Customer Reviews

JVC KD-R800 30K Color-Illumination Single-DIN CD Receiver with Dual USB 2.0 for iPod/iPhone and Bluetooth

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Pros:
Lots of sound input options
Reads MP3 tags

Cons:
Display only has 1 line of text for song tags
Display is a tad too small
Poor blue tooth microphone implementation

Comments:
I can't live without an MP3 stereo anymore. I first owned a cheap Chinese player back in 2002 and then I upgraded to a JVC-G820 in 2005. The G820 was awesome compared to most players at the time. I just upgraded to the KD-R800. It's basically just like the G820 except with bluetooth and a harder to read screen. 99% of the time I use the USB interface with a mini 4GB usb flash drive. This deck is great for that.

Blue Tooth audio: This deck supports 2 blue tooth functions, input as a music device and input/output as a phone device. It works fine with my iPhone 3G for both of these functions. The blue tooth music functionality is basically a wireless line-in.

Blue Tooth Phone: This is my first blue-tooth deck. The phone functionality seems to work ok but it comes with a cheap microphone that only works when connected to the rear mic-in plug. I had to find a way to run the microphone cable from inside the dashboard to the outside of the dashboard. This was tricky to install and the micro-phone is a kludge on the dashboard. I think I'm not going to use the phone functionality on the deck because of this. They should have built a microphone onto the faceplate. I was amazed at the phone options on this deck: It was able to reads lots of information from my iphone 3G like recent call history, the address book, and caller ID for incoming calls.

Colors: JVC highly touts the "30k" colors as a feature. It's neat at first but I don't really care. The system comes with 30 preset colors and a USER option with sliders to configure Red, Green and Blue for a custom color.

USB: I really like the usb feature. I use a FAT formatted 4GB flash drive with lots of sub-folders and songs. My favorite part of this deck is that it displays proper ID3 tags. I read somewhere that a USB HDD will work too but I have yet to confirm. I will update this review after I get an HDD. The iPhone/iPod should also interface on the USB port but I have yet to try that either.

Sound quality: Good enough. I don't have good speakers or a sub.

Digital Radio: Does not work out of the box, requires extra equipment.

Satellite Radio: Does not work out of the box, requires extra equipment.

Aux Line-in: Haven't tried it.

Buttons: The track forward/back and folder up/down buttons are on a single square button that pivots and works better than I expected. The volume knob is near the center of the deck and looks and feels great. It turns like a softly notched mouse wheel and also acts as a button. The phone button is used as a shortcut to the phone options menu and can also pickup and end calls.

Overall: I like this stereo but it only gets 4 out of 5 stars because the blue-tooth microphone is a kludge and the screen is on the small side. Otherwise a fantastic deck that works as advertised and will support all your digital music needs.

I installed this unit a month ago (nissan Versa, adapter kit costs $26) and I love it. The few buttons it has are actually very convenient to use, the display is beautiful (see *except* below), and the sound quality is excellent (I'm using the stock Versa speakers, but they work great).

I use the Bluetooth with my Razr, works great - I installed the mic on the lower part of the dash, near where the key goes, and people say they can hear me fine. Ipod works great (I switched it to allow the ipod itself to control, and routed the USB cable to the center console area between the front seats. MP3 CD plays well, though it takes about 5 seconds to start playing. MP3 8GB SD card (in a USB adapter) works best for me, although with FAT32 you need to be careful about long file names if you have a lot of files in a few directories.

I don't use the AM at all, and FM only a little - the lack of preset buttons doesn't bother me - just click "Menu" then spin the dial to select. The little square navigation button also works for change tracks/stations. Also, the small little remote is great - my wife and daughter use that instead of the head controls.

*except*: Now, the *almost* part is: inspite of the display being BEAUTIFUL (color adjustable, fairly large), the layout designer at JVC are doorknobs :(. The font used is poor - the position of the items, and relative sizes are bad. Scrolling the font makes it flicker. All things that are purely software (they could have made this thing SOO GREAT). Although some things are configurable, I couldn't address my particular issues (I want the CLOCK to be the most visible, followed my song title, then maybe track time - instead, they made the "USB REAR", in a VERY readbale bold font and then GIANT USB logo, the most obvious thing, squeezing the clock down to the lower left, in big, but too thin font - then right in the middle of everything, the song title, also in the same thin font).

I have a glimmer of hope that a new firmware will somehow be made available for this exceptional hardware platform, but in the mean time I'll just let my ears enjoy it, instead of my eyes :)

I bought this deck to put in an 03 4Runner, as I was fed up with not having any options for playing my iPod thru my car stereo without those crappy radio transmitters. I've changed out a car stereo before, but it had been about 10 years, but after a few minutes of thinking about it, I got it figured out and it looks great. I really like the Bluetooth functionality and have found it to work flawlessly, so I don't entirely understand the trouble other people have had with it. I've also found the remote to be less than awesome, as you must have it pointed right at the unit for it to work... There is also a strange delay on CD/iPod start up, but whatever, I don't think I'm too picky and can deal.

