calling all kenwood owners
 

I searched the forums and realized a lot of people have kenwood head units. As of tomorrow or soon after I am going to drop some hard earned cash on the ddx 514. Overall, how have your units held up, are you happy with your purchase, would you def reccomend the units to others, etc. Basically the kenwood dnx units and the ddx units have all the same basic guts besides some having navigation or bigger screens, so I figure any feedback is worth it even if the model number is different Just looking for a little re-assurance from you guys that have had extensive time wit the units. Thanks guys

ps...for you audiophiles...im running 30 watt rm spioneer door speakers off the factory deck, any chance the kenwood ddx which is rated at 22 watts rms is going to clean them up. I dont know what the factory unit power is, so maybe the kenwood wont be an upgrade as far as sound, just looks

I have the dpx303. It's a cheaper kenwood unit, but I didn't need or want nav, touchscreen, etc. It has the same 22watts rms as the other units. I don't know how much power the stock unit puts out, but I'm fairly sure the kenwood puts out more. It certainly sounds better.

my DNX9140 wouldn't play sound yesterday because of thermal shut down. Got in the car, and it was only 100 degrees outside, and the sucker would turn on, but not omplify anything - so no sound to the speakers. After it cooled down (an hour later) it would play music. Only had it for a week. Pretty gay if you ask me.

my kenwood dnx6140 works fine. no issues so far. great gps! good quality when watching movies even tho i hardly watch any. rear view cam works well with it. doesnt take too long to boot up. customizable color combo's & backround image. ipod works well, bluetooth is nice.

satisfied customer.

I have installed a few kenwoods and they are great for the money. They have my attention now.

You started the “DONE With Pioneer” and now you jumped on the Kenwood wagon!
Is work a little slow??
Does Alpine have a larger markup???

Pioneer is CEA-2006 compliant and Kenwood is not! Pioneer also makes world class home audio electronics. The others……………0

Kenwood use to be crap 10 years ago when I was an installer. It easily had the worst speakers in build quality. There were more blown Kenwood speakers than any other brand combined X10. Things do change in the electronics world though....

i dont know much about the speakers of kenwood but i have an older head unit it has worked fine for years (ktv-715) i think is hte model. added nav,tv, etc, i-pod interface , cd changer,etc... Great unit

I've been installing stuff here and there since high school (pushing 12 years). I'm nowhere near as particular about my sound now. This is likely secondary to years of listening to music too loud and shooting guns. If it sounds reasonable to me, I'm happy.

Anyway, if I recall correctly Kenwood speakers and subs were never the best, but their headunits have been just as good as anyone else. Maybe I'm wrong, but this has always been my general thought.

Edited to add: All of my installs have been my own cars or friends/relatives. Never done it in a professional capacity, more of a hobby.

I have a DDX814 waiting to get installed this weekend. It's a relatively simple setup. Front and Sub pre-outs to a pair of NINE.2 amps. That's it!

DNX-6140 Owner here and I am very happy with it. I love the bluetooth connectivity. Very precise and does it's job amazingly. The GPS (by Garmin) is very user friendly. Sound quality is pretty good. Also, you can match the button color to interior accent (you may click on my thread in the sig to see the pic). I say go for it. :tup:

ak...when you say the sound quality is pretty good, does that mean its not that good lol? i really want my new head unit to make my system sound good. maybe kenwoods dont have good sound quality?

Hmm...I thinking of doing either a double-din Kenwood or Alpine. Are you changing the speakers? I'm in the Tampa metro area as well and would like to hear what it sounds like. Post back what brand you finally decided to purchase. I sometimes attend the 350 Club of Florida monthly meetings held at Nissan of Brandon.

No I have not jumped on any wagon, I just started installing the kenwood units only in z's there my first experiences with them. I do have to say they bring a lot to the table. Every company has there good and bad "except pioneer" and I know that some are batter than others. IMHO I have used alpine, I have changed head units to alpines, I have worked with them very closely and I have not had a single problem with them at all. They are some of the best out there. A few people I know say that alpine is not what is use to be. Well in my eyes they have not changed. There ipod integration is awesome, every time I install one I never get noise, a lot of add things can be added on to them, and they are worth spending a few extra dollars. The only thing I will agree on, is that the nav in alpine are not the greatest, but they are usable. But in the end it is what YOU the consumer wants and that is what I install. Also no work is not slow there is no job at all, I have been unemployed for 11 months now. The car audio scene is were I am making some good money and keeping me out of the read as well. I love doing installs it makes me feel good and at the end of the day I can sit down and smile because I actually did something that day other than look for jobs.

CRUTCHFIELD North America’s Electronics Specialist since 1974 highly recommends Pioneer (and Kenwood) car stereos & components. For the ninth year in a row, Crutchfield has been recognized by BizRate.com's "Circle of Excellence" for performance and customer service. Crutchfield.com is the only consumer electronics site to receive the Circle of Excellence award nine times.
Are you saying you are more experienced?

A tad OT, but Kenwood-related...

Has anyone been able to update their firmware? My firmware update button is always grayed out even in Standby mode.

The DDX-814 is nice, but it is slow as molasses.

:icon18:Okay A littel of the topic but okay. I like crutchfield but I will not recommend pioneer, and on the other sites 75% agree with me.

Do you have the video by pass done to your head unit?

All I did was ground the PARK BRAKE wire. Not sure if it's necessary, but I started up my car before attempting the upgrade process. Only the BT Module update button is available to select.

What I did notice this morning was a "disc error" when dropping in the data CD with the firmware files. So perhaps it doesn't like the way Windows formatted the data disc, so I may have to try burning the CD with Nero.

