Kenwood KDC-BT318U CD Receiver with Built-in BluetoothKDCBT318U

I wanted to use this for a while before I rated it. I've had it maybe a month now and I love it. It's super easy to hook up IF you get the right wiring harness for your car. I put it in an '05 Ford Escape using a Metra wiring harness and a Metra install kit. Easiest radio install I've ever done. The bluetooth picked up my LG Spectrum 2 immediately and connects automatically every time. Calls are crystal clear both on my end and the caller's end. People that call say it sounds like I'm talking on the handset. Features and settings are endless and it sounds great, but we are used to quality from Kenwood. We are going to get the very same one to put in my wife's car. We drive in Illinois a lot and they are a hands-free state now.

(Updated 3.7.15). Installed this in a 2004 Subaru Forester about 6 months ago. Updated firmware from 1.19 to 1.21 which went smoothly. VMInnovations did not double box the receiver so the Kenwood box itself was worse for the wear but everything inside was fine.[ For Subaru specifically: I purchased a wiring harness (SU-8900) off eBay to adapt the Subaru radio connector to the Kenwood. I soldered the wires together from the Kenwood harness to the SU-8900 harness and used heat shrink tubing from Radio Shack then wrapped the whole thing in electrical tape. It's an exact color match wire to wire with the exception being that the SU-8900 blue wire must connect to the Kenwood blue/white wire. This is to power the Subaru antenna booster which many Subaru's have. If you don't do this radio reception will be poor. Ignore the orange wire as it's not used. Since our car had the single DIN Subaru radio I didn't need any additional hardware. You don't even use the trim plate that Kenwood provides. The receiver bolts directly to the Subaru bracket using the OEM bolts and fits in the space of the OEM radio. I clipped the microphone to the headliner above the rear view mirror so it wasn't blocked when you flip down the sun visor. I ran the wire along the headliner, the driver's side pillar and under the dash to the radio. I had about a foot of extra wire doing it this way.]What is different from a typical factory radio is that power on / off and input selection (tuner, USB, etc) is controlled by the SRC (source) button at the top left. If you push the volume knob it will take you into the menus to change settings. This is typical of an aftermarket receiver. The button at the bottom left serves as both a back or escape button and as a search button for certain inputs. The up arrow button to the right of the volume knob rotates through FM1-FM2-FM3-AM so you can have 18 FM stations and 6 AM stations preset on buttons 1-6. These presets are saved if power is disconnected which is a nice touch. Other settings are not, however. Each input can have its own bass-mid-treble settings which I really like. You can also adjust volume offset so each input will be at the same level and you're not getting blasted as you change from radio to something else. These are the basics to control the receiver so I'm going to move on to the PHONE button which is main reason I replaced the OEM radio.One of the things that I like about this receiver is that the PHONE button is prominently displayed over the rest of the controls. A few people have said that it is lit too brightly at night. It is bright as is the U-shaped band that runs around the volume control but you'll have to decide if it's a deal breaker. You cannot dim those lamps. This being my wife's car she has not complained to me about the brightness.On an incoming call the caller's name or number is displayed on the receiver. Tap the PHONE button to answer. Tap again to hangup. My comments to make a call are for an iPhone 5c. Holding in the PHONE button is the same as holding in the HOME button on the iPhone. Siri answers so you can use the same voice commands as if you were holding the phone. If the source button is set to BT AUDIO the phone's sounds and navigation are piped through the receiver. Every time you start the car the receiver's Bluetooth syncs with the phone. When this is complete a little BT shows up in the display. It only seems to take a minute. There is a setting called ECHO CANCEL that's only available when you are on a call (the menus are tailored per device and function). The default setting was 4 on a scale of 1-10 but the listener on the call said 1 sounded best. You can adjust MIC gain and noise cancellation too but I haven't tried those yet. There is also a source selection called STANDBY. You can still make and receive calls but the phone's notifications, directions etc. are not sent through.CD's start playing automatically when you insert them. The double arrow buttons change tracks. If you plug in a USB flash drive it begins reading the playlist automatically. I didn't get into multiple folder selection and song organization so I can't comment on this. I paired the receiver to the phone by going into the phone's settings for Bluetooth. The Kenwood showed up as something like "KDC-318" and I tapped connect. The receiver then displayed a message to tap the volume control to complete pairing. There is no need to punch in a pass code. Some people have posted that Bluetooth only played through the front speakers. To change this go to the BT MODE setting. Then to BT HF/AUDIO. Choose ALL instead of FRONT.I like the all-black faceplate and volume knob as it is very subdued and blends in nicely. The other receiver on my shortlist was the Pioneer DEH-X4600BT. This looks like a good choice as well. A few people complained that the lights were too bright on that one too.Having owned this for 6 months now one issue I'll point out is that the buttons along the bottom of the radio are so small that they can be difficult to use when you are driving. Wearing gloves during the winter makes it worse. This seems to be a common problem among these aftermarket radios. Twice the radio has displayed an "HF Error 68" which a search shows to be a Bluetooth compatibility issue with the phone. Turning the radio off and on both times set it straight.When BT Audio is selected I can usually tap the #6 button on the radio to start streaming music from the phone. A number of times recently I've had to start music at the phone itself then I had control at the radio. It may be related to the IOS 8.1.3 upgrade. I'm not certain but this is a minor issue.Being able to tell Siri to read messages and reply using the radio is great. That part of it alone made the swap worth doing. Other than pushing the button you don't have to take your eyes off the road.

