KENWOOD eXcelon Reference Series

[stephgirl]

Hello

So i was looking at different car audio stuff on internet and came across an article from CES show about this new Kenwood line of equipment. KENWOOD eXcelon Reference Series. It is a whole new line having to do with this new technology called Hi Resolution Audio. So i went to Kenwood web site and read about it. Just like TV's have evolved into Hi Def and now 4K TV. It is a new technology from Japan that is starting to expand out to other markets it said. Sounds good. This HI Resolution technology is suppose to exceed CD quality sound. But sometimes the new stuff has to make it and other companies to follow. Remember Sony Beta Max vers VHS tapes. Beta Max died out. The technology sounds solid and great. But from what i can gather is, i guess you have to have a full sound system to get the true Hi Res sound from Head Unit to amp to speakers to work right. I looked at the new XR401-4 amp and it is supposedly made of very high quality components. I can understand this because i have a Hi def 60" TV at home that has a great picture quality but, recently had looked at some new 4K TV's and the picture quality was WOW. Maybe the same thing here. CD sound is great but a sound that is even better and sharper and richer and can hear every little sound in the recording is WOW.

Check out the YouTube link



Remember back in the day when CD Head Units first hit the car audio market and that was WOW

that sound was great. I bought one of the first Pioneer CD head Units that had the CD and screen in dash with the big control box brain mounted under seat with big fat DIN plug cable.

The Kenwood XR401-4 amp is only $349 retail and Crutchfeild has some of the line for sale. If this is supposed to be very high quality parts for this Hi Resolution sound, you would think this amp would be way more cost then $349. Plus i looked at some of the component speakers with special fiber cones and they cost more then the amp does. And the Head Units are $900 and $1300 WOW i don't ever think i will purchase a $1300 head Unit. At that price that Head Unit better talk to the Cop and get me out of my next speeding ticket.

Has anyone had a chance to hear it? Or had a chance to hear it in person? This is a general discussion section of this web site so lets discus this. What do you all think of this new technology and do you think more car audio companies will follow? Maybe it is to soon to make any judgements. lets hear it.

Click to read more...

 

[marc2112 10+ year member]

Hi-res only means that you can get good sound with crappy gear. The gs9 has been out for over a year now and has not change the game at all.

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

Im not sure that Id really need to spend over $1k on a head unit these days, especially from the quality control that we have in this country on products/electronics these days.Ill stick with a $150-400 unit and get all I need

 

[stephgirl]

So i was spending some time last night researching this Hi Res stuff and came across many videos and music on YouTube. There was information about what it is and the pro's and con's and also many music songs recorded in the hi res audio.

I guess i did not realize what it really was until i learned more about it. It turns out i have it right here on my home desk top computer. It is a program i purchased many years ago called WaveLab music editing and remastering program. It was a hobby of mine to take music and remaster it or make it sound better to what i like. And i have over 6000 songs in all categories. But this program is very advanced and is supposed to be used in recording studios mainly. I only use many of the basic parts of the program. But learning what Hi Res Audio is. WOW i can now hear the difference. Hi Res audio is a form of a recording that is recorded in higher bits and higher sampling rate to capture 100% of the original recording. Boy does it sound great. To me it does. To someone else it may not. I have a pair of Sony MDRV6 Studio Monitor Headphones that have been recognized as one of the best headphones around for quality sound. And i could hear all the detail of the Hi Res Audio recording. There is a lot of music out there that i did not know that is available in the Hi Res Audio. FLAC format is available with the 24bit and 96 Khz. Also found out many Head Units can play FLAC recordings in the USB port.

Also saw there was some kind of discussion meeting at CES show about Hi Res Audio and the future and going forward with it i guess. I may start with replacing my HU and by sometime this year see what other manufactures do and if they come out with Hi Res certified equipment.

I have to say that i have been using the MP3 format for a number of years now and with the experience of using this WaveLab software also for many years i truly many time can hear the audio difference from a full Wave file song

(non compressed) to the MP3 compressed audio. My current Head Unit can only play MP3 and WMA though USB port. So i had had to go the MP3 route on portable hard drive to have all my 6000 songs to play in vehicle. I will now start the posses of replacing the head unit with one that can play Wave files and Flac files in Hi Res Audio. I see there is a many number of HU that can do that and they don't break the bank ether. Also i looked at some amps and speakers that were

Hi Res certificated and was surprised they are not so bad on price. That Kenwood i spoke about in first post was only $349. I will change out HU first and see what happens. If Hi Res don't take off then, all I will have is a very nice sounding system right. Who don't want a nice clean sounding system.

