eaks77

Hey everyone,

You may have read my past SQ topic regarding my new stereo set up, but i wanted to keep this topic simply on head units.

Back in the day I used to have a sweet Alpine 7893 deck. It was great! It sounded good and had everything I needed.... now adays things are nutz!

Now there are... from my understanding and available in local market, pioneer, kenwood and alpine -2 dins.

I was looking at the Kenwood Excelon line because of audio quality, but as far as im concerned audio quality across the 2-dins are probably very comparable....especially if i'm sending everything threw amps and potentiall processors. It basically comes down to functionality. When testing the kenwoods... they're extremely slow for processing and doing tasks. The interface looks great... but to be honest, that slowness is gonna annoy the livin sh*t outta me!

Pioneer and Alpine look fine and they process fairly fast. Is there any major functionality differences between these main brands. I understand kenwood offers Garmin and Parrot... but do we really need that? I've read alot of people going from Pioneer to Kenwood and they're dissapointed for the same reasons i fear i'd be... the slowness. So i'm thinking i'll get a pioneer, but then half of me wants to go to Alpine... but no one seems to be buying those.. from what i understand.

Are the Kenwoods worth the slowness? Do they offer better equalizers, or software.. or something that would persuade me eitherwise?

Any feedback would be awesome, thanks!

P.s.... .somewhat off topic, but if anyone knows where i can find, or if someone is selling a Nakamichi PA-4100 amp (discontinued)... pelase let me know. Thanks!

vrdublu

iTrader: (5)

From my experience all the DD are pretty slow in comparison to their sigle Din counterparts. If you haven't made up your mind yet on the Brand check out the JVC KW-AVX830, as it's impossible to beat for function and quality per $$$. The ipod controls are very good allbeit a bit quirky at times, dvd playback is outstanding, and the price can be had under $400 to your door if you do some searching around. You are right though as to audio quality, most manufacturers will use a 24 it D/A Dacs these days and it seems T/A and proper EQ seems to elude the people designing DD units. There are alot of options out, good luck.

Hardwrkr

iTrader: (5)

The Kenwood DNX9140/9960 has T/A and a 13-band EQ, as well as selectable crossover slopes and a pretty decent crossover frequency range. I ended up with the Kenwood with these points being the deciding factor mostly. I liked the Pioneer but it has much less processing. The Alpine has the ability to add processing but then the cost is much higher and you've got to find spots to hide the add-ons (plus it's hard to find any positive reviews of Alpine's NAV).
Anyways, that's what I ended up with after about 2 months of researching when basically looking for a 2-DIN 800PRS with NAV. I agree though that the JVC's are worth a look.

Sinemeup

BTW that JVC mentioned is built by Kenwood... hence the model # beginning KW_________

Sinemeup

I'm running a DNX-5120 from a few years back, the only peripheral I added was a GPS antenna. The one thing that constantly comes up while I'm reading about the Kenwoods is that people him and haw about certain things, but when it comes to IPOD they seem to always be favour the Kenwood.

I've got USB input, GPS, can play my playstation, hook an IPOD (I use thumbdrives), sure there are the odd thing that drives me nuts but lets give this another 10 years

eaks77

Hey, thanks for the reviews. I actually just came across a JVC today, not the model mentioned above, it was a JVC KW-NT3HD and at quick glance and some play, it seemed great! There weren't any sales people around, but i'll be going back to play with it somemore. Anyone with experience on this DD? Keep the suggestions coming, thanks!