Best Bluetooth head unit you will find at this price point. Bluetooth stays connected and displays all the Pandora/mp3/podcast information from my Android phone. The main complaints I read about this model before ordering it revolved around the user interface and the lights being too bright. Both complaints are unwarranted. Any mildly intelligent person can figure out the interface rather quickly and the lights are no brighter than any other aftermarket head unit I have purchased in the past. Yes, the buttons are small and some buttons control several features, but this is a single DIN unit and space is limited. I feel it was designed well.

Bought it mainly for the hands free Bluetooth. Sounds amazing, easy installation. Pairing my phone was easy. Very simple to use. Gets real good reception for other stations. Usb connection, can play music from my phone. Aux connection as well. I can put my music on a usb memory stick and it will play it. Awesome product. I highly recommend it. Will be purchasing another soon to replace on my other car. Comes with remote control.

The bluetooth audio streaming worked great but the bluetooth phone calling was a different story. Randomly during calls, it would disconnected from my phone, so they call would be back on my handset, then reconnect with bluetooth in a few seconds, so the call would be back on my car stereo. I tried clearing it and repairing my phone, and also made sure the stereo had the latest firmware, but the problem continued. I have an iphone6 that does not have bluetooth problems with any of my two other cars. Everything else including the price was great on this stereo, and the external microphone that was included had great sound quality, but I mainly got this for the bluetooth calling, so it will be getting returned as soon as I find a new one for a few dollars more.

It works great for 9 months. Now it will freeze all the time.

Had it for a few days now and am liking it more and more. Taking a bit to figure out all the controls when it comes to (my first) Bluetooth but cool stereo indeed.Update: Keeps losing contact with phone. Multiple phones, multiple times. Sucks, getting a JVC.

Sounds great. The interface is a bit clunky, but for a small, 1-DIN form-factor, and especially an under-$100 price, it's excellent. I tried competing models out in a brick & mortar store, and found that no one makes a really good interface in a stereo unit this size. They all work similarly. So, with any of them it takes a little time to get used to the idea that it's not an old car stereo, it's a small computer that processes several different types of audio. I needed a replacement head unit for a 2-DIN Toyota dash, and wanted one that sounds good and works well, but doesn't compel a thief to break in and steal. So far, so good. Very happy with it.