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1 out of 1 people found this review helpful
5.0 stars
"Everything I wanted"
Pros: Bluetooth, USB, color options, remote, EQ w/ parametric
Cons: Menus get a little hard to navigate until you get used to it.
Summary: I did lots of research on which HU to purchase. I wanted bluetooth with an external mic (not part of the head unit itself or hidden away behind the faceplate), USB, and wanted to color match my indiglo guage dash. The bluetooth works perfectly. The external mic on my sun visor sounds great on the far end, even better than my bluetooth earpeice I was using before. I can turn the volume up and down as needed and the sound comes through my stereo speakers with plenty of volume and no complaints of echo from the other end. The downside is you will need to have your windows rolled up while driving, or wind noise will be bad. My entire contact list was uploaded automatically when I first paired my phone, and the stereo pairs with my phone when I turn the key on, no button presses needed... ever. Awesome. Voice recognition works great with the press of the phone button on the face of the head unit. You can also search your contacts by name, phone number, or recent calls from the stereo. When using voice recognition to make calls, the stereo does not display the name you are calling, however it does tell you who is calling when calls ring in. If I make a call from the list inside the phone, the name will show on the display. I think it does the same for text messages, but it didn't work the one time I tried it. Don't care, as I almost never text.
The USB is great! It will run a flash drive, or even power a hard disk drive and will see as much music up to 10 gig! That's a lot of music. I ran the USB cable from the back of the head unit to my unused ashtray. It keeps multiple 4 gig flash drives and I just swap them depending on the music I want to listen to, then close the ashtray and search through the flash drive like I would an MP3 disc. No more cd's rattling around in my glove box!!! Wait, it gets better.
The display can be configured to your choice of over 1700 different colors. That's right. I matched the dash of my SVT Focus indiglo guages perfectly! Amazing.
The remote is a little clunky. Not very large at all, but good to keep in your pocket if you are hanging out in a parking lot and need easy access to tunes and volume.
The JVC KD-BT1 has 3 sets of pre-outs. The front and rear are fading pre's at 2.5 volts. The non-fading sub pre's are 4 volt.
The unit has a built in eq, and parameteric eq. Also has built in crossover for the sub at your choice of 80hz, 120 hz, or 160hz. Also allows you to select the volume for the sub. I use this feature often, just by pressing the select button once, then turning the volume knob for the sub volume or the track forward and track backward to adjust the crossover frequency. Easy as pie.
I can't comment on the power output of this unit. I use the preouts. A 4 channel Alpine to run my 4 door speaker Infinity 6x8's and an MTX mono sub amp to run a single JL Audio 10w3.
I must say that I like the display. Usually only very expensive units will give a higher resolution display that will give more than a few words at a time. This JVC unit has plenty of room to show the entire track name, artist name, folder number, track number, time elapsed, without having to scroll, although some longer track names will scroll (user defined to scroll once, or continuously).
The KD-BT1 has a mini jack on the back to plug in a PAC SWI-JACK to keep the factory steering wheel controls. I don't have one yet, but will soon. The mini jack on the head unit is better than the normal IR emitters because sunlight does not interfere with the hard wired remote. Great!
I was astounded to find all of my requirements in one head unit. My freinds first said to not buy JVC, and to get an Alpine or comparable. After they have checked out all the features like parametric EQ and the extensive options in the deep menus that I haven't talked about, they have a much found respect for the new JVC KD-BT1. I'm very glad I purchased this unit, for all the reasons I have told you about, and more. If you need a GREAT sounding phone system in your auto to pair with your bluetooth phone, USB to hold days of music, color options to match your dash perfectly, and 3 sets or pre-outs for a full fledged sound system with outboard amps (again I can't comment on the built-in amp), not to mention the great display that doen't jump around all the time while your driving to distract you, then this head unit is perfect. I don't regret this purchase, and if I need to replace it for any reason down the road, I will buy another just like it. 10 out of 10 all the way!
JVC KD-BT1:
