Fast Tube by Casper

Sound Quality: 9/10

With the top down at 70mph, the KDHDR20 has enough power to fill the entire car without sounding terribly distorted. In the Saab, I’m using it with factory speakers in front and a cheap pair of Pioneer speakers in the back. Bass is a bit boomy but strong, filling the entire car without sounding tinny.

HD sounds impressive, noticeably better than than standard FM. Unfortunately, some stations have not configured their delays properly, causing the sound to skip like a scratched CD when the signal transitions from analog to HD. This gets annoying when driving through a remote area with spotty coverage. Here in the midwest, radio signals travel far and clear, but occasional hilly areas and underground parking garages do affect signal quality.

Features: 9/10

A fully customizable 7-band EQ is an unusually nice feature for $99 but can be challenging to use, buried under several menu levels, definitely not recommended unless pulled over. Built-in EQ presets are available but none seemed very usable.

Has built-in RDS support for displaying text and alerts. Satellite radio can be added with an external module.

The clear and crisp display has a dimmer that I prefer to leave at the lowest setting, as it seems comfortable at night and bright enough during the day.

A 3.5″ auxiliary  input jack in front and RCA inputs in the rear

Controls: 5.5/10

There are no direct preset buttons. Instead you press Menu then turn the knob and push to select a station. You press left or right to manually tune and you press up and down to choose an HD substation. The up/down buttons on the remote will scroll through presets. Its a bit unusual, and you’ll want to mount the remote somewhere for frequent use. I have mine attached to the steering wheel with 3M outdoor mounting tape.

The ‘plastichrome’ volume knob is slippery and sometimes hard to grab.

Simple functions like Random Playback can be difficult to access. You push and hold volume, then rotate the knob, then choose Random. You’ll want to keep the owners manual in the glovebox and only access these controls when pulled over until you get used to them. Fortunately, once most of these options are set, you rarely have to go back into the menus.

Overall: 7.9/10

After one year, the face plate lost contact with the head unit, sometimes causing the volume to not function unless I push on or wiggle it. I cleaned the connector on the face plate with rubbing alcohol and a Q-tip which seems to have resolved the issue. Part of this is likely due to parking the Saab outdoors with the top down, exposing it to dirt and moisture. Unless its winter or raining, I never put the top up. This head unit was probably not designed for outdoor use.

There have, remarkably, been no issues with the CD mechanism.

The decorative plastichrome next to the volume knob has shown scratches due to contact with finger nails.

In all, it sounds fantastic, and while most settings are buried under difficult menus, its reasonably easy to use for playback once you get used to the controls.

Specifications:

AM/FM radio, CD, CD-R/RW, MP3/WMA,
HD Radio receiver
4 x 50 Watts maximum power with two pre-amp outputs
Detachable face with white-on-black display Includes auxiliary input; add JVC modules for SAT radio, iPod control, Bluetooth
One-year limited warranty
Additional details at Crutchfield.