I have been waiting for the Car Audio Industry to catch up with the PC Industry. First it took awhile for a deck to read CD-R/RW. Then it took awhile for MP3. Only seen 1 deck that would read MP3 off a DVD-R/RW. USB arrives, but could only support small capacity drives until now. The Kenwood Excelon KDC-X590 will blow your socks off with the options it gives you. It will play the CD-R/RW with Mp3 and WMA, and it will also play them from most USB devices. The USB cable comes out the back of the deck and is fairly long. If you use an external hard drive, the deck will power one up to 500ma through the USB. If you have an external that has it's own power supply, that will work also with a power inverter for the vehicle. I have a Western Digital 80gb My Book external hard drive with my files on it and the deck worked perfectly with the hard drive. The deck does have limits to how many files can be read though, so my 80gb is a bit too much. The Manual has details on how many. The controls take a bit of getting used to, but so does any new electronic device. Of course this deck doesn't have all the bells and whistles as the more expensive versions of this model, but all of the more flexible options are covered. The sound is incredible. I replaced a Pioneer Premier with this unit and couldn't be happier, until a Kenwood DVD unit comes along with the USB option. Also the looks are great and fits in well with my black dash, the silver Pioneer stood out. I hope this review helps anyone purchasing this unit. Online Car Stereo Rocks!
I forgot to mention in my earlier review, that Phat Noise provides a software Media Manager that lets you turn your CD or USB device in to an ACDrive that let's the deck talk to you by telling you the artist and song name. So many goodies to list with this deck. Great value, enjoy!
For the money you can't top it. Plenty of system expansion options and options for sound control. You can find something fancy or pretty but if your cheap and want to be able to make your stereo louder than you friends and all you need is good audio control and affordability this one is at the top of the list.
