WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

I recently replaced my Pioneer AVIC-D3 with a Kenwood DNX5120 so I thought I'd post a comparison of the two for those who might be considering a Double DIN replacement.


Pioneer AVIC-D3



Kenwood DNX5120

The two units are more similar than different. In fact, it appears that Kenwood tried to create a D3 clone when they released the 5120. Both have 6.1" touch screen displays with a single **** and a few buttons along the left edge. Both have built-in GPS navigation, DVD video and audio, backup camera capability, available Bluetooth and satellite radio, plus USB and iPod support.

Overall impression: This is really a matter of personal preference. The D3 has a more interesting and artistic interface with logical menus that are easy to navigate. The 5120 is more utilitarian looking with the basic controls always displayed. It looks like the "strictly business" interface that you would find on a OEM system and yet the menus are more convoluted - it can take a while to find settings. Both can change display and button colors to match your interior. A minor difference that you may notice is the matt black face of the 5120 blends better with the dash than the glossy black of the D3. A bigger difference is startup time - the D3 starts up almost immediately but the 5120 takes 10 seconds or even longer before it starts playing music regardless of selected source.

Sound: The Pioneer has the advantage here. Both units sound good (much better than stock) and both have three band parametric equalizers, high pass filters, loudness, and subwoofer adjustments. But the D3 has a simulated sound stage feature that can generate amazing results. You can choose settings such as Living Room, Recording Studio, Concert Hall, etc. and the unit will make various adjustments (including rear channel time delay) to customize the apparent sound stage.

GPS: Kenwood is clearly the winner here. The 5120 includes navigation by Garmin using the interface from their recent StreetPilot series. It inlcudes text-to-voice (speaks the names of streets) and the ability to load your own custom Points of Interest. The display is a little cartoonish but it is very accurate because of its WAAS capability. It has all of the North American maps built-in so you can use navigation regardless of music source. The D3 uses NavTeq maps with more points-of-interest (12 million vs, 6 million in the 5120) but it doen't support WAAS for accuracy. In practice, the accuracy is quite good anyway and I never found that it had me out of position although I've heard that it can be a problem when two roads are very close together. On the other hand, it has an internal gyroscope and VSS connection that allows it to calculate position when satellite signal is lost - a real help when navigating among tall buildings. The D3's navigation is DVD based so you must have one of the two (East or West) DVDs in the drive when creating a route or searching. You can use any audio sources other than the CD/DVD drive while navigating.

DVD: Both units have the same resolution and the same video playing capabilities. The D3 can play dual layer MP3 DVDs whereas the 5120 only supports single layer. Both are slow to list the contents and must be scrolled to find folders (i.e. you can't search for an album folder).

Satellite radio: The two brands are completely opposite on this one. Pioneer is an XM partner and Kenwood works with Sirius. Both will work with the other satellite service but the support is really lacking. With XM on the D3 and Sirius on the 5120 you get full channel naming, scrolling multi-line display of song information, and numerous other features. On the other hand, Sirius on the D3 and XM on the 5120 are very basic - showing only 16 character, single line, non-scrolling song information and leaving your presets labelled just P1 thru P6. If you're a big fan of one service or the other, this could be a significant deciding factor (it was for me).

AM/FM tuner: Pioneer is the clear winner here. Their SuperTuner III is head and shoulders above the tuner in the Kenwood. But one nice feature the 5120 has that the D3 doesn't is RDS support (the scrolling text information broadcast by many FM stations) and the related traffic interruption capability (certain FM stations broadcast an interrupt signal when they do a traffic report so compatible radios can switch stations).

iPod/USB: Both have capable iPod support but the Kenwood has a few additional features including the ability to display album art. It also has a scroll bar that makes finding folders much faster. A USB port is built-in on the 5120 but is an add-on for the D3 (it's inexpensive and I would recommend getting one if you don't have an iPod so that you can leave the nav disc in the drive and play music from a flash drive).

Bluetooth: Both models require an external adapter for Bluetooth. The D3 has somewhat better sound due to the echo canceling microphone included with the adapter. The 5120 includes DTMF (tone) dialing capability during calls to enable the use of automated attendants (those damn menus) and voicemail systems. It also has SMS capability although I would never suggest sending text messages while driving.

Manufacturer support: This is a toss up. Kenwood has great support (you get a knowledgeable live person quickly) but they need it because their owner's manual is terrible. They have released two software updates in the short time the 5120 has been on the market so they obviously want to fix any problems found. Pioneer support can be difficult to deal with but you probably won't need to very much. Their manual is excellent and there is an online forum dedicated to the AVIC series (avic411.com). But there have been a few issues identified in the 18 months since the D3's release that have yet to be addressed by an update.

Irocem99

Awesome write up Whitebird.. I'm really looking hard at the Kenwood 512..You can get them at best buy for $559 or online for $459...Would you risk ordering something like that online from a site you don't know or would you bite the bullet and go to best buy? The $100 would help on the purchase of the bezel I need..

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

I ordered mine online and didn't have too many problems. The customer service was lousy when I tried to make a small change to the order but everything arrived in good condition. Just be sure to do some research (Google the store name) and check out the warranty. Some places offer their own warranty in place of a factory warranty because they're not authorized vendors.

Irocem99

Thanks white.. now if C5 Kidd will just pm me back.. I want to get the pioneer or kenwood soon..The pioneer looks like it has better features..Does it show cover art off the ipod like the kenwood?

