What aftermarket head unit are you running?
- Thread starter Majindan
- Start date
Pedrojr80
New member
Do u know what kind of problems the excelons are having? Im after one of them thats why i ask thanks!
Scallywag303
New member
The old ones ran a terrible operating system, the new ones for this year run a new operating system and are far less glitch prone and don't take 5 minutes to turn on anymore, much smoother and cleaner looking as well.
Pedrojr80
New member
Ok thanks for your input!
I don't remember everything off hand but iirc they were having software glitches and issues connecting BT. I've always been a fan of Pio home gear so I took a chance with my first pio head unit. I gambled and won. This is probably my fav head unit that I've had save for maybe an old eclipse.
Good review of the Pioneer AVH 4200NEX
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CZeYkEgWIaY
Pioneer AVH 4200NEX vs Kenwood Exclon DDX9903s
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=emnv4xhrb3s
Kenwood Exclon DDX9903s
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6CBIX77FBLY
5 Star Audio talk about the firmware issues in the comments. The August 2016 firmware resolved the issues. I copied Federico Chang issues as reported in the YouTube comments. Some are opinions and have not been resolved in the firmware updates.
"1. CarPlay . works 95% of the time instantly when you have your iPhone connected. 5% of the time you get a white (actually black screen). You have to plug and unplug the iPhone and maybe you get it to work.
2. CarPlay - phone application - if you are calling a call center with an IVR and you reach for the digit pad on the head unit, it is for a reason I can not sending anything to the IVR... try to digit directly from the iPhone but since you have CarPlay you are unable to do it from the phone itself (after all, CarPlay is supposed to be made for you to not get distracted while driving).
3. Carplay - Siri, works perfect.
4. Carplay - Music application - this just SUCKS. The sound couldn't be worse and Kenwood already knows about this (they have received several reports). All the music from your iPhone will play with a hiss / static sound no matter how well equalized or which other sound components you have. THEY NEED TO HAVE THIS FIX URGENTLY.
5. Interface - It is kind of tacky IMHO compared to all previous models which I considered quite elegant and fancy - Maybe a matter of taste. There is this square with a picture you can not get rid off that makes no sense except when you play something from an iPod or by Bluetooth and you realise that the space is to be occupied by the album art. The song title, artist, album tittle... I mean, why do they have to be sooooo big? Btw, you can not have your iPhone by CarPlay and using the second USB to connect your iPod. You have to use a USB dongle or a USB external Hard Drive.
6. I have still not been able to play anything from an external HD - This unit is supposed to be powerful (it has a dual processor) and you should be able to use and HDD up to 2TBs... which sounds amazing... Until you realise that if you plug an external HDD (I tried several 1 TBs) it doesn't recognise the disk (it either tells you "No media Found" or "Not valid device" - something like this).
7. I have not been able to reproduce video media, just many music formats which is ok, but still having problems with the sound.
8. Problems with the Time setting (Kenwood is aware)
9. Problems with the compass screen (Kenwood is aware)
10. Awful warning message displaying every time you turn on the unit or the vehicle... it does not appear just for seconds, it will only disappear once you push "Accept"... no way to get rid of this.
11. HDMI / MLI - this interface won't work if you have CarPlay working. It is either one or another. I was trying to have Waze shown and controlled through the head unit, but it is not possible. Kenwood technical support told me that they won't fix this, that they have allowed it in previous models but not in this one...
12. Finally, last but not least, interface is NOT user friendly... navigation thru the menus is un-explainably messy.
13. Sorry, I didn't try any CD or DVD functionality. I simply don't use it. Bottomline, Kenwood will release a new firmware, solving whatever have been reported."
Pioneer has one year warranty while Kenwood Exclon has two.
Not sure when the new Pioneer head units come out but I was hopeful Pioneer would use the front camera to record to SD card. More of a pipe dream. I like the 4200NEX after seeing Scallywag303's post.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CZeYkEgWIaY
Pioneer AVH 4200NEX vs Kenwood Exclon DDX9903s
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=emnv4xhrb3s
Kenwood Exclon DDX9903s
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6CBIX77FBLY
5 Star Audio talk about the firmware issues in the comments. The August 2016 firmware resolved the issues. I copied Federico Chang issues as reported in the YouTube comments. Some are opinions and have not been resolved in the firmware updates.
"1. CarPlay . works 95% of the time instantly when you have your iPhone connected. 5% of the time you get a white (actually black screen). You have to plug and unplug the iPhone and maybe you get it to work.
