading it was easy to set up.

Cons: The one thing that kinda killed it for me is that you cant use the pandora app from an android just the iphone and that sucks but oh well, ipod has to have a special cable (kca-ip202) got mine on ebay, no cd player, when your listining to ipod theres no artist jump u have to manually search the artist or use the search function which just takes a bit longer, and last no station preset # buttons on the head unit but it has a remote so that makes up for it.

Conclusion: i recomend this to anyone looking for a single din with all the features of a more expensive double din touch screen. Ive always been a sony fan but this kenwood won me over and im happy i took the chance.

Excellent headunit

Easy access to songs on any type of media using a USB multi card attachment. Easy song searching. Excellent sound quality in Bluetooth phone calls. Excellent music sound quality with unlimited customisations for dsp, speaker location and sound environment.

Get It... You won't be disappointed...

I have been messing with car audio for 16 yrs now and pride myself for sound quality. I was pioneer fan for a long time, till I decided to go all digital media. I didn't like how pioneer put there connections on the front. I wanted a nice clean look in my Denali. I tried the alpine and it was alright, I didn't like that I had to buy another box for it just to adjust my sound better. I found this kenwood and was up and down about it cause there really isn't much out there about it. So, I decided to give it a try... It's great. The appearance is great, very stylish. The sound options are all there without having to buy anything extra and as good the $700.00 pioneer I had. The display has vibrant colors and the info is placed well. The wires were kinda a pain to run cause there's a lot specially if you also get the iPod cord. The bluetooth is better then my bluestar I had from costar which replaces the on star in GM vehicle. ($279.00 box) As far as functions, it does everything I could ever want and need to do in my suv. I'm still learning new things about it. Like for ppl with android phones there is an app you can download, and hook it up via usb and control your music with it, and if your phone can do bluetooth audio, this thing will do that too. It might be a little pricey but you get what you pay for imo. NO REGRETS.

Would not buy again

This receiver seemed like a cool idea but as an iPhone 5 user it leaves much to be desired.

I needed to buy an adapter to use my iPhone 5. Bluetooth audio does not work with iPhone 5 (phone calls/GPS do). Which was a big reason I chose this receiver, for iPhone 4/4s users it works fine.

Pandora is a cool feature but to use it I have to turn it on via my phone (while driving) if I select Pandora on the receiver before the app is running on my phone I get an error.

Sometimes when I plug my phone it does not recognize the device. I then have to unplug and re-plug several times till recognizes. Every time I start my car it says it's downloading or checking something so I cannot immediately use the receiver for ~30 seconds, EVERY TIME I START MY CAR.

After living with this receiver for close to a year I'm ready to buy something different.

Impressive KW!

Great sounding deck and zero problems! Deck has been installed for about 3 months now. I am running external amps so i cannot review the internal amp quality of this deck. Install and operation are pretty straight forward. Instructions are complete.Navigation takes some getting used to but not terribly difficult. If you have a large digital music library you will appreciate the multiple ways you can access your content. The DSP functions are very effective at adjusting to speaker and car design and placement. BT interface had no problem syncing to my droid. Haven't played with the video capabilites yet. Over all I would buy again.

Happy buyer

Very nice player. However, kenwood could remove some of the useless options like which color would I like, and replace it more importants options like better music searches or various types of random plays. All and all, I would purchase the radio again.

Great media player

Great radio. I do not miss the CD player but was disapointed because literature said it will play music over bluetooth from my phone but it does not.

Great fit and look.

I was looking for a head unit w/o a cd player and wanted to focus on iPone/iPod playback. I mostly listen to Pandora and MOG and the KIV-BT901 works great for that. The artist, song and artwork displays beautifully and is easy to control with the KIV-BT901.

could be better

I installed this product some time ago, and initially the only problem was with video playback. I still have yet to watch a video on the player. It can be somewhat slow on responce when scrolling, and just recently, my bluetooth connection for hands free went to ****, and wont connect... Chances are, it probaly just needs reset, but still a hastle, and an error in the software. so 2 out of 3 of the reasons that I bought the player for (handsfree, and video playback) dont work, atleast for me, and only for the time being hopefully. Audio playback is pretty decent, and the filtering/ adjusting/ positioning/ etc. of sound is pretty well intergrated into the system. In addition, it is a great base for creating a full car audio system, just needs some work on the software glitches that seem to occur more often than not.

Nice unit, Great price compared to Crut***ield

I just upgraded from a Pioneer unit and this KW makes the same Alpine Separates sound amazing. Set up took a few minutes, not difficult, no p/u option in set up mode, but SUV sounds just fine with the correct speaker settings. Still trying to figure out an easier way to search songs with a zune HD, but with time will hopefully help. I love the clean look in my 2004 Dodge Ram 2500. Bluetooth works outstanding and is a quick connect when I get into the truck.

Best Single Din Bluetooth Unit you can buy!!

I've had this unit now for about 6 months and I couldn't be happier with it. Mine is installed in my C5 Corvette so a double DIN would have been A LOT more expensive and a highly custom job. I've got this unit working with a JL Audio 5 channel amp, XM Satellite Radio, high-end Hertz speakers and a JL Audio Subwoofer in the back. The sound is excellent and the interface with the iPhone is almost as good as it gets! The phonebook entries and songs are very intuitive to select and play. My only issue is not being able to use the shuffle feature. The way around this is to disconnect the iPhone, select shuffle, and then reattach it to the unit. After that the iPhone remains in shuffle mode.

The bluetooth works flawlessly, and even comes with a mic and an advanced interally controlled noise reduction capability. Folks I'm talking with don't even know I'm on a mobile, let alone in the car! By the way, Corvettes are also very noisy cars if you've ever driven in one.

Overall, this is the best car radio I've ever had and I could not be happier with the way it performs!

Nice Unit

Looks great, sounds great, easy install. Very happy with it, thinking of getting another one for my truck.

Works with iPhone5

Why is everyone so tough on Kenwood and iPhone5's? The iPhone5 issue is industry-wide, every manufacturer was caught off guard by the cable & signal change - not just Kenwood. I recently bought this unit and, as always, am impressed by Kenwood. Rory at Kenwood support is amazing! The only thing it does not do is video (iPhone5), music works fine as does bluetooth. Google maps does work just like bluetooth but, you won't get the actual maps showing up on the display since this particular deck does not have "appmode". The deck is amazing and I have no complaints.

Great product. Great price!!!

This product was easy to find. I would shop here again and again for the bargain price an no hassle.

best out there, period.

As a car audio installer I've owned an tested damn near everything an I can say this is the best single din head unit still in production, other than McIntosh of course lol from the eq an x over adjustment to the looks and user friendly interface not to mention the highest pre out voltage of most units its a winner, for sq and spl setups