Kenwood KDC-W 3037

...to one. Purchase selected: The Kenwood KDC-W 3037 A (installation was free).

* Installation *

I’m guessing the reason the installation was free was the model was being phased out and they wanted to clear their stock, but as long as it works, that’s fine by me.

The sales/technician guy who installed it took just 5 minutes to take out the old one and install the new one. As I thought, there was a (small) ...
...sorted it out with little problem.

I noticed that the instructions have a section on how to install it yourself, though personally, unless you have some experience I find it less troublesome and frustrating if you get someone else to do it, even if it costs more (just remember to add the cost to the equation when your budgeting for your purchase).

*The package *

So, what did I get for my 80 quid?
... more

* My story *

I’ve been meaning to get a new car radio since I bought the car last September. The old one was very basic, just a radio with a cassette player. A few weeks ago, after a loud pop sound from the speakers, the radio suddenly stopped. I tried various things, including checking the ariel and even the fuse – no joy – so off to Halfords I went.

I made a 'must-have' list and a 'nice-to-have' list in my head. Most people do a little research and write down what they want but not me. After all, it’s just a radio for the car, isn’t it?

Must-haves are: Radio (obvious really but it’s a good start), CD (and why not), and not forgetting the most important item: cheap (under £100).

Nice-to-haves are: MP3, radio/cd text, DVD player (no wait, scrub that, that’s for next time), USB (for listening to MP3 without having to write to CDs first).

Although there wasn’t a vast number to choose from, there were lots of types of car radio’s to look at, including some awesome DVD players (add to my to-buy list), but for the moment, all I wanted was a radio for the car.

With my lists in my head, I now start my search and I find two or three that I can tick off the list. The ones I’ve selected seemed nice, but I forgot that the new car radio will need to be installed and the old one taken out. I’m sure it’s simple to do, but there’s always something that goes wrong when I try to do these things. With the cost of having this done taken into account the list of selected car radios dwindles to one. Purchase selected: The Kenwood KDC-W 3037 A (installation was free).

* Installation *

I’m guessing the reason the installation was free was the model was being phased out and they wanted to clear their stock, but as long as it works, that’s fine by me.

The sales/technician guy who installed it took just 5 minutes to take out the old one and install the new one. As I thought, there was a (small) problem finding the right power connection, but the tech guy sorted it out with little problem.

I noticed that the instructions have a section on how to install it yourself, though personally, unless you have some experience I find it less troublesome and frustrating if you get someone else to do it, even if it costs more (just remember to add the cost to the equation when your budgeting for your purchase).

*The package *

So, what did I get for my 80 quid?

Fairly obvious stuff really; the unit itself, an instruction manual (see below), and a nice cloth bag for the detachable front display.

The unit seems fairly straightforward, the volume knob (on the left) and the tiny control joystick (on the right) stands out, with some small buttons around the unit, including the buttons for the preset stations (at the bottom), and of course the LED display in the centre. They all seem nicely spaced out and easy to access.

* General Use *

Before I drove away from Halfords, I had a quick go at finding some familiar radio stations. I’m a big Radio 2 fan, so that was found quickly, but I also found the other stations within 90 seconds. Assigning them to the preset station buttons was very easy. I simply held down the assigned button for 2 seconds, after a beep it was done. There are 6 buttons for preset stations, though they are based on which frequency type the radio is using (FM1,2 & 3, MW and LW) – 24 presets in total (18FM, 3LW, 3MW). Assigning the FM stations took under 2 minutes. Changing the frequency types is very easy (just move the joystick up).

I was very eager to play around with it but I decided to wait until I got home first. As drove home listening to Jonathon Ross, I noticed that the display was still in Demo Mode. That’s the first thing to switch off when I got home. I quickly flicked through the manual and found the section on how to turn it off. I tried the series of steps and it beeped at me – that’s that sorted, what’s next – let’s try the Radio Text feature. Another series of steps I followed from the manual and I got a scrolling message telling me about the current programme of Radio 2 – so far so good. Then after a few seconds it told me it was still in Demo Mode – strange I thought I had turned it off. I tried again – it beep at me again, but after a few seconds – I got the Demo Mode message. It must be faulty. I couldn’t be bothered to take it back just then; I had just come from Halfords and I’m about to travel to see my mother in Liverpool. I’ll go back later.

