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1. 

   G. Stilson
   2011/10/21 at 21:39:40

   2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

   
   sweet unit, October 1, 2009

   By 

   G. Stilson –
   
     

   Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)

   This review is from: Kenwood DDX514 6.1-Inch Wide In-Dash Monitor with USB/iPod Direct Control/DVD Receiver (Electronics)

   i ordered this for my ranger and after getting it installed it works great! the iPod interface is cool and super easy to use and dvds look awesome. theres lots of expandability and the touch screen is always responsive. i have yet to see all the features on it but so far its a great unit…

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2. 

   Matthew Baker
   2011/10/21 at 20:53:26

   3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

   
   Excellent Head Unit, November 5, 2009

   By 

   Matthew Baker (Palo Alto, CA) –
   
     

   Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)

   This review is from: Kenwood DDX514 6.1-Inch Wide In-Dash Monitor with USB/iPod Direct Control/DVD Receiver (Electronics)

   I just bought this recently for my 2006 Scion XB. I did a lot of research on the different head units and I definitely made the right choice. This head unit is easy to use, delivers great sound and great video. I just installed the iPod cable KCA-iP301V (necessary to watch video or listen to and control the iPod/iPhone from the head unit). The installation of that cable completed this device. I can watch podcasts, videos, or listen to music straight from my iPhone 3g.

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3. 

   ChrisFJ105 "cebb83"
   2011/10/21 at 20:46:01

   9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

   
   Decent head unit, but…, December 22, 2009

   By 

   ChrisFJ105 “cebb83″ (Harlingen, Texas United States) –

   This review is from: Kenwood DDX514 6.1-Inch Wide In-Dash Monitor with USB/iPod Direct Control/DVD Receiver (Electronics)

   Rotary volume control and front disc loading (instead of flip down or motorized flip) was the selling point for me.

   I bought this head unit to replace the factory stereo for my FJ Cruiser. I

   also purchased the HD Radio module(HT300) for this radio. I gave it three stars for

   the following reasons:

   a. USB Drive – I bought it mainly to have all my music on a USB drive which would
   be very convenient(No more changing discs). The Kenwood manual says that it will sort the files
   alphabetically if it is on a USB drive, and it will sort the files by the order
   in which the files were put in if it was any other usb device(like a regular mp3
   player). However, my biggest disappointment was that this head unit does not
   sort the files alphabetically on my USB drive. This head unit puts the newest files/folders
   at the end of the list and the oldest at the beginning. It’s tedious
   to find the desired file/folder you want to play when you are driving as you
   have to go through the list one by one, since it is not listed in alphabetical
   order.

   I contacted Kenwood USA’s technical support. I told the representative about this issue and told him
   if they had a fix for this. The guy just told me that it’s not really a problem. Yeah right!

   After searching online for a few hours, I found a workaround that will work with this head
   unit. Search for DriveSort and install this on your computer. It’s a freeware so you don’t have
   to worry about purchasing it. This software can arrange the files in a USB drive and places them
   in alphabetical order.

   Note: When you turn on this head unit, it will scan and index all the files
   that is in the UBS drive before it will start playing. The more files you have,
   the longer it will take. I currently have about 5.7GB worth of music and it
   roughly takes about fifteen seconds to load up before it starts playing.

   b. MP3 files with album art – I purchase a lot of my mp3 files online and most
   of them come with album art. If you play an mp3 file on this head unit that
   has album art, the music will play immediately, but it takes about 2-4 seconds
   for the album art to load on the screen. I personally don’t care about the
   album art, BUT while the head unit is still loading the album art on the
   screen, ALL THE CONTROLS ARE ON HOLD. This means that you can’t change a
   track, adjust the volume or go to another screen as long as the album art is
   still not loaded on the screen. This is a real PAIN as some of the mp3 files
   are louder and while the album art is still loading, you can’t lower the
   volume!

   c. Graphics – You can load up your own custom background if you choose to.
   However, the text on the screen will just block your background image. There
   is no option to turn off the text on the screen or turn off the screen. The
   only work around with this is to put your background picture on EVERY folder
   you have music on and set it to play a slideshow.

   Also, the text fonts/graphics could be better.

   d. Preouts – If you have a 4 channel amplifier, a sub and want to use fading, this
   might be a little problem. You only have 2 sets of preouts. 1 set for the
   front and 1 set for the rear or sub. The built in crossover that comes with this head
   unit is great, but you are limited to set the rear crossover setting as a
   rear speaker or a sub.

   There is a workaround for this. You can use a speaker output to rca converter
   for the rear speakers. You will then be able to use all the builtin crossover
   settings (front, rear, sub).

   e. User Interface – The user interface is decent enough. It’s not a steep
   learning curve. It might take a little while to get used to, but it’s no rocket science.
   You will be able to operate this head unit without reading the manual thoroughly.

   f. HD Radio – I bought the HD Radio kit for this head unit. There is a
   difference in sound quality between the analog broadcast and digital broadcast.
   However, HD radio quality is still not CD quality, but close. From my experience
   on this module, it made the analog receptions stronger. Even stations that had a weak
   signal came in a whole lot better. As if it wasn’t weak anymore.

   g. Equalizer – The head unit comes with built in presets and you can have a
   custom setting. I have Polk Audio speakers all around and the built in
   presets were just to bright for my taste. (I listen to a lot of smooth jazz).
   Setting the custom Eq was not easy. The custom Eq contains 3 bands; Low, Mid
   and High…

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