Kenwood CarPortal System

A system to allow integration of aftermarket equipment to embedded factory fit car audio systems so allowing the addition of exterior audio and video sources, whilst retaining full use of all the car’s own factory controls and fitted options. The centre of the system is the KOS-V500, which costs £449, or the slightly enhanced and cosmetically prettier KOS-V1000 for £599. These both have the same remote control with around forty buttons. Some are rockers and there is a multi-position plus push-in control for menu selection. These ‘brain’ units have the same features, except that the slab-of-alloy faced one has two, not one USB inputs and has two Audio Visual sets of signal outputs, rather than the single one found on the KOS-V500. Both contain Kenwood’s K3i FM tuner and offer controls to any vestigial CD changers folks might own. (Two in fact if you want.) The V500 & V1000 share the same size of 4 x 50w MOSFET power chip, as well as both offering a triumvirate of RCA outs at a healthy 2V to drive any amplifiers. (5V for the V1000) Both will accept many accessories in the form of TV tuners, Parrot-front-end Bluetooth boxes and the Garmin-fettled GPS navigation unit and each has a dedicated reversing camera input. You get full control of iPod, complete with album art and video control.
You can use V500 & V1000 audio-only with the £149 KOS-A200 remote control system that uses RDS text to control the display of your OEM radio and sends the audio up the aerial lead as if it were your very own radio station with audio sources you choose. This is an utterly unique new take on the old FM modulator.
Alternatively, for full A/V use, the £69.00 KOS-CV100 overlays a graphical user interface over the car’s own OEM LCD screen which you boss via a remoteand-eye, or else add a screen (two sizes KOS-L702 6.95 inch for £349 or KOS-L432 4.3 inch for £299) that has touch sensitive control and so obviates use of the included remote for all but rear seat passengers. These screens come with a quick release stand or can be built in. There is a mute circuit for navigation messages and for use with the phone and the systems will do dual-zone audio.
– 4 x 50w (MOSFET Power IC)
– 6.95 inch or 4.3 inch touch panel control with full graphic user interface
– 1 or 2 x USB inputs
– iPod USB Direct Connection with optional cable (KCA-iP300V iPod-Video)
– iPod Full Control/ iPod Video/ iPod Album Art
– 2 RCA A/V In
– 1 or 2 RCA A/V Out
– 1 RCA Video Input for Rear View Camera (reverse sensing)
– Front/rear/sub RCA out @ 2V for KOS-V500 & 5V for KOS-V1000
– Choice of ‘skins’ for the GUI and 12 different display backgrounds
– Remote control supplied
– OEM interface by KOS-A200 I/R ‘eye’ and RDS remote/FM modulator system or else by KOS-CV100 RGB OEM screen interface or by use of KOS-L702 or KOS-L432 touch panels
– System E’s+ (Built-in HPF/LPF crossovers) & System Q EQ
– Parrot Bluetooth hands free with optional (£119) KCA-BT200 unit
– May be accessorised with:
CCD-2000 rear view camera (£149)
KNA-G520 solid state Garmin Satnav (£799)
LZ-702IR extra headrest monitor (£349)
KTC-D500E dual tuner diversity TV receiver (£349)
Review by Adam Rayner
There are sufficient offerings in this bracket for Talk Audio to have a special category for them, ‘OEM Integrators’. The USA has led us all for the longest time on this front as it was there that the so-called ‘premium’ OEM sound systems first started to get fitted to cars. Deeply embedded, it was no longer a case of a DIN size unit hiding behind a panel. No, you had remote dashboard displays for the radio and volume and tuning controls on the steering wheel. At first it was simply an issue of keeping up with the wiring differences between marques and getting into the OEM wiring system was a matter of wires going to the right places. These days we have a much more complicated set up and many newer cars have screens in them too. Let alone the fact that the old reliance on DIN sizing has gone out of the window. The factory entertainment ordnance is often wired in with the same panel that deals with climate control and in many cases the raw sound output from the player they do have is acceptable, if only it could be sent off to some quality equipment.
That said, the likes of Alpine (Imprint) Audio Control, JL Audio, Rockford Fosgate and others have all got OEM Integration solutions. Of the ones I know of, most are about allowing a decent access point to add equipment and facilities and are not themselves about building big systems, they are the ‘point of entry’ to OEM and you can go as mad as you want from there. They are about correcting the EQ of big fancy multi-amp USA in-car OEM kit. Those with a serious amount of wattage able to be accepted by the AudioControl in particular. The JL Clean Sweep and the Alpine and AudioControl products are very much about taking a system from a top end car and firstly correcting the EQ as an audio-based solution. Alpine even calls theirs AntEQ.
The Kenwood system is a purely A/V features and benefits issue and is designed to be used with a high level or an RCA signal input and can interface with most OEM screens as well via the RGB converter device. There is an option to add rear screens and these looked as well-fed as any I have seen on ‘normal’ systems on the demo board I saw. If your car has no screen of its own, you can fit one of the Kenwood touchy-feelies while still using your own dashboard CD player. In fact the combinations and permutations of simple plug and play features and benefits that the system gives the owners of lots of cars driving around now is excellent. I particularly liked the FM modulator KOS-A200 that has an RDS encoder within it, so the Kenwood system feeds words of text into your OEM radio via the aerial lead too. Cool and utterly unique, the clever fellows.
It does depend in sound upon the speakers that you use and which amplification you choose (if you don’t go with the 4x50w on board power) but you can easily get a full Kenwood system to do the lot.
It is a slightly newer and more mainstream approach to OEM headaches. Avoiding worries of the OEM ‘premium’ sound system upgrades and leaving that to JL, Alpine and AudioControl and concentrating on simply adding features and benefits to the legion of previously unassailable car sound systems that don’t have huge hidden amps and yet without messing with the car’s own insides.
I liked it a lot and they even have a version that can be used as a feature piece in the shape of the KOS-V1000, to put under a clear window in a soundoff feature install. This one has a slabby front, and a couple more ins and outs but best of all has a healthy 5 Volt signal output at the RCAs. This makes for better sound for any amps you may connect. So, this is far more than an audio hideaway set up. The Kenwood KOS OEM integration solution may just be the most accessible on the market.
Sound Quality 8.0
Ease Of Use/HMI 9.0
Flexibility 8.0
DSP Power 9.0
Value For Money 8.0
Overall rating 8.4