Well, my Sony CDX-GT510 receiver was stolen about 2 months ago and if I could meet the guy(s) who did the dirty work I’d probably shake their hands right after I punched them in the teeth! Why? Because after extensive online research and deliberation, I’m now the proud owner of the Kenwood Excelon KDC-X993, and boy does it blow the doors off of anything I’ve ever owned. Yes, it definitely cost more than that Sony I had (the Sony was $135.00 at Crutchfield and the Kenwood was $259.00 on Amazon), but it actually does EVERYTHING I wanted my old car stereo to do and then some. Do I have an amp and subs? Not yet. However, I do have some decent aftermarket speakers (5″x7″s), a Bluetooth phone and an iPod like everyone else and it utilizes each input source to their fullest potential. Furthermore, this receiver is so customizable down to the smallest detail including illumination colors and text display to name a few. Is this receiver made for the occasional or very casual music listener? No, and please don’t go running out to buy it for yer granny even though it provides brilliant hands-free capabilities. This receiver is meant to be purchased by someone who doesn’t mind spending a little quality time getting to know the depth of its value, and its ease of use, once one has become accustomed to its eccentricities. I’ve read so many reviews about this receiver and many complain about the control knobs (the right one can be a little tricky) and glare on the display, and while I can now personally see where one might have an initial problem, I can’t for the life of me figure out why solutions are not discovered when taking a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the albeit clumsy but nonetheless informative manual and receiver interface. Unless you are operating this equipment mounted in a dash kit on the back of a black rhino and at the same time find yourself, oddly enough, without apposable thumbs, this receiver will far exceed your expectations. I installed mine in a 2001 Ford Expedition; took me a few hours total since I really took my time. Ran the USB cable down to the glove box and the Bluetooth mic was tucked nicely under the dash, then under a gasket seal and clipped just above the “Oh S!@t” handle. Waited ’til the next morning to pair up the phone, and called a few folks to get a response and each said they couldn’t tell I was calling from the truck; never had any problem hearing them either loud and clear. iPod got picked up by the USB connection immediately, and still getting used to the interface, but the sound quality is impeccable and the display of song information, date, time, etc., is such a huge improvement over my last deck and so much faster! It took me years to find a specific artist or album on that last Sony even with the endorsed Sony iPod adapter, and its sound quality was really disappointing (always sounded filtered or muffled in some way). No problems with that here on the USB, and this Kenwood really provides a much more accurate sound projection with an exceptional built in 24-bit DAC and 22w RMS amp. Listen, you can buy a cheaper model, even under this brand, but you will not get a receiver that sounds this darn good and with as many built-in features anywhere, period. There isn’t a manufacturer out there that can compete on each level with this deck right now, and any fears I had about purchasing it were put to rest as soon as I powered it up and started foaming at the mouth with excitement. Gorgeous customizable display, USB connection, AUX input, Bluetooth built-in, CD and amazing sound quality. Quit second-guessing and buy this deck. Unless you’re a moron or a whiner. ENJOY!
Rating: 5 / 5
I replaced my factory BMW Business CD player with this. What a difference! Suddenly I feel like I purchased a brand new car! The Bass is now very crisp and loud, the vocal quality also improved a lot. Couldn’t believe my factory speakers were capable of producing such beautiful sound.
Pros:
* Great Sound Quality, lot of adjustments to suite your taste, very crisp Bass as well as highs
* DTA and X’over settings are great and works as advertised – although you need to know little bit about Frequency, etc.
* You can choose 10 different display,left and right colors – I was able to match factory red/orange
* Ipod interface works great – I prefer to control iPod directly, but you can choose to control through x993
* Blue tooth interface is flawless and works great. People can not make out that I am calling from car
* best price performance
Cons:
* Display not very visible in direct sunlight, but is still manageable
* Controls can be tricky, will take few weeks to master. But once you learn it, it will be natural
* Provided manual is useless – does not mention the functionality at all, just how to change it.
