I'm in the same spot as you bro but i'm going with eclipse 5495 over the new Kenwood DDX8017. The eclipse has the built in hard disk along with the DSP built in unlike the Kenwood. I like the layout of the eclipse too over the kenwood and I think most would agree, the build quality of the eclipse beats out Kenwood...Eclipse hands down. Your paying for it, but you get what you deserve.