Kenwood KDC-HD942U USB/AAC/WMA/MP3 CD Receiver with Built-In HD Radio

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Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 12.5 x 10 x 4.4 inches ; 4.4 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B001Q9ER6W
• Item model number: KDC-HD942U
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #9,103 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)

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  Electronics > Car Electronics > Car Audio & Video > Car Stereos > CD-MP3 Players

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description Car stereo connectivity has come a long way over the years. and the KDC-HD942U is the perfect case in point. At the core of this receiver is legendary Kenwood audio performance, and its list of impressive attributes grows from there. This is the first Kenwood CD-receiver with built in HD Radio and iTunes tagging. In addition, the receiver is both iPod and iPhone ready, Bluetooth ready for hands-free cell phone use, and Satellite Radio ready. Hard to believe all of this comes in one package.

Cutting-edge car stereo technology. Click to enlarge.

Dial in Your Music
Enjoy your favorite CDs or CD-Rs, or burn a data CD with your favorite MP3/WMA/AAC files and enjoy hours of music on one disc, along with ID-3 tag display for artist and title info.

Awesome-Sounding FM and AM Broadcasts
The KDC-HD942U features a built in HD Radio tuner. HD Radio delivers crystal clear reception taking conventional FM stations to near CD quality and makes AM stations sound like an FM broadcast. More and more stations are offering HD Radio broadcasting with your favorite local stations offering multicasting you get to enjoy more music from a variety of artists and genres. Features 18 FM and six AM presets for your convenience.

Bluetooth-ready: add the optional KCA-BT200 to enjoy hands-free phone operation or to listen to audio stored on Bluetooth devices.

Includes IR remote. Click to enlarge.

Add satellite radio or HD radio with Kenwood peripherals.

Bookmark that Song You Want to Hear Again
When you hear a song that you want to hear again while listening to HD Radio, just use the iTunes tagging function to "bookmark" the song and send data to your connected iPod, which allows you to access and purchase the song on iTunes via your personal computer.

Superb Audio All the Time
When listening to music in a moving vehicle, sound quality can be degraded due to road and engine noise. Kenwood's exclusive Sound Excellence audio enhancement feature brings out all of the music masked by this noise, and also includes a unique iPod EQ function that improves the sound of any iPod by deactivating the EQ setting of the iPod and allowing you to select an EQ curve optimized for iPod playback in any vehicle at any speed.

Supreme
When a music file is compressed, some frequencies signals are lost, particularly if it is encoded using a low bit rate. The Supreme technology is a Kenwood-original audio compensation technology that compensates for this loss and reproduces music in a more natural form, thereby making it possible to play music recorded using low bit rates (64k to 96k) in an audio-quality equivalent to music recorded using a higher bit rate (equivalent to 128k). Enjoy a natural, rich sound, even with lower compression ratios.

Memorize Frequently Used Functions
Favorite Memory is capable of storing up to six frequently used functions from diverse sources and recalling them whenever necessary. This means those short cuts to frequently accessed radio stations, phone numbers, iPod songs, setup functions, menu, etc. can be easily stored.

Finding Songs on iPod Made Easy
The head units found in the Regular lineup feature an original Dual Search function for iPod music libraries that uses a combination of Music Search and Skip Search to provide faster access to the songs you're looking for.

USB & AUX Connectors Right Up Front
Certain models have either a USB interface or AUX input terminal or even both on the front panel for added convenience, making connection of external devices with USB or AUX support easier.

Bluetooth Ready
Add the optional KCA-BT200 to enjoy hands-free operation of the KDC-HD942U, allowing you to keep your hands on the steering wheel allowing you better concentration on your driving. Advanced Bluetooth technology provides wireless connection and operation of Bluetooth-enabled devices, such as mobile phones and even phones that can stream music via A2DP.

HD and Satellite Radio Ready
The KDC-HD942U allows you to enjoy SIRIUS (requires CA-SR20V cable + Sirius Tuner) or XM (requires KCA-XM100V + XM Mini Tuner) radio in your vehicle. Enjoy a multitude of channels featuring music, news, talk shows, sports, and traffic information with CD quality sound.

You also can add an HD Radio tuner. When you connect an HD radio tuner, features of the unit are disabled and changed to HD Radio tuner features.