The overall quality of the product is very high, as one would expect when purchasing a flagship product. All product features are funtional, as expected, but several features are awkward to access, especially when driving. For instance, to change sound sources (i.e. to go from tuner to CD) a button press, followed by a knob rotation (which requires visual attention to the unit’s front panel) followed by a final extended button press is required. Definitely not something you want to be doing in heavy traffic. Programming in your favorite AM or FM stations is also an awkward and tedious process. The station genre feature can help make things a little easier, but most stations in my area do not broadcast the necessary RDS signal to make this feature work well for me. The iPod/iPhone USB connection works extremely well. Only one nit there is that the “random” song select feature always starts with the same song – whatever song is first alphabetically in your iPod/iPhone song library. After that, all subsequent songs selected by the “random” feature seem to be truly randomly selected. If you regularly use playlists, then you probably won’t ever notice this little glitch. The Bluetooth functionality is quite impressive. Hands-free calls with my iPhone were effortless and the sound clarity was amazing despite the road noise. Another nit here – the Bluetooth audio function is sometimes randomly selected for music playback by the unit even though the iPhone is directly connected via the iPod/iPhone USB cable. Not sure of the logic on this glitch, but it it easily corrected by disconnecting and then re-connecting the USB cable. My unit was delivered with BT firmware v1.7 which the latest available from the Kenwood support site. Good thing since flashing the firmware would require that I pull the unit out of the dash to perform the procedure, or use a Bluetooth-enabled laptop, which I do not own. I gave it 4 stars for all of the many features the unit provides and the enormous expandability possibilities. There are those few rough spots that I have already mentioned that keep it from being a 5.
Rating: 4 / 5
I have been using this head unit for a month now and I love it! The install was easy and the setup and controls are not as bad as some people have said. I use every feature that this stereo offers and all work very well, call quality on the bluetooth is absolutely wonderful the sound is great as well. The only thing I don’t like is the HF Disconnect messages after every call is ended, it fixes its self after a few seconds but still kind of annoying. I have had a few problems with the bluetooth audio not staying connected even when the phone is and calls still go through. I would have given this stereo a 5 star if the bluetooth audio where a little less flaky. all and all the best stereo I have had yet I would buy another one in a second.
Rating: 4 / 5
I first started getting into car audio after a cassette melted in my Accent’s factory deck. I replaced it in 2007 with a Sony CDX-GT510 along with a direct connect iPod adapter. The interface of browsing and selecting songs off the iPod through the deck was tedious and extremely slow.
This receiver beats the heck out my previous Sony unit. The x993’s 5-line display is ideal for scrolling through my 6000+ iPod library. I can search by letter and skip by percentages. Since there are 5 lines of display, I view all the information for the song at once. With my old Sony deck (and most commonly) it was only a 14-digit display, which meant one would have to wait for the entire song, artist, album name to scroll across the screen. Not any more. The display’s custom color ability easily permits it to match with you car’s dash. And one of the most welcomed features is the x993 resumes the last song that was playing when the car turned off. My Sony deck would begin playing the first of song of the first artist in my library every time I turned the car on. This became extremely irritating when I would have to re-select a playlist, album, etc every time I had to turn the car off for various reasons (getting gas, going into store, etc.).
The blue-tooth has performed great with my Samsung Access. It displays my battery and signal. And has stopped me from worrying about a headset while driving. No tickets for me.
The rear USB and 3.5 mm port are great because it leaves the deck looking clean. I can just route the cables into my glove box for easy access.
The sound settings are extensive, and if you take the time to fine-tune them for your car, it pays off. I have dual 12 kicker comp subs with four 5.25 Kicker speakers (with the entire car dampened with damplifier pro). It all comes together well for my kiddy-car Accent.
