Kenwood DDX6029 vs PioneerAVIC-HD1BT

[johnny senna]

I am thinking of getting one of either the Kenwood DDX6029 or PioneerAVIC-HD1BT double DIN sized hi-fi for my new Golf GTI which comes next week. The idea would be to have an all in one unit with sat nav, Ipod controller, Blue tooth hands free phone, decent hi-fi, DVD films etc....the lot, all in one box and not perched on the top of the dash. The Pioneer does it all straight out of the box whereas the Kenwood needs additional modules for sat nav and blue tooth.

I can get the Pioneer fitted etc for about £1950 and the Kenwood for about £1500 fitted (including the sat nav and phone modules). But which is better? I know the Kenwood uses Garmin sat nav, so it should be reasonable. Both units have speed camera data available. The Kenwood has a LW radio, the Pioneer doesn't......you need this for the cricket obviously.

Any ideas please fellas?

[DennisTheMenace]

The pioneer is a far better unit for reliability Have you thought about the IVA-w200 and nve-900 dvd sat nav from alpine ? ran alpine sat navs for years and never had a single from them

Edited by DennisTheMenace on Sunday 17th December 20:14

[johnny senna]

DennisTheMenace said:

The pioneer is a far better unit for reliability Have you thought about the IVA-w200 and nve-900 dvd sat nav from alpine ? ran alpine sat navs for years and never had a single from them

Edited by DennisTheMenace on Sunday 17th December 20:14

Hi. Thanks for that. What do you mean about reliability exactly? Perhaps you could clarify? I don't mind spending a little more on the Pioneer if it is better.

The reason I hadn't investigated Alpine is that my local dealer only showed me the Pioneer and the Kenwood. I'm not sure if he has the Alpine in stock.

[DennisTheMenace]

Kenwood have gone a little downhill just general issues , amps can fail for no reason same as the powered front panels , i can dig some links out for the alpine kit later so you can have a look

[DennisTheMenace]

Right you can get the alpine for £600 here...
http://caraudiosecurity.com/shop/prod

navi drive With TMC etc etc £730
http://caraudiosecurity.com/shop/prod

The alpine is very impressive , plus it has full speed ipod connectivity , which is light years ahead of the other 2 .

alpine page on the headunit
www.alpine-europe.com/content/cms/index.php?p=2467&language=english&details=1

[hughjayteens]

The alpine screen unit itself is awesome, particularly if you have an iPod, but I think the Kenwood is great value for money and we have never had any reliability problems.

Feel free to support a PH Advertiser and email me and I'll see what price we can do them for you at!

Cheers

chris @ prestigeaudio.co.uk

[Oakey]

Are you sure the Avic can get Speed Camera data? I've been a member of the Avic Forum for a while now and it's the one thing they're constantly moaning about.

The double Din Avic looks nice but does the screen reverse when you exit the car or is it always on show?

Also, just to add, if you want a disc changer that's compatible (controllable) via the Avix I believe the cheapest is just over £500.

Edited by Oakey on Monday 18th December 15:18

[combemarshal]

I have a kenwood head unit connected to my Ipod (not double din, just mask) and works great, you can control the ipod from the headunit, and I have never had a kenwood go wrong in over 15 years, nor one of there amps or speakers
I'd definitely go for the Kenwood option, save your self a few quid, I'd go for it!

Are you 100% sure you can get a double din headunit in your dash, Mine looks like you can untill you take the stereo out and discover that there is a duct in the way, and only the front of the standard stereo is double din size!

[johnny senna]

Thanks very much lads. The chap at Autosounds in Newcastle has definitely got spped camera locations on his Pioneer AVIC. The double DIN one does, the single DIN one doesn't he says. He says the navi on the Pioneer is way better than the Kenwood. He does supply Alpine and he likes it, but he thinks that as a product the Pioneer shades the Alpine. We'll see when I get them demo'd. He says the navi on the Kenwood isn't too nice. Thanks again to you all.