Ready for System Expansion
In addition to the on-board 50W x 4 amplifier, the KDC-HD942U boasts three 4V pre-amp outs for expanding your system.

What's in the Box
Kenwood KDC-HD942U, sleeve, trim ring, wiring harness, installation tools, installation manual, operation manual, warranty card.

Product Description

USB/AAC/WMA/MP3 CD Receiver with Built-In HD Radio

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent features and performance for the price, October 6, 2009

By	Grant "Grant" (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

First a little information about HD-Radio...
HD-Radio is broadcast at 1% of the stations normal power, in other words if the station's analog signal is 100 watts, the HD signal is only 1 watt! So, make sure you've got a top quality antenna, don't bother with a "booster", I've never seen one that works. Also make sure you choose a receiver with higher sensitivity (lowest dBf).

On to the review...
I purchased this radio to replace a JVC KD-HDR1 which also has HD-Radio but not as good sensitivity. It's installed in a '93 Explorer with Kenwood 6X9 door speakers but no external amp or eq. I do not use the cell phone, Bluetooth, satellite radio or iPod features but do use the USB interface with a 64Gig "thumb drive" with over 200 albums and some singles ripped at 250K sample rate and plan to connect the AUX input to the audio from my ham radio in the future (which is one of the reasons I picked this radio).

Sound quality is very good. Even without an external amp I can get enough volume to overcome road noise from my off-road tires and wind noise without distortion. The built in EQ, is only three bands which is somewhat disappointing for a radio of this caliber. I would expect at least 7 bands if not more.

The HD-Radio reception outperforms my old JVC KD-HDR1 hands down. I can receive all the local stations (Denver-Boulder-FortCollins) without any problems, something the JVC couldn't come close to doing. The CD player works fine although I would prefer not having to tip down the faceplate to change CDs. The USB interface works as expected and while some people prefer a front panel connector, I like the attached 1meter cable. I've routed the cable into the glove box and have the "thumb drive" attached at all times. I'm still figuring out the supplied "Kenwood Music Editor" and creating play-lists but that's just getting over the learning curve of a new piece of software.

The menu system could be improved. It just isn't intuitive and getting to some features is a pain in the behind. I also don't like the quick access to bass-boost/balance/fader via the volume control. Once they are set, they are seldom changed so why bother. I wish it had a front panel mute feature (this would be better than the bass-boost/balance/fader in the volume control). Maybe I'm too "old school", but I miss the six preset station buttons that none of the newer radios have. They allowed direct access to my favorite stations without stepping up and down or taking my attention away from the road to find a specific station. I would also like a way to have the data/time in place of the SPA/Clock on the bottom line of the display (who really cares about the real-time audio levels?). The manual is poor at best. It covers 4 radios and contains errors. There is very little explanation of what features and settings do, just how to change them, even then you have to be in certain modes to access them and those limits are in one place in the manual while the so called detailed information on the feature is in another.

Over all, if I had to choose again I would still buy this over any other radio in the price range, or even twice the price.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Horrible Ergonomics, October 18, 2009

By	B. Morley (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

I have been desiring a quality HD radio, along with iPod connectivity for awhile now. I finally selected this unit, and after installing it, and using it for several months, I never wish I had purchased it.

I feel like the team who designed the usability, ergonomics, and menu system, must have been forced to work 18 hours with no sleep or something. Did they actually attempt to use and enjoy their creation?

There is absolutely nothing intuitive about this unit. I once gave a passenger the gigantic user manual to read on a road trip so she could learn how to use the iPod feature. Lame. I challenged another passenger to just turn the unit on. No luck.

Here is a rundown of some of the frustrating aspects of this unit:

1. Display VERY difficult to read. I had to switch the unit to "negative" and full brightness. Even then, it is still very dim and hard to read when it's not the blackest hour of the darkest night ever. I have a sunroof too, and the glossy, curved surface of the display totally renders the screen unusable in certain lighting situations. Like daylight.

2. Annoying splash screen. When changing volume, and switching main functions from iPod, HD radio, and standby (why do I even need standby?), there is a very annoying 3-4 second splash screen effect. There is no way to turn it off, at least that I've found in the depth of the most horrible menu system designed by modern man. The splash effect is really annoying when you just turn the volume up a bit, and are trying to read the display for more info about a song. Guess what! You get to wait. Don't hit anything while you are swerving down the road fumbling with this garbage.