Rating: 5 / 5
#1 by R. Burns on July 2, 2010 - 8:49 pm
Well, my Sony CDX-GT510 receiver was stolen about 2 months ago and if I could meet the guy(s) who did the dirty work I’d probably shake their hands right after I punched them in the teeth! Why? Because after extensive online research and deliberation, I’m now the proud owner of the Kenwood Excelon KDC-X993, and boy does it blow the doors off of anything I’ve ever owned. Yes, it definitely cost more than that Sony I had (the Sony was $135.00 at Crutchfield and the Kenwood was $259.00 on Amazon), but it actually does EVERYTHING I wanted my old car stereo to do and then some. Do I have an amp and subs? Not yet. However, I do have some decent aftermarket speakers (5″x7″s), a Bluetooth phone and an iPod like everyone else and it utilizes each input source to their fullest potential. Furthermore, this receiver is so customizable down to the smallest detail including illumination colors and text display to name a few. Is this receiver made for the occasional or very casual music listener? No, and please don’t go running out to buy it for yer granny even though it provides brilliant hands-free capabilities. This receiver is meant to be purchased by someone who doesn’t mind spending a little quality time getting to know the depth of its value, and its ease of use, once one has become accustomed to its eccentricities. I’ve read so many reviews about this receiver and many complain about the control knobs (the right one can be a little tricky) and glare on the display, and while I can now personally see where one might have an initial problem, I can’t for the life of me figure out why solutions are not discovered when taking a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the albeit clumsy but nonetheless informative manual and receiver interface. Unless you are operating this equipment mounted in a dash kit on the back of a black rhino and at the same time find yourself, oddly enough, without apposable thumbs, this receiver will far exceed your expectations. I installed mine in a 2001 Ford Expedition; took me a few hours total since I really took my time. Ran the USB cable down to the glove box and the Bluetooth mic was tucked nicely under the dash, then under a gasket seal and clipped just above the “Oh S!@t” handle. Waited ’til the next morning to pair up the phone, and called a few folks to get a response and each said they couldn’t tell I was calling from the truck; never had any problem hearing them either loud and clear. iPod got picked up by the USB connection immediately, and still getting used to the interface, but the sound quality is impeccable and the display of song information, date, time, etc., is such a huge improvement over my last deck and so much faster! It took me years to find a specific artist or album on that last Sony even with the endorsed Sony iPod adapter, and its sound quality was really disappointing (always sounded filtered or muffled in some way). No problems with that here on the USB, and this Kenwood really provides a much more accurate sound projection with an exceptional built in 24-bit DAC and 22w RMS amp. Listen, you can buy a cheaper model, even under this brand, but you will not get a receiver that sounds this darn good and with as many built-in features anywhere, period. There isn’t a manufacturer out there that can compete on each level with this deck right now, and any fears I had about purchasing it were put to rest as soon as I powered it up and started foaming at the mouth with excitement. Gorgeous customizable display, USB connection, AUX input, Bluetooth built-in, CD and amazing sound quality. Quit second-guessing and buy this deck. Unless you’re a moron or a whiner. ENJOY!
Rating: 5 / 5
#2 by Mountain on July 2, 2010 - 11:09 pm
Kenwood Excelon KDC-X993 CD receiver
I replaced my factory BMW Business CD player with this. What a difference! Suddenly I feel like I purchased a brand new car! The Bass is now very crisp and loud, the vocal quality also improved a lot. Couldn’t believe my factory speakers were capable of producing such beautiful sound.
Pros:
* Great Sound Quality, lot of adjustments to suite your taste, very crisp Bass as well as highs
* DTA and X’over settings are great and works as advertised – although you need to know little bit about Frequency, etc.
* You can choose 10 different display,left and right colors – I was able to match factory red/orange
* Ipod interface works great – I prefer to control iPod directly, but you can choose to control through x993
* Blue tooth interface is flawless and works great. People can not make out that I am calling from car
* best price performance
Cons:
* Display not very visible in direct sunlight, but is still manageable
* Controls can be tricky, will take few weeks to master. But once you learn it, it will be natural
* Provided manual is useless – does not mention the functionality at all, just how to change it.