[Oakey]

johnny senna said:

Thanks very much lads. The chap at Autosounds in Newcastle has definitely got spped camera locations on his Pioneer AVIC. The double DIN one does, the single DIN one doesn't he says. He says the navi on the Pioneer is way better than the Kenwood. He does supply Alpine and he likes it, but he thinks that as a product the Pioneer shades the Alpine. We'll see when I get them demo'd. He says the navi on the Kenwood isn't too nice. Thanks again to you all.

I had a look at the HD1 today, they had it side by side with an Avix-X1BT. I have to say, the on screen menu of the HD1 doesn't look anywhere as crisp or sharp as the X1, fonts were a lot more jaggy than the X1 and the X1 seemed a lot brighter and colourful.

Most disappointing was that the screen is always visible, it doesn't fold away. Bit too much of an invitation to thieves. Would it have been difficult for Pioneer to have made the mechanism flip the screen to reverse when not in use?

Still not sure about the speed camera thing though. Are you sure it wasn't some manipulation of the POI database? I know some users would manually add speed cameras to their Avic X1 as a POI.

There's no mention of speed cameras here:

http://caraudiosecurity.com/shop/prod

You'd think there would be as it would be a huge selling point. I'm sure it still uses the same Nav software as the rest of the Pioneers too.

[johnny senna]

Oakey said:

johnny senna said:

Thanks very much lads. The chap at Autosounds in Newcastle has definitely got spped camera locations on his Pioneer AVIC. The double DIN one does, the single DIN one doesn't he says. He says the navi on the Pioneer is way better than the Kenwood. He does supply Alpine and he likes it, but he thinks that as a product the Pioneer shades the Alpine. We'll see when I get them demo'd. He says the navi on the Kenwood isn't too nice. Thanks again to you all.

I had a look at the HD1 today, they had it side by side with an Avix-X1BT. I have to say, the on screen menu of the HD1 doesn't look anywhere as crisp or sharp as the X1, fonts were a lot more jaggy than the X1 and the X1 seemed a lot brighter and colourful.

Most disappointing was that the screen is always visible, it doesn't fold away. Bit too much of an invitation to thieves. Would it have been difficult for Pioneer to have made the mechanism flip the screen to reverse when not in use?

Still not sure about the speed camera thing though. Are you sure it wasn't some manipulation of the POI database? I know some users would manually add speed cameras to their Avic X1 as a POI.

There's no mention of speed cameras here:

http://caraudiosecurity.com/shop/prod

You'd think there would be as it would be a huge selling point. I'm sure it still uses the same Nav software as the rest of the Pioneers too.

I'm getting my demo of the HD1 on Thursday so I can clarify about the speed camera locations.

Thanks again. Any more thoughts chaps?

Edited by johnny senna on Tuesday 19th December 10:10

[bermyandy]

HD1 does not have speed camera locations - if it does, somone please let me know!

Screen doesnt hide, so it depends on what car its going into, and whether it looks enough like the standard double din.

Its a very good system, but only complaint would be the ipod interface. Its easier to set things up on the ipod, press play, and then forget about it. Its very slow going through playlists on screen as only shows 5 lists at a atime (same for alblums/artists etc) and doesnt have a search function, so you could be there for ages if you want to play zz top. Although you should also be shot.

[Oakey]

bermyandy said:

HD1 does not have speed camera locations - if it does, somone please let me know!

Screen doesnt hide, so it depends on what car its going into, and whether it looks enough like the standard double din.

Its a very good system, but only complaint would be the ipod interface. Its easier to set things up on the ipod, press play, and then forget about it. Its very slow going through playlists on screen as only shows 5 lists at a atime (same for alblums/artists etc) and doesnt have a search function, so you could be there for ages if you want to play zz top. Although you should also be shot.

£2k's worth of hardware, no hiding screen and no speed cam location. What does it offer over the normal Avic X1 other than being Double Din? Shame, could be an awesome piece of kit.

