Kenwood X889

[95F150 10+ year member]

All I can say is this deck is far superior than any I have ever had, which has been all Pioneers by the way. I heard that the only set back was them not being as user friendly as other head units, as I found out when I visited Best Buy to play with the similar version.

All I can say is for $280 I highly doubt there is a better deck out there! The sound coming from my speakers compared to my past 2 Pioneer decks, just blows me away!

All the downloadable Wallpapers and Screensavers on Keenwood, the G-Analyzer, and just the overall layout is great.

There are a couple set backs:

It is difficult to navigate, but a couple weeks and I or whoever owns one will have it down to a science. And almost everything can be done right through the remote, even the angle of the faceplate!!!

It doesn't have just the normal Treble, Midbass, and Bass options as the Pioneers I have owned, but I may be missing something, as I just put it in this morning, and keep learning new stuff every time I get in my truck. The manual says just keep pressing the Volume button for those settings, but doing that I only get Balance and Fade.

A great head unit, and that was a big step for me, considering I thought I would never buy anything other than Pioneer for a head unit!

Click to read more...

 

[Ignatowski 5,000+ posts]

good work on your 889,its far better than most of whats on the market today

 

[rocky 59 5,000+ posts]

i want one bad! i love kenwood decks i have around the base model but i love it.

i hope to get the x889 this spring

 

[95F150 10+ year member]

good work on your 889,its far better than most of whats on the market today

Thanks,

I couldn't agree more!!!

 

[El Ropo 10+ year member]

Good Choice //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

BTW, the x889 has a 4 band PEQ instead of the traditional bass, mid treble. This allows you to adjust the exact frequency desired, and you can also control the decay (width of frequency adjustment).

Be sure to setup the Time Alignment, it does some amazing things for the better.

 

[95F150 10+ year member]

Good Choice //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif
BTW, the x889 has a 4 band PEQ instead of the traditional bass, mid treble. This allows you to adjust the exact frequency desired, and you can also control the decay (width of frequency adjustment).

Be sure to setup the Time Alignment, it does some amazing things for the better.

Haha, its sooo confusing compared to pioneers! I like to have my treble almost all the way up, what fequency would that be?

How do I set up time alignment? Is that where you tell it what size the speakers are?

 

[imaspaceguy90 10+ year member]

nice choice

 

[Rob_Russ23 10+ year member]

"The manual says just keep pressing the Volume button for those settings, but doing that I only get Balance and Fade."

I have the KDC x979 and it took me a while to figure out all the settings too. try holding down that volume button for at least 2 seconds then try the other buttons too like the FM or AM buttons i found a lot more stuff doing that

 

[El Ropo 10+ year member]

The manual has instructions for x789 and x889, so there are different paragraphs of info for each deck. The info about pressing volume knob is for the x789 only. The X889 has the PEQ under the main setup menu (the 2nd little button from the left side), look for "EQ"

The Time alignment is really easy to setup, say you've just got comps in the front doors and a sub or two in a box in the back or your car. You roughly estimate the distance from the front comps to your ears, mine is set to 2.3 ft. Then you do the same for the distance from the sub to your ears, mine is set to 5.33 ft. Then once you are close, you can manually adjust the distances for best results. When sub is correct, it will be the loudest and tightest sounding, when comps are correct, the staging will improve, and midbass should sound better. Since there is no left/ right time alignment, you use the soundfield control setup that lets you choose the "focus" of the sound. choices are front, front-left, front-right, all, etc. Mine is set to front, as I've found setting it to front-left dimishes the width of the soundstage.

Also the SRS/WOW on the x889 really works well in correcting minor staging and imaging issues //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Hope that helps.

 

[blessed 10+ year member]

The manual has instructions for x789 and x889, so there are different paragraphs of info for each deck. The info about pressing volume knob is for the x789 only. The X889 has the PEQ under the main setup menu (the 2nd little button from the left side), look for "EQ"
The Time alignment is really easy to setup, say you've just got comps in the front doors and a sub or two in a box in the back or your car. You roughly estimate the distance from the front comps to your ears, mine is set to 2.3 ft. Then you do the same for the distance from the sub to your ears, mine is set to 5.33 ft. Then once you are close, you can manually adjust the distances for best results. When sub is correct, it will be the loudest and tightest sounding, when comps are correct, the staging will improve, and midbass should sound better. Since there is no left/ right time alignment, you use the soundfield control setup that lets you choose the "focus" of the sound. choices are front, front-left, front-right, all, etc. Mine is set to front, as I've found setting it to front-left dimishes the width of the soundstage.

Also the SRS/WOW on the x889 really works well in correcting minor staging and imaging issues //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Hope that helps.

It might not have helped him, but helped me out tremendously. I just purchased one and is suppose to be here in a few days. I tried and researched all the possible HU choices for under $650 and found most people to be very pleased with the x889. Can't wait....

 

[95F150 10+ year member]

The manual has instructions for x789 and x889, so there are different paragraphs of info for each deck. The info about pressing volume knob is for the x789 only. The X889 has the PEQ under the main setup menu (the 2nd little button from the left side), look for "EQ"
The Time alignment is really easy to setup, say you've just got comps in the front doors and a sub or two in a box in the back or your car. You roughly estimate the distance from the front comps to your ears, mine is set to 2.3 ft. Then you do the same for the distance from the sub to your ears, mine is set to 5.33 ft. Then once you are close, you can manually adjust the distances for best results. When sub is correct, it will be the loudest and tightest sounding, when comps are correct, the staging will improve, and midbass should sound better. Since there is no left/ right time alignment, you use the soundfield control setup that lets you choose the "focus" of the sound. choices are front, front-left, front-right, all, etc. Mine is set to front, as I've found setting it to front-left dimishes the width of the soundstage.

Also the SRS/WOW on the x889 really works well in correcting minor staging and imaging issues //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Hope that helps.

Thanks, I will be sure and play with it today on my lunch break!!!

 

[Ignatowski 5,000+ posts]

they should have made 2 manuals for the different 789 and 889 HU's

I own both models and trying to use the combo booklet sucks

 

[Prowler573 5,000+ posts]

they should have made 2 manuals for the different 789 and 889 HU'sI own both models and trying to use the combo booklet sucks

The one for the XXV-01D isn't any better...

 

[95F150 10+ year member]

Ok guys, got another question!

All of my Pioneer decks used to show the title of songs on burnt cd's.

Why doesn't the Kenwood, is there something I can turn on to make it do this? Thanks/

 

[El Ropo 10+ year member]

Ok guys, got another question!
All of my Pioneer decks used to show the title of songs on burnt cd's.

Why doesn't the Kenwood, is there something I can turn on to make it do this? Thanks/

It does, but not by default, you have to change display settings so song title shows.

I have mine setup to show song/album/artist on top, and RTA on bottom.