Got woken up by the door bell....

[Prowler573 5,000+ posts]

(no - this has nothing to do with the RE group buy!)

...and found this UPS guy who looked as if he was having a very bad day (and it wasn't yet quite 10am) standing outside. Bad day notwithstanding he still managed a half-hearted smile as he said, "Merry Christmas" and handed me a box with a Crutchfield mailing label on it, asked for my signature, and walked back to his truck. I made my order yesterday at almost 3pm CST and it only cost me an extra $9 for overnight (Christmas Eve) service on top of what would have otherwise been free shipping.

The batteries for the digicam are currently charging so it'll have to be later in the day for that. Sorry for now!

The install took less than 5 minutes as I was only upgrading within the same brand rather than changing course altogether. My old deck only had one set of preouts (the sub outs) on a pigtail and the other two sets were built into the back of the chassis. The new one has all three sets of preamp outputs on pigtails then adds a fourth with a built-in auxillary input. Add one more as the antenna lead is on a pigtail too.

With the minimal clearance behind my dash where the HU sits all this previously non-existant cabling made for an interesting couple of minutes trying to get it shoved all the way back (without pinching any wires) and locked into the mounting sleeve. Other than this minor hurdle installation was a snap as the new deck uses the same cage and wiring harness as the one it is replacing. So it was simply a matter of sliding the old deck out of the sleeve, disconnected everything that was connected to the back of it, connect all those bits to the appropriate places on the new deck and slide it into the dash.

Oh yeah....what is it I'm talking about?

A brand-new 25th Anniversary XXV-01D now lives in my car. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/present.gif.046205b11bb0957af93450bd4cc53e1b.gif For those of you that aren't particularly keen on Kenwood ~ say what ya like but this deck freggin rocks. Period.

I haven't had the time to properly tweak it at all. It's a bit more involved than the now-retired KDC-X679 I have been using for almost 2 years now so it's gonna take some time to get used to. There is a limited amount of buttons on the face of the unit (exactly 8 counting the faceplate release button) so navigating the menus is very different than I am accustomed to but I'm gettin' the hang of it slowly.

Having the ability to make different EQ settings for both the front and back speakers (Yes, there are still people that have rear speakers!) has brought a new dynamic to my setup. I'm as yet unsure as to whether this is a good thing or not but I'll let ya know when I decide. The adjustable slope for the crossovers is sharp. It's a decided plus.

At any rate...just from my thus far very brief experience with it I can tell there is an immediate, obvious, and dramatic improvement in the overall 'feel' of my setup.

According to Kenwood this HU is built with considerably better parts (in some aspects) than the rest of its eXcelon brethren. Different power supply capacitors, better cabling for the preamp outputs/aux input, a better screen than the KDC-X889, blah, blah, blah. I'm not technologically savvy enough to know if the better capacitors and the upgraded cabling make a real audible difference in the output but something in there does! It's honestly in a different class than my 679 completely.

To make a long story short to anyone that is giving consideration to getting one of these then at this early stage in my experience with this Anniversary-series deck I'd have to say good choice!

Once I get just how I want it, work out the proper settings on the DTA, get the EQ truly tweaked I'll post a full review but so far soooooo freggin good.

Good job, Kenwood! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/thumbsup.gif.3287b36ca96645a13a43aff531f37f02.gif

Click to read more...

 

[alphakenny1 10+ year member]

i think you asked about the DTA earlier on another thread, you'll absolutely love it. of course it depends on your setup. if you are on an active setup you can delay each speaker but if passive then i'm guessing it's run off a 2 channel amp in which you want the woofer and tweeter as close as possible because you can only delay a certain side rather than a certain speaker. sounds like an awesome HU though, enjoy!

 

[Prowler573 5,000+ posts]

I'm passive - but it's not a 2ch amp. I'm running a Performance Standard (early eXcelon) KAC-PS500F 4ch for front and rear speaks.

 

[imaspaceguy90 10+ year member]

wow, i didnt know they dielivered on saturdays, Special.

 

[ChuteBoxe515 10+ year member]

isnt today sunday?

 

[imaspaceguy90 10+ year member]

oops

 

[skmfkr 5,000+ posts]

wtf...i didnt kno that delivered anything on sundays, and saturday they only do air shit

 

[i3abyjay25 10+ year member]

and i thought Santa Clause was suppouse to use the chimney.....

 

[Prowler573 5,000+ posts]

Here's the only pic I have thus far....don't mind the ID3 tag being wrong...it's the one that came with the song when I d/l'ed it from ROE and I didn't correct it before I burnt it.

Before:

After:

 

[theCybe 5,000+ posts]

Had an order shipped 'next day air early AM' on 12/30; It's 1/2, and I haven't gotten my shit.

UPS can eat a dick and gimme my $70 back. Not to mention the material inside was time-sensitive, and is worth considerably less at this point.

 

[Prowler573 5,000+ posts]

I wasn't after a Next Day Air option specifically. I received an email from Crutchfield (as I frequently do) regarding the Next Day Delivery for orders placed prior to 4pm EST on the 23rd. I ordered at about 2pm CST (3pm EST) and at 10am CST the next day a UPS driver was at the door.

It cost me an extra $8.95 for the Christmas Eve delivery option otherwise I would have gotten normal UPS Ground shipping for no money at all (the total purchase exceeded the minimum amount necessary for free shipping)

 

[ngsm13 5,000+ posts]

Link to specs? I'm lazy and at work...so don't feel like searching. Looks to be a nice deck!

NG

 

[Prowler573 5,000+ posts]

>>Here