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I have a 2013 Ram 1500. I bought a JVC KW-V30BT in January 2016 from Crutchfield. I had no problems with the JVC except the GUI does not show the clock while on a phone call and it does not show the album, artist, and track at the same time. I tried to get used to it but could not. I mostly listen to music through Spotify and I like to play new random music and I found that I was looking at my phone too much while driving to see who the artist was. I shopped around and found this Kenwood DDX774BH that meets my requirements. I bought it from Amazon and I installed it and everything appears to be working properly except the Bluetooth connection. I can make and receive phone calls over Bluetooth properly. The problem is that the Bluetooth audio and/or Spotify only work if I disconnect and reconnect the Bluetooth on the phone. When the truck is started and Spotify comes on it shows that it is playing on the radio and on the phone but I get no audio. If I disconnect and reconnect sometimes it works and sometimes the audio plays but the Spotify says connecting still. I have tried the connection on an LG G6, LG G4, Samsung Galaxy S5, and Samsung Galaxy S7, all of them have the same problems with this unit. Also when I try Music Mix with these phones the audio is horribly distorted and choppy. When the Bluetooth connects and Spotify is working properly it sounds very good. I tried to update the firmware but I show I have the most recent firmware V0.0.130 installed already. I have restarted and "Initialized All" in the unit using the hold home and eject and restart the unit. Then started over but have the same results. Any Ideas, is this a defective unit or is there a Firmware to fix it?
Update 08-20-17
I returned the Kenwood and purchased a Pioneer avh-x491bhs. the Pioneer was terrible, the Bluetooth connection connected every time but really poor sound quality. I returned the Pioneer and bought this Kenwood again hoping that it was updated. Unfortunately it is the exact same. I just got in the habit of disconnecting the Bluetooth and reconnecting it because when it is working it is awesome and sounds outstanding. I really hope that something gets updated so it works properly.
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Customer reviews
Bought this stereo a week or two ago. Good shipping and no issues with the seller. The product works as described, all major functions work great and the Equalizer allowed me to get a really good, clean sound. Head unit is running to an Alpine MRV-F300 bridged to two channels (100 watts RMS) powering a set of Focal 165 AS 6.5" components, and to a Kicker CX 600.1 amp bridged to one channel (300 watts RMS) powering a 10" Boston Acoustics G5 10-44 subwoofer in a custom sealed box. Both amps are set at about half gain and sound is distortion free up to ear splitting sound levels.Functionally everything is fine with this head unit. The only complaints I have are:1) it is VERY slow to operate. Initial powerup takes quite a long time, especially if you are connecting via bluetooth to your phone. See attached video:- about 15 seconds for initial power up - would turn on then if input setting was radio- about 40 seconds to get bluetooth connection (you can see the signal connection symbol come on at the 41 second mark and Spotify connected to my phone 2 seconds after I cut off video)- 3-5 seconds for any sort of functionality operation (viewing home screen, changing input etc)2) highly reflective surface on the face. look at the level of detail in the reflections in the attached pictures and video. That's inside my garage at 8am with 20% tint on rear glass... so imagine what it's like during the middle of the day.3) I've had some issues with the Spotify functionality. When I initially listened the first few days I connected via bluetooth on my phone and used my phone's functionality to navigate through Spotify. After hitting the Spotify button on the stereo it connects in a different way which puts a blank screen on your phone and you can only navigate through the radio - AND I lost the shuffle playlist functionality, it will only play all the tracks in my playlist in their original order. Very likely not the radio's fault, probably just bad user experience on Spotify's part.That said, functionally the radio works fine. Very clear sound with my set up, detailed equalizer settings (way more than I need for a small sports car with only 2 sets of component speakers) and more ways to input and output sound and video than anyone would likely ever need. If you have the ability I suggest visiting a local retailer to test out the speed issue and see if it's something you can live with, then buying online if so. Had I tested this in-person I likely would have gone with a different Kenwood head unit to get faster processing/response times.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2018
Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2017
Bought this stereo a week or two ago. Good shipping and no issues with the seller. The product works as described, all major functions work great and the Equalizer allowed me to get a really good, clean sound. Head unit is running to an Alpine MRV-F300 bridged to two channels (100 watts RMS) powering a set of Focal 165 AS 6.5" components, and to a Kicker CX 600.1 amp bridged to one channel (300 watts RMS) powering a 10" Boston Acoustics G5 10-44 subwoofer in a custom sealed box. Both amps are set at about half gain and sound is distortion free up to ear splitting sound levels.
Functionally everything is fine with this head unit. The only complaints I have are:
1) it is VERY slow to operate. Initial powerup takes quite a long time, especially if you are connecting via bluetooth to your phone. See attached video:
- about 15 seconds for initial power up - would turn on then if input setting was radio
- about 40 seconds to get bluetooth connection (you can see the signal connection symbol come on at the 41 second mark and Spotify connected to my phone 2 seconds after I cut off video)
- 3-5 seconds for any sort of functionality operation (viewing home screen, changing input etc)
2) highly reflective surface on the face. look at the level of detail in the reflections in the attached pictures and video. That's inside my garage at 8am with 20% tint on rear glass... so imagine what it's like during the middle of the day.
3) I've had some issues with the Spotify functionality. When I initially listened the first few days I connected via bluetooth on my phone and used my phone's functionality to navigate through Spotify. After hitting the Spotify button on the stereo it connects in a different way which puts a blank screen on your phone and you can only navigate through the radio - AND I lost the shuffle playlist functionality, it will only play all the tracks in my playlist in their original order. Very likely not the radio's fault, probably just bad user experience on Spotify's part.
That said, functionally the radio works fine. Very clear sound with my set up, detailed equalizer settings (way more than I need for a small sports car with only 2 sets of component speakers) and more ways to input and output sound and video than anyone would likely ever need. If you have the ability I suggest visiting a local retailer to test out the speed issue and see if it's something you can live with, then buying online if so. Had I tested this in-person I likely would have gone with a different Kenwood head unit to get faster processing/response times.
Functionally everything is fine with this head unit. The only complaints I have are:
1) it is VERY slow to operate. Initial powerup takes quite a long time, especially if you are connecting via bluetooth to your phone. See attached video:
- about 15 seconds for initial power up - would turn on then if input setting was radio
- about 40 seconds to get bluetooth connection (you can see the signal connection symbol come on at the 41 second mark and Spotify connected to my phone 2 seconds after I cut off video)
- 3-5 seconds for any sort of functionality operation (viewing home screen, changing input etc)
2) highly reflective surface on the face. look at the level of detail in the reflections in the attached pictures and video. That's inside my garage at 8am with 20% tint on rear glass... so imagine what it's like during the middle of the day.
3) I've had some issues with the Spotify functionality. When I initially listened the first few days I connected via bluetooth on my phone and used my phone's functionality to navigate through Spotify. After hitting the Spotify button on the stereo it connects in a different way which puts a blank screen on your phone and you can only navigate through the radio - AND I lost the shuffle playlist functionality, it will only play all the tracks in my playlist in their original order. Very likely not the radio's fault, probably just bad user experience on Spotify's part.
That said, functionally the radio works fine. Very clear sound with my set up, detailed equalizer settings (way more than I need for a small sports car with only 2 sets of component speakers) and more ways to input and output sound and video than anyone would likely ever need. If you have the ability I suggest visiting a local retailer to test out the speed issue and see if it's something you can live with, then buying online if so. Had I tested this in-person I likely would have gone with a different Kenwood head unit to get faster processing/response times.
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