Kenwood Showcase 2008

I am so old that I can recall Kenwood as being called ‘Trio’. It was an era of a button for everything and a mass of wires hanging out of the back of headunits using mad-looking lumpy plug standards that simply were not made especially for car use and were like trying to make a small mammal have a baby backwards when trying to stuff it all in the dash.
Dolby C. Ahh! Metal Tape. Mmm!
Right about that time car audio theft was a huge problem and made a positive fortune for some of the bigger companies out there who were involved in insurance replacements. In Italy in particular it was appalling. Kenwood, meanwhile, were one of the most outward-looking of all Japanese companies and recognised that while at no time before, during or since has their society in Japan ever descended to the petty thieving nastiness of us Europeans, that something needed to be done about folks keeping their car radios. And the removable car hifi cage unit was born. It was a big thing to take with but frankly, a yawning hole in the dash when parked was pretty much the only way to avoid more-costly-than-the-unit repairs to windows, dashboard and doors back then. So restaurants in Italy had racks for car radios and all the very best car security products came out of Italy for years and years.

Kenwood have remained at the very forefront of car security innovation and many people don’t even know quite how important they are in the development story of the art of protection of car hifi down the years. Lately of course, including a panoply of totally cool rotating MASK Bond-esque panels that were just awesome. I also enjoyed their PowerSlide amplifiers that had small flat motorised doors that slid open at the touch of a button on the headunit to reveal the amplifier’s finer workings and knobby bits. They even kept the control of this amp feature on headunit models that superseded them. A forward thinking company that holds quality and sound quality in particular to be paramount.Here’s just a mad story I have never ever heard of from any other company: Kenwood attract a breed of fans so potent that some will insist on their machine being repaired rather than replaced on the odd occasions when it is easier to send another deck and fix the warranty jobs later. There are so few of them, who wants to stop work on the designing of new shop stands and learning up on next year’s models? Some truly OLD machines, kicked to death, get sent in. Some people get so attached to that actual chassis and the button with the stiletto heel scratch from the last girlfriend but one, that they won’t accept a replacement. Now that’s a slice of Joy Of Possession and something that only kit from a top maker can achieve. And they put a radio transmitter for Ham users to talk to space in Mir in 1995, beating Clarion to orbit by years and years.

 Make ’em Drool

The very spiralling brilliance of what can be included for your money these days has resulted in a polarisation of the headunit market. This means that you would get a slew of incredibly keenly priced units but the midrange ones had so little extra to offer for the extra cash that folks would save and just then go for the top end products. The midrange sales fell away. Kenwood realised that you really must need to want to upgrade – feel really tempted by the difference between your price point of thought and the one you really really want. So this year, 50% of CD units are going to sell below £100 and 70% below £150. Their VFM continues to grow unabated as it must.So, in order to make that ‘Zig-a-Zig ah, Tell me what you really, really want!’ moment to be as up market as possible, Kenwood have structured this year’s range with a pleasantly ascending order of desirability as well as function. There are a few machines out already and we can tell you about those but we’ll be adding the very latest kit right here immediately it is released from publication embargo. I have seen them and they are lush but for now, check out the ridiculously well specified units that now populate the so-called entry level. I would have bled for joy with being able to get at the sound quality and features in these for the money you will need to shell out, versus what it would have cost for me to get one when I were a lad. But like I said at the top, I’m well old!

