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Kenwood DNX8120

Intro
This is Kenwood's top of the line Excelon model for 2008. It is a double DIN unit that features a 6.95" touch screen lcd, builtin bluetooth, builtin Garmin navigation, 5volt preouts, iPod and USB inputs, satellite radio ready, and remote. It carries a 2 year warranty if purchased from an authorized dealer.

**Update: There was a recall on these unit right before they were suppose to ship to consumers. Apparently there was a bug in the firmware. All updated units through Kenwood will have a round green sticker on the box saying Certified Upgrade.

Installation
Installation is pretty much straight forward if you’ve done car stereo installations before. It is a D-DIN unit so you’ll need a dash opening to support that size. I installed mine in a Lexus GS using an OEM kit to fit D-DIN size units. Using the predrilled holes on the bracket, the unit sticks out about ½”. I had to drill my own holes to get the unit flushed. You’ll also want to make sure you have plenty of depth because there are a crap load of wires in the back. Good thing they have it where you can disconnect wires you don’t need (A/V inputs and ouputs, relay wires…). Video and nav bypass is simply grounding the parking brake wire. There is no speedometer wire to connect but the speed reading in nav mode is quite accurate.

Screen
The screen is not quite 7” but very close at 6.95”. You probably can’t tell the difference anyways. I don’t know the exact resolution but from the text and layout it’s more than sharp enough. DVD videos are nice and clear as well. I don’t own a iPod so I can’t test the audio or video (iPod video) quality. Touch response is good but there were a few times where I had to press 2-3 times for the screen to detect the push. A tactical feedback feature similar to Alpine’s PulseTouch would be very nice so you’ll know when the unit has acknowledge the command.

**Update: There's also numerous screen angles you can set it to. There's even a reverse angle where the screen angles down instead of up. What's neat is that there's a memory setting so everytime it starts up it will move to that angle.

User Interface
I haven’t owned any previous Kenwood units before so I can’t really say how much of an improvement there is but I can compare to other brands that I’ve own in the past. From my experience Alpine and Eclipse have a much simpler and easier to use UI. But I do understand that this unit packs a lot of features and settings so it’s going to be tough trying to make the UI as simple and easy to use as possible. I think Kenwood did the best they can given all the features and settings that are required. I also noticed that the UI is a bit slow at times to respond, probably due to the complexity of all the menus. This is just for the buttons on the screen; the physical buttons at the bottom responds instantaneously when pressed. With the Alpine and Eclipse, the UI responds instantly whether it’s a physical button or not. Another small quirk I have is that the physical buttons at the bottom are a bit too small and at times have had trouble finding the right one. The buttons on the screen however are nicely sized and easy to read.

SQ and Sound Processing
I have not tried listening to a store bought CD yet (haven’t bought CDs for awhile) but I have tried MP3s ripped at various bitrates. Usually files 192kbps and up sound excellent to me. 128kbps still sounds great and is a good compromise between file size and SQ. I do notice there’s quite a bit of background noise when switching between MP3 files and folders regardless of bitrate. Seems the unit does not use any type of muting when switching between files/folders. I don’t know if this occurs with CDs or DVD-Audio discs (supported) though.

**Update: I tried it with CDs and there's little to no gap between switching songs. I didn't notice any noise between skipping tracks either.

This unit is just packed with various sound processing features. I won’t go into detail of them all but I’ll list what I can remember. There’s a 13 band equalizer that you can set separately for the front and rear speakers. There a couple of presets and 1 custom available. There’s full time alignment for all speakers as well as front/rear speaker sizing with adjustable crossover points and octave slopes. There’s also SRS WoW surround sound settings. All sound processing can be bypassed.

Navigation
The navigation is based on Garmin software and maps. The map data are stored on a removeable SD memory card. It can be remove whenever there are updates available on the web. Initially I thought the UI and map looked a bit cartoon-ish but have grown to appreciate the simplicity and ease of use. Accuracy is spot on and all directions are given in a clear and understandable female voice. Freeways, streets, and locations are pronounced but pronounciation can be off some times. Routing and re-routing is very quick at about 5 seconds. It is capable of multi-tasking (nav while listening to music or watching a video/movie).

**Update: So far it has failed me twice. Once I tried searching for Beverages and More and no matter how I tried spelling it, it couldn't find any at all. The other time I planned the route while the car wasn't started and after I started the car it got all confused. Even though the destination was still in memory the directions were all off and it had to reroute me numerous times.


Bluetooth
Setup was quick and painless. Got my phone connected and phonebook synched in about 5 minutes. You can record a name for each entry in the phonebook for voice recognition. It doesn’t automatically dail the number, just pulls it from the phonebook. To make the call you’ll have to press the Call icon button. My phone has voice activated dialing but I don’t believe the headunit supports this. On my previous pioneer with BT that supported voice activated dialing I just press a button and say “Call *****” and the phone would automatically call that person. I don’t believe this Kenwood has this feature.

As for the SQ, the other person’s voice came through loud and clear. You can set it to come only from the front right, both or front left speaker. I have the mic on the top of the pillar and the other party says they hear me just fine.

**Update: Also supports bluetooth audio so you can connect a bluetooth device (phone..ect) and play music from it. SQ isn't that great with my phone but it may be better for others because it most likely depends on your source file and the device. You will have to manually connect the BT audio every time but the phone functions will synch automatically once the unit is turned on and your phone is within range.

USB
I told myself this was going to be a necessity on my next headunit. I bought a 1.8” laptop hard drive just for this. USB input is still quite new in the car stereo world so I was a bit skeptical on the performance. Unfortunately I was spoiled by the USB performance on the Pioneer so I was a bit disappointed with the USB on the Kenwood. Scanning took about 30 seconds on the Kenwood but the Pioneer was way faster at 5-10 seconds (depending if I unplugged the drive or not). Add on the ~30 second bootup time on the Kenwood and it’s about a minute from the time you start the car to when it starts playing. In less than 15 seconds the Pioneer starts playing already. That minute seems like an eternity compared to 15 seconds. I was hoping file/folder changing was going to improve once it scans the drive but was disappointed as well. File/folder changes took 3 seconds and during that time no more further inputs are detected. For example if you want to skip 3 songs forward you’ll have to press >>, wait 3 seconds, press >>, wait 3 seconds, press >>. Changing folders was just as frustrating. File/folder changes on the Pioneer was instantaneous; skipping 3 songs or 3 folders required only >>,>>,>> in successions with no waiting in between. Although this definitely needs improvement it’s still tolerable but I would have expected better performance from a $1000+ unit.

**Update: Apparently the usb port only supports audio. I have not been able to get it to read anything in the Video folder (grayed out). Same files in the folder burned onto a CD or DVD plays fine.

Other A/V inputs and outputs
I have currently have no external devices so I didn’t even bother connecting the A/V wires to the back of the unit. If in the future I decide to connect any a/v device I’ll give an update on the performance. It does however have 2 video inputs, 1 video output, and 2 switched power outputs (to control fans, motorized amp racks…ect) controllable from the headunit.

Remote
This thing looks like it can control your whole home theater system and more. Probably a good 30-40 buttons and many of them have several commands if you slide the switch on the side (DVD, NAV, CD...). Definitely going to take awhile to learn the remote by touch. Range and angle are very good though.

88supramki

nice review. I'm considering ditching my AVN6610 for this guy. Still not SUPER sold on it, but it's very cool.

what's your overall opinion over an Eclipse unit?

sam430

iTrader: (10)

Has anyone incorporated the center channel? Also, is there any benefit to having a center channel to play music (besides movies)?

I just wanted to know if I should put effort to having a center channel.