Aftermarket Nav/Audio Choice.

I chose DNX6960 because it has real buttons and the volume knot. 9960 looks more sexy with bigger screen and it is more feature packed. It has the more recent Garmin Nav with 3D buildings. It seems slow with the 3D buildings.

I did not want to get the flagship model and went with the best bang for the buck model.

 

I am probably going to do the Pioneer Z110BT, sw upgradable to the Z120, fold out, large screen. I just put the 910bt into my ford truck. voice reco for phone, nav and ipod.

still getting used to the nav on the 910. I like my Magellan hand held.. zoom in/out, route review is quick.

Sam

 

It's a great unit - and if you go to avic411.com, there are some updates to Z120 (and maybe more to come). It can be had pretty cheap ($699 Ebay refurb).

The negative (and it is a real one) is BT mic sound. Again, look at the forums for more info, but this is a real detractor...

 

You can get traffic with the Kenwood units.Traffic is an extra cost (around $150) adapter with the 6960 but included with the 9960.

Pioneer offer MSN traffic but the service is being discontinued next year. Pioneer has not said if an alternate service will be offered. Knowledgeable posters say there is a possibility a new traffic service will only be made available on models that haven't been released yet.

 

N ot sure about how Kenwood's works - the MSN Pioneer service is pretty much a joke. You are better off using your smartphone for traffic...

 

Get the II and go with the aftermarket system. I made the mistake of getting the III but I still replaced the entire JBL system with an aftermarket system and it sounds light years better than the JBL.

 

is that only on the Z110? cause on my 910 its great. and I follow avic411 and don't see that as any more of an issue than the other things.. slow start up (I see this on backup camera every day), nav click to enable voice, slow gps tracking, misregistration (my house address is off by 200ft. my magellan had it perfect, so the DATA is there)..
(untrained) voice reco issues, etc..

I look at the others, and see a similar mix of issues on every brand.

sam

 

I have decided too that with all of the money I have dumped into the stereo system trying to keep the Factory HU because I have a V w/ATP that I needed to keep it. Ran a separate Alpine HU installed in the center console and love the way it sounds but have decided to go the Kenwood DNX9960 route in the near future. I want to research it to see how long it's been out before buying it as well as would like to play with one in person. I'm over the factory NAV all together and the parking assist is a novelty more than anything I think I can do without. Will be nice to have something to look at and control on the dash as opposed to steering wheel controls and having to lift the console lid every so often. Let me know if you go with the 9960 as I'd really like some feedback on how well people like it.

 

on the camera anytime, just make sure where u supply camera power that its on all the time. then the head unit can consume the video just fine. I have a manual control on my Pioneer as well (910bt), but have the camera power switched on and off on demand.
Sam

 

after further review, the Z110/Z120 seem to both have BT mic problems, not yet solved, while the X920/X910 do not.

Sam

 

yes to the lawyer issues. on the Pioneer its move one wire and connect 3 to ground.. and the standard wire colors and adapters have made this SO much easier than it used to be.

Sam

 

In March, I installed a JVC KW-NX7000 which I wrote about in this forum. After attempting to live with it six months, I realized I would never be happy with it and decided to replace it. I’ve concluded that JVC didn’t and still doesn’t have its act together with regard to an integrated GPS/Audio HU.

After weeks of study, I settled on the Kenwood DNX7160. I did consider their Excelon series but the differences in specs were incredibly minute- things like an additional equalizer band setting, etc., not worth the extra cost in my opinion.

By the way, I have to put in a plug for the place I bought my DNX7160 from. I went with a refurbished unit and saved a couple of hundred bucks at least. Salectronics sold it to me for $799.95. I’ve been in the Consumer Electronics industry for decades and I can tell you that this refurb was a good deal. Other than the label on the box, it was impossible to tell. Not so much as a scratch or smudge anywhere on it, every single wire and screw described in the instruction manual was present and most importantly, it worked perfectly. If you aren’t hung up on the whole “virgin, untouched by human hands except the guys who made it†thing, I recommend a refurb if you can get one.

My Prius III has its JBL sound system and in contrast to other posters here, I like its sound. Could be a case of I don’t know what I don’t know, but I digress…

I already had Pacific Audio’ TATO to give me connectivity from my HU to the JBL input and their SWI-JACK to enable the Prius’ steering wheel controls. That made installation of the Kenwood HU a breeze. Although the connectors used by JVC are different from those on the Kenwood, wire color coding is identical. I had only to install the Bluetooth microphone and run its wire and then reprogram the SWI-Jack to send remote commands that the Kenwood would recognize.

I have a Sirius satellite tuner that I used with the JVC. With the addition of the Kenwood adapter cord, the tuner I already had in place works just fine.

Here is my review of the Kenwood DNX7160 with some comparisons to the JVC unit it replaced:

General usability- The Kenwood takes about ten seconds to start up. Most importantly, there is no startup message that you have to click through to begin using it! Thank you Kenwood! If you’ve already put your Prius in reverse and you have a backup camera, the camera image will appear immediately. Whatever source was playing last, picks right back up where it left off.

