Thinking of getting one of these. I like the Organic el display and I want mp3 capability so here are two of my favorites so far. But any suggestion would be appreciated.

http://www.kenwoodusa.com/product/pr...productId=2421

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/Pi...,32409,00.html

What do you think? Anyone have one of these?

Opinions..


Tom

 

I'm a pioneer fan... Go with the Pioneer...

RP

 

I've had the 9400mp and liked it a lot...GET THE PIONEER!

(The only reason the 9400mp is gone now is that it got stolen...and I got insurance to pay me a little over, so now I got a screen!)

 

I do not know if this is of consideration to you. But when I was looking at Kenwood a year ago, none of the products I was looking at had a dedicated sub out line. The store wanted me to tie my sub into the front or rear outs. I did not like this idea as I do not think it is the "right" way to do this for one. But I like having sub output level control. It seems to me like a lot of older music has little bass, but some of the new stuff has pounding bass. So I find myself regularly adjusting the sub output level. Now I do not like my bass pounding. But I like to turn the bass down on my main speakers and use my sub as what I call fill. My theory is that using this technique is not as hard on your main speakers so they last a little longer. And I like the little added fill of more bass. This is just my opinion and how I like to set my stuff up. Darin

 

There is nothing wrong with having the subs connection to the front channel the only thing you lose is control of them via the HU if you have a remote bass *** its the same thing. I will probably be running my subs through the front channel in an SQ system so I can have proper EQing on them with out having to buy another EQ just for the subs.

Im not much of a pioneer fan but they make pretty good stuff so Id go witht he pioneer over the other.

 

Pioneer!

 

Get the Excelon KDC-X959....It has more features than you could ever imagine. 3 sets of rca's, dedicated sub out, MP3s, WMA's, Hi pass and lo pass X-overs, 4.5 volt RCA's, you can upload your own animated screens, and screen savers etc etc

You can also turn off the internal Amp when you hook up an external amp, set low, mid and high frequency response and on and on. I have one and it is very clean and a Bad*** system. I like it more and more every day I use it.

I have had Kenwood home and car systems for over 25 years now, and NEVER had one malfunction.

Also, shop around, The prices I saw ranged from $399 to $599 .

 

At the time I was trying to decide between Kenwood (because I could have gotten an incredible deal on it at the time. I actually bought a Kenwood, but decided against it when I saw the situation with the output channels). I ended up going with an Alpine CDA-7873 for $270 because of the sale price at the retailer I usually deal with. But my comment here is that the Alpine has sub outs and a built in equalizer for bass treble and sub. I hapen to think this is kind of nice if that is your thing. At the time of purchase I was only looking primarily for a unit with cd player, 3 outs and sub level control. The sub EQ was a bonus. This unit was only for my daily driver.

But something I would add is that I have NEVER found a piece of electronic equipment that has everything I wanted or liked. For example I have an Eclipse unit in my F150. I like that when you eject the CD it instantly goes to radio. I really do NOT like the volume **** on the Eclipse remote because you have to push it down and toggle through the functions to get to volume, bass, treble, fade, balance etc. The problem I have is that so many times I try to push the button just once abd then rotate the **** for volume and I end up going to bass instead of volume. I like hte Alpine remote because it has dedicated volume, but you can not adjust sub level, bass treble etc from the remote. My pet peeve with the Alpine is that when you eject the CD from the CD playing, the unit goes silent until the flip door closes. If it is in FM and you eject you get a long pause of silence. I do like how hte volume ramps up and down on the Alpine in all modes.

I know neither of these are Kenwood or Pioneer. I am just pointing out that everything seems to have it's advantages and disadvantages. And things I ran across that I liked and disliked that may help you make a decision. My original point of posting was to point out a feature I did not care for on the Kenwood. But this issue may not even be of consideration for tfleming. Or perhaps it is of great interest. I was just hoping to give him things to consider that stick out in my mind.

I hope this helps.

Darin

 

One thing I do remember is that in late 2001 the Excelon (I think that is what it was called) had a lot nicer features, but the source I had did not carry that line. Darin

 

Once again, I am going to stand up for Pioneer and say go with them. The 9400MP is top of the line. I'm not sure if there was a thing I disliked about the face. I loved the feature which allowed you to make the music sound like it was in a Dome, Studio, Hall, Club, etc. The face had this feature + a really nice EQ. Not to mention you can can completely control your subs seperate from your speakers when equalizing. That way you can make almost all the bass come out of your subs and leave you in-door speakers to scream your highs. This is may favorite mix. But you can always with the flip of a button, turn your subs off, reverse them, or turn them down and then turn your speaker bass up. Its just nice to be able to work with so many options. With this face you can download animations and pictures to put as a backdrop, but I never got around to that. The picture quality on the 9400MP is a LOT better than the other Pioneer faces out because the screen is bigger. I can guarentee it's animations are more detailed than the Kenwood's are. The pioneer's ARE NOT going to look slightly 'fuzzy' or 'grainy'. The colors are really nice and easy to read. This is an awesome face. Go with this one for sure.

 

My major beef with MP3 players on the market is lead time between tracks. Both the Kenwood and Pioneer models suffer from this. My 8400MP takes 6 seconds between each track to read it, and my Z828 in the '03 F-150 has similar read times.

There should be no reason for this.

 

I would go with the PIONEER, but its your wallet. find out which hu has the most features you need (or most likely want) and go from there.

good luck and post a pic after you get one installed