Kenwood KMD-71

Price Paid:  $450.00

Year / Model Reviewed:
 00 Kenwood KMD71

Summary:
I've had it for over 3 yrs now, it's an awesome unit. very reliable, problem free the display is very good compare to Sony units, specialy the dot matrix display can display all kinds of charactor, even Japanese! Sony unit can't display lower case letters & won't scroll. Sound quality is a also very good, never skids once!

Strengths:
colourful & useful display great sound very problem free

Weaknesses:
none

Similar Products Used:
Sony MD reciever

Year / Model Reviewed:
 1999 KMD-71

Summary:
I paid $350.00 plus tax. Aproximately another $50.00 for the installation and two pairs of rca cables for connection to an external amp. I wanted a minidisc receiver, shopped around and wound up with this unit. It was a closeout 1999 model at a reduced price. My only firm requirements were dual pre-outs and that it be a minidisc receiver. I found a number of pricier units but the extra cost seemed to be for bells and whistles and recording capability. Compared to the factory cd receiver it replaced(connected via speaker wires to an Alpine V12 series amp), the minidisc is much smoother sounding. The minidisc player is connected to the amp with rca cables. The factory cd player was very harsh sounding - ear splitting highs. The lows were better with the cd player however. I tried adjusting the crossovers for the speakers and on the amp but I never could tame the sound of the system when I had the cd player. At the time I didn't know if this was the speakers, receiver, what. After installing the minidisc player things smoothed out considerably - very natural sounding. Why this is I don't know. It could be a function of the difference between minidisc and cd, line level vs speaker level connection, whatever. The bottom line is that now my system is very natural sounding, smooth, smooth, smooth. Five minutes of reading the manual will get you going. It's also an rds receiver. Highly recommended unit if you can find one. It's been replaced in 2000 by a less expensive model with only one pair of line-outs. Rating it is difficut because I don't have much to compare it to. This means I can rate it only according to how satisfied I am with it.

Strengths:
Smooth sound, dual pre-outs, clean appearance.

Weaknesses:
Can't think of any weaknesses.

Similar Products Used:
Honda factory cd receiver, Nakamichi cassette receiver, Alpine cassette receiver.

Summary:
I paid about $400 dollars for this product. I am sure if I would've been more patient and maybe tried to find it on ebay or something I could have gotten it cheaper. Hook up a cd changer to this model and you have music for hours.

Strengths:
Very nice, clean appearence. Easy enough for a child to use. I've always been a fan of kenwood recievers and am pleased that I chose kenwood again when updating to minidisc.

Weaknesses:
Just a little expensive. Worth it though.

Similar Products Used:
None

Summary:
It's a very good receiver but it has a big weakness that if I knew about it I wouldn't have bought this one. In my other car I have a Sony MD player and it's great to find the track you want through track names like I used to do on my Sony. With the KeenWood it's impossible. You'll have to search using track number or wait five seconds(till then you've recognized the music anyway) to see the track name.

Strengths:
Looks good, good sound.

Weaknesses:
takes too much time to read track names...

Similar Products Used:
Sony MD Player