But i see there are some out there that just have different opinion, and that's ok. I guess you don't need Hi Res Audio with many of the low bass Rap songs or many of today's Pop songs i know many of you listen to out there. Britney Spears & Katy Perry. All I hear on Rap is Boom Boom Boom. I hear the cars go by with no sound above 100 khz. See i have a vast collection of different music from heavy metal to country to classical to pop to soft rock to techno to international to soundscape to just a little of everything and hearing the details of the music and what the artist and recording engineer intended for the listener to hear means a lot to me. I heard this Soundscape song with the soft and loud sound effects WOW

Love to hear all of you out there your opinions about this. This is a discussion section of this web site. Want to know all of yours opinion. Thanks

 

[stephgirl]

Update

So i just purchased the Pioneer FH-S701BS for $139 it will play WAV file in 16 bit CD quality and will play FLAC 24 bit 96khz though the USB port. Was not to expensive to start off with. It also has the 6 ch RCA with sub out in 4 volts.

Or there was a Kenwood I liked but it was little over $300. Its a start in the Hi Res department. If the Hi Res don't take off and a flop then i will not be out a lot of money. But if it does i can play it. My current Clarion deck only play WMA, MP3 though USB. So now i will put all my 6000 songs i currently have in 16 bit WAV CD quality onto a new portable WD hard drive and have CD quality sound though USB. Now i think the 2 new Phoenix Gold amps I'm getting will work fine. I will install the 2 sets of POLK Audio MM components in there and see how it sounds Also have the 2 8" Polk MM subs. Now i will also look at a few of the HI Res music sites and see what they have in full 24 bit 96khz recordings and see how they sound. Will be back with update when i have time to install all this. Oh ya Judas Priest just released a brand new album i saw on the HI Res music web site. Have to find out if it is true 24 bit recording I will buy that and see how it sounds in Hi Res Audio.

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

No matter how high res your music is, if your audio setup is poor, your overall sound quality is poor. We focus more on the actual aspects that affect sound quality such as, phase, reflections, tuning, deadening, absorption, speaker placement and positioning, crossovers, EQ etc... high quality files is not going to make a poorly setup system automatically sound top tier. This is not home audio or head phone audio. You literally have a noisy and reflective car environment to fight against. You literally have 1000 other factors to worry about other than trying to play higher resolution files when someone on a well done setup with crappy 192kbps mp3s is sounding night and day better than someone else playing lossless files on a poorly done setup.

Literally is what happens when i meet so called "audiophiles" that have high dollar home gear, high dollar headphone gear and when it comes to the car, they have high dollar equipment, poorly setup, poorly done. Even on sh*tty youtube, my system sounds far better than theirs while costing a 1/4th of theirs. When i jump to high quality files, they instantly ask me to redo their setup. High quality files will not magically get you a proper blend between mid and tweeter, a semi flat and accurate response nor any sound stage. However if you have those on point installed and tuned, the higher quality files will be a nice cherry on the top.

 

[Papermaker85 5,000+ posts]

No matter how high res your music is, if your audio setup is poor, your overall sound quality is poor. We focus more on the actual aspects that affect sound quality such as, phase, reflections, tuning, deadening, absorption, speaker placement and positioning, crossovers, EQ etc... high quality files is not going to make a poorly setup system automatically sound top tier. This is not home audio or head phone audio. You literally have a noisy and reflective car environment to fight against. You literally have 1000 other factors to worry about other than trying to play higher resolution files when someone on a well done setup with crappy 192kbps mp3s is sounding night and day better than someone else playing lossless files on a poorly done setup.
Literally is what happens when i meet so called "audiophiles" that have high dollar home gear, high dollar headphone gear and when it comes to the car, they have high dollar equipment, poorly setup, poorly done. Even on sh*tty youtube, my system sounds far better than theirs while costing a 1/4th of theirs. When i jump to high quality files, they instantly ask me to redo their setup. High quality files will not magically get you a proper blend between mid and tweeter, a semi flat and accurate response nor any sound stage. However if you have those on point installed and tuned, the higher quality files will be a nice cherry on the top.

you been reading some articles? i just did a refersher on reflection and diffraction. also came across a cool tick that really explains how acoustics is three dimensional and not 2 dimentional as people think. along with wave pathwats and how they can be quite different from what we where taught for visualization. this makes loading and diffraction and understanding phase much easier..