Anyone own the Kenwood KDC-MPV7019 MP3 deck?

I currently have a Pioneer (DEH-P8000R). I made my first mp3 cd early this morning and went out testing the units at 4 different shops. None of the employees had any clue to work any of the decks. It was pretty much pushing buttons and one was using the manuals.

I really am sold on the Kenwood at this time. I owned a Kenwood (5003) before upgrading to the Pioneer and NEVER had any problems with it.

Anyhow, about the 7019:

1) Is the face plate motorized when opening or does it just flop down and you push it back up once the cd is inserted?

2) Is this the model that has the angle button which will tilt the faceplate upward. This will be highly handy since my deck is in the lower pocket of my 98 Civic.

3) No shops had the remotes! I see the remote on this model has 1-10 numeric buttons. Will these buttons allow me to pop in a mp3 cd and hit *8* *4* and it goes to track *84*? I just can not see hitting the
Fwd button 84 times to get to that track.

4) Does anyone know the ID3 character limit on this model? If I remember correctly this model did display the entire text for my songs. And some were quite LONG!

5) I see the 619 is very similar. It doesn't have the sub woofer output correct? I need this output since my Punch amp does not have a x-over.

6) When hitting "ATT" to mute the cd player and when you push it again does the music slowly come back on to full volume? This is one thing I loved about my Kenwood (5003) deck and don't like about my $650 Pioneer :thumbdown:

Thanks for any input you guys can give me on this deck!!

ok, i don't know very much specifically about the Kenwood, but i've been shopping for an mp3 deck for the last couple of days, and have spent about 3 hours fiddling with every mp3 deck out there, and here are some thoughts.

* 1st Rockfords deck is the only deck that makes navigating though mp3 easy - you can even easily navigate though Subfolders (folder within folders) - NO other deck on the market allowes you to do this, and if the guy says it can, then he's lieing... but rockfords deck is made by delco, and the singnal to noice ration is like 89.. pitty. also doesn't read ID tags, but thats really not a problem.. but i would only buy if MP3 are your main consideration. its as easy to use as windows file explorer.

* Kenwoods mp3 deck - frikin pain to navigate through the songs... its difficult and SLOW - but it does look cool, i like the colors... also signal to noise is good, around 105.

*Sony Mp3 - looks like crap (IMO), and is slow, navigation through mp3's is pretty good, but slow - and like all the others (excluding rockford) it does not handle sub directories properly.

* Alpine - Looks good, has the BEST sound for mp3 playback (MX feature does wonders for the play quality of the mp3) - MP3 navigation is ok, better then the kenwood, not as good as the sony..this deck alows for a lot of tweaking, as convient sub control, sig to noice is 107 i think...etc.. BUT its expensive,

* JVC - Best bang for buck - MP3 navitagion is pretty good, and fairly fast, but the text goes by slowly - again not nearly in the same class as the rockford, but better then the others...perhaps on par with the sony, but looks better (IMO).. Signal to noice is 98 - wich is ok. So it doesn't look as cool as the kenwood, but makes up for it in the easy of mp3 navigation..

In conclusion, i'm going to buy the JVC, and wait for the mp3 deck market to mature before i bother spending big $$ on one... I found Kenwoods deck just to cumbersom to use (in regards to mp3), I couldn't justify buying the Alpine because cash is tight at this time, wouldn't buy the Sony cause its Ugly - and Rockford... well its Frikin amazing at navigating though mp3... but can't get over the delco thing...

p.s. also random feature - as in random the whole cd, versus random within just one direcory - some decks have both feature some don't.. JVC has both, Alpin only has random the whole cd, the rest i'm not sure about...

Hope somethin in this prattle has been helpful.