It provides excellent sound and plenty of built-in functions, without, as with other manufacturers apparently now common to be taken for granted for only "prepared". A bad habit that not only additional costs money, but one also introduces the question of where to please block all these modules.
You will receive this radio with an adhesive antenna for digital radio, with a 3 m long connection cable. Even as the supplied microphone has a 3 m long cable, so actually any desired installation location is possible.
SOUND: The sound is equal to the first outstanding feature of the radio. It is not measured the sound space of the car, but setups of sound spaces of different vehicle types are offered, which can then be customized to your own car. Size, position, number and spacing of the installed speakers can be adjusted and adapted to different seating positions. Furthermore offer a variety of other possibilities of sound customization, digital propagation delays, space effects, loudness in different modes, as well as a Bass Booster, which can also choose among 3 options, as well as presets for common types of music, such as rock, pop, etc. A paramtrischer Equalizer is also on board.
To test and compare I have done only the basic setup for my car type, without any further adjustments to the sound.
It was impressive how the radio could play a wide range of musical styles, from heavy metal to pop, techno, jazz to classical, with its very wide dynamic range or even language in good quality without having wanted to readjust or would.
Scraping or rattling was never heard, obviously selects the radio dynamically the cutoff frequencies of the speakers as well, that these never work on its load limit. Moreover, it is remarkable how the radio can display even the deepest frequencies to 16-18 cm speakers.
Below I will deal only with the points I consider to be particularly or who were important to me. Everything else can be deduced the product description.
Each of the many sources of sound isolated settings for playback modes, as well as partly for sound adjustments possible.
FM radio: You seem to have still done in some tuner technology. The usual locations with poor reception and interference are no longer perceive.
USB Front / Rear: Here the speed is impressive, with which the disk is read. The operation, changing to different folders, and seeking out the content is to do well with one hand and occasional sidelong glances. Positive also that these USB ports are enough power, so you can safely charge USB devices in mind, without fear of damaging the radio.
CD: All CD-types were read without hesitation, pure audio CDs as MP3 CDs, home-burned, and both old and new. The search operation after the content is not so fast, as with USB, but still quite fast. Of the many types of files that are to be supported, I have only WAV, MP3 and AAC successfully tested. Other formats are not relevant to me.
AUX: Has not been tested by me.
DAB +: Despite the already good reception and sound quality of the FM tuner, DAB + again a whole world is better. Since I had previously "only" a DAB radio, I can not compare with other radios these qualities now. The dead spots, which I previously had in DAB, are no longer available. So far I could not try the function unnoticed crossfading of DAB + on FM. The sound is just as perfect, as with the other digital sound sources. Impressively fast also all available channels were found and made available for selection.
Bluetooth: The speakerphone works for my in the older Sony mobile phone, just as easily as with a new Samsung smartphone. The address books are stored after an initial reading on the radio, the choice of numbers works either on the volume knob to scroll individual entries, in addition, you can jump on the band selection keys targeted list alphabetically. Over a long keypress, the phone can be controlled via voice commands and numbers are called. It reaches a keystroke to accept or reject calls and is therefore good to use while driving.
While I quickly had a feedback on my previous hands-free, if I myself called for testing the car that Kenwood only reacts with a slight echo. Overall, call quality is very good, there is hardly an echo and barely noticeable delays.
BLUETOOTH AUDIO: surprising to me was how well Bluetooth Audio work after I had always removed from the press only negative. I will not use this feature however, that's why I am also no longer busy.
DISPLAY: When the display all possible colors can be selected, if desired separately for lighting and text content. The readability is different depending on the selected color, an effect that all radios is but equal.
In addition, given the opportunity to invert the display, on the one hand a nice gimmick, but on the other hand also a good way, in certain lighting conditions to improve readability significantly.
CONCLUSION:
For 249.- obtained with the KDC-BT73DAB a very complete car audio system with excellent sound characteristics. The claim can be reached with just a few settings and the preset modes of the radio quickly at a good sound experience or you can walk around optimize the sound wizard for days at optimum sound. As sound sources almost everything is offered, what we need today. And the service is consistently logical, so the learning curve is short.
Remarks:
The included mounting frame is very sharp. So when installing beautiful pass on the finger and cable eight, or the part with sandpaper or a file defuse something.
The manual is very good in itself. However, I would have liked to some function of the radio, to find out more background information on the operation. Many things you can imagine, but what lies behind Kenwood specific names just not hidden. Just for the sound settings but it would be very helpful to understand what you just set there.
@ Peter MC:
After over 10 hours of operation of the car radio I can not detect any technical difficulties, nor turn off the radio.