Jensen Marine MRF27 Waterproof Wireless RF Remote Review

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(More customer reviews)First of all, buying and receiving this remote was a breeze. Even though it wasn't shipped directly from Amazon, I received the item very quick without hassle. My issue is with the remote. You could be standing right over the radio and the remote wouldn't work. It did work once in a while - often with you having to just about push the buttons through the back to get it to work. I changed the battery thinking that it might have sat around for a while, but that didn't make a difference. I even moved the antenna that comes with it around and sometimes it helped - sometimes it didn't. I was really disappointed as I thought I was going to be the boating pimp with a floating remote for my boat radio..

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Kenwood Kdc-Bt945U CD/AM/FM/USB Receiver with Bluetooth Review

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(More customer reviews)Like the previous review (which I didn't read), the bluetooth audio will only play on the front speakers, and the second tech support guy I spoke to gave me the same answer as in the previous review. Oddly enough, at first the unit worked great, with full sound for almost two days, when it switched to front speaker operation only. The first tech support guy I spoke to was unaware of the "front-speaker limit", and provided me with a long list of things to try to correct the issue. After trying them, without success, I called back and I was connected to the second tech guy who told me it shouldn't have worked in the first place. So buyer beware, but I'm hoping to return it.
EDIT: The above is my original review. It DOES work will all speakers, for BT audio and hands-free. It's just that the settings for this are somewhat hidden. After spending some more time with Kenwood tech reps, I was told that there must be a defect, so I was referred to a local repair facility. This was an authorized retailer/repair - Suburban Audio in NJ near Philly - and the repair guy there knew exactly what setting was off and I had it fixed within minutes.
The proper setting can be found only while the radio is in BT hands-free mode (page 48 of the pdf manual). The setting to adjust is "Bluetooth HF/Audio", where you can select "Front" or "All". Even though the manual describes this for voice, is applies to both voice and audio streaming.

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Kenwood KCA-iP500 iPod Interface Review

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(More customer reviews)Upon reading all the reviews on this site I was almost deterred into buying a head unit with an aux-in on the front but I'm now very glad I didn't. Reviewers here have been too quick to dismiss this product because of the navigation system without adapting to how to use the system best, or considering for a second, that you should not expect a head unit to behave in the same way an iPod does. It is not practical to have a knob that behaves like the ipod touch wheel and you can't expect the song titles to display quickly on a limited character display (eg. 12 characters).
The navigation system is estentially the head unit's stacker control function, modified to suit controlling an iPod ~ equivalent to a 1000 CD-stacker for a 60 gig model. Think about what's involved in burning a CD from your computer compared to making a few playlists that can be very quickly selected by your head unit controlling the iPod (Car iPod). Then you'll see that there is a huge time saving in working with playlists compared to working with burnt cds. We have long accepted that CDs come with 12 or so unnamed tracks and to listen to the desired song we have to find the track number from the back of the CD. The Car iPod is far better than that. You do not have to scroll one artist at a time until you get to the letter Z 10 minutes later. You simply use your remote and either guess or look up from a list, that the artist you want is number 78 on the list, enter 78, hit the "OK" key and you're on the artist you want. Fast for making huge jumps through your list isn't it!? Want a particular song? Enter the track number and then the appropriate "OK" key. Music collections do not change all that much and in time you'll get a feel for what number in the list the artist you want is. This system also works for genre and playlist. If you make 99 playlists with 99 songs in each you have extremely swift access to 9801 songs (6 presses of the remote and a 5 second wait).
Failing that system and you really must hear a particular song you can unplug your iPod choose the song and plug it back in to resume from the song you just selected. Considering what the engineers had to work with on this - 1.their existing head unit style 2. what works in a car 3. the Apple designed control interface - they have done an EXCEPTIONAL job here. Congratulations this goes down as one favourite purchases.

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Kenwood RFU-6100 Wireless Module for Surround Speakers Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought this unit through Amazon, who actually just forwarded the order to Crutchfield. Still, very fast service and shipping was free.
I have experimented with other wireless solutions such as X10 and Advent. The big thing about this unit was the 50W X 2 amplifier built into the receiver. Other systems require you to provide amplification after the receiver to power the speakers.
OK, a quick breakdown:
Looks - Good enough. Not an issue for me. My transmitter and receiver are both hidden from sight. Silver might not fit your scheme.
Ease of Use - Good. Need to connect preconnected speaker wire from the Xmitter to my amp, and power. Receiver needs power and user supplied speaker wire. Then, if needed, adjust the channel 1-4 on both units to avoid local RF interference.
Functionality - Good enough. I use it for rear channel speakers that generally don't need much amplification. Also, I stopped being an audiophile years ago as my hearing degraded, so the audio quality is fine by me. In 5.1 DVD movie use it performs very well and provides the surround experience I want, without the wires I don't want.
Gotchas - Antenna placement is very important. The box claims 100 ft range, but doesn't specify signal quality at that distance. My units are about 14 ft apart, and the antennae must be at the same height to provide the best sound. No putting the transmitter on top of your stereo rack, and the receiver under the couch. That orientation provided lots of pops and clicks as my wife walked between the two units. Also, I wish both pieces were squared off and had wall mount holes. This would provide additional mounting options.
Overall - Works as advertised/expected. I'm happy with it. However, if you aren't as lazy as I am, run the wires through your walls for better sound.

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Eliminate the biggest hassle of home theater: wiring surround sound speakers. The Kenwood RFU-6100 is a wireless solution that features a transmitter and receiver that operate using RF (radio frequency), which eliminates the speaker AC plugs found on conventional wireless speaker systems. With the RFU-6100, you can use higher-quality surround speakers than are typically found in conventional surround speaker systems.
The separate RF receiver unit has a built-in high-power digital amplifier for the surround speakers (up to 50 watts x 2 channels), which dramatically improves sound quality over conventional wireless systems, and it can be used up to 100 feet away from the transmitter. Active circuitry reduces noise interference, and 4 selectable RF transmission channels eliminate interference from other RF devices.
What's in the Box Kenwood RFU-6100 wireless transmitter and receiver, 2 AC power adapters, 2 speaker wires.

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