help excelon experts. x891 vs. x890

[skinz187]

looking for someone to shine some light on the differences between these two decks.

Click to read more...

 

[hemiscott 10+ year member]

I just bought a 890 (didn't get it yet) but i think 2 of the differences are the display, and the 891 only has a 3 band eq. where the 890 has 4.. A simple way to compare is to look it up man.. GL

 

[Prowler573 5,000+ posts]

The KDC-X890 and the KDC-X891 both use the same 64-color flourescent display. You had to step up the the X990 last year or the X991 this year to get the same 4,096 color OEL display used in the 25th Anniversary XXV-01D.

The X890 does feature a 4-band PEQ whereas the X891 is only giving you a 3-band PEQ.

I'm not at all certain why Kenwood chose to drop one band of equalization....seems odd to me....the same is true for the "top-dog" models. The X990 used a 4-band whereas the X991 only offers a 3-band PEQ. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

Weird.

The inbuilt Aux Input for the X890 are RCA inputs.

The inbuilt Aux Input for the X891 is a 3.5mm minijack (headphone-type plug)

Outside of that I don't think there are any other significant differences...

 

[brad1011a 10+ year member]

Different PC software, no more Phatnoise.

 

[Prowler573 5,000+ posts]

Different PC software, no more Phatnoise.

I wonder which is better?I have the install disc for PhatNoise b/c it came with my XXV....apparently (from what I gather from reading about it) the media manager software that is coming with the newer eXcelons is more geared towards managing files in a thumb drive - which with the USB input I reckon that makes sense...

 

[brad1011a 10+ year member]

Most over at TalkAudio don't like the newer one (Kenwood Music Editor - KME):

http://www.talkaudio.co.uk/vbb/showpost.php?p=2576892&postcount=70

The Kenny flyer says the new one supports auto-playlists based on tempo, etc.

 

[brad1011a 10+ year member]

It's good to see better USB support.

But to me it's still not 'there' with playlist/drive/software issues, small screens, no selection by tag... etc.

I never thought I'd do this, but I'm starting to put together a CarPC instead of waiting for the high-end Kenwood after reading over at TalkAudio.

I've been looking at the freeware front end 'RoadRunner', and it allows 'on the fly playlists', which let you add to the queue of what's playing rather than selecting a song after the current one finishes (besides regular playlists, and all the amazingly easy selection options based on tags not file names). This makes it easy to put a quick list together when starting out that'll last as long as the trip.

The cost was putting me off, but I remembered my barely used laptop, and it will work out to 30% more than the Kenny, and will allow an easy, cheap upgrade to NAV, wireless internet, rear view camera (besides existing movies, ripping, and in-car Dolby/DTS surround, etc.). And the van gives lots of secure mounting options.

Not trying to change any minds, but to me the only real way to manage a big library (if it's in your budget).