SCREEN TILT- I’m using the Scoshe double DIN Prius adapter. A big complaint I had on the JVC was that the screen would not tilt vertical in the Prius but rather followed the general tilt of the dash. The result was a lot of sunlight glare and I was always looking above or below my sunglasses to see the washed-out screen. THE KENWOOD SCREEN TILTS TO THE VERTICAL! No glare whatsoever and even in bright sunlight and wearing sunglasses, the screen is perfectly viewable. Cool feature: If you like, the screen will tilt up to follow the tilt of the dash on power-down. At power-up, the screen automatically tilts back to the vertical.
I understand that I accepted a compromise by going with the larger screen and small “buttons†(if you could call them that) on the bottom edge, but Kenwood did the best they could, I guess. They’re backlit and you can select the color of the backlight or have the colors rotate through a whole series. The volume up/down don’t repeat- you have to repeatedly touch the button to step the volume up or down. I liked the fact that the “audio†button could be reprogrammed so that if you hold it for more than two seconds, the backup camera image will be displayed or it can be programmed to make the Kenwood display turn off. I did the latter. When driving at night, especially and not using the GPS, it’s nice to be able to make the screen go dark.

The on-screen “turret†as I like to call it, consists of about 10 common functions that appear as revolving icons on the screen. You swipe your finger across the screen right to left or left to right to make them revolve. It’s great in concept, but appears to put considerable demand on the processor because there’s usually a time lag between your finger swipe and actual movement. You can pick any three of the functions to be fixed I place above the revolving turret. I picked Tuner, Sirius and iPod since I use those most often.

A minor complaint- I had a few instances where the unit would forget it’s settings on startup. Kenwood advised me to install the software update. Turns out that to do that, requires that you plug a flash drive with the downloaded software into the USB socket... which was buried behind the unit in my now buttoned-up dash and connected to the iPod cable. I did put the software update on my iPod and tried to install that way, but the Kenwood wouldn't recognize it. Take the dash back apart (at least an easy task on the Prius), connect a flash drive to the USB connector. Couple of keystrokes on the screen and I was done. It cured the problem too.

iPod functionality (which was the ultimate deal-breaker for me on the JVC) is cool. They’ve thought of just about any way/every way you might want to select music. There’s even a “Link†button which can link other music in your library with whatever is playing. For example, if you’re listening to a Johnny Cash performance, do a link it will produce a list of other tracks you may have that were WRITTEN by Johnny Cash. iPod access time is reasonably fast. There’s also an override to allow you to select iPod music right on the iPod. The sound is nothing short of awesome and I am an audio snob.

Screen resolution- Seems like all the manufacturers hide their screen resolution numbers. I guess I would too if I were them. By now, we’re all used to being able to clearly see a CD album cover on a tiny iPod screen. Kenwood’s resolution is a decent 800 x 480- comparable to a computer monitor vintage about 2000. (By comparison, the JVC screen res was 480 x 234, dating back to around 1993 on a PC screen). This higher resolution allowed for way cleaner text and graphics, more distinct touch screen buttons and album art that you could actually see.

Bluetooth functionality- I’m using a Verizon/Motorola Droid X on which I have about 8 GB of music. It was easy to pair the two units. First off, I was surprised that I could stream my music wirelessly from the Droid to the Kenwood. It also immediately uploaded my Droid’s phone nook. Music audio quality was good but not as good as the iPod which was hard-wired to the HU. Wireless phone functionality is excellent. In particular, Kenwood includes an anti-echo function but I don’t think I need it. I mounted the microphone just ahead of the map lights, probably 12†from my mouth.

FM sensitivity- I was never happy with the FM performance of the JVC unit. We’ve all rehashed the antenna issues on the ’10 Prius so I won’t go there again. But the Kenwood does perform markedly better. I haven’t tried the AM.

Overall Audio quality- like I said, I do like the sound of the JBL audio. The Kenwood HU piped through the JBL is awesome in all regards but especially with the iPod and Sirius satellite radio. I must say this HU sounds more natural than the JVC did playing through te same JBL amp/speakers. I’m not a big fan of thumping bass. This is a much smoother sound.

GPS operation- It’s a Garmin. What can I say? It’s easy to use with a very familiar user interface. Graphics are clear and the traffic notifications work well. There is often an obtrusive ad that pops up at GPS startup, but it’s not overly obnoxious. But it’s pretty clear that they just sort of dropped the Garmin nav functionality onto the Kenwood software platform. The graphics between the Garmin are oversized, primary colors, etc. The graphics for all other functions on the HU are smaller (but every bit as crisp) and more colorful. You can just tell when you’ve switched to nav mode. I did like that when listening to a source and navigating, there appeared a one line description at the bottom of the music screen. And if you aren’t navigating, that one line tells you what street or road you’re on.
Traffic functionality worked well and in contrast to the JVC unit, includes a lifetime subscription. BTW, there is considerable confusion about a traffic service that is discontinuing operation in the next year or so. I think that includes the Pioneer AVIC units. Kenwood’s traffic, supplied by Navteq is not going out of business.

Instruction manual- As with the JVC, written in Japan, I guess and poorly translated. Be prepared as I did to sit in your car in the driveway and just play with it. My wife must think I’m nuts.

 

That's good to know. If I knew, I may have chosen DNX7160. DNX6960 takes 25 seconds to start. There is no startup message either, only when you go into Garmin Nav. Were you referring to the startup message in the JVC unit?

 

Yes. There was a startup message on the JVC unit that you couldn't bypass. On the Kenwood, there was a bypass message that appeared the first time I powered it up. I don't recall exactly what it said but it was something like, "do you want to allow access to all features of the unit while the vehicle is in motion? I answered Yes, and ever since then, no warning messages at startup, etc. Nice design, Kenwood!

 

They are different. I can tell you that the Scoshe matches the Prius dash in color but not in texture. I liked it otherwise because it takes a very peculiar, irregularly shaped opening and cleanly converts it to a perfect double DIN. Once the HU is bolted into the adapter, it's very rigid and fits perfectly. It looked great with the JVC HU I was using as well as the Kenwood I have presently.