Just bought one w/ the $50 off Kenwood discount & an additional $20 off retailer discount going on ($480 + tax). So far quite impressed & more than happy with the purchase, relatively speaking though... It's expensive for what it is, there's no denying this; however, it's a super niche luxury item that requires a high margin to be profitable / worth the effort in the market.
My biggest complaints are the super touchy buttons that are easily pressed accidentally by simply picking up the radio if not careful, the poor screen utilization where more info could have easily been fit in when A&B bands are both enabled, and the BS low amperage charger that's included which is reported to be potentially damaging to the radio if you transmit while it's connected.... Price of accessories are also stupidly expensive as well for what they are, but that's kind of par for Amateur Radio... If you're going to use this radio a lot, I'd pony up the extra $25 for RT system's software, as it would have taken countless frustrating hours, over several days, w/ a lot of mistakes to program the 700+ channels & 23 groupings I wanted with the Kenwood software...
Other than that, no major gripes. Learning curve is a little cumbersome at 1st w/ a few annoying bits about how they designed the user interface, but really not a big deal in my opinion. I'm an electronics engineer, so I guess that probably helps a bit
The receiver's front end deals with the massive AM & FM broadcast station that's 1/2 mile away without noticeable issue. Deals with the ridiculously powerful police dispatch VHF transmissions without apparent issues. Both of these sources of noise overload the front end of most of my other radios, even with auxiliary Par electronics filters on the receive antenna cables.
Scanning speed is definitely the fastest I've seen in any amateur radio transceiver I've owned. Definitely not as fast as a modern scanner radio from Whistler or Uniden, but more than fast enough for legitimate use as a scanner radio, so long as you break things down into groups that make sense.
Audio quality is very useable, definitely a several notches up compared to any other HT or portable radio I've owned. The EQ function for both Tx & Rx is definitely a worthwhile option that I've always used & liked on my base station transceivers (especially when connecting to auxiliary speakers).
It's a bit bulky compared to other HT's, but it's far less bulky than any of my scanner radios. The TH-D74A will be replacing 3+ pieces of gear, and a whole lot of hassle, when overlanding out in BFE where there's no cell signal and where I often don't know exactly where I'll end up or go over the following week (which scares my family)... APRS for location tracking, VHF for communications, & general HF / SW listening to whatever, all done with this radio alone, w/ an Icom 5100 mobile & a legit mobile antenna on the car's roof serving as a crossband repeater at basecamp.
The only other gripe I have is the Bluetooth function is not well implemented for audio pairing. With the capable & competent receiver in this radio (compared to just about any other portable receiver I've used), Kenwood should have enabled a "speaker" profile. I've not had luck connecting the D74 to bluetooth speakers so far. Would really be nice to connect this thing via bluetooth to any bluetooth speaker I want.
I'm more of a listener than a talker, but I've been talking a lot more with this HT to see just how "bad" the battery life is to se if it's a deal breaker for taking up North... I'm not impressed, but I'm also not disappointed in the least... With my attempt at "heavy" use, which is likely pretty light for a lot of folks, a fully charged battery lasts a solid 2+ days.
