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CNET editors' rating:
2.5 stars
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Product summary
The good: The Kenwood DPX302 plays a range of compressed digital audio formats, has a handy auxiliary input jack, and features some advanced audio-tweaking controls.
The bad: The system's poor faceplate design, threadbare display, and tacky controls make it difficult to navigate and select music files.
The bottom line: The Kenwood DPX302 has basic digital audio support and some advanced audio-customization features, but its user interface is less than adequate, even for an entry-level car stereo.
Specifications: Audio system car audio type: Radio / CD / MP3 player; Tuner bands type: Radio tuner; CD system type: CD / MP3 player; See full specs
Price range: $168.00 - $249.99
CNET editors' review
- Reviewed on: 05/09/2007
- Released on: 03/08/2007
The double DIN-size Kenwood DPX302 is a budget car stereo with a budget feel. For a stereo with such a large amount of spare faceplate real estate (many other units manage to pack in the same amount of features to a single-DIN rig), the controls on the system are far less than user-friendly. Its hard plastic buttons feel cheap, and its user interface is far more complex than it needs to be. While it does support a range of modern audio sources, including MP3 and WMA discs as well as portable media players (via a standard auxiliary-input jack), the capability to navigate digital-audio libraries with the system's single-line dot matrix display is very limited.
Design
With its silver controls, luminous blue backlighting, and lacquered black plastic trim, the Kenwood DPX302 looks at first glance like a stylish car stereo. However, upon closer inspection, the sheen quickly wears off. The volume knob to the left of the faceplate feels cheap and poorly integrated, as does the loose, fiddly control knob on the opposite side of the unit. The small source button--which doubles as the on/off switch--is hidden next to the far more prominent control knob joystick, and the menu button (which doubles as the EQ preset control) is even smaller and less visible.
The Kenwood DPX302 features a single-line, monochrome dot matrix display, which is bright enough to be visible even in direct sunlight but is extremely limited in the amount of information it can show at any one time. If the designers of the unit had not assigned so much space to advertising the system's capabilities on either side of the display, the screen itself could have been made twice as long and far more useful. On a positive note, we do like the DPX302's prominent auxiliary-input minijack for connecting portable digital audio players.
Features
Like most car stereos of the digital age, the Kenwood DPX302 can play AM/FM radio and regular Red Book CDs as well as discs encoded with the main compressed audio formats, including MP3, WMA, and AAC. When playing back digital-audio discs, the dot matrix display shows artist and track information, which scroll automatically across the screen in a stuttering stream. While the information is legible, the screen shows only 10 characters at a time, meaning that the driver will have to wait for a while to read long song titles.
Perhaps the system's most impressive features are its advanced audio settings for listening to disc-based and radio sources. The Kenwood DPX302 features dedicated controls for tweaking the front and rear high pass filters, as well as a setting for the low pass filter and controls for subwoofer phasing. For compressed audio tracks recorded at a very low bit rate (below 96Kbps), a Supreme setting restores their high-frequency region in order to improve lost sound quality.
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Where to buy
Kenwood DPX302:
$168.00 - $249.99
| store | price | in stock? | rating |
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$249.99 | Yes |
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$179.99 | Yes |
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$195.00 | Yes |
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$189.99 | Yes |
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Amazon.com
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$168.00 | Yes |
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