KENWOOD KDC-X7100DAB STATE-OF-THE-ART FLAGSHIP LAUNCHED

KENWOOD have been very active at this years’ CES with press releases about the brand new North American market products streaming into my inbox all show long. However, with totally different digital radio provision and always that FM tuning step difference, we don’t tend to run releases about American units as apart from anything else, we tend to get different feature sets as well, in small market-led ways.
But one thing that Kenwood have always been awesome at, has been the high end sound quality thing in car stereo units. Some readers may not know this but in the past, there have even been limited edition runs of specially ‘˜breathed upon’ editions of radios.(or fancily hand-enhanced with posher components here and there where it costs a bit..) There was a 25th anniversary one. that was a while back. Anybody know HOW long?
As part of that SQ thing was Kenwood’s early adoption of the Free Lossless Audio Codec or FLAC super-resolution open-source digital music file player system. It uses big files and they can get a bit huge if they are high resolution. But ermahgerd it can sound awesome. So although we were promised high bitrate, massive mad sampling rate FLAC fully three years ago, it has taken a bit longer for the 48kHz, 24 bit FLAC to end up in the machines. Kenwood were first with FLAC, mind.
Now, ‘˜machine’ implies moving parts and one of these FLAC-ing awesome devices has no quaint Compact Disc slot at all. (Mind you, I use the CD slot in my Ovlov to park a phone holder that shoves its tongue in the slot to hold on!) I do love discsbut that FLAC decoder will make a CD sound harsh and flat by comparison – if you have a sweet recording in Full Fat FLAC.
Described as their state-of-the-art flagship, meet the Kenwood KDC-X7100DAB.
Here are the feature highlights:
– Dual USB rear inputs which therefore gives a larger front display since no input on the front uses the space & you can plug stuff in to the USBs in the glovebox, (with an expert to make the orifice needed) for greater device fitting convenience.
– 16 Digit, two line display
– NFC for easy Bluetooth pairing
– FIVE phones pairing for music streaming
– Kenwood remote app feature available from the Apple store and Google Play store*
– FLAC at 48kHz / 24-bit
– DAB radio
– Built-in DSP Digital Sound Processor with digital time alignment
– 13-band EQ


And here is the KMM-BT203. A completely disc mechanism-free, or Mechless Bluetooth 1 DIN stereo
Highlights as follows:
– Bluetooth hands-free calling and music streaming
– FIVE phones pairing for music streaming
– Kenwood remote app feature available from the Apple store and Google Play store*
– iPhone and Android music playback
– FLAC at 48kHz / 24-bit
– Built-in DSP Digital Sound Processor with digital time alignment
– 13-band EQ.


*Here’s where to find links to the Android app, the Apple app and indeed all the automotive apps that Kenwood run : Link
UK Kenwood website: Link