Kenwood vs JVC

[tr3nt]

Hey guys..

It's been a little while since I was 'in the loop' with car audio brands etc. I went for a quick browse in JB-HiFi today and spotted a JVC DVD unit and Kenwood DVD unit. The JVC unit was about $900 or so, where the Kenwood was about $1,200 I believe. Now im a big believer in you get what you pay for, but I want YOUR opinions here as to quality etc. What would be best these days. I remember JVC used to be fairly decent in the build of thier producs, then again, I've heard they're only good for Home Entertainment..

Please, discuss.

FYI:
http://www.jbhifionline.com.au/car-s...d-tuner/436173 - Kenwood
http://www.jbhifionline.com.au/car-s...theatre/435839 - JVC

[calais_SC6]

l have kenwood and brother has JVC, l have been a kenwood fan my whole life but after listening to the same song in my brother car with hes JVC head unit, l would choose JVC, and yet he has stock speakers and no amp, l had amplified speakers with after market better quality speakers and its just the JVC headunit had more control over how to deliver the sound where as my kenwood has bass, middle and treble. we both spent around $450 each on the head unit. both are usb and ipod compatible and dvd compatible.
cheers

[binney]

I'd go the Kenwood, worth the extra $$ in my opinion.

[holdenboy]

Theres not much in between them, i suggest having a play with each unit (if the salesman lets you, he should) and one should stick out as far as being easier to use etc.

In saying that my opinion out of those two is the Kenwood

[Tasmaniak]

neiter, I'd spend the few extra bills and get a Clarion and have built in bluetooth. if I had to choose one of those two then Kenwood.

[tr3nt]

Bluetooth won't be too much of a big fuss for me, as I won't need it so much I guess. I use an Iphone so even if I wanted 'portable' music, I can use the ipod adapter for that, but having said that I do rely a lot on oldschool mp3 cd/dvd.

[Tasmaniak]

have your priced the iPod adaptor for it? It's built in on the Clarions. I'm not talking regarding bluetooth audio, I mean a Bluetooth handsfree set-up. With the clarion it's built in, straight out ofd the box you can make and recieve calls via the headunit. Persons voice through the drivers door speaker and either an internal mic or external.

[HoZy]

Bluetooth won't be too much of a big fuss for me, as I won't need it so much I guess. I use an Iphone so even if I wanted 'portable' music, I can use the ipod adapter for that, but having said that I do rely a lot on oldschool mp3 cd/dvd.

Relying on mp3 as your main means of music, You might aswell go buy a $50 headunit...

I'm still a firm beleiver of .flac/.ogg & true CD's.

Cheers
MaT

[tr3nt]

have your priced the iPod adaptor for it? It's built in on the Clarions. I'm not talking regarding bluetooth audio, I mean a Bluetooth handsfree set-up. With the clarion it's built in, straight out ofd the box you can make and recieve calls via the headunit. Persons voice through the drivers door speaker and either an internal mic or external.

Ahh cheers, sorry mate, I got mixed up. I'll have to research that I think!

Relying on mp3 as your main means of music, You might aswell go buy a $50 headunit...

I'm still a firm beleiver of .flac/.ogg & true CD's.

Cheers
MaT

Standard CD's are good, don't get me wrong.. I still use them, but being able to have 4.7Gb of music, as opposed to average of 15-20 tracks wins IMO.

[Tasmaniak]

Relying on mp3 as your main means of music, You might aswell go buy a $50 headunit...

I'm still a firm beleiver of .flac/.ogg & true CD's.

Cheers
MaT

You obviously have not researched sound reproduction with new head units.

[HoZy]

You obviously have not researched sound reproduction with new head units.

LoL Sound reproduction...
If you have any idea of quality, You wouldnt attempt to defend a .mp3

[bezz]

You obviously have not researched sound reproduction with new head units.

I'm a bit of a purist when it comes to my music as well, try to have at least flac or originals in the car. My head unit does have a 'multi-harmonizer' function which apparently cleans up a lot of the artefacts introduced when running mp3s. While it does a good job of cleaning them up I've found it also kills a few of my highs at certain frequencies This is coming from an 'sq headunit' as well. Don't get me wrong I still have the odd mp3 disk lying around in the car when I feel like a mix of music, but nothing beats an original disc (preferably one not pressed in Australia!)

[Tasmaniak]

truly Hozy if you have any idea of sound reproduction you wouldn't bother trying to get high levels of quality in the car....

[bezz]

truly Hozy if you have any idea of sound reproduction you wouldn't bother trying to get high levels of quality in the car....

I agree, but its always fun to try and get close!

[Joe Bellissimo]

You don't aim for sound reproduction, you aim for sonic bliss. Completely accurate sound production is impossible in the car environment. Creating sonic bliss on the other hand... thats what I do.

Would you like some?

[HoZy]

You don't aim for sound reproduction, you aim for sonic bliss. Completely accurate sound production is impossible in the car environment. Creating sonic bliss on the other hand... thats what I do.

Would you like some?

Im sorry but that was the best business pun I've heard in forever... Off too explore your website I go ^_^

[holdenboy]

I'll take two.....lol.

[danja]

A car isn't a sound studio, but it doesn't take a very good ear to tell the difference between a 128kbit MP3 and a FLAC file (or equivalent).

At the end of the day MP3, for all it's merits, is a lossy compression, and the more you push the bitrate, the more sound you loose, and the worse it sounds. When you start talking 256+kbit MP3s in a car you might struggle to tell them apart from the original, but on a decent setup it will be possible.

[Head_is]

I would go with JVC myself.. It's not at all shit quality...

[tr3nt]

I'm happy with a semi basic setup.. tweeters in/around dash, front and rear speakers, and two subs...

obviosuly amped etc etc

[Tasmaniak]

ok, if you want to talk about 128k mp3s thats a different animal. for the average joe bloe though.....it was a pretty useless statement.

[danja]

ok, if you want to talk about 128k mp3s thats a different animal. for the average joe bloe though.....it was a pretty useless statement.

Depends, still plenty of low quality MP3s floating about the net, even these days. Not everyone realises how much of a difference bitrate can make, or even what the difference is between FLAC/MP3/WMA/etc.

[tr3nt]

Absolutely.. can definately tell the difference betweek a 320k mp3 with that of a 128k (128 used to be/is the standard CD bitrate, correct?) thru high quality headphones, and a 5.1 Surround Sound setup

I take that back

Audio (MP3)
32 kbit/s – MW (AM) quality
96 kbit/s – FM quality
128–160 kbit/s – Standard Bitrate quality; difference can sometimes be obvious (e.g. lack of low frequency quality and high frequency "swashy" effects)[citation needed]
192 kbit/s – DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) quality.[1]
224–320 kbit/s – Near CD quality.

[Philthy]

A car isn't a sound studio, but it doesn't take a very good ear to tell the difference between a 128kbit MP3 and a FLAC file (or equivalent).

At the end of the day MP3, for all it's merits, is a lossy compression, and the more you push the bitrate, the more sound you loose, and the worse it sounds. When you start talking 256+kbit MP3s in a car you might struggle to tell them apart from the original, but on a decent setup it will be possible.

I ONLY download 256/320k mp3's purely because I listen to mp3's all the time in the car. Even non-audio people can pick the difference between 128k and 320k in the car.

As to the original question, I've just bought a JVC headunit and I find a few of the controls don't quite make a lot of sense. Some items in the menu are hidden in silly spots etc.

[tr3nt]

Oh really? I might have to go back and have a bit of a play around