Kenwood KDC9090

...something which is unique to Kenwood - The DMASK+ system. this allows one of two things. For security purposes you dont want people to know you have a £300+ cd player in your car, so you want to take the fascia with you. Well you can do this with the kenwood (as with many other brands), OR you can allow the fascia to flip over to reveal a black panel which hides the fact that you have this amazing unit in your car. Another very good security feature ...
...the unit in, it will not allow you to do anything at all, it will just sit there and play a demonstration. To unlock it you have to use the "key". this is a little blue keyring with a tiny transmitter built in. you aim this at the front of the fascia and hold down the little button until it shows three cheerys (like a fruit machine). You only have to do this the first time you power it up, or each time u reconnect the power.

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I bought this unit 3 months ago now, as a replacement for a 3 year old pioneer unit i had.

I bought this unit after reading through the huge list of features that it comes with. It has two RCA Pre-Outs for connecting external amplifiers, both of which are high voltage 4.5v (this means a much cleaner signal than most 2v units). These are fading, which meand you can balance between them, and also fade from left to right (not all units have this). In terms of sound quality adjustment, its great. You can adjust all levels of tone to suit your personal tastes or requirements via the System Q button ( a bright blue button on the left with Q on). It has nmany presets like rock, pop, classic, soft etc, but as i said, if you dont like any of these, you can adjust it manually with ease.

It has something which is unique to Kenwood - The DMASK+ system. this allows one of two things. For security purposes you dont want people to know you have a £300+ cd player in your car, so you want to take the fascia with you. Well you can do this with the kenwood (as with many other brands), OR you can allow the fascia to flip over to reveal a black panel which hides the fact that you have this amazing unit in your car. Another very good security feature of ths unit is the DMASK Key. When first plugging the unit in, it will not allow you to do anything at all, it will just sit there and play a demonstration. To unlock it you have to use the "key". this is a little blue keyring with a tiny transmitter built in. you aim this at the front of the fascia and hold down the little button until it shows three cheerys (like a fruit machine). You only have to do this the first time you power it up, or each time u reconnect the power.

It comes with a credit card size remote which has all the controls you need (play/pause, skip tracks, direct track access, volume, tuner controls, and source button). This remote has a good range (can allow you to opperate from outside the car), and only takes one tiny button battery, which i havnt had to change in 3 months so far.
It also comes with a hard facia carrying case to protect it from scratches and scrapes while carrying it around with you.

This unit looks fantastic, finished in piano black, with a full dot matrix screen. It has a symetrical design, with a matching button layout. It is simple and easy to use, with access to the menus very easy via the self explanatory buttons.
When fliped over it has a plain black matt finish which makes it blend in to the rest of the dash very well.

This is my only gripe. It really wasnt the easiest to install. The physical plugging in was easy (all i had to do was plug the adaptor that it cam with in to the original wiring plug), and it had power within about 10 minutes, but to activate it, you have to use the DMASK key (as i explained further up). it took about 10 attempts to activate, but once done, all that was left to do was slide the unit in to the dash, and put the frame on the front plate.

In terms of compatibility, it is comaptible with all cars with an ISO (standard wiring plug) connector and a single DIN (standard hole size in the dashboard). If it doesnt have either of thsese, you can normally buy a facia adaptor to make it fit, or with the wiring, you can use the unwired connector to connect the individual wires up.

This is a great unit, and one of the best upgrades you can make to a system. Prices have fallen from £450 to around £300 now, so jump at it before theyre all gone! 

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