Kenwood Z828 CD/MP3 RECEIVER
www.kenwoodusa.com

Here at CAR SOUND & PERFORMANCE we've been talking about the possibilities of MP3-based applications in the 12-volt environment since the first portable players hit the market several years ago. In fact, David Navone did one of the first articles on integrating a portable MP3 player into a 12-Volt system that I can remember. It always intrigued me, but, at the same time, rubbed me the wrong way - I never liked the sound of the portable players. Maybe it was psychological, but I've always felt that the MP3 compression scheme in the first-generation portables took way too much away from the music. I could hear the compression, but I didn't want to. But the possibilities that it offered in terms of storage was amazing.

Kenwood was one of the first companies to hit the market with an MP3-compatible CD receiver - the Z919 (which Brian Smith reviewed exclusively online at www.carsound.com). The unit received some pretty high marks across the board and created quite a buzz on the street. When Kenwood released its second generation of MP3-based head units, and offered me the opportunity to do an in-car review of it, I jumped at the chance. Again, the possibilities piqued my interest - up to 258 files, which equates to approximately 20 hours of MP3-compressed music, on a single CD. And, let me tell you, the Z828 did not disappoint.

Installed with relative ease by my good friends at Circuit City in Westbury, NY, the Z828 was a bit daunting at first glance. The first thing that really grabbed my attention after snapping on the detachable faceplate and powering-up the unit is Kenwood's 4-tone fine-dot, color fluorescent display. The display itself is really easy to read - Kenwood's R&D department did their homework with this bad boy. The hi-res display offers some killer animated 3D graphics, three display modes, and crisply rendered text. Viewing the unit in direct sunlight tends to wash out some of the detail, but it's still pretty easy on the eyes.

The Z828's controls are of the push-button variety. Ergonomically, everything feels very comfortable - the Volume, Attenuation, and Display controls are all within a finger's distance from the driver - and looks great with it's metallic motif. In terms of ease-of-use, there is a bit of a learning curve with the Z828 as there's a lot of button pushing needed to get to some of the menus. Though it's nothing that can't be remedied with a 10-minute flip through the manual.

The big test, for me, was throwing an MP3-encoded CD into the unit to see what it could do. But, before I could put a CD in, I had to create one (or seven, in my case). Creating the MP3-encoded CDs was pretty straight forward. When working with MP3 files, one of the coolest features (aside form the small files size) is the use of ID 3 tags. These tags, which are "built-in" to the MP3 files, are read by players and offer the user the ability to view the album name the track is from, the artist's name who recorded the track, and the song title (all with 30-character-or-less restrictions). The Z828 can read ID 3 tag version 1 and 1.1 files - my MP3 converter, SoundJam, defaults to version 3.0, so I had to go into the preferences file and set it to version 1.1.

With my converter set up, it was time to figure out what to burn. I decided to burn a collection of discs that I feel I know very well and that I could base a strong opinion on. My top choices included the entire Metallica in-studio catalog for its range of production value and styles, the Soul Coughing catalog for its dynamic qualities, and the Nirvana catalog for its live discs and raw sound. Now, keep in mind that each of these collections fit on its own disc! The Z828 allows you to include up to 8 directory levels with 253 files and folders in total. I ripped each disc in its entirety, set up each album in chronological order, and burned them onto a disc via my external CD burner on an ISO 9660 formatted disc.

The first disc that I checked out was my Metallica collection. Upon putting a disc in the unit it performs a file check - this basically tells the unit if the disc is a standard music CD or if it's an MP3-encoded disc. After about three or four seconds, the display began to scroll the album title, the band name, and the song title. My expectations were completely shattered - the Z828 sounds killer. From completely raw production of Metallica's Kill 'em All and Ride the Lightning, through the dry-as-a-bone And Justice For All mix, to the big, beefy production of Re-Load, the Z828 handled it all with grace and aplomb. I was really impressed with the big sound the Z828 delivered.

My only gripe with the Z828 is the load time between MP3 tracks. While it is minimal, and almost non-existent on studio tracks, it is a bit obtrusive on live collections. I'm a bit anal about my music (if you couldn't already tell), and found the gaps on a live disc like Nirvana Unplugged to be a bit of a nuisance. But, then again, it's a small price to pay to get 20 hours of music on a single CD!

Overall, the z828 is a solid head unit. With Kenwood's System Q ex sound contouring technology and System E's + crossover system, I had my ride sounding pretty damn good in no time. For those MP3 fans out there, it's time get that portable out of the car and get a Kenwood Z828.

Price & Contact: $700; 1-800-KENWOOD, www.kenwoodusa.com