Eclipse AVN6610 and others

[Spider5]

I've been wanting an Alpine IVA-W205 for a while now, because it docks the Alpine Blackbird handheld Nav to make it an in-dash nav head unit. Nice because you can carry your handheld unit whereever you go, and when you get back to your car, pop it in, and you have your nav again.

Plus all I've ever owned has been Alpine head units and I trust their quality and fit/finish.

I would never put a Kenwood POS in anything I own. Known too many people that bought Kenwood units thinking they were getting something decent for a better price and realizing they are about the same quality as a Jensen or Kraco LOL. I pulled a working Kenwood out of my dad's car when he bought it, and threw it in the trash I hate kenwood so much. I bought him an Alpine. Three vehicles later, he still has an Alpine. :

Also check out the Eclipse AVN2210p

 

[tarheeltp17]

What is wrong with kenwood?

I am a huge pioneer fan and always have been, and I recently switched to kenwood. Partly because of the super deal I get for doing it as a kenwood demo vehicle, but I still wouldn't have done it if I wasn't satisfied with their product.

My only complaint is that they could have made a cooler user interface, other than that I'm pretty damn happy with my 8019.

Kenwood looks good in dashes, excellent eq settings, easy to use... I can go on and on. I would like to know what you are basing hating kenwood off of?

 

[RamThis]

What is wrong with kenwood?

I am a huge pioneer fan and always have been, and I recently switched to kenwood. Partly because of the super deal I get for doing it as a kenwood demo vehicle, but I still wouldn't have done it if I wasn't satisfied with their product.

My only complaint is that they could have made a cooler user interface, other than that I'm pretty damn happy with my 8019.

Kenwood looks good in dashes, excellent eq settings, easy to use... I can go on and on. I would like to know what you are basing hating kenwood off of?

Basically every Kenwood I've ever seen lol. Between the friends and family who have all tried a kenwood, every single one of them said it was the cheapest made POS they ever owned, and they usually bought higher end units, not the bottom of the barrel. We had one in our Acura Integra when we got it, and I hated it. Hard as hell to change any settings, didnt sound worth a damn, and the trim ring fell off any time I shifted hard. I never got around to changing it out, so whoever got my car, will have to deal with it.

 

[tomhaney1]

I am not impressed with Kenwood either...

 

[airbur]

Just to even the playing field....big Kenwood FAN HERE :dancin:

 

[tarheeltp17]

I will agree that the previous kenwood models have a crappy user interface. It's really plain and not very attractive. However, the new 8019 double din that I have as well as the DNX 7100 both have pretty cool 3d interfaces.

I'm a big pioneer fan, and always have been. The Z2 is a killer unit as well as the rest of their line-up. However, as an installer there are several things about Pioneer and some of the others that I don't enjoy as much as Kenwood. With add on pieces likes sirius, you have to run a single cable for kenwood. With Pioneer, Sony, etc... you have to supply it power as well as their interface cables. Sony uses both RCA and a uni-link while pioneer is just their P-bus.

With the exception of the Z2, pioneer navigation is DVD based, meaning you have to either have the nav disc in or a cd/dvd. With my kenwood I can still listen to CD and use navigation. If i'm correct, only 2 of the Eclipse units aren't DVD based.

My RCA pre-outs are also 5 volts... The $2200 Pioneer Z2 is only 2.2 volts. A DDX8019 with navigation and bluetooth retails at $2000, and yes I know the Z2 has a harddrive but who cares? Everyone uses an ipod anyway. Don't get me wrong, the z2 is sweet, but the specs on the Kenwood are nothing to turn your nose up at.

Sure I've really only compared it to one unit... but the z2 is probably the number 1 unit in technology on the market. Just some specs for thought....

 

[8ac1v1c]

Also check out the Eclipse AVN2210p

I just had the Eclipse AVN 2210p installed on my T4R
So far - so good.

The only downfall that people see, is that it is not a fancy DVD player/screen. Which is actually a plus for me, as I wouldn't be watching a movie while driving, PLUS without the DVD option - price dropped significantly.

The GPS/navi is great. Even better - the TomTom unit is detachable, and can be used out of vehicle - either on foot or in another car.

Haven't had the chance to go through all the options, other than change the voice prompts from the annoying brit-accented lady, to a more American-english voice.

