The JVC KW-XR610 car stereo is certainly nice looking unit.The ability to change the colors is a great addition, so you can set it to match the rest of the lights on the dash if you want to go for a stock look. Or you can choose a different color to make it stand out more. I personally like the fact that I can set the lights to match my mood or the type of music I’m listenig to at the time.
The ipod/iphone compatability is simple to set-up and works flawlessly. The bluetooth (needs an additional adaptor) works well and it’s simple to hook-up a bluetooth enabled device to stream music or make and receive calls.This comes in handy for all of those non-apple owning people out there.
Sound quality is good even with the stock speakers, as long as the stock speakers aren’t absolutely terrible to start with. But as always, upgrading the speakers would only help the sound quality. Fortunately it’s not as necessary as with some other systems. So if you can only afford the stereo now, you’ll still get a great sounding system.
The controls are relatively easy to use and don’t require to much to get used to. One of my big things is when manufacturers make the control system overly complex. Luckily this isn’t the case for this unit.
One thing that may be a nuisance is that it only supports mp3 and wmv, so if you have a large collection of AAC format music, you’ll need to convert it so you can listen to it. In head unit mode with ipods it only shows numbers instead of the track names, although you can navigate the songs with the ipod, so it’s probably not that big a problem unless you’re the type that has to do it on the stereo itself.
Overall I would say this is a good buy, offering both good sound and looks.