Whilst driving on the motorway towards Liverpool I found the unit very nice; It had a feature to turn the sound down quickly (one button press), which was useful when shouting at the kids in the back to be quiet (pressing the button again to reinstate the volume). The annoying Demo Mode message was starting to get on my nerves. When I got to Liverpool I went through the manual again trying to find if there was another way to turn the Demo Mode off. I gave up and decided to ignore it until I got back to Halfords.

Unfortunately, I was due to travel to Luton Airport the following day and I didn’t find the time to get to Halfords. I did find the time to write some MP3’s onto a CD before I left. I popped the CD in and drove off down to Luton Airport with my SatNav plugged into the car whilst listening to some nice MP3’s – very nice.

The MP3 play feature was very straightforward, which nicely displays the title and artist (which can be changed to suit). The control joystick allowed the changing of the tracks (moving it left and right). The buttons for the preset radio stations worked differently when the CD player was in use. The buttons for random tracks are available, though difficult to see which button did what without looking down and squinting. This could have been designed better. Each button had letters above them to indicate what they did, though you needed the manual to find out what they mean.

When I stopped at some motorway services, I tried plugging a cable between the SatNav and the car radio via a standard min-jack socket, but it didn’t seem to work. There was no sound coming from the speakers. Once again, I flicked through the manual. I found out that the Ext Aux. feature wasn’t enabled, so I needed to fiddle with it and I got a ‘Turn left at the next junction’ voice from the speakers – it worked. Sadly, it didn’t work while I was listening to an MP3, which would have been nice, but my SatNav could play MP3’s so it didn’t matter too much. The Ext Aux feature has two modes, which wasn’t explained very well in the manual, and frankly I can’t seem to see any difference between the two, so I’ve left it on default setting.

Whilst, looking through the manual, I re-read the section on the Demo Mode and this time I noticed above the section that it needs to be in stand-by mode before attempting to turn off Demo Mode, so I tried it and low-and-behold, it said clearly Demo Mode On. I flicked it to off and it beeped again. When I turned the radio back on and waited – no Demo Mode message – it worked!

* Short Rant About Demo Mode Features *

I’ve never worked out why manufacturers have a Demo Mode that is so difficult to turn off - or turn on for, that matter, after all why would you – the buyer, want to turn a demo mode back on? Why can’t the Demo Mode be accessed from the back, via a switch or something? Why must it be on by default? It’s a selling ploy – once the unit’s sold the Demo Mode is useless.

I have a very nice Hi-Fi at home. Like most, it has a Demo Mode. It comes with a nice remote control. A while ago, my son spilt some of his drink on the remote control and it wouldn’t work anymore. This would be so bad until we moved the Hi-Fi to another room and unplugged it. By doing this, the system went into the dreaded Demo Mode when we plugged it in. Without the remote control, we couldn’t turn the Demo Mode off. Now, it’s hardly ever used as we find the Demo Mode, with all the flashing lights and messages distracting and irritating. The system is fine once it’s being used but as soon as we put it in standby it goes into Demo Mode - and the little voice in my head starts screaming.

* The Manual *

Many of the features are not made clear in the manual. Many parts of the manual explain features that are only available in other similar models, sometimes without explaining which models the feature belongs to. The different modes and certain features like Ext Aux and Bass etc, are not explained well at all. Most of the time there’s just one line, without any clarification or a glossary reference. You are obviously supposed to know all about it – making the manual a bit illogical and very confusing.

I’ve noticed that many manufacturers do this. I find many manuals are very low quality or badly written – probably by people who obviously know what they are writing but don’t write for people who don’t understand the jargon or the technology.

* In Summary *

So, the unit in general is very nice, easy to use and has the features you should expect in a modern car radio. Switching from radio to CD to Ext (if enabled) to standby is done by a single button, which can be a bit irritating, but fine once you get used to it. The control joystick is a little tricky at first but very easy, once you get used to it too.

Am I pleased that I bought it? On the whole, definitely! Would I recommend it to anyone looking for a replacement for their car? Yes, but only if you’re looking for the basic features, like me. For the price (£80), its great – does exactly what I want (except a DVD player – maybe next time). 

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