IN DASH GPS Kenwood, Alpine, Pioneer?

[airtas 10+ year member]

I wanna upgrade my current head unit which is an kenwood excelon x689, the sound is great but I want GPS etc.

I am looking at these three options,

Kenwood with Garmin GPS which I love the Garmin Nuvi's so I assume it is the same interface

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-miiozegzpem/App/Product/Item/Main.aspx?g=182350&i=700NAV6019&c=3&tp=526

Pioneer D3

http://http://www.crutchfield.com/S-miiozegzpem/App/Product/Item/Main.aspx?g=182350&i=130AVICD3&c=3&tp=526

OR

The Alpine which is cool because I would buy the blackbird GPS unit which is portable and it has the dock to display the GPS on the Head unit as well

only drawback how good is alpine gps?

http://http://www.crutchfield.com/S-miiozegzpem/App/Product/Item/Main.aspx?g=168550&i=500IVAW205&c=3&tp=448

here is the GPS

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-miiozegzpem/App/Product/Item/Main.aspx?search=blackbird+2&i=500PMDB200

Also are all dvd Receiver head unit have low pre out voltage compare to regular units?

I noticed all these are rated at 2.0 as opposed to the 5.0 I am used to.

Click to read more...

 

[jluv 10+ year member]

The new Blackbird has been much better than the old one (so far). Keep in mind that it docks right inside the head unit itself, which is pretty cool. If you want any tuning capability, go ahead and spriong for the H701 processor as well. This will give you 5v out like you mentioned. Make sure you get the KCE-900E if you add the processor, otherwise the voice prompts won't come through properly when you are listening to a source other than the nav.

As you can see, if you go the Alpine route you end up buying multiple pieces and hooking them all up together, but the end result is nice. And it's a big plus that you can take the Blackbird with you out of your ride. It still comes with the separate dock mount/charger setup so you can pop it in the windshield of another vehicle on the go.

 

[bikinpunk 10+ year member]

I just bought the w205 and have considered picking up the blackbird 2. Do you have any pics of this thing in action?

Also, care to elaborate on the need for the kce-900e? I have the processor.

 

[audioarsonal 10+ year member]

i have an old N-1 and its just as good as the newer n-3 and d-3.also have a kenwood 6019 with the nav and I like it better then the n-1 but its a double din so i can't use it right now.

 

[airtas 10+ year member]

do the kenwoods and pioneers both use the same maps?

how are alpine maps?

 

[airtas 10+ year member]

nothing?

 

[audioarsonal 10+ year member]

The N-1 uses maps that are on disks EAST and WEST.As far as who makes them i don't know.The Kenwood has built in maps by Garmin and an updatable SD slot for newer versions.The down side to the n-1 is you have to remove the cd/dvd if you want to search for new interests but once selected it can be removed to use the cd/dvd slot again.(if you have the bypass when using the updated N-3 maps).As for the Kenwood it is alot more user friendly as it uses the Garmin system of operation.I presonally like the N-1 though but it is alittle old.

 

[audioarsonal 10+ year member]

The D-3 only has a 6.1in screen, N-1 6.5in,Kenwood6.95in never had an Alpine little to expensive for me.

 

[SSon22s 10+ year member]

I just bought a new Dodge Magnum and def wanna go with double din...I have had a Garmin GPS for a while and LOVE the mapping, so easy to use! I am trying to debate between the Pioneer D3, Kenwood DNX7100, or Alpine with blackbird, Ive only ever owned Alpine HDs but I think the Kenwood and Pioneer will be close for Sound Quality...Anyone else with input?

 

[c130pilot]

I am in the same boat as far as Head units. I am looking at the alpine and Kenwood as well. Pioneer is crap..I have had 15 years of experience with them and I can say all have been repaired over and over, multiple times..I am leaning towards the Alpine just because of rock solid internals. My question is alpine is advertising this piece of equipment to go with the Alpine Nav unit..I am very familiar with gps workings..Why they are saying you need this along with the antenna I do not know.. Anyone help me this?

NVE-K300

Universal Speed Pulse Generator with Passive-Magnetic Technology Price:

U.S. $250.00

CDN. $(TBD)

Universal speed pulse generator generates a speed pulse using the steel belt in the tire. This simulated speed pulse signal is used for the NVE-N872A's accurate vehicle positioning.

 

[jluv 10+ year member]

I just bought the w205 and have considered picking up the blackbird 2. Do you have any pics of this thing in action?
Also, care to elaborate on the need for the kce-900e? I have the processor.

I don't have any pics. I could snap some in a bit, I suppose.

If you don't use the 900e with the 701, then the voice prompts won't come through while you are listening to another source.

For example, if you are jamming to a CD or radio, but you have the visual selected to nav so you can see your route, any time the voice prompts are supposed to come in, the CD or radio will mute for a few seconds while the voice tells you to make a turn or whatever. For some reason, if you have a processor, the CD or radio will mute for a few seconds, but the voice never comes through. If you have the source selected to nav, not just visual, then of course the voice prompts work fine, but then you can listen to anything else. The 900e solves this issue. Well, it's supposed to at least. I am about to go install it here in a minute.

 

[audioarsonal 10+ year member]

From personal experince I would get the Kenwood the price is better than the Alpine and it has a better nav base being garmin.And that is all they do is GPS so IMO go with the kenwood.also I believe you need a special bypass to use the nav functions while driving for the ALPINE.not sure though I'll have to look into that.

 

[SSon22s 10+ year member]

I have never had a problem with Alpine products and really love their stuff but I dont know how much I really care for the w205, I have installed a DNX-7100 but have heard bad reviews, I only got to use it for a few minutes, Anyone else had bad experience with Pioneer? I like the Avic-Z1 or Avic-D2...

 

[Bring97 10+ year member]

plain and simple get the kenwood dnx-7100.had the D3 hated it low prvolts discs for navi. alpine is nice but it doesnt have the navi built in and the blackbird runs rigt around 600 (i think). The kenwood has the garmin maps, you can get the ip300v and watch videos on your ipod through the unit. and because of the USB you can get an external hard drive and hook it up and navigate the folders with the unit. r your music and movies

 

[SSon22s 10+ year member]

Ive heard too many bad things about Kenwood reliability and navigating through that radio is a POS, I basically can get the Alpine w205 with blackbird for the same price as the kenwood dnx-7100, I am thinking of just going the alpine route since price isnt an issue between the two..