Thoughts on a couple of HU's...

[rjay 10+ year member]

I was thinking about updating my wife's HU. Was looking at the Kenwood Excelon KDC-496 or Alpine CDE-134HD. I was thinking about the Kenwood, but was wondering about the quality. Are they about equal, or is one really better than the other?

The Kenwood does have more RCA outputs (which are 4v instead of 2v like Alpine), but I will only be using one.

Both units have high/low pass filters with 3 band eq.

The Kenwood includes a wireless remote, where as the Alpine I would have to pay extra for it.

Alpine does have HD radio built in but I'm not sure if that is really worth having or more just a gimmick!

These are just a few main features, and I'm thinking the Kenwood would be the better buy. What do you guys think?

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[sbelew 10+ year member]

I started out with a Pioneer, (cant remember the model #) but I switched to the Excelon 995 in my truck and an Excelon 695 in my car and I love them both. The 995 has the HD radio, which is nice, but honestly I never use it. They both have built in bluetooth with external mic, a feature I use every day. That and the USB were selling points for me. The 995 has rear USB, which I mounted into the dash, the 695 has front USB. They have front, rear and sub RCA outs, so its easy to run 4 channels and a sub. I picked up 2 of the Segon Mini USB drives from Newegg, which only stick out from the radio about 3/8", almost not even noticeable when plugged in. I purchased both HU's from Crutchfield.

 

[d77543020 10+ year member]

i reallly like my pioneer 8400bh they can be had cheap on ebay