 

[LSUMatt1514]

Whoosh,
In your very first pic titled "Deck with Move", I notice a gap between the edge of the Eclipse unit and the trim on both sides. Is that gap on either side of the unit the mounting kit that you used to mount the Eclipse into the stock opening or was it there before you installed your Eclipse? I'm looking into one of these for my wife's new 2006 Sequoia (man I wish I had one in my 4Runner instead of my 6 year old Kenwood unit) but I would prefer not to have that gap in there. The local dealer told me to expect a 1/4" or less gap on each side after install that would be filled in with black plastic so I may have answered my own question...but please verify for me. Thanks.

Matt

 

[LSUMatt1514]

Whoosh,
A couple other questions for you regarding the operation of the unit.

1. How quick is the nav unit to boot up and calculate routes? I know the DVD based systems are supposed to be slower than hard drive systems, but if you read the reviews on the Pioneer Z2 it is slow as Chrismas! I guess that's what happens when your nav system has a video game appearance and occupies 20 GB of the 30 GB hard drive the unit has. The OEM Toyota nav unit that's in the Sequoia right now is DVD based and it boots right up as soon as I hit agree on the touch screen.

2. How user friendly is this? My wife is going to be the primary driver and she will use the Ipod and Satellite radio more than anything. How easy and quickly can you access songs on the Ipod (say getting from the artists in the "A's" to an artist in the "R's"? Easy to swap sources, navigate sources, etc?

This is AWESOME that I found a Toyota owner with this unit. There's not a single Eclipse dealer in Birmingham with one of these on display. Pathetic!

Matt

 

[Spider5]

Matt, I can help you with some of your question if you indicate which unit your asking about. I have a 6600 in the Runner for over a year now and it still works like new. The gap on both sides of this unit is files with the adapter. The DVD boot up is almost right away, 1-2 seconds. The unit is not as user friendly as the Garmin units I've had in the past, but over time you get used to it. The radio is also not quite the perfect setup, (to many buttons to get some functions to work) but with so many functions in the unit it will be difficult to get it perfect.

 

[LSUMatt1514]

Just found this website....

http://www.vaistech.com/

The number one hit when I googled "Navigation unit satellite radio." In a nutshell, it's two boxes that are daisy chained together and then plug directly into the back of the Toyota navigation unit via a wiring harness. You have full functionality of your Ipod and satellite radio on your Toyota OEM system (including on the nav unit's display). You hit the AM button once and it pulls up your AM presets, hit it again and it swaps to Satellite radio (6 presets), hit it again and it scrolls to your next six Satellite radio presets, and one more time for another six Satellite radio presets. 18 total Satellite radio presets!

For the Ipod, the only caveat is that you have to access your songs via playlists. So in essence, all you have to do is save each artist as a playlist and you can scroll through the artists.

What's great is that you keep the OEM look, maintain all of your steering wheel controls, and also the functionality of the stock amplifier. If this was my truck (and in year or so I'll have a new Tundra and definitely be looking at aftermarket in dash Nav units to build a nice sound system) I'd go aftermarket. Since it's my wife's she could care less about that stuff. She just wants Satellite radio and her Ipod. She really could care less about Bluetooth and has said all along that watching DVDs in the front seat doesn't matter to her at all (a must for me if we went aftermarket). If we want to add Bluetooth, I could probably take it to a dealership and get them to add it on for us. She's gonna be thrilled about this and so am I since the total cost of the two boxes with harnesses (one for Sat radio and one for the Ipod) is only about $500 and then the cost of purchasing a Sirius tuner (SCC1) and antenna. Not bad at all!!!

We've already got dual rear headrest LCD screens each with their own DVD player, so if one of us wants to watch a movie on a road trip then all we've got to do is jump in the back seat. When Sirius gets serious (no pun intended) about the in car DirecTV utilizing their own small antenna (they are soon to launch about three Disney channels that you can watch in your car or truck) then I'll look at upgrading so I can watch NFL games on the way home from a road trip to Baton Rouge to watch the Tigers. Until then, this looks like an incredible setup that really can't be beat for our purposes. What do you guys think? Later.

Matt

 

[icantsee]

Factory Navigation
or
Eclipse AVN6100, AVN6200
or
Eclipse AVN5495 if you want the HDD

 

[centxrunner]

Waiting patiently for the new Pioneer AVICF900BT. Should be available around the second week of June.