Customer Reviews

JVC KD-R300 30K Color-Illumination Single-DIN CD Receiver with Remote Control and J-Bus Expandability

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This thing has more features than I'll ever use. It's expandable to work with bluetooth, HD radio, Satellite radio... I'll never use that stuff. Being able to fine-tune the colors and illumination is great. I burn MP3 CDs for this, and it reads them very well. The face is shiny and pleasing to the eye. The buttons are solid and responsive... not flimsy or clumsy at all. It puts out a decent amount of power for my 6 1/2" speakers. What I really like is the EQ. It comes with the typical presets - Rock, Pop, Jazz, Classical, Hip Hop... but it gives you the ability create your own. You can adjust the bass, mid, and hi levels, response, and even Q curve (look it up). Not necessarily as great as a 12-band pre-amp EQ, but pretty darn useful. This is a high quality unit.

Great price for the sound quality, but changing radio stations and programing your preferences is kind of a nightmare. This radio is really set-up time heavy and I wouldn't recommend it for someone looking for an easy "install and enjoy" head unit.

The 14 year old JVC that had been installed in my last three cars would no longer read CD-R's, but other than that still works perfectly. I also have a 16 year old JVC installed in my wife's car that still works fine. With reliability like that, JVC was the only brand I looked at for replacement. Hopefully they are still made as well as they used to be.

I really like all the features, especially the ability to match my dash lights and control the brightness of the display. My only real complaint is the volume knob. It's slippery and hard to grab onto and rotate. All the models above this have ridges on the knob that make it much easier to grip, they should have done that with this one as well.

Review of JVC KD-R300

I purchased this head unit because the radio in my car was still stuck back in the 20th century with a cassette player. I also have a JVC 12-disc CD changer with an external controller and FM modulator, along with a separate FM modulator through which to play my iPod. All the spaghetti wiring for these add-ons was giving trouble and I just knew there had to be a better way. After careful consideration--and getting a hell of a deal on eBay--I decided the best course of action was to update the head unit, thus bringing that portion of my car into the 21st century and simultaneously eliminate some unnecessary wiring.

The features that drew me to the JVC KD-R300 were the built-in CD changer controller and the auxiliary input jack on the front that respectively allowed me to plug the aforementioned CD changer directly into the back of the head unit and to play my iPod directly into the front of head unit instead of using FM modulators for each. This head unit is now the centerpiece of a truly multifunctional sound system.

In addition to the above mentioned features, the onboard CD player affords me the additional flexibility of playing a 13th disc from inside the car (the changer is mounted in the trunk), which is quite handy when playing audio books while traveling. It also has the capability of playing mp3 discs, which can hold as much music on a single disc as my CD changer can with a dozen.

Reading other consumer reviews of this unit, the variable color illumination feature seems to be a favorite among many owners. While I think it's great that I can make the unit blend in better with my car's red/orange dash lights, but to me, it's really just eye candy--pleasant, but neither a deal maker or a deal breaker. It should be noted here that JVC's claim of more than 30,000 possible color settings seems to be a case of marketing hyperbole, exaggerating the truth by a factor of 1,000. Still, that's more than adequate for most users, whether one is looking for a spot-on match for the factory dash lights or to make a fashion statement with a non-standard color like pink or purple.

One area of concern is there's a whole heck of a lot of features crammed into a dozen little buttons, including the control knob, Although this creates a fairly clean looking user interface, It can mean only one thing from a practical standpoint--menu hell. There's a lot you can do with this radio, but most of it is best done in the driveway when you don't have to keep your eyes on the road. One particular set of buttons that is sorely missed is the station preset buttons. Instead of pushing a specific button to instantly go to a specific station, one must toggle through them in sequence. Menus in sequence may be neat and orderly on the inside, but it isn't very convenient to the user on the outside.

Although the menus can be cumbersome, the time and effort of moving through them can be worthwhile when it comes to tailoring the sound to your tastes. The EQ button makes it easy to toggle through a set of predetermined choices--rock, pop, jazz, hip-hop, etc--but the real power of the system is the choice labeled 'user', which allows one to manually configure the bass, treble, and midrange settings to get the most out of your speakers. Curiously, one set of controls completely missing from the menu is left/right balance and and front/rear fade. Fortunately, the sound distribution is acceptable in its default, non-adjustable configuration. Once you have those settings you can control dialed in the way you want them, the sound quality is quite good--in my case, delivering far better clarity than the OEM system it replaced, even using the car's OEM speakers.

The bottom line with this unit contains a wealth of features, many of which it is best to set and forget--at least while driving. All in all, it offers an excellent value for a budget price, albeit with a few sacrifices.

I replaced the old head unit in my boat with this one and matched it up with some Polk DB651 speakers. All I can say is the sounds is awesome and the unit is very easy to use and install.

I bought this head unit a while back for my Isuzu Rodeo. Well later the Rodeo got totaled. This thing survived the wreck and I just had to get it out. Now I have a 2003 Chevy S10 and you better believe I put this thing in there! It has never failed me or givin me problems. It's very shiny and pretty and has a lot of cool colors to choose from!

This is a very nice radio. Easy to install, and control. It also has good bright colors and many to choose from.

this is byfar the best cd player ive ever had it powers my memphis amp and subs wonderfully i would recomened it to everyone

I bought this product almost a year ago and it's been great! My boyfriend installed it with no problems at all so installation is easy (as long as you have some idea what you're doing which is why he did it and not me). I love the different colors you can choose for it to light up, mine is set on pink and everyone always thinks that's pretty cool. My only real complaint is that before ordering it I didn't pay attention to how to preset the radio stations. There are no buttons numbered 1-6 like your typical head unit and it's really annoying to set them on this thing. I always forget how and have to get the manual out. Other than that minor annoyance it's a great buy, I paid about $75 for mine and it's well worth it!

Easy to install, attractive display, and great features. If you're looking for an easily programmable stereo, you might want a different stereo, but I am very pleased with it. I really like the fact that you can change the display colors. There are about 30 to choose from and you can store up to 18 different radio stations. I love it.