What is a Music Keg?
First, let's dispel any notion that this product has a connection between drinking and driving. Just because you put a Keg in your car, doesn't mean that you'll have suds.

Second, let's consider just how cutting edge this product is. Cars have long had tape players, CD players, and CD changers — and more recently, DVD players have been added to the mix. But the hottest trend in music storage is the hard-disk drive. Products like the Apple iPod surpass a CD player because hard-disk drives can hold hundreds or thousands of albums in compressed form. The Music Keg is a hard-disk drive for in-car music playback. Moreover, it is designed to move music files easily between your home PC and your car. You can rip thousands of files into the Keg at home, then take that music library for a drive. Cutting edge indeed.

10-Gig or 20-Gig?
The Kenwood Music Keg is available in two flavors — the only difference is the size of the hard drive module that comes with the system. The KHD-C710 uses a 10-gigabyte hard drive, and the Kenwood Excelon KHD-CX910 uses a 20-gigabyte drive. The disk capacity determines how much music you can load into your Keg. Kenwood claims that the 710 holds "about 2,500 songs" while the 910 holds "about 5,000 songs." But, playing time also depends on how compressed the MP3 or WMA files are. For example, at a reasonable bit rate of 128 kbps, a 5-minute song creates a 4.6-megabyte file; so a 20 gigabyte drive would hold 4,350 songs, or 21,700 minutes, or 362 hours, or about 15 days. In other words, one Keg will keep you fully entertained during your summer vacation to the Grand Canyon and back.

What's included?
So, exactly what do you get when you buy a Keg? For starters, you get three pieces of hardware:

• a car-mounted player (that is styled to look like a car power amplifier, complete with purely cosmetic cooling fins),
• a plastic-clad cartridge (called a DMS module) that holds the all-important hard-disk drive,
• a desktop docking station (with a USB cable) that connects to your home computer
• PhatNoise software that lets you rip files and download them to the Keg.

Compatibility
It's important to note that the Keg can be controlled with most of Kenwood's head units and with all Kenwood heads sold since 2001 that offer CD changer and CD-Text capability. A compatible Kenwood head controls the Keg, and also provides power to it, and accepts its audio output signal directly. If you don't have a Kenwood head, you can use a Kenwood KCA-R70 FM adapter that controls the Keg and plays its audio signal through your through your FM tuner (or through your head's auxiliary inputs). I decided to do a complete Kenwood install, so I had a Kenwood Excelon KDC-X869 sent along as well.

A straightforward installation
Unpacking these components and getting ready for installation is easy (and Crutchfield goes to special lengths to help you). The box showed up with everything I would need, including a mounting bracket and wire harness for the head unit. Crutchfield includes a very detailed yet easy-to-follow installation guide, which even a novice should be able to follow. The KDC-X869 installed without a hitch, and I used the AUX inputs, a pair of RCA cables that hang down behind the player, for the inputs from the Keg.

After checking to see that I had everything I needed, it was time to get the Keg up and running. Before you start ripping discs, it's best to complete the car installation part of the task. The car player has a shutter on one end that accepts the DMS module, lights that show when it is powered and operating, and a socket for the specialized cable that connects the Keg to a head unit. You can install the player almost anywhere, with the four included screws; it doesn't have any user controls, and you probably won't be loading and unloading the DMS cartridge all that often. Since it looks like a power amplifier, it would look at home mounted next to your power amps. (Just make sure you leave enough clearance to get cartridges in and out).