With its motorized, fold-down faceplate and multicolor fluorescent display, the Kenwood Excelon KDC-X790 CD player certainly doesn't fall short in the style department. Your track information appears bright and readable, day or night, and you can even customize the 64-color display with your own images using Kenwood's Picture Engine software.

This versatile CD player makes full use of these display capabilities, adding a unique feature that you won't find on most car stereos. Using an internal gyroscope, it can display vehicle performance specifications — like the G-force your car generates during turns and acceleration — with no special wiring or installation required.

The KDC-X790 features a strong amplifier and premium digital-to-analog converter for great sound, and it'll play all your discs, even ones you've loaded with AAC, MP3, and WMA music files. You get six preset tone curves for quick adjustments, along with a 3-band parametric equalizer that fine tunes the bass, treble, and midrange to suit your car's acoustics. High- and low-pass filters tailor the frequencies sent to your speakers for optimum efficiency and sound quality.

AC Drive makes it easy to navigate through your digital music folders. Its built-in voice actually announces the file names as you scroll through them, making it easy to find your favorites without taking your eyes off the road. The included software adapts your files to the AC Drive system.

If entertainment options are your goal, the KDC-X790 will control an optional Kenwood satellite radio, CD changer, or HD Radio tuner. Connect your portable music player to the auxiliary input, or use Kenwood's iPod adapter to control your iPod with the KDC-X790.

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