Question regarding Kenwood HDD based DAPs (HD30GB9, HD60GD9, HD20GA7, etc.)

It seems like the Kenwood HDD players use Toshiba MK GAL HDD. Those are 5mm thick and the capacity might be limited. I am not sure if the HD60GD version uses a Toshiba MK GAH HDD. Those are 8mm thick and then we have got bigger capacities to choose from.

Here is a Japanese page (translated) that is not too encouraging.

A slightly more encouraging German page.

Here are instructions on how to replace the HDD and battery in a Kenwood HD20GA7.

There is not much more to be found, especially outside of Japan. Probably because these DAP:s were mainly sold in Japan.

The main things to think about when you try a new HDD is the thickness and also to first copy the system files from the old HDD. It might work to format the new HDD with FAT32 format and then copy the back up system files from your computer to the new HDD, and after that insert it into the Kenwood. If it will work, however, I cannot say.

I've got a HD20GA7 and I will stick with Toshiba GAL 20 or 30GB drives if the HDD breaks down. I bought mine used, and the battery is not very good, so I will replace it. The last link shows some good pictures of how the Kenwood looks like when you open it up.

kenwood players should be limited to 5mm thick due to the case.

as I know, HD30GB9 and HD60GD9 support kenwood lossless and WAV. 

As faichiu writes, the 30GB and 60GB models supports Kenwood's proprietary lossless format. The older HD20GA7 does not support it, and I think that the small HD10GB7 (10GB microdrive) also doesn't support the format.

Size comparison between the bigger and the smaller Kenwood HDD players:

So for big capacity and lossless, the HD30GB9 and HD60GD9 are the best options.

I do not think that there are any firmware mods to make the Kenwood players use FLAC. The Kenwood lossless format seems to be similar to FLAC, and as I understand it the Kenwood Media Application, which you need to use to transfer music to the Kenwood players, encodes the music on the fly...

As the long time owner of HD20GA7 I can say - it really hisses a bit. But you hear it only at start of the song. It hisses more than Cowon, Apple & Sandisk. Bit it had never been a problem for me.  

You can't replace HDD in HD20GA7 (the HDD model you wrote about). You can use only older HDD here (30 Gb max) with IDE support. Newer models are S-ATA or ATA.

I haven't read about successful flash mods of this player, but Kenwood SQ is worth trying if you have good IEMs. I don't like HD20GA7 with big phones. It has less juice than newer models

Silentmeloud is right in that the Kenwood HDD uses hard drives with IDE interface. So newer ones do not use this interface? My interest in older DAP:s leaves me a bit uninformed about newer tech...

Anyway, the connector on the mother board is some sort of zif type. You can see in this picture that the HDD cable is zif on the mother board end and IDE on the HDD end.

In theory it would be possible to use a zif cable and a 5mm zif drive of the same dimensions as the original drive.

It might or might not work. Searching around for info about CF card mods on Kenwood HDD players, I found a Japanese discussion on 2chan. I study Japanese right now and I am only at an intermediate level, so I am far from fluent. Anyway, different HDD replacements are discussed and also CF mods:

"Can you change the HDD?

If you do, it is your own responsibility."

The first three models seem to work while the MK6006GAH is too thick.

The models ending with 8 have zif connectors. It seems like there might be a problem with finding a zif connector cable.

About CF card mods, only some seem to work. These are the successful ones:

For the HD30GB9, the only combinations tried that work seem to be the AR-IDE1CF500 CF card adapter + Silicon Power 16GB card and the CR-1000IDE adapter + Silicon Power 16GB. But the first one results in a degradation of sound quality.

Here's the link if you want to check it out through a translation page: http://2chnull.info/r/wm/1253873836/1-7

For some more hard drive info, here's a link to a Rockbox page about Toshiba hard drives. You might want to check out what replacement HDD works with the iRiver H120. I think that one used the same size HDD as the Kenwood 20GB and 30GB versions.

About sound quality, I have only heard the HD20GA7. The later versions have got the so called "Supreme ex" which is supposed to work well. You can not use it at the same time as you use EQ. You can search for old threads on Head-fi where people talk about the different players...

Other than the Supreme ex and different capacity hard drives, the Kenwood HDD players seem to be pretty much the same.

If you use sensitive IEM:s, the Kenwood players can hiss. I never use IEM:s. Instead I use earbuds and portable headphones. I have not heard any hiss at all. The HD20GA7 is supposed to hiss the most, but apparently later versions hiss almost as much.

Quote:

Originally Posted by shadowfox42 

Forgive me, I meant the 80GB MK8025GAL. It seems you can replace the HDD in the HD60GD9 with the MK8025GAL, unless I misunderstood, according to this link provided by Danneq: http://translate.google.se/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=ja&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=ja&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hat.hi-ho.ne.jp%2Fr-otsubo%2Faccord%2Fpage058.html&act=url

 

Maybe you can only upgrade the HD30GB9 and the HD60GD9 with the MK8025GAL but not the HD20GA7?

 

I suppose I outta just get the D9, and stay with the default 60GB HDD.

 

My IEMs are the Head-Direct RE0 by the way, I'm sure they will go great together. Then I'm gonna either get the Fischer Audio DBA-02 or the Audio Technica CK10 eventually.

The D9 seems to be great and the last HDD player Kenwood released before turning to flash players. They are still expensive. On Japanese Yahoo auction I have seen used HD60GD9 go for 50.000 yen or more!

It seems that the MK8025GAL will only work in the 60GB version. At least according to the link. The change was a success, but at first there was some problems with no files being displayed. After updating the database with Kenwood Media Application it seemed to work fine.

Any Kenwood HDD player will be a great choice. They are a bit quirky, especially the Kenwood Media Application that you need to update the player's database (KMA does NOT work with Windows 7). If you want a nice sounding and rare player, I definitely recommend the Kenwood HDD players!

I've got Windows XP, so I wasn't aware of that problem. A Spanish Kenwood owner here at Head-fi sent me a PM since he had problems with his Kenwood since upgrading his computer to Windows 7 and he had seen me commenting about the Kenwood on different threads. I found this link from Kenwood's Japanese home page. KMA works in Vista, and there are reported cases of it working in Windows 7 32-bit. There are also reported cases of it not working. 64-bit Windows 7 is a no go for the KMA.

I would say that KMA is the only bad thing about the Kenwood HDD players. Unfortunately you need it to update the players internal database...

I am using windows 7 32bit with my B9.  

Quote:

Originally Posted by shadowfox42 

Doesn't work with Windows 7? That's a pity, I suppose I could create a partition for XP.

 

I bid you all thanks, and now I think I'm going to search for a D9. ^_^