Great balanced sound for the price
3CD changer
No irritating flashy lights, just a great backlit display
Good FM reception

Noisy CD tray
No free equalizing

This review is for the Kenwood XD-A3.

When I decided to buy a mini system , I had two prerequisites in mind - that it should sound good, and that it should not have multicoloured unnecessary distracting LEDs flashing all the time (This might sound strange to many who actually search out for systems with 'cool' LEDs....but that's me!)

This system fits the bill perfectly. The amp/speakers are as good as you can get at this price range (30Wx2). Good lows and reasonable highs, though the mids might be a little weak. It does pack a good enough punch for my apartment building. I rarely go beyond 12 on my volume control. The main unit puts out clean sound, and I often listen with my Sennheiser HD535s which are rather intolerant towards bad output of sound!

I dont really have any other system to seriously compare it with, since nothing at this range (30Wx2 to 75Wx2, $150 to $300) came close at the time I was searching (Maybe the Sony MHC-M100). It definitely does not sound as good as my cousin's Rotel/B&W component system, but hey, there is a $5000 difference there!

At times I feel the three pre-set equalizers are not enough, especially when the recording quality leaves a lot to be desired. The CD tray tends to be rather noisy when swapping CDs or opening.

On the whole, I am QUITE satisfied with this system, which I have had for about three years. I listen mainly to Classical, and sometimes to hard rock/metal.

-m

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