The First Wave – The More Affordable Stuff

The background is that last year the guys at Kenwood climbed into bed with Garmin for their navigation and it turned out to be a brilliant association. In the same spirit of co-operation with a specialist provider in one specific skill set of technologies to add to their own, they have now become heavily involved with those gods of the A2DP, Parrot. All things Bluetooth to all men.
As a direct result, their new range has Bluetooth capabilities that far exceed most other makers’ and instead of looking shifty when someone asks about using pretty much any phone apart from a Nokia, they can Bluetooth up the world from their headunits. To add Bluetooth, you simply plug in a (roughly £100) BT200 box to compatible decks, right up their changer socket and position the microphone. If you buy the BT200 box along with a deck as a package it will cost much less, so it’s a no-brainer. Buy them together.
Also, they have made efforts this year to make fitting times shorter and easier for installers, in the hope that the two bob you can charge for fitting these days actually happens so fast that they can even pay towards the lighting bill of the shop with the proceeds instead of making a loss on their time costs. I love chassis-mounted RCAs as those on cords allow noise in unless the lead out wires are dead posh and they can’t be on budget units. It costs more to make this way but a good thing for Kenwood to be doing. The other cool thing is the ease of iPod addition. This year it’s simply plug and play with the Apple supplied wire, so no extra interface is needed for audio.
Plus, they have recognised the crucial importance of their specialist dealers and have appointed a number of Premier Demonstration dealers for 2008 who are guaranteed to have their kit (all of it) on display and demo – instead of the buyer going into a shop and finding not as much of the Kenwood range on show as they might have hoped. It’s all about promoting the true specialist and I applaud that.
So here’s the entry level machines…

KDC-241SA – CD Tuner to be sold typically @ £69
Front Aux, Bass Boost system, 4x45w, RDS radio, 24 Bit DAC, FL display, Telephone mute

KDC-W312SAY – CD Tuner to be sold typically @ £89
4x50w, Front Aux in, MP3/WMA file reading abilities, Stereo Preout, Subwoofer crossover and level adjust filter, Optional Infra Red remote control availablem, Telephone mute

KDC-W4041 (available in amber, green or white A/G/W) – CD Tuner to be sold typically @ £99
4x50w, Front Aux with featured circular illumination to aid plugging-in in the dark, 13 Digit Display – much smaller and brighter pixels in display for 2008, MP3/WMA/AAC file reading abilities, Wired remote control optional, Parrot Bluetooth Option

KDC-W5041UA – CD Tuner to be sold typically @ £109
4x50w, Front Aux with illuminated ring and USB input, 13 Digit Display – much smaller and brighter pixels in display for 2008
MP3/WMA/AAC  file reading abilities, Wired remote, M-Jog control for easy USB search, Parrot Bluetooth option

KDC-W5541U – CD Tuner to be sold typically @ £129
4x50w, Direct 1-wire iPod connection;12mbps conversion within headunit, M-Jog control for easy iPod search, 13 Digit Display – much smaller and brighter pixels in display for 2008, MP3/WMA/AAC  file reading abilities, Wired remote, Parrot Bluetooth option

And now we are past Embargo date – here’s the next level up. This stuff has a groovy illumination system that sort of responds to the control inputs of rotary encoder and push-button, then glows in pulses to the programme material. I have seen it, it looks sexy and it’s called ‘Emotional Illumination’. Cool.

KDC-W6041U – CD Tuner to be sold typically @ £149
4x50w, Fixed colour ‘Emotional’ illumination, Direct 1-wire iPod connection;12mbps conversion within headunit, Rear USB & Aux input, Parrot Bluetooth option, New longer 3-line data display, MP3/WMA/AAC file reading abilities, Optional wired remote control

KDC-W6541U – CD Tuner to be sold typically @ £159
Vario colour display illumination – 10 presets or use RGB levels for any colour you like for a perfect dash-match, Direct 1-wire iPod connection;12mbps conversion within headunit, Parrot Bluetooth option, Two sets of RCA preouts, New longer 3-line data display, MP3/WMA/AAC file reading abilities, Rear USB & Aux input, Wired remote control

KDC-BT8041U – CD Tuner to be sold typically @ £199
4x50w, Emotional Illumination, Parrot Bluetooth Built in, Two RCA preouts, Rear USB & Aux input, Direct 1-wire iPod connection;12mbps conversion within headunit, New 3-line data display