[bermyandy]

As you pointed out, double din, which instantly ruled out the X1 for me

Although also:
BUilt in hard drive - play a cd and it records to the hard drive, allowing you to call it back whenever you want
Does the Avic x1 allow you to navigate and listen to a cd without a multi disc thing?
I believe the software behind guidance maybe improved?
Blue tooth that controlls your phone
Ipod option

For me, when i needed a double din system that would be compatible with my ipod and phone, it was the best option at the time

[Oakey]

bermyandy said:

As you pointed out, double din, which instantly ruled out the X1 for me

Although also:
BUilt in hard drive - play a cd and it records to the hard drive, allowing you to call it back whenever you want
Does the Avic x1 allow you to navigate and listen to a cd without a multi disc thing?
I believe the software behind guidance maybe improved?
Blue tooth that controlls your phone
Ipod option

For me, when i needed a double din system that would be compatible with my ipod and phone, it was the best option at the time

I'd choose one over my X1, I like the double din, however it really puts me off that the screen is always visible. It would be an open invitation to chancers. From watching how the screen moves it seems it wouldn't have been too difficult for them to mke it reverse and hideth screen?

You can plan a route and then store it to memory, take out the disc and listen to CD's but you can't deviate from the route too much before it asks for the Navi disc. I'd forgot about the HD for Nav, that's a good feature, about time they did that. Is the software fully upgradeable?

Can you copy mp3's to the HD or do you have to rip your CD collection to it again? Also makes the Ipod function rather redundant

[bermyandy]

I think the avic looks sufficiently OEM in my car not too worry - they would really have to be looking to notice. I agree it would be nice to have it hide away, but as all the gubbins is in one box, it would kind of have to stick all the way out, swivel, then come back in again. Would that deter a thief? I assume though that if the head unit is removed in the 'face away' state, it wont come back without codes or somesuch?

Not sure about MP3 cds - will have a look, but as far as i know, when you play a normal CD it rips and converts to a format to store, so dont see why it wouldnt be able to either store MP3's directly, or convert them.

Agree in part that it makes the Ipod redundant, although its only a 30gb memory, and most people have music already loaded on to the ipod, and so are unlikely to spend a day in their car loading cd's to the memory. Having said that, people do spend all day polishing their cars, so i wouldnt be surprised.

I like the hard drive function, as sometimes when driving people they have a CD they want to play, and so will store it, if you're on a long drive and happen to buy a CD it will store.

But as a note, the ipod interface is an extra - so you could buy the HD1 and be able to have ipod like functionality straight away. Then pay the extra to be able plug the ipod in if required

[johnny senna]

All interesting views chaps, thank you. Quite looking forward to my demo of the HD1 tomorrow.

[johnny senna]

OK fellas, I ordered the Pioneer HD1.

Much better graphics than the Kenwood. I thought the satnav was very impresive. The interface was great, looked superb, flicking between phone/nav/DVD etc was a pleasure. The only thing wrong with it was a slightly slow Ipod interface (same as Kenwood, slower than Alpine). But I was sold by the rest of it. There was no Alpine to demo, so I just went with the Pioneer.

[Oakey]

johnny senna said:

OK fellas, I ordered the Pioneer HD1.

Much better graphics than the Kenwood. I thought the satnav was very impresive. The interface was great, looked superb, flicking between phone/nav/DVD etc was a pleasure. The only thing wrong with it was a slightly slow Ipod interface (same as Kenwood, slower than Alpine). But I was sold by the rest of it. There was no Alpine to demo, so I just went with the Pioneer.

How much did you get it for?

[johnny senna]

Oakey said:

johnny senna said:

OK fellas, I ordered the Pioneer HD1.

Much better graphics than the Kenwood. I thought the satnav was very impresive. The interface was great, looked superb, flicking between phone/nav/DVD etc was a pleasure. The only thing wrong with it was a slightly slow Ipod interface (same as Kenwood, slower than Alpine). But I was sold by the rest of it. There was no Alpine to demo, so I just went with the Pioneer.

How much did you get it for?

Just short of 2 grand, fitted. I am getting a few extras though: 1) Ipod connectivity 2) the car's speed sensor which helps the nav's accuracy 3) Wiring for my multi-function steering wheel (hopefully).