Pioneer DEH-P9400BH or Kenwood KDC-X996?

[TroubledWine]

Been looking at head units for a while now and I keep coming back to these two. I will be running this into the stock Bose amps/speakers in my 04 Pathfinder LE. 99% of the time I will be running an 7th gen iPod Classic 160gb through a USB port for my audio. Everything is 320kbps mp3s.

I like the 5 lines of display on the Kenwood vs. the 3 on the Pioneer. But I like the basic 5 band EQ of the Pioneer vs. the 13 bands on the Kenwood because I will be adjusting EQ levels frequently according to what album I'm listening to and it seems that 5 bands would be a lot easier to adjust than 13. Also, the Kenwood is about $70 more.

Both have a 24bit DAC and a lot of the reviews I've read for the Pioneer said they were replacing a Kenwood of some sorts and it sounded a lot better.

Any advice/reviews would be awesome from you guys.

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[rebelfromva 10+ year member]

Is the 9400bh the upper model to the 8400bh? I had a 8400bh and was really impressed with it. Did everything you could possibly need minus active. Not sure the difference in the two but I would recommend pioneer due to my expierence with this new model hu.

 

[Flex68 10+ year member]

The Pioneer is CEA compliant and has variable color buttons/display, with a 1 year warranty;

The Kenwood is not CEA compliant, no color change options, but has a few more watts and a 2 year warranty...and a 13-band EQ, as you noted

Everything else in their spec's look pretty close, so I'd say it depends on whether the extra 1 year warranty + 8 more bands of EQ are worth a few more $$ to ya.....

 

[TroubledWine]

The Kenwood definitely has color change options.

The 13-band EQ is a toss-up for me. I had been looking at the 80PRS but honestly I think I would be putting a $350 head unit to waste and it has 16 bands. Like I said, I'm picky about my EQ, but my stock head unit only has bass and treble and I change them according to what album I'm listening to(Andy Sneap doesn't produce the same as Bob Rock, Machine doesn't produce the same as Bob Ezrin, etc.), so I'm not too sold on the idea of changing 13 banks every time I switch an album/song. Maybe I'm thinking the wrong way? lol

 

[Flex68 10+ year member]

The Kenwood definitely has color change options.

Shizz, my bad! Dunno wtf I was reading/thinking.

Personally, the CEA compliance shtuff....meh. But the warranty and the extra bands of EQ would prolly sell me on the KW.

I would not expect you to need to do fine-tune adustments for every single song: get a good basic EQ setup for genre and dial in with the other HU settings for individual songs.

Plus performing those EQ adjustments aren't going to be very difficult after you get used to the HU, anyway......

 

[Northstar 10+ year member]

Pioneer gets my vote. You can run a double din? if so even better!

 

[whitedragon551 5,000+ posts]

If you have to change your EQ to add bass your doing it wrong.

 

[TroubledWine]

If you have to change your EQ to add bass your doing it wrong.

Who said anything about changing EQ to add bass?

 

[winkychevelle 10+ year member]

my alpine allows me to store 6 custom set eqs and 6 different t/a sets. 7band graphic and 5band parametric no color change though

id let it go for a decent price.pm me if interested

 

[Papermaker85 5,000+ posts]

Kenwoon sounds better..

 

[zako 10+ year member]

Kenwood has time alignment and better eq. I wouldn't consider any stereo with no T/A in my car.

 

[scifan]

Thing is... I'm trying to decide this same thing as well...

I currently have a KDC-X994... which suffers the dreaded usb lockup issue... it's been back to Kenwood twice now. Basic symptom is that I have an 80GB Ipod Classic hooked up all the time... I pull the faceplate off while at work, or at home (not in the car)... sometimes when I re-attach the faceplate, the usb locks up... no longer recognizes the Ipod... once that happens, it doesn't play CD's either... (bluetooth, and radio work fine) and I have to reset.

In theory, I'm going to get an extended warranty funded replacement... I know the X995 appears to have similar issues... (read about it on Crutchfield forums, and elsewhere) and I'm not sold that the X996 is free of this issue.

AFAIK, the 996 doesn't support bt streaming... but has a DSP, and has a more exhaustive EQ...

I'm not 100% certain what I'd be giving up going with the DEH-P9400BH... (well, except having to replace my SWI-Jack with a SWI-PS...) I've thought about the DEH-80PRS... but that doesn't have HD radio (not certain if this will be a very big deal to me since I don't have it currently with the 994)

Basically I'm combing sites looking for hands on reviews of the 9400... I'm tempted to step up to the AVH-P8400bh... a double din dvd player with a removable faceplate...

 

[zako 10+ year member]

The Pioneer is CEA compliant and has variable color buttons/display, with a 1 year warranty;The Kenwood is not CEA compliant, no color change options, but has a few more watts and a 2 year warranty...and a 13-band EQ, as you noted

I am not sure why one needs a unit to be CEA compliant. I have seen independent tests showing that Kenwood stereos have built-in amplifier that produces about 4x18watts RMS power or so, which is more or less the same as other stereos. You can change colors of buttons. They're the same as display color.

 

[zako 10+ year member]

AFAIK, the 996 doesn't support bt streaming... but has a DSP, and has a more exhaustive EQ...

The "DSP" is a fancy name for the EQ/crossovers/Time alignment/etc, things that are present on other stereos too. The same features are present in 993/994/995/996, but become slightly more refined on newer units. They all call them "DSP". Of course, the "DSP" falls way short of a good external processor like JBL MS-8 or even the functionality of Pioneed DEH-80PRS. I would say, if you're not happy with Kenwood Excelon, research and perhaps buy the Pioneer DEH-80PRS. DEH-P9400BH will be a step down in terms of SQ features. Alpine CDA-117 is another good alternative. I personally think the Kenwood X995/X994, etc, have ok features, but functionality and user interface are half-baked. You may want to try Pioneers or Alpine's SQ decks.

 

[TroubledWine]

Well, quick update, after much debate and not getting to toy with either one of them, I ended up going with the Kenwood and man, what a great decision that was.

First off, it was nothing less than stellar purchasing from Crutchfield...I got the head unit, Scosche factory integration adapter w/ gain adjustability for all 4 channels, antenna adapter, Scosche mounting kit, and Kenwood iPod cable for $319, which included 2-day UPS shipping.

Install was a breeze and after a 10 second phone call to CField's technicians to figure out which wire was the Bose amp trigger, everything was playing fine. A massive improvement in SQ over the factory in-dash 6 disc/casette deck.

Like I said, I never got to even mess with one or the Pioneer, but I have no earthly idea why people complain about the Kenwood functionality/user interface/menu or navigating it. In less than 5 minutes I knew where everything was and what buttons did what.

I haven't gotten the time alignment or custom EQ setup yet, which im sure will incease SQ even further. But for just a head unit swap, I can't imagine being anymore pleased.