New Headunit installed - JVC KD-S100

[graymalkin2]

So finally my dash kit came in from Crutchfield a few days back. Strangely, the Metra install kit I ordered also showed up the same day. For those who don't know, the Scosche kit mounts the radio above the spare cubby, the Metra kit has the cubby above the radio. After comparing the two products, I went with the Scosche kit, since it is only one piece, therefore less likely to rattle in the dash.

Along with the installation equipment, I purchased a JVC KD-S100 head unit. I already have 4 older head units, but the difference in price between the installation equipment an the radio with the install stuff free was around $40, so I said why not?

Some of you might be familar with this JVC unit, Crutchfield is the only place you can buy it, and they advertise it as being '$540 off' its MSRP. It features special sound processing called 'Bongiovi acoustics' that is claimed to make the factory speaker in a car sound much better. Does it work? Yeah, kinda.

I have a Versa S wit the standard AM/FM single CD Clarion head unit and the four speakers in the door. I went a few weeks using the CD player, and simply could not stand it anymore. The sound was terrible. Enter the JVC HU.



Installation went well, and the unit look fine hanging out in the middle of the dash. I wont bore you with all the details, so I'll lay out just the highlights:

APPEARANCES -

The unit looks like a standard aftermarket unit, which means its flashy, and does not mesh well with the rest of the interior. At night the screen graphics are white, and the buttons are a blueish purple. There is no feature to change this.

SOUND QUALITY -

I tried out 3 of my other units in the car, with varying results, however all of them sounded much better than the stock unit. This JVC, with the Bongiovi feature turned on, sounded quite a bit better than all of them out of the box. I am sure playing around with the settings on the other would have brought about better sound, but I don't have that kind of time. I feel it sounds leaps and bounds better than stock.

*important note about the Bongoivi stuff - the unit comes with a factory 'file' for the sound settings, and then a disc with 'generic' settings that can be used to sound good in most cars. The main feature of the Bongoivi stuff was to allow for the stereo to be tailored to the car. There were specific files for some cars I'm sure, but the Versa was not one of them. Therefore, this feature is not being used to its full potential.

EXTRA FEATURES

although not listed, you can use standard SD cards (not mini, micro or SDHC - not even with an adapter) up to 2 GB in size. The instructions say 512MB, but I have successfully used 2GB units. My 4GB, micro and mini units would NOT work in this unit.The USB port on the front of the unit CAN support WD Passport USB powered portable HDDs. I have an old 120GB unit that works like a charm, and fits great inside the under-radio cubby. Switching between songs is fast and skip free from all sources.

Ipod integration sucks. It requires an additional adapter box, that you have to mount somewhere, and only works with older Ipods - no touch or iphones work with it. The unit does have an aux input for hooking up an ipod/mp3 player/etc through the headphones attachment.

I know I wrote a book on this, but a lot of people are likely on the bench about this unit, trying to find out why they are so deeply discounted. It's a solid unit so long as you don't like or have a modern ipod. Also, this unit does not support Bluetooth.

[Shad0wXCalibur]

$540 off MSRP eh? They must be smokin' up. I'm not fond of JVC or flashy single-dins but if it pleases you, that's all that matters. Like you said, anything is better than the stock S deck.

[williamk10]

Sorry to bump an old thread but I bought this HU and installed it last night. Significant improvement over stock radio. Makes the stock speakers sounds much better, especially with the DSP turned on. There are a few different downloadable variations for the DSP available now. I'll have to try each one and and see which one sounds the best in the Versa.

[NODES]

in most cases aftermarket will always sound better then stock.