Friday, December 27, 2024
Car AudioProduct Reviews

Kenwood KFC-X692C

One of the classiest-looking from above, the Kenwood grilles look posh with their edges picked out with only narrow but shinier-than-others strips of chrome. Their bass cones are made to look like they are made from posh woven high end fabric but this is purely cosmetics and called ‘Fiber texture’ (sic). Three-way designs, the mid is handled by a one inch fabric dome in a small stubby horn with more of the posh silvery edging and the topmost tones are taken on by a small shiny dome made of Polyetherimide or PEI.
– Pressed Steel chassis
– 20mm PEI balanced dome tweeter
– 25mm soft dome midrange driver
– Power handling 100w RMS, 300w peak
– Sensitivity 89dB (2.83V, 1m)
– Frequency Response: 50Hz to 25kHz
– Impedance 4 Ohms- Mounting depth 85mm
– Lug connection terminals for spade-end speaker connectors
– Cardboard die-cut fitting template, gasketing, fixings and speaker cable included
– Steel mesh grilles with Chromed edges
Review by Adam Rayner
Immediately it was apparent that these were much brighter and toppier than the RE Audio 69FR I had just tested. (I like to go up in price order.) Lovely mouth sounds on girly vocals make you want to snog them and these are really good on the bass accuracy that good 6x9s can muster. Tighter than tens but with some real air shifting ability, there is a track I used to test a Morel Ultimo subwoofer with (#10 on Spirit of Sound 6)that has a real high frequency edge to the biff biff biff of a simple drum beat high in the mix. The Morel had this super-Fi edge to it that the Kenwood KFC-X692s showed a bit of. A sort of waver within the hit of the drum, with a metallic edge. Tight as a small cat�s butt and remarkable and worth an extra SQ point.
Tolerant to being driven hard, I spanked these big old brutes and raised a maximum of a huge 116.9dB, most of which weight would be carried by the bass line. Indeed, I drove them so hard on the TA test rig that the room filled with that particular smell that hot voice coils give off as further volatiles are boiled out from their adhesives. A bit like the smell a car gives off when it’s been driven a bit over-vigorously. I felt like that filthy character Miggs in Silence of the Lambs. “I can smell your voice coilllll!”
They come with sorts of bits and bobs to assemble and fit them with and are a classy looking, high output set with good all round performance for the money.
Overall 7.8
Sound Quality 8
Build Quality 8
Power Handling 8
Efficiency 7
Value For Money 8