So, what have everyone spent on their Kegs?

[sparky3]

Well, I have about $130 dollars in mine, which is a Kenwood 710 keg + a spare 710 box, an 80GB DMS Cartridge, Kenwood cable and USB 2.0 cradle.

How'd I do that you ask?

Well, let's start.  2 weeks ago I called all the local audio/video stores to see what they had in stock.  H.H. Gregg had a returned open box kit (710) that had everything except the Kenwood cable, but it was only $40 bucks and had a 10GB DMS Cartridge.
No brainer, I bought it.  Little did I know that the Kenwood cable would be unavailable anywhere, so I ended up buying a complete refurbished unit for $130 or so from UBID.  So now I'm -$170.

I found out a local VW dealer was selling the complete kits for $109.90, so I bought 4 of them.  Now I'm about -620  I screwed up 2 of the cables trying to solder them, and I kept a USB 2.0 cradle for myself.  But, I did sell the rest of the stuff for $788.89 on EBAY, just from the 4 kits.  Then I sold my 2 10GB cartridges and USB 1.1 cradles on EBAY for 108.11.  Now total, I'm UP about $260 to $270 to the good.  I went ahead and bought a 80GB DMS Friday afternoon, so now I'll be about $140-$150 in the hole, and I'll have the 2.0 cradle and a spare 710.

Not bad for a few minutes work, eh?  Should I buy a few more VW kits for 109.90?

I can't wait to have my ENTIRE mp3 collection in my car!

Shawn

[snoggle]

I spent $208 shipped for a "scratch and dent" Kenwood 710 from Crutchfield (www.crutchfield.com).  The only thing that appears not like new about it is that the box was opened.

If you get yours from Crutchfield you can use coupon code PA139 for $10 off $50 plus free shipping. You must use Visa for the method of payment, and the coupon expires 2005-10-31.

You can also use my referral code:
p4sta-2y7tv-quwae if you are a new Crutchfield customer for $20 off. I don't know if these two coupons can be used together, so use whichever one saves you more money, or use both if you can.

There are  outlet/scratch and dent Kegs available at Crutchfield right now. You are sure to get everything you need to get started with one of these, including the elusive kenwood to phatbox cable.

Other forum members have visited local audio and car dealers looking for keg deals and have found good deals. This week looking at local dealers netted me a new Kenwood Excelon 910 keg, missing cable, crade and with a bad 10Gig DMS cartridge for $50.

EBay dealers are selling 710s for just under $200, so go with Crutchfield outlet kegs and get them from an excellent, reputable dealer with a solid 30-day return policy.

[Genesis]

$110 deal from vwparts.com for a VW version.

Flashed to a Kenwood Keg.  Cable from pacsun for $50.

The look on people's faces when you tell 'em you got a $800 piece of hardware for just over $100, new and with a warranty?  

Priceless.

[snoggle]

The online vw parts dealers have quit selling the vw kegs for ~$130 shipped and now are asking $299-$349 plus shipping.

I was fortunate enough to get one of the VW phatboxes at the cheaper price (what a fantastic bargain!) so I now have a 20 gig genuine DMS cartridge, and a USB 2.0 cradle to go with my Kenwood Excelon keg.

I will probably flash the VW phatbox into a Kenwood and use it in another car eventually.

So your best bet for finding a phatbox are local dealers, or the Crutchfield deal I sugested earlier.

[FiftyPence]

I spent around $600 on my kenwood music keg when the first came out iirc that was around 18 months ago here in the uk  

Since then, the keg decided not to work anymore and as you may have seen on another thread here I took it apart to discover two lines on the circuitboard had burnt out which could well be a warranty job but i didnt have the time to take it to a kenwood dealer for fixing so i recently purchased a VW Phatbox online.  I received it and changed the firmware to the kenwood firmware and all is working well for around £120 so approx $220

I now have a few spares for sale in the appropriate section, consisting of a kenwood music keg to HU cable, spare cradle and power adapter and usb cable etc.

im very pleased with everthing and it is truly awesome to have many thousands of songs at the touch of a button instead of lugging around a few hundred CDs

[dc4bs]

I went with a $200 ebay unit (kenwood C710) as mentioned above.  It came with the kenwood-kenwood cable and plugged right into the head unit, no issues.

Just finished moving it from "out in the open" in the cargo area of my truck to hidden away in a storage cubby (removed the shell to make it fit - see "the nekkid keg" thread).

So far, it's worked perfectly every time I start the car... (crosses fingers)

Well...  the first track of the first playlist won't play.  but I think it may just be a file size issue...  It's the "2000 year old man" by Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner.  The one track is the entire album...  I'm gonna try breaking it into smaller pieces and see if it works then.

dc4bs