KDC-W7041U – CD Tuner to be sold typically @ £199
4x50w, Full dot mono FL display, Rear USB & Aux input, Direct 1-wire iPod connection;12mbps conversion within headunit, Parrot Bluetooth option, MP3/WMA/AAC file reading abilities, Wired remote control

KDC-W7541U – CD Tuner to be sold typically @ £249
Rear USB & Aux input, Direct 1-wire iPod connection;12mbps conversion within headunit, Eight tone multi colour four line dot display, Parrot Bluetooth option, Three sets of RCA preouts @ 4V, MP3/WMA/AAC file reading abilities, Optional wired remote control

KDC-W9537U – CD Tuner to be sold typically @ £499
Remains Kenwood’s £500 CD tuner flagship model and has been reviewed here

While CD tuner sales are declining year on year, the sales of multimedia decks continues to spiral. In answer to this, Kenwood have some new kit to apply to that urge.

KVT-522DVD – DVD Tuner to be sold typically @ £600
1-Box design with no ‘hideaway’ needed, Parrot Bluetooth option, Direct 1-wire iPod connection;12mbps conversion within headunit, USB, DVD/DivX/mpeg/jpeg formats and files covered, MP3/WMA/AAC file reading abilities, DVB-T digital TV tuner ready, Garmin Navigation ready, Adjustable GUI colour, Customisable source screen graphic

DNX5220BT – DVD Tuner to be sold typically @ £1000
Six inch touch screen
Parrot Bluetooth built in
USB/ Direct 1-wire iPod connection;12mbps conversion within headunit
Front A/V input
Integrated Garmin Navigation with TMC included
Variable key and icon colour by RGB adjustment or by presets

DDX5022 – DVD Tuner to be sold typically @ £600
Six inch touch screen
Parrot Bluetooth option
USB/ Direct 1-wire iPod connection;12mbps conversion within headunit
Front A/V input
Garmin Navigation option
Source customisation for display

DNX8220BT – Audiophile Unit to be sold typically @ £1300
Seven inch touch screen
Parrot Bluetooth built in
USB/ Direct 1-wire iPod connection Audio/ Video control with IP300
Garmin Navigation with TMC included
Full DSP: Time alignment per speaker
5.1 Surround decoding for Dolby Digital and dts

DDX8022BT – Audiophile unit w/o navigation to be sold typically @ £1000
As the 8220 above except no navigation

DPX502U – Double DIN CD tuner to be sold typically @ £249
4x50w
Front Aux and USB
Direct iPod control
Parrot Bluetooth option
MP3/WMA/AAC file reading abilities

There are to be three ranges of amplifiers for 2008, with a smaller footprint (40% smaller for specification) and a better power-to-pounds cost ratio. The top one remains as the Performance Series but there are some newbies:

KAC-6404 – 4Channel amplifier to be sold typically @ £79
4x50w RMS
500w max
Variable low pass filter
High Pass filter
Aluminium cast chassis
Speaker level and RCA input

KAC-8104D – Mono Channel amplifier to be sold typically @ £149
KAC-9104D – Mono Channel amplifier to be sold typically @ £249
Blue illumination
1800 Watts Peak
Lowpass filter/subsonic filter (15Hz or 25Hz)
Cast Aluminium Chassis
2 Ohm Drive and 1 Ohm for the 9104
Speaker level input C/W Signal sensing turn on

KSC-SW10 – Under seat powered subwoofer system to be sold typically @ £200
5×7 inch driver
wired remote
150w

There’s another big story for Kenwood this season and its all about OEM integration. The basic system is called the KOS-V500 and it’s all about being able to fit extra accessories where the car makers didn’t want you to and so adds Kenwood’s name to those like JL Audio, Alpine, Audio Control and others who have addressed this issue. We’ll look at that in it’s very own review type oversight article – we have an appointment at head office for that one.

It’s looking good but if you want to experience it for yourself, visit the official website and check out where your nearest proper Kenwood stockist is located – your Premier Demonstration Dealer.
www.kenwood-electronics.co.uk