Though I would post this for anyone looking for bluetooth car options. I've been using this deck for the past week and love it. For years I used FM Transmitters, but after breaking/losing/etc several and not loving the sound quality, I bought a deck with auxillary input. That was fine, but still wires everywhere (especially when charging).
I purchased and installed the JVC KDX50BT. It is their entry level bluetooth deck, and does not have a CD player. Thats fine for me. I drive a Jeep and the CD players always end up getting dust inside and stop working after a few years (and I never use them). I ordered from Crutchfield for $100 shipped:
http://www.crutchfield.com/p_105KDX50BT/JVC-KD-X50BT.html?tp=5684
In short, I love it. The bluetooth streaming audio sounds great, and although its hard to do an A/B comparison, I believe it is better quality than the old deck with auxillary in. Bass seems to not distort at higher volumes as much as the auxillary in. This would make sense if the stereo itself is doing the digital processing. It also shows the current song information. This is "BT Audio" mode, and will basically stream whatever audio you are currently playing from any app.
It also has Pandora capabilities. This is called "BT Pandora" mode and it will display your current station info. Even better, you can thumbs up or thumbs down a track from the deck itself. When you do this, the Pandora app recognizes this and displays a screen that does not allow user input from the phone. It is kind of annoying as I plan to put in a car mount and wouldn't mind being able to see the album art. On the other hand, I have put in about 3 hours of listening so far (off and on) and haven't had a commercial yet, so I'm not complaining too much! I was going to upgrade Pandora but now I may not need to.
There is also an external microphone you can mount anywhere in your car to use for calls. I haven't used it much but initial reports from my friends are that sound quality for the other party is good.
It isn't completely bug free with my Epic Touch (Running Mijj's Blend ICS right now). Sometimes it will switch over to the Pandora mode in the middle of a song without me telling it to. This is annoying, but it is quick to switch from Pandora mode. It doesn't always display the current song information correctly in BT audio mode, but most of the songs I'm streaming from my phone I don't need to know the title. It does not show song info from Spotify. It also will not display info from my podcast player (beyondpod) but I don't really care about that. The stock music apps seem to work best for song info.
I am guessing many of these issues are with the Bluetooth protocol and the way our phones handle it. It could also be the fact I am using a custom ROM rather than stock. All issues are minor annoyances.
Other pros:
-You can change the colors of the display to pretty much anything you want, and have different schemes for night and day.
-Easy to pair.
-Two USB inputs (front and rear) but if you are using bluetooth, one of these will be taken up by the JVC USB Bluetooth adapter.
-USB inputs are 1.0mA rather than the standard 0.5mA for faster charging. (I still use my car charger as it is positioned better for my needs)
-Radio does seem to have great reception; finding quite a few more stations that my old deck.
Other cons:
-Radio station presets awkward to use... you have to "scroll" through them rather than just hitting button 1-6. I've been playing with the bluetooth too much to really get used to it.
Meh:
-I also have a set of bluetooth headphones. If I am listening to the headphones and get into the Jeep, I have to either turn off the headphones before turning on the stereo, or manually connect in the bluetooth settings menu. As far as I know this is a bluetooth limitation and not the fault of the deck. It would be sweet to have it transfer automatically to the new source when it finds it, but not sure this is possible regardless of the setup.
-There is a JVC app that allows some touch based controls on your phone. I haven't used it much but it does seem to work OK.
All of that aside, the real reason I bought it was for the ease of getting into my Jeep with my phone in my pocket, having the phone automatically connect and begin streaming high quality audio to the stereo within about 30 seconds of the car starting (it takes a moment for the phone to connect). On short drives the phone doesn't even leave my pocket. So far, I couldn't be any happier with the results I am getting, especially for $100.
................And I just found the following deal that gets it down to $81 shipped. That sucks for me, but even at $100 it is a steal!
http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/698...AQFjAA&usg=AFQjCNE28H5hsYS9gz484lxxo97Nukzipw
Can anyone confirm a hooked up and working USB hub on the back port? Having mine delivered on Monday along with an Axxess steering wheel control adapter and I would also love to have at least 1 64gb flash drive always hooked up in the glovebox. If anyone has a hub connected and working can you confirm the use of multiple usb drives ie: 2x64 flash drives?
