iLounge

1

I just purchased the KCA-iP500 from Besy Buy yesterday for only $100 and can honestly say that it is a must for any Kenwood owner.  I can leave my iPod locked in the glove compartment and control everything from my head unit.  No more having to look down at my iPod to see what song is on, just the press of a button on the head unit and the song/artist/genre are all available.  You can even still browse by playlist, artist, and album.

Posted by crispyj on April 4, 2005 at 8:03 AM (PST)

2

anyone know if this works with the ipod video?

Posted by ian lamb on October 29, 2005 at 10:49 AM (PST)

3

How is this compared to the alpine kca-420i?

Posted by Jonathan on December 18, 2005 at 11:03 AM (PST)

4

this is a waste of time/money. the beauty of the ipod is in its simple interface and great functionality. the kenwood interface takes that away by essentially treating the ipod as a cd. a cd costs about 8 cents. my ipod cost $300. a cd holds about 15 songs. my ipod will hold about 5000. big differences that become very obvious when trying to navigate a 20gb ipod through a slow head unit. i’m looking for a solution that gives the excellent sound quality and charging functionality of this unit but lets me control the music from my ipod (the way it was meant to).

Posted by Tom on December 27, 2005 at 10:44 PM (PST)

5

I have just bought the Kenwood iPod Adapter and I absolutely love it. 

Thumbs up:
Having spent the last 18 months listening to my iPod through a dodgy FM transmitter, the CD quality sound I now hear is amazingly clear, loud, sharp and just wonderful. 

A huge advantage I’ve found is not having to stop or turn off the iPod when I park the car.  Engine goes off, the music stops, and then it resumes at the exact same place next time you turn on the engine.

I can control the music and access all my songs, artists, genres and playlists through the car stereo interface and the song title/artist/genre/playlist information appears on the LCD of the car stereo.

Thumbs down:
I’m a little intimidated at having to scroll through a couple of hundred playlists or 12,000 songs to find what I want when the car unit interface takes a couple of seconds or so to come up with the information on each track. 

The instruction manual is not exhaustive, lacking in a lot of detail.  There’s more information on how to work this thing on the web.

I had to upgrade my 2002 Kenwood stereo in order to get this adapter.  The whole lot almost cost me as much as the iPod (40G 4th gen) itself.

Verdict:
I wish I got this months ago.  The FM transmitter, with the dodgy distorted sound and the batteries always running out, was really starting to p*** me off.  Despite the cost of having to upgrade stereos and everything, it’s truly worthwhile to get the quality sound and the convenience of use.

Posted by Fiona on February 28, 2006 at 8:40 PM (PST)

6

I have this interface, and have found it to be cumbersome to control through the head unit.  However, i borrowed my friend’s video ipod (mine is in the shop) and ocassionally it will let me control the ipod through the ipod, which is absolutely awesome. it is really the way it should have been made because i can still control everything through the head unit as well, but i get added functionality through my ipod. Anybody have any idea why this is, or how i can get it to be permanent?

Posted by jordon on April 2, 2006 at 3:23 PM (PST)

7

This deivce is simple to install, easy to use and sounds fantastic. It has the best audio quality of any of these direct interface devices.

People who expect this to operate just like an ipod, may be annoyed, but this some reading of the manual, and you can easily find any song, play list, artist you are after.

GREAT unit.. for anyone that has a Kenwood compatible stereo.

Posted by serenity on September 2, 2006 at 12:45 PM (PST)

8

I have this iPod adapter for the Kenwood and although it is great in comparison to the horrible FM transmitter adapter. I can’t help but notice that it tends to sound kind of crappy if left at a pretty loud volume through a few songs. It sounds distorted and muffled and has to be lowered for several minutes before it will somewhat go back to normal. Is anyone else having this problem or know of a solution

Posted by Jay on October 3, 2006 at 7:56 AM (PST)

9

I had this adapter installed in my car over a year ago along with the Kenwood DDX6019 head unit, the convenience and sound quality is awesome.  However, a major fault that I found is I am unable to browse songs that are in a playlist meaning I cannot see each songs that are in the playlist.  Anyone else experiencing this problem or have any suggestion?

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Posted by Mark Singh on January 1, 2008 at 7:51 PM (PST)