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

No, it doesn't.

F-117HWK

iTrader: (1)

Looks great! Is there a writeup about fitting the double din in there? Also are you happy with the switch? I know both have pros/cons but at this point would you switch back or is the Kenwood deff staying?

Thanks,
Jason

Irocem99

Try this out hawk..https://ls1tech.com/forums/wiring-stereo-electronics/889631-double-din-installation.html

F-117HWK

iTrader: (1)

Thanks!

Irocem99

I usually have no problem ordering online,but a month and 3 weeks ago I ordered a key fob for the TA. Where is it? I still haven't gotten one. I wrote 4 e-mails and they kept responding with the same letter..Then out of the blue some girl called work and talked to my brother and said she was sending another one..That was 3 weeks ago..So I said F it and went to the dealer and got one..I programmed it myself and it works awesome..So I'm kind of gun shy spending $600 and getting nothing..Ya know..

VIP1

I have WhiteBird's "old" Pioneer D3.

Overall, I am happy with it, but after using Gamin GPS devices for the past few years, I find the NavTeq a bit of a mixed bag.

• The interface isn't as intuitive as Garmin. Its not bad, just not as intuitive. Difficult to explain.
• POI Search is more guided by only highlighting the keyboard's letters for possible spelling completions within its dictionary
• The voice doesn't say street names
• The "route profile" is much less detailed (only says street name and distance, not left/right turn direction). This is called "review turns" on the Garmin, its where you can get a turn-by-turn listing of the route. This may seem like a minor thing, but I liked checking out the route a head of time for an area I recognize to jog my memory. On the other hand, the D3 can display the route drawn on a zoomed out map to show the entire route plotted on screen.
• Route redirections are faster, but it doesn't say that its a redirection. It just fixes it fast for you if you miss a turn.
• The D3 doesn't have WAAS and I noticed it half a block off a few times.

Its not perfect, but its good for the price. If you are looking for one of the best GPS devices on the market though, I'd suggest Garmin (especially a Nuvi 680... I have one and its awesome...$350 at Costco. Its three biggest features - among many others - is a large touchscreen, BlueTooth, and the voice says the street names. I often travel for work and take it on my trips.)

I'll have pics soon... hopefully.
My install looks a little different though since I'm making my own bezel.

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

That's really hard to say. Ideally, I'd like a unit that combined the Garmin GPS and Sirius radio support of the Kenwood with the rest of the features of the Pioneer. But, I guess since those are the two things I use most, I'd choose the Kenwood.

At first I found the fact that you have to leave the map disc in the Pioneer to use navigation annoying. But then I got an 8GB flash drive for $30 that allows me to have all the songs I would have on a DVD without using the disc slot, so now it wouldn't be as much of an issue.

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

In my case, I didn't find that to be much of an issue. I have a Garmin StreetPilot 2820 that I use on my bike as well as the Kenwood in the car. I have turned off the text-to-speech (changed "languages") on both because I found that it was hard to understand most of the time. The mispronunciations can be quite comical and even the correctly pronounced street names are spoken without a pause between words so it all runs together. The Pioneer speaks exit numbers and highway numbers (e.g. "bear right at exit three to I-95 south") but not other street names...and it does it very clearly. I guess it's a matter of personal preference.

F-117HWK

iTrader: (1)

If I'm not concerned about navigation would you consider the

Pioneer FH-P8000BT
or
Pioneer AVH-P4000DVD

to be good replacements? Im leaning towards the latter due to it being DVD and touchscreen like the D3. Did you possibly look at either of these when researching what to purchase and maybe have some good info?

If this is cluttering up the thread, by all means let me know and I will send out some PM's or start a different thread. Thanks for the review Whitebird!

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

I have no experience with either one but I would prefer the AVH-P4000DVD for several reasons...it plays MP3 DVDs, it has a touch screen with 480x234 resolution, it has a parametric equalizer, and you can change the display color to match your interior.

mycamaroSS

iTrader: (4)

pioneer for sure, so clean looking! and also what this guy said^

F-117HWK

iTrader: (1)

See the MP3 DVDs threw me off because the way I was reading it was that it plays MP3s on all CD formats but only video on DVD. Now I would just assume that if it can play DVD video that it should play the MP3s on a DVD but Im just kind of talking out loud.

#
audio/video features:
# plays MP3/WMA/WAV files recorded on CD-ROM, CD-R, and CD-RW discs
# supports video playback from DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW and Video CD discs

That is what I read off the internet and was making me think. Maybe its just been a long day at work and Im not reading it right

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

The Pioneer site says "MP3 Playback with ID3 tag: DVD or CD" (http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PU...P4000DVD?tab=B)


You may have seen that we don't support posting any information about bypassing the safety features of multimedia devices in this forum. Any such posts will be deleted. You could try a Pioneer specific forum such as avic411.com although I'm not sure if the bypass procedure for this model is the same as on the AVIC series.

F-117HWK

iTrader: (1)

Thanks.

Missed that...I took it out of my post so feel free to remove my quote in yours if you would like, sorry bout that.

phantomzer0

iTrader: (17)

Nice write up dude! The only edge I think the pioneer really has is that it fits your bezel a little better. The Kenwood seems to have really rounded corners. Non-the-less it looks really ******* sweet! Double-Din Club! w00t!

Irocem99

How much do you have to modify your bezel to make the kenwood work..I'm going to pick it up tonight my friends!