Kenwood KDC-BT960DAB CD Car Radio with DAB+ & Bluetooth Hands-Free Kit (USB, AUX-In, 3 x Pre-Out 5V, Amazon Alexa, Sound Processor, 4 x 50 W, VAR. Lighting, Antenna)

Works perfectly in mk1 mr2 Setup was a bit fiddly but not much more difficult than any other head unit in these cars Great headunit and lots of features for the money Sounds great and Bluetooth works flawlessly

Fitted to our tipper and went straight in with only the FM to DAB aerial adapter(powered). Sound quality seems excellent and the Bluetooth hands-free is excellent. Great value.

Gone are the days where single din car stereos were relevant, had good looks, where high end models sounded great and had great features, some useful some just bells and whistles but nice to haves. So, I like to drive older/ish cars and sound is somewhat important to me so was after something up-to-date, good specs and sounded good/great. This model for the UK is the high end version in the single din range, having a CD player, DAB radio, very hard to come by 5V RCA output with a decent enough DSP. Also being a modern made system, it has bluetooth connectivity for making/ receiving calls and music streaming. Starting with looks. If I'm honest, it’s nothing special to look at. It’s using an LCD/VFD "look" type display that seems rather old and small, although may look ok if wanting a retro look. They've added the ubiquitous RGB colour changing lights, which you can choose but its limited to a range, which maybe a good thing. When the system is off, the system looks very outdated and bland like cheaper models from the late 90's. When it's on, it’s passable and I suppose gets the job done. You won’t be buying this for the looks (unless you are for the retro reasons). I did look into double din systems, with big phone style touch displays, android auto and much more but the price. To get anything decent to good, especially the sound you'd have to pay top dollar at nearly 3-4 times the price. That I could not afford but logic dictated to me that their long-term compatibility will run shorter than the system I've chosen due to outdated software as people upgrade phones. To the sound. I cannot fault it here at all, yet. I had tried a Pioneer recently and although it looked far far better and sound was decent, you had to crank the volume to drive the speakers to the point of harshness/distortion especially in the highs, even with some tweaking. With my upgraded speakers, CD sound was crisp, clear and hardly had to crank up the dial to get a nice level when driving. After that test, I connected up the amp via RCA, as that's how my setup will be and again, sound was fantastic. Having 5V out on the RCA really helped, as I didn't need to set the gains on the amp so high and the component speakers and subwoofer sounded mighty with plenty of headroom to play loud if need be. This was all even before I did a basic tweak. Again, comparing to the Pioneer, it was night and day. Granted that only had 2V output but I truly think it wasn't even able to push out 2V. There was a time where high volt outputs in single dins stereos started to become the norm, but to find one now, very difficult or you pay crazy money so was pleased this had high volt outputs, though I suppose being the high end model it ought to have and most of the rest below in the range do not. The system also has a decent and capable DSP, allowing to tweak in many ways allowing you to calibrate and tune a decent to good setup, especially if you have better speakers. It’s not a comprehensive system as some high end models of the past were getting but it’s workable. Anything more serious and you'd be looking into external DSP systems for very precise tweaking and setups, but costing much more to boot. FM radio works as expected with a strong seeking tuner though that has many variables but mainstream stations are good. DAB is roughly the same, but also very hit and miss. Whereas with FM, it’s a fading sound if signal is low with DAB it’s just gone. DAB in the car, especially when moving is not great and that’s more to do with the technology than this unit. When stationary, a good DAB signal is crisp and clear, noticeably compared to FM. Now onto the bluetooth. When connected, making calls is good and apparently has good microphone pickup according to recipients I rang. The connection process is somewhat odd but works. Streaming audio via Bluetooth works, but has with the overall connection dropped a few times, requiring a stop/start of the connection either on the phone or car audio. I’ve tried it with another phone with same result. Not an ideal situation when driving along, especially if calls are taking place. The system was manufactured in 2023, it’s 2024 and by now Bluetooth should work 100%. Which leads me onto the accompanying app, if guided by the reviews on the app store, it makes sense. I was partly sold on the ability of the app to control some features of the car audio, possibly making it easier to set some audio tweaking features and other things, especially as were now use to touchscreens. The app is absolutely diabolically. Even if Bluetooth is connected, it has a hard time communicating with the system and when it does, it’s not very long and you’re scratching your head as to how to connect it up again. Sometimes it requires a whole reset for it to work. Overall, the system is a hit and miss in some ways some that are deal breakers. If I could afford a good quality/audio, display/touchscreen version, I’d go down that route. This attempt at some old era one din system, partially updated with some modern features in my eyes is mediocre at best. I used to have Kenwood system from the past which were superb, but the integration of modern features and a dull old design is a let down from a heritage brand like Kenwood. I assume they’re mostly focusing resources on display systems only.

Great item prefect for what I need great sound quality

There wasn’t any thing he didn’t like

Nice features looks great at night, sound quality very average although I’m still experimenting with the mountain of adjustments. My 10 year old Sony is far superior on sound quality

Not as good as expected, reception very intermittent both in Uk & abroad. Controls a bit fiddly, not intuitive & difficult to distinguish especially when driving. Would not have purchased if I’d known. I trusted the brand name and lived to regret it.