My issue is this. In my car, I spend about 80% of the time listening to the radio, and about 90% of that is AM sports talk stuff. Otherwise, it's iPod, especially if I'm out of town and what not. Anyway, the factory deck on my Toyota has two antenna inputs, one AM and one FM. There is no visible antenna, they are actually embedded in the rear windows. Anyway, the JVC deck only has one antenna input, and it's for the FM one. So while my installation was perfect and looks professional, I realized right away, the AM radio is crap, at best. FM is fine, perhaps even better than before, but that means very little to me. I spoke to an installation expert about my problem, and he told me that while in his opinion, JVC provides the best deck that money can buy for the features they come with, they are really more focused on catering to the iPod/CD exclusive listeners, and that while there are a number of things other stores might be ready to sell me to fix my problem (coupling connecters, antenna booster add ons, etc) he won't sell me any of them cause none of them will work. He said my best bet is to sell it for a loss to a friend who doesn't care much about AM, and get a new deck that pays more attention to the tuner functions of the deck, like a Pioneer or a Kenwood. So that is the plan at this point. Called JVC about it also and they were worthless. I will tell you tho, now that I've gotten a taste of the dual USB, Bluetooth capability, etc, I want it in the next one.

Bottom line, great features, easy install, very good price, but no good for those AM radio dinosaurs like myself...

Pro:

I have a Protege5 and I installed this unit by myself. Never did it before, but a little online research, I save myself [...] bucks and did it myself. It looks really good. I'm not sure if I'm just imagining things, but the sound quality is a lot better than what I had before. (factory 6 cd changer).

I'm able to sync my iphone and play music from it flawlessly. It comes with a mic and bluetooth and an easy access phone button. there are also useful options like previous calls, and missed calls that make it easy to call people. I'm able to to answer phone calls with out touching my phone.

Music syncs well too, you can access playlists.

ability to change the color to match my speedometer is pretty cool. just a little plus to integrate the system in your car nicely.

CON: the LCD screen is kind of small and the letters are a little thin. I have a hard time reading the time. other than that, a pretty good buy. I love it.

big big con.. when I pick up calls, people can't hear me. some one described it as "sounds like you're running a blender". the only time they hear me is when my car is not moving. whats the point of a hands free when you're not driving!

Upon first look, both aesthetically and technically, seems like a great product and a bargain.

If you know how to install radios, it is a painless installation and the audio is great, however some of the features I chose this for do not work. One feature why I chose this radio over a less expensive version is the bluetooth ability. unfortunately, it is not compatible with my phone and not any other recent Verizon Wireless phones. (CHECK THIS LIST BEFORE BUYING [...]). After some phone calls with the lovely support staff, they also "do not have that information" when asked which version or footprint of bluetooth they have, or if they have any other adapters that may work for my phone.

As another review said, there is about enough room for 3 lines of information on the screen and it would be nice if more than one of them could be used for song information. Currently the only displays are by title only, or by album/artist...very frustrating. Also regarding ipod controls, scrolling is tedious. Must go through all titles, would really make sense for those useless up and down buttons to scroll by 20 or by letter.

gave it three stars, because if the price does drop a bit more, it sounds great and looks really nice

I purchased this unit from 6th Ave. Electronics. Its a very nice unit. As stated by prevoius reviewers the screen is small and hard to see during the daytime( but you shouldn't be looking at it while driving anyway). The multiple color options will help in that department. Its cool to be able to change colors when you want to. As for sound I have it in a 2004 xterra and man what a difference in sound. This HU makes my speakers really put out good quality sound. I also like the fact that its a detachable face unit with two USB connections. I had a good friend put it in for me and he hooked up the bluetooth mic as well. The sound from it is good as long as the windows are up. The array of options from this unit is just my liking. You won't be sorry with it. I can live with the small screen and eventhough its hard to see during the day I made some minor adjustments with the colors to help a bit. Overall not a bad radio from JVC. The ability to use my Ipod is a really big plus and was one of the reasons why I brought this unit. Also you can choose how to control the Ipod by either the Ipod itself or from the HU OR remote control once its plugged in the front USB port. If you put it in the rear one it will be controllled by the radio. Hope this will help in anyone making a decision on a decent HU.

I have always liked JVC car stereos, and this one is great! The dual USB ports are wonderful. I routed the long USB cable to a place to hide the Ipod, while the USB plug on the front is great for keeping all my music. I have gained about 2 cubic feet of space by getting all of the CDs out of my car! I haven't used the Bluetooth yet. UPDATE: I found that I can use 2 & 4 Gig thumb drives, but when I tried to use the 16 Gig Sandisk, the deck could not read it!

I get this stereo as a replacement of another JVC that comes with my car. First of all I like the quality of the sound, with right speakers you can get enough sound power in your car if that's what you like too. The other cool feature it's the color of the display, I changed from time to time when I get tired of the same screen, so that's nice. The usb at front it's great for the ipod I use it every single day. The only thing that I don't like it's the mic of the bluetooth system, it's not that good as you might expect for a mic that should listen you talking inside the car. I believe it depends where you put the mic, but most of the people complains there's a lot of noise and they can barely hear me, use to be below the wheel arm, I've recently changed to the top of the arm and seems to be better but still the voice is not crystal as in a free hands.

It satisfies the requirement of producing very good quality sound, supported by built-in presets. USB port helps in charging my iPhone while playing music (without having to depend on recessed aux cable). Bluetooth works really good with no complaints from people over the other end. Overall a satisfactory product.

Pros
- has 2 usb ports front and rear.
- has aux jacks front and rear.
- great value.
- easy installation.

Cons
- blue-tooth microphone is poorly designed giving poor audio quality.
- display size is too small.
- display font is too small and not changeable.
- display unit too hard to remove/insert.
- looses all setting once power is lost.

Recomendation: Good value for money too bad telephone audio wasn't better.