I have the Kenwood DNX-6150 and I have had no problems. Everything works great and the GPS is incredibly accurate.

Where do you come up with this asinine statistics of 75%? Obviously you’re not a mathematician! Pioneer is rated excellent by cnet which is an unbiased review panel.

Pioneer DEH-P6000UB In-dash car stereo reviews - CNET Reviews

Man the DDX-814 firmware in my unit is fairly old at 1.2, while the latest update is 1.7. I tried burning a CD and DVD using Vista and Nero on XP with no such luck. I'll either get a "disc error" or the unit gets stuck rebooting itself.

As much as I like the DDX-814 features and the time such units has been out in the market, you would think they'd speed things up by now. The time it takes to switch songs and display the file listing is ridiculous.

[EDIT] I finally got the firmware update working. I used another XP-based machine to write the files to a CD-R. I dropped the disc in and got the usual "disc error" message. Under software information, the UPDATE button was finally available! After 20min. of waiting, my HU now works like a charm! MP3s load so much faster, and now I'm able to page through the file listing. Even better, subwoofer output is so much more consistent. For awhile, sub output was weak when playing MP3s and listening to some CDs. Usually bass output is weak when I first power up the unit. It's confusing, but now everything sounds better regardless of the style of music I'm listening to.

ddx814 update prob
 

I am having the same issue trying to update my DD814. I get the grayed out update button. When you burned the files to a CD-R. Did you burn all 3 files in the zip folder (DDX8_1_1.70.ruf, DDX8_2_0013.img, DDX8_3_.img) to the cd or just the .ruf file. Thx!

Hey, I got your message. DDX firmware updating was BIG PITA. I spent 3 days trying to get it to work and nearly gave up. I tried CD and DVD blank media with various burning options... Nero, Vista, etc. That darn DDX refused the media!

-Unzip ALL of the files and use the Windows XP native CD writing feature to write the files to the CD.
-Drag and drop the files to your CD/DVD drive icon.
-Right-mouse the CD/DVD drive icon and select "Write these files to CD."
-Insert blank CD and continue from there.

Power on the DDX, insert the CD media, and follow the usual procedure to get to the firmware update section. The button should be available to use now. Make sure your car is running because the update takes 20-30min. to complete, and it reboots a few times to finish the update. You'll get a message indicating the update completed.

After that, song changing went from 1 minute to a few seconds. The unit is still slow, but not as painful. You'd think they'd make these things fast by now.

Can you do this update via USB? or does it have to be CD?

I believe only cd that I know of. Or I mean DVD

Hey DIGI, I was thinking of getting the same headunit. Can you let me know how the install was? I'm particularly interested in the fit (does it need a face plate to make it flush?) and how easy was the parking bypass for video on the run (I hope it is as simple as grounding the parking wire on the stereo). Please also let me know if there was any bumps along the way in the install. I am DIY'ing it (first timer). Thanks in advance.

If you do not have the touring model and own the base, then you don't need a faceplate or dash kit for the kenwood double din head units.

Here are a few interesting threads you might want to look into that will answer some of your questions:

http://www.the370z.com/audio-video/8...a-install.html

http://www.the370z.com/audio-video/1...ll-videos.html

http://www.the370z.com/audio-video/5...am-ak370z.html

thanks, I may have missed something but I didnt notice that there was an explanation on how the unit bypasses the parking break for video.

Hey there... the fit and finish is excellent. I have the Base model. All I needed was a Nissan factory harness and power antenna adapter. As for the parking brake wire, I grounded it.

If you plan to install an amp and sub in the back, try to route the remote and audio cables through the center console towards the back.

The install required some patience, and it went very well. I was able to hide just about everything besides the sub in the trunk haha. Would I do this install again? No... too lazy haha.

I have the DNX6140 self installed. I have a Samsung Eternity and it does not work so great with hands free bluetooth calling. Other people have reported that the sound quality is good but people tell me that they can barely understand what I am saying. The menus are not user friendly but you can figure it all out eventually. I installed the optional Ipod cable and the control and sound quality is great. I really like the Nav and it boots up and connects quickly. My only gripe is with the bluetooth :(

I got the best of both worlds? I have pioneer speakers and a Kenwood HU :D

I have a Kenwood in my Explorer (winter car) and I’m thinking of upgrading to the AVIC-Z because I’m having the same problem.

Good Lord - enough with the Pioneer/CNET spam. Getting VERY old. And in a Kenwood thread, yet.

The only spam that I know of is the stuff Hawaiians love to eat………….

Hawaii’s Spam Fixation

Could testfreaks be wrong also……………??

Find the Best Car Stereos - Reviews and Price Comparison

I want to get a 9140 badly... just dont want to change anything from stock in my grand cherokee

Any more info on DNX9140 users? I really want to get one

The install I did in Cali had a 9140. Very nice unit one thing is you will have to do the firmware upgrade to make sure everything is running fast. As when it was installed it was pretty slow but after the update it was fine. If you can buy one I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THEM.

Has anyone updated the firmware to 1.8? It was released months ago, but I never got around to doing the update. It took me awhile to update, and then realize the unit kept hanging because of the thumb drive. Thankfully it was working once I pulled the thumb drive...

Unit operation is much quicker. I wish they can improve the UI. I hate tapping extra menu items just to display radio stations and getting access to various basic functions.

It's hard to keep my eyes on the road sometimes because of the awkward UI (albeit slow). Thank goodness I play my MP3s by selecting folder and random as well as getting steering wheel controls working.