0ur opinion:

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connects your iPod to a compatible Kenwood in-dash radio * provides power to the iPod * enables direct control of many iPod functions from your Kenwood radio * sends iPod display information to your radio * recharges your iPod's battery *









Piece Availability: In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served.

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Buyer's feedback: - * Horrible interface ...
I have three different aftermarket car stereos with three different iPod adapters. One is a Sony head unit with the Dension ice>Link Plus. Another is a Sony head unit with the Peripheral iPod2Car. And, lastly is a Kenwood head unit with the KCA-iP500. I bought the Kenwood KCA-iP500 interface for my Kenwood DDX7017 head unit expecting great things since it was Kenwood's own proprietary device. The make and build of the iP500 is great. Solid cables and connectors. The problem lies with the software interface. Just as others have discussed, trying to find songs, albums, or artists is a complete task. Not being able to access the iPod's controls is a huge drawback. I'm guessing Kenwood was trying to make it so that you have to use the stereo controls, making it safer for road use. In reality I end up disconnecting the iPod to find the album or artist I'm looking for and then reconnecting it. Not the safest way to use an iPod in a moving vehicle. The only plus with the iP500 is the great sound quality. Other than that, I find it a chore to use.

The other two interfaces are the Dension ice>Link Plus and the Peripheral iPod2Car. The Peripheral iPod2Car has the same problems as the iP500. No access to the iPod controls. Which leaves my favorite adapter, the Dension ice>Link Plus. With the ice>Link Plus you have the ability to choose whether or not to use the stereo for iPod control or the iPod's click wheel. The other benefit is that the ice>Link Plus is upgradeable. You can update the firmware to support newer iPod's.

In summary, don't get the iP500, you'll be disappointed. I highly recommend the Dension ice>Link Plus. Apple designed the click wheel with ease of use in mind. Disabling that function is a horrible idea.

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Buyer's feedback: - KCA-iP500 underwhelms
I purchased the KCA-iP500 to use my 3rd gen iPod with my Kenwood KDC-MPV619. After a year of use I still have not found a way to accurately navigate my playlists. The random play seems to be limited to playing random songs within the sections of the playlist assigned to the cd changer slots.
Most frustrating is that there is no information in the manual or on Kenwood's website telling you how to use this device effectively.
It does charge the iPod which is nice and I can listen to the songs it's willing to play to me on random but I can't listen to the song I want when I want. Sound quality is also excellent and as noted in other reviews, far superior to FM transmitters.
I wouldn't purchase this again. I'd look for a better solution. A head unit with full iPod control is a better option in my opinion and I will probably ditch my perfectly good Kenwood unit and KCA-iP500 to do exactly that.

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Buyer's feedback: - * Brilliant product - user training required! ...
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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Buyer's feedback: - Great Sound Clarity and Playlist control
Most reviews commented about how clunky and cumbersome the controls were but after sorting my ipod into smaller more specific playlist i found that the ipod adapter was perfect for this :) very happy with my purchase and would highly recommend this setup. I used MP323 stereo with the adapter and couldnt be happier :)

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Buyer's feedback: - * Great sound, clunky controls ...
I bought this hookup (and a Kenwood receiver for it) because I wanted to control my iPod direct from my dash, and get direct-connect sound quality. I have a nearly full 60 gig iPod photo I was using with an iTrip, and taking my eyes of the road to mess with the scroll wheel seemed like an accident waiting to happen.

I bought it at Best Buy who installed it free, so I can't speak to ease of installation. It's a small box that hangs out behind the dash, and they ran the connecting cord up and out next to my hand brake. It took the BB professional about 2 hours to install it.

The Good: Sound quality rules. There's no comparison between this and the iTrip I was using.

I love that it charges your iPod too, happiness is a charged battery icon on your iPod (or 5 bars of cell phone reception).

The Bad: The interface is really clunky. You use the [SCAN} button on the head unit to change between sorting by Playlist, Artist, Album, and Genre (a Podcasts option would've been nice in my opinion). Then, you use the Disc up/down buttons like you're flipping around in a cd changer to get to your selection. The problem, at least on my head unit, is you can only move ONE artist AT A TIME. That's *up one artist*, loads, starts playing, *up one artist* etc., one by one. In my case I have a few hundred artists, so that won't work. I suppose it's be more bearable w/ a mini or nano, but a fully loaded 60 is basically impenetrable. It also overrides the controls on the actual iPod, so you can't use the scroll wheel.

The saving grace is that when you plug your iPod in, it resumes the track you were playing. So what I end up doing is unplugging it, picking a track/album/whatever using the click wheel, and plugging the iPod in again. That doesn't take very long - you can disconnect your iPod at any time, and when you plug back in it "loads" up quick. This works fine, but not at all what I had in mind when I bought it.

Bottom line: Great sound quality, nice to see the disc/track info on your head unit, VERY hard/slow to navigate your library. If you've got a small iPod or like to make playlists, that shouldn't be as big a problem. Otherwise, get ready to plug/unplug every time you want to change your music.