Kenwood eXcelon series decks - thoughts?

[Cliff459 10+ year member]

Hello all-

I have a new truck and I am designing a new system for it. The stock head unit has a lot of nice features, touchscreen, HD FM tuner, steering wheel controls, etc. that my old truck didn't have. I had a Pioneer DEH-80PRS in that truck, loved the clean sound quality of that deck. I have found a Kenwood eXcelon deck that is coming out (DMX-905S Digital Media Receiver) that has a lot of nice features, but I am concerned that most of the sub $1,000 double-DIN decks might not have the same quality of audio output that I am used to having with the Pioneer. Will this eXcelon unit from Kenwood have decent audio quality compared to the Pioneer? Anyone have a good experience with the Kenwood eXcelon stuff?

Click to read more...

 

[Louisiana_CRX 5,000+ posts]

Hello all-
I have a new truck and I am designing a new system for it. The stock head unit has a lot of nice features, touchscreen, HD FM tuner, steering wheel controls, etc. that my old truck didn't have. I had a Pioneer DEH-80PRS in that truck, loved the clean sound quality of that deck. I have found a Kenwood eXcelon deck that is coming out (DMX-905S Digital Media Receiver) that has a lot of nice features, but I am concerned that most of the sub $1,000 double-DIN decks might not have the same quality of audio output that I am used to having with the Pioneer. Will this eXcelon unit from Kenwood have decent audio quality compared to the Pioneer? Anyone have a good experience with the Kenwood eXcelon stuff?

That looks like a very nice and capable deck it should provide great sq features ..I’m considering one myself for my Dodge Dart after seeing I could integrate my factory digital climate control into it and get rid of the worthless POS 8.4 factory deck

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

If you are just running normal components or coaxials, then the kenwood deck is great. Some of them have 32 bit dacs so its actually higher than the 80 prs resolution wise. However if you plan on doing an active network setup, None of the kenwood offerings can do an active network setup.

 

[Louisiana_CRX 5,000+ posts]

If you are just running normal components or coaxials, then the kenwood deck is great. Some of them have 32 bit dacs so its actually higher than the 80 prs resolution wise. However if you plan on doing an active network setup, None of the kenwood offerings can do an active network setup.

I was just doing research on that deck and the Maestro won’t interface with the Darts climate control..so I guess I can scratch that idea for now