So I finally got around to installing the KDC-X994 and here are my first impressions:
- It definitely doesn't look like a stock stereo. Black on silver kind of clashes, but whatever.
- The installation was simple. I wasn't hooking up any amps, subs or anything else. I routed the BT microphone and set it on top of my steering column. The hardwired USB cable isn't long enough in my opinion. I'm trying to get it into my center console and it wouldn't reach.
- Navigating the menus is straightforward but seems a little slow. Perhaps that's because I'm not used to it yet. Any question I've had so far has been answered by the manual (the stereo only comes with the quick start guide, the full guide is on an included CD).
- I like how you can customize what is displayed on the LCD for each source. Different display styles give you more/less lines of text and then you can set what each line will display (Artist, CD title, etc.)
- The stereo remembers what you were listening to last and starts on that source. It will connect to bluetooth in the background, but it won't steal focus.
- Speaking of bluetooth, the A2DP works great. I've been playing music off of my Droid and it sounds awesome. The stereo controls skipping music and play/pause. It seems to work with whatever music program I opened last (Music, Pandora, Slacker, etc.) and every program I've tried has worked with the stereo so far. One thing that's nice is if I'm playing a song on the phone speaker and the phone connects to the stereo, it will continue playing on the stereo with only a minimal gap.
- The phone calling is okay. I've been hearing from people I'm talking to that there's a nasty echo on their end. This will take some tweaking and I might need to move the mic to a better place. I haven't made many calls yet, so I can't speak more on this.
- CD playing works fine. Not much to say here but it reads CD-TEXT so that's good.
- I haven't tried an iPod or USB drive, so no info there.
- I've only tried the radio a little, but it works fine. Something that might take some getting used to is that the stereo has no preset keys for favorite stations. You can still store presets, but you have to navigate a menu to access them. It doesn't take that long, but it's kind of a pain. I knew this would be the case going in and decided I don't care because I don't listen to the radio very often, but others might find this a dealbreaker.
- The display is nice and clear and shows animations nicely. I was able to match the instrument panel lights pretty closely with the stereo color. Something that I don't like is that the display is hard to read in the sunlight unless you're looking straight at it. It's not the end of the world, but it is annoying.
I feel like I've only barely touched the surface of the functions of this stereo. If I find anything else noteworthy out, I'll post it here. If you have questions, let me know. I'll answer as much as I can. Overall, I'm happy with this stereo. I bought it for the bluetooth A2DP and that works great.