JVC KD-HDR50 30K Color-Illumination Single-DIN HD Radio CD Receiver with Remote Control USB 2.0 for iPod/iPhone

5 comments

1. 

   Michael L. Rowan on January 11, 2010 at 3:40 pm

   After setting my 18 pre-set stations, I realized how difficult navigation is. To jump from one pre-set to the next, you have to click MENU, then turn the Volume wheel to scroll through the 18 pre-sets. Your pre-set stations are not presented in number (94.5) but are displayed by call letters (KTBZ-FM). I don’t know about you, but I know NONE of the call letters of the several stations I normally listen to. There is no option to change this to display the frequency number instead of the call letters. Clicking a button to use the scroll wheel to find stations by call letters is not convenient or quick. With other radios you can choose your pre-sets in a blink. With this radio, you have to take your eyes off the road for several minutes to try to figure out what staion your Volume wheel is displaying.
   
   Also, the display is not legible during the daytime (when the sun is out).
   
   This may be a feature-rich radio, but the features I need are not easily accessable which make this a poor design. I did not try out the other options. Instead, I am replacing the radio.

2. 

   Bruce Kuhr on January 11, 2010 at 4:21 pm

   Had a reception problem that turned out to be due to a problem with my antenna adapter. Once I fixed it, reception was crystal clear. No complaints about the unit. I actually like the way they handle presets – contrary to many other reviewers.

3. 

   S. Ignjatovic on January 11, 2010 at 7:10 pm

   This product is very good. My speakers are, I guess, very low quality ones, so I still cannot have the full insight in the product. Still, the sound is very decent.

   I haven’t tried the HD radio yet, but I can’t wait to hear how that sounds !

4. 

   Kevin on January 11, 2010 at 9:34 pm

   This is a very nice car stereo with a couple of very serious flaws that affect sound quality and ‘tweakability’. If you wish to read no further, in summation I’d say it’s an awesome upgrade from a factory stereo and well worth the $$$ if you’re just going to yank a factory stereo and you want a cheap upgrade to regular Analog Broadcast radio. If, however, you’re like me and have never kept a ‘factory’ stereo in a car in your life, and run separate amps for your subwoofers and such, you may wish to consider an alternative unit.

   I’m a Systems Engineer and I like to play with things to maximize their potential. I bought this headunit to replace a JVC Arsenal KD-AR870 (from 2006) with Sirius SIR-JVC1 Sirius radio tuner. I wanted something that could receive streaming digital audio without the premium price and subscription fees associated with satellite radio. I also spend a minimum of 10 hours a week in my car, so I wanted something more than just typical FM radio (which I already had). Also, I liked this unit being a JVC because 1) I’ve had really good luck with JVC headunits and 2) I already have a JVC harness installed in my car so it would be a 10-minute super easy upgrade installation. When this unit went on sale and my Sirius subscription ran out, I was pushed over the edge and I took the plunge.

   I have a ‘93 Honda Accord with all 4 factory speakers replaced with Alpine Type-S speakers, 2 MTX Thunder 3000 subs, and a 620-watt amp to drive them. When I installed this headunit I immediately noticed a decrease in the power of the ‘punch’ in the subs, no matter how I set the Subwoofer output level. A look at the specs of this model vs. my old model shows why – the preouts on this are only 2.5v, whereas my old unit had 5v preouts. This is how JVC differentiates between their premium ‘Arsenal’ line (the AR59) and their ‘regular’ line (this model) – by crippling the hardware. They do this just to encourage you to buy the ‘upscale’ line instead. I would have bought the AR59 but it was unavailable at the time I ordered it. Now I really wish I had waited for the 2010 line to come out and bought the new model with the 5v preout.

   I knew that one going in, and I adjusted my sub amp accordingly, but the other thing about this unit that really sucks is that it is severely hampered in the equalization department. Even though the product picture clearly shows ‘LOUDNESS’ being ON, the feature doesn’t exist. There’s even a spot on the display for it, they just decided not to include it for some reason. This is extremely annoying. I’ve never had a receiver which didn’t have a working ‘loudness’ control to boost the bass and treble. Also, on my old AR870, they had built-in a kind of graphical parametric equalizer, where you set the center frequencies you wanted to adjust and went from there. Not so in this unit; all there is are seven bands of non-adjustable equalization points which, combined with the lack of loudness control, make for a pretty lame unit sound shaping wise. No matter how much I play around with the EQ settings, I can’t make it sound as good as my old headunit playing MP3’s or CD’s.

   I own 2 MP3 players, a Sansa Connect and a Zune 30. I will never own an iPod or any other Apple product for that matter – they are simply overpriced for their ‘chicness’ and so I could do without all of the real estate taken up by the iPod integration into this unit. I don’t fault JVC for it; it is just pretty much useless to me.

   Now, for the good stuff. HD Radio is the bomb. It sounds like a 128KBps digital sound stream. Usually stations have an ‘HD2′ and sometimes even an ‘HD3′ alternative commercial-free channel upon which they play different programming. It’s a beautiful thing. If I were rating HD Radio in and of itself, I’d easily give it 5 stars. As long as you’re within range it’s static-free and sounds great, similar to playing an MP3.

   The display is very bright and clear. If they would have used RDS instead of having ‘No Text’ show up on analog broadcasts it would have been sweet. The clock auto-set feature is nice. Menus are actually easier and more intuitive to navigate than my old headunit’s were, but still could be better (that’s just JVC though). The adjustable illumination is a very nice feature. You can adjust Red, Green, and Blue levels to match your car’s interior. The sensitivity of the FM tuner is very good – it pulls in far away analog broadcasts with ease. It also looks pretty classy.

   I also would like to note that a 2.5″ SFF 40GB HDD, formatted as FAT32, wouldn’t be recognized by this stereo, which was a disappointment. One of the reasons I wanted to upgrade was because of a 4GB limitation on the USB device size on the AR870, this unit is supposed to not have that limitation and is supposed to be able to power an external drive up to 500mA current draw, which I question. I’ll try a WD Passport the next time I get my hands on one, because I think it’s a power issue, and they draw a little less power nowadays than they used to.

   I know that soon they are releasing the 2010 models – the KD-HDR60 and KD-AHD69 – I wish I would have waited for the AHD69 just for the 5v preouts alone – I hope that they address the 2 issues listed above (EQ and loudness) and then they would have the trifecta. I also don’t like the ‘crippling’ of a product just so you opt for the more expensive one. But that I can live with; I just didn’t realize how big of an affect the preout voltage would have. If they at least make the new models have a ‘loudness’ control and you opt for a model with the 5v preout for driving subs, you should have a winner. As-is this is a great model for somebody who just wants to replace their factory radio with something a lot cooler and with much greater listening options.

5. 

   Larry Warshauer on January 11, 2010 at 10:01 pm

   The radio works fine but the usb feature is limited in functionality because there is no way to scroll through the many albums on a micro sd card. You have to press a button to go through the list of albums. So if the album you want is the 100 on the micro card you have to press the button one hundred times to find it. Other than that problem, the radio works and sounds fine.