Kenwood excelon 993

[Steveopevo 10+ year member]

For $300 this is by far the best h/u you can buy. I wanted an Alpine cda-9886 but couldn't get past the lack of features especially the 2-band eq. I liked the Pioneer 700 bt, but I wanted a 24 bit dac and it has a 16 bit. So I bought the kdc-x993 and was blown away by the sound quality. It has a Bit Wolfson 24 bit dac which sounds warmer and more natural than Alpine's Burr Brown dac. It also has Independant front vs. rear x-over with lots of settings, Built in cabin acoustical correction processor and 4 way digital time alignment. Once you set the value for the distance difference (front to back) there is another menu that allows you to tweak it for each speaker (left to right). The are a few issues though. The plastic cover over the display makes it hard to read in sun light and some of the menus are really complicated to figure out even with the manual. It took me 2 weeks to figure out that it has 18 station presets plus an additional 6 favorites preset for a total of 24. when you toggle the right side control knob upwards it changes the band fm-1, to fm-2, to fm-3. the manual was vague about this and other more complex features. The blue tooth button on the upper left side also changes the station search perameters by pressing it in for at least 2 seconds. If you hold it for less it activates the phone connection. Basically there aren't enough buttons and knobs to control its vast index of features so depending on how you press a button determines the outcome. Not a good thing for somebody wanting a simple solution. With that said it's a fantastic piece of equipment for the money.

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[Louisiana_CRX 5,000+ posts]

any pics?

 

[shavenblazer 10+ year member]

i love my 990.

 

[Steveopevo 10+ year member]

any pics?

No, not right now.

 

[nineball 10+ year member]

it actually has 3 way time alignment - front speakers are done as a single, same for the rear and then the sub. you can then adjust them individually for distance but i am still not sure exactly how that works since they are not calling it full 6 channel t/a.

the display does **** but i changed it to be a single large clock since that is what i need to look at it the most for and it isn't that bad. i either scan the fm presets or have my iphone on random, and with the remote buttons memorized there is no need to look at it anymore.

 

[Steveopevo 10+ year member]

it actually has 3 way time alignment - front speakers are done as a single, same for the rear and then the sub. you can then adjust them individually for distance but i am still not sure exactly how that works since they are not calling it full 6 channel t/a.
the display does **** but i changed it to be a single large clock since that is what i need to look at it the most for and it isn't that bad. i either scan the fm presets or have my iphone on random, and with the remote buttons memorized there is no need to look at it anymore.

There is a DTA fine tuning adjustment located under the set up menu. The first submenu is "preset listening position" and the next submenu is "manual position setting". Under the manual position setting you can change the distance difference for each speaker independently. So technically you could delay left to right or right to left if you wanted

 

[macmovieman 10+ year member]

Compliments of Google image.

 

[tripleb45]

What about the 693 I just bought that and I think it is tight too, the only real difference is that it doesn't come with bluetooth, I don't use that anyway.

This thing is nice, mine is in the mail, but you basically just paid about 150 for the Bluetooth feature. Newer doesn't mean better IMO. But you are right this thing is nice, can't wait to install it.

 

[nineball 10+ year member]

There is a DTA fine tuning adjustment located under the set up menu. The first submenu is "preset listening position" and the next submenu is "manual position setting". Under the manual position setting you can change the distance difference for each speaker independently. So technically you could delay left to right or right to left if you wanted

ya i know that, but what i don't understand is why they say t/a is done in sets of speakers yet you can then also adjust their position independently. isn't that essentially doing the same thing as 6ch t/a?

 

[corrie32 10+ year member]

does either of those has an usb plug

 

[tripleb45]

yep it comes with one and is in the rear

 

[305 SERBOI 10+ year member]

i was gonna get that one but i got the 693 tripleb45 ur gonna love it its awsome

 

[lambuhere1]

Issues with Kenwood X993

Hi

I am having a peculiar problem with my Kenwood X993. I am very much happy with the said unit. Of late, the unit has stopped playing MP3 songs on the CD. One thing which I observed it that there's a red light below the release button [ inverted triangle shape ] glowing all along when my head unit is ON. Its able to play normal Audio CD's. Another thing that I have noticed is that the "Bluetooth" switch is glowing always when by head unit is on, even though till date, I have never configured my phone with the head unit.

Is there any solution for the aforesaid issues ? I have not yet reset the headunit. I will try it to be the last option. I was wondering as to why the headunit is behaving this way ?

Expecting to hear from you soon

Thanks a lot for your kind reply

 

[raverx3m 10+ year member]

what about kdc-x592?

 

[Wattser93 10+ year member]

what about kdc-x592?

As cheap as the 693/993 is why bother with that?