3. HD radio. This is maybe a curse of HD radio in general, but if a station does not have an analog signal as well, the unit stalls for 10 seconds while it "links". Reception has not been the best with HD only signals as well. I do like having all the other HD radio stations, but I cannot really tell if the quality is any better.

4. Horrible, horrible interface knob. I have read the instruction manual time and time again, yet struggling to interact with the unit with the main interface control button is counter intuitive and frustrating. For many various functions or this radio, you need to press this button (the far right knob). Because it is a knob similar to a joystick, 70% of the time a press is needed, you will instead inadvertently move the knob up or down, or side to side. Even a slight miss-press will cause this. Pressing becomes a careful, two fingered, spine-tingling escapade of careful, delicate application of force precisely in line with the intended press. Add to this driving down a road, and it's very annoying.

5. Remote. Ok, so I have struggled through the menus. I have finally figured out how to set radio station presets to numbers. The remote has a main joystick button, similar to the radio's main interface button, but thankfully not as sensitive. The bad part is that it functions totally different. Your instinct would be to use this button while in radio mode to switch between station presets. But you can only switch station presets by pressing the corresponding 1-6 numbers on the remote. That works sort of OK, until its dark and you can't see the remote. There is no remote lighting, and no tactile "index" to locate a reference point for your thumb (like a nub on the 5 button, something to feel for, so you know where your thumb is). Very lame. Oh, and try entering a station number, like 105.9. Guaranteed, you will have to pull over, read the manual, try it, read the manual again, just to enter a station. Very, very lame.

6. iPod interface. Love having the iPod controllable via the radio. To bad that radio is this hunk of junk. So, lets say you navigate using the horrible interface knob I mentioned above, through all the typically listed iPod menu's displayed on the radio. I will use an example to listen to a particular song: The steps involved are pressing a search button on the radio face, using the interface knob to select "Artist", then you choose which "Album", then the "Song". Great. Well....unlike the iPod, when scrolling through a large menu like artists, there is no acceleration option. You spin that interface knob, over and over, and over. Yay! Oh, and when you shut the radio off, it won't remember which iPod menu tree you went down, so you'll have to start the whole process over after your 2 minute stop for a Latte. Genius!

I really could go on, but all I want to tell you is please, please don't make the same mistake. Go to a retailer, play with many different radios in person, and then buy on Amazon.com. After this radio experience, I can never recommend a Kenwood to anyone.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Almost worth the 3 year wait, May 31, 2009

By	Brendan J. Grant (Seattle) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I installed one of the first integrated HD Decks in 2006 (JVC). The wife's car had a Sirius sat tuner and a 5 year old Kenwood CD Deck. For 3 years, the only way to upgrade her car HD was to replace the deck and Sat tuner module and go with another brand. The other option was to buy a new Kenwood and an expensive external HD tuner module.

Kenwood hit a home run for me by releasing this deck this year. I had talked to some car stereo installers that ensured me that Kenwood had kept the plugs consistent for harness jacks and Sat tuner modules. Installation was a simple matter of pulling and unplugging the old deck and plugging in the old harness and sat tuner module to this one.

Works perfectly and there are so many more options compared to the old one. It plays MP3 discs. It has the USB port that allows the deck to control an IPOD that is hooked via the standard USB IPOD cable (unique IPOD controller cables used to cost money and make installers rich too). It controls the Sirius Sat module as well as the old one and displays four lines of info instead of having to switch between single line displays on the old one.

There is a little bit of a learning curve learning how to access everything with fewer buttons and two large knobs. It is pretty intuitive once you play with it for a few days. You definitely need to read the manual on this one to figure out all the features.

I have not had any problems tuning in HD stations and I live 30 miles from the big city. One of the above reviewers mentioned that problem and it sounds to me like they have an antenna problem. I had the same issue on my JVC deck because the antenna jack was larger than my car antenna plug and it required an adapter to get ideal reception. It sort of worked without the adapter similar to the above review.

I am still awaiting delivery on some 3 way Kenwood speakers to see how this unit really sounds. The wife's car still has the OEM speakers and one of them has a slight rattle on a few of the HD Radio highs.