2. CarPlay - phone application - if you are calling a call center with an IVR and you reach for the digit pad on the head unit, it is for a reason I can not sending anything to the IVR... try to digit directly from the iPhone but since you have CarPlay you are unable to do it from the phone itself (after all, CarPlay is supposed to be made for you to not get distracted while driving).
3. Carplay - Siri, works perfect.
4. Carplay - Music application - this just SUCKS. The sound couldn't be worse and Kenwood already knows about this (they have received several reports). All the music from your iPhone will play with a hiss / static sound no matter how well equalized or which other sound components you have. THEY NEED TO HAVE THIS FIX URGENTLY.
5. Interface - It is kind of tacky IMHO compared to all previous models which I considered quite elegant and fancy - Maybe a matter of taste. There is this square with a picture you can not get rid off that makes no sense except when you play something from an iPod or by Bluetooth and you realise that the space is to be occupied by the album art. The song title, artist, album tittle... I mean, why do they have to be sooooo big? Btw, you can not have your iPhone by CarPlay and using the second USB to connect your iPod. You have to use a USB dongle or a USB external Hard Drive.
6. I have still not been able to play anything from an external HD - This unit is supposed to be powerful (it has a dual processor) and you should be able to use and HDD up to 2TBs... which sounds amazing... Until you realise that if you plug an external HDD (I tried several 1 TBs) it doesn't recognise the disk (it either tells you "No media Found" or "Not valid device" - something like this).
7. I have not been able to reproduce video media, just many music formats which is ok, but still having problems with the sound.
8. Problems with the Time setting (Kenwood is aware)
9. Problems with the compass screen (Kenwood is aware)
10. Awful warning message displaying every time you turn on the unit or the vehicle... it does not appear just for seconds, it will only disappear once you push "Accept"... no way to get rid of this.
11. HDMI / MLI - this interface won't work if you have CarPlay working. It is either one or another. I was trying to have Waze shown and controlled through the head unit, but it is not possible. Kenwood technical support told me that they won't fix this, that they have allowed it in previous models but not in this one...
12. Finally, last but not least, interface is NOT user friendly... navigation thru the menus is un-explainably messy.
13. Sorry, I didn't try any CD or DVD functionality. I simply don't use it. Bottomline, Kenwood will release a new firmware, solving whatever have been reported."
Pioneer has one year warranty while Kenwood Exclon has two.
Not sure when the new Pioneer head units come out but I was hopeful Pioneer would use the front camera to record to SD card. More of a pipe dream. I like the 4200NEX after seeing Scallywag303's post.
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To me, any nav (either thru CarPlay/Android Auto or built in nav) can't be too useful of a visual aid because of the low position of the head unit. Probably the audio instructions are more useful. Am I correct that the low position of the head unit makes the nav feature very limited? Thanks in advance for any feedback.
Scallywag303
New member
Yes, it is awkward, the tilted screen makes it better. The other nice feature of carplay/android-auto is text-to-voice and voice-to-text for messages which is pretty easy to use. I also like having full control over Pandora and my music you don't usually have through Bluetooth.
Agree with this. The titled screen makes it better and having pandora and spotify built into the unit makes it so you don't "touch your phone". They take a little more time to get up and working when you get in the car. It doesn't work 100% the first try but I've figured out the workarounds to get it to work.
The mic on my pioneer is good and works well. It's easy to accept incoming calls and have some favorite numbers on the unit separate from your phone.
As far as navigation goes, the location of the radio is too low so I skipped it. You need something closer to your line of sight that you can very quickly glance down while still having the road in your direct/peripheral line of site. I mounted a 5" hd garmin w/ traffic over my tach since my 4r is an auto. If I have tranny problems (hopefully never), I'd be able to hear the high revs and know something was wrong. It doesn't cover the temp gauge, 4wd alert and anything else important besides the tach. From my photo angle, you don't see everything that I can. I hardwired it so no dangling cords and put an anti-glare matte screen protector on it to eliminate sun-glare. My windows are tinted but this matte screen makes it easy to see no matter where the sun is positioned.
I had originally mounted my iphone there and realized that a standalone gps would be better. I can run waze at the same time on the phone if I want the police warning or to see another gps option. I HATE getting phone calls or texts when I need GPS. I've missed several turns because of this over a short period of time so I bought the garmin.
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Pioneer got back to me. My gut tells me the new 4200NEX will have the ability to record from the front camera to SD/micro SD in the head unit. Probably faster processor and possibly capacitance touch panel. I may be writing ng but I thought I would share my views and new model release date.
"Thank you for contacting Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. Our new product
line will be released in the spring of 2017."
"Thank you for contacting Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. Our new product
line will be released in the spring of 2017."
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