I would highly recommend it.
Rating: 5 / 5
#3 by Joe Philipp on July 3, 2010 - 12:57 am
The overall quality of the product is very high, as one would expect when purchasing a flagship product. All product features are funtional, as expected, but several features are awkward to access, especially when driving. For instance, to change sound sources (i.e. to go from tuner to CD) a button press, followed by a knob rotation (which requires visual attention to the unit’s front panel) followed by a final extended button press is required. Definitely not something you want to be doing in heavy traffic. Programming in your favorite AM or FM stations is also an awkward and tedious process. The station genre feature can help make things a little easier, but most stations in my area do not broadcast the necessary RDS signal to make this feature work well for me. The iPod/iPhone USB connection works extremely well. Only one nit there is that the “random” song select feature always starts with the same song – whatever song is first alphabetically in your iPod/iPhone song library. After that, all subsequent songs selected by the “random” feature seem to be truly randomly selected. If you regularly use playlists, then you probably won’t ever notice this little glitch. The Bluetooth functionality is quite impressive. Hands-free calls with my iPhone were effortless and the sound clarity was amazing despite the road noise. Another nit here – the Bluetooth audio function is sometimes randomly selected for music playback by the unit even though the iPhone is directly connected via the iPod/iPhone USB cable. Not sure of the logic on this glitch, but it it easily corrected by disconnecting and then re-connecting the USB cable. My unit was delivered with BT firmware v1.7 which the latest available from the Kenwood support site. Good thing since flashing the firmware would require that I pull the unit out of the dash to perform the procedure, or use a Bluetooth-enabled laptop, which I do not own. I gave it 4 stars for all of the many features the unit provides and the enormous expandability possibilities. There are those few rough spots that I have already mentioned that keep it from being a 5.
Rating: 4 / 5
#4 by Brandon G. Archibald on July 3, 2010 - 3:19 am
I have been using this head unit for a month now and I love it! The install was easy and the setup and controls are not as bad as some people have said. I use every feature that this stereo offers and all work very well, call quality on the bluetooth is absolutely wonderful the sound is great as well. The only thing I don’t like is the HF Disconnect messages after every call is ended, it fixes its self after a few seconds but still kind of annoying. I have had a few problems with the bluetooth audio not staying connected even when the phone is and calls still go through. I would have given this stereo a 5 star if the bluetooth audio where a little less flaky. all and all the best stereo I have had yet I would buy another one in a second.
Rating: 4 / 5
#5 by Bgon on July 3, 2010 - 4:56 am
I first started getting into car audio after a cassette melted in my Accent’s factory deck. I replaced it in 2007 with a Sony CDX-GT510 along with a direct connect iPod adapter. The interface of browsing and selecting songs off the iPod through the deck was tedious and extremely slow.
This receiver beats the heck out my previous Sony unit. The x993’s 5-line display is ideal for scrolling through my 6000+ iPod library. I can search by letter and skip by percentages. Since there are 5 lines of display, I view all the information for the song at once. With my old Sony deck (and most commonly) it was only a 14-digit display, which meant one would have to wait for the entire song, artist, album name to scroll across the screen. Not any more. The display’s custom color ability easily permits it to match with you car’s dash. And one of the most welcomed features is the x993 resumes the last song that was playing when the car turned off. My Sony deck would begin playing the first of song of the first artist in my library every time I turned the car on. This became extremely irritating when I would have to re-select a playlist, album, etc every time I had to turn the car off for various reasons (getting gas, going into store, etc.).
The blue-tooth has performed great with my Samsung Access. It displays my battery and signal. And has stopped me from worrying about a headset while driving. No tickets for me.
The rear USB and 3.5 mm port are great because it leaves the deck looking clean. I can just route the cables into my glove box for easy access.
The sound settings are extensive, and if you take the time to fine-tune them for your car, it pays off. I have dual 12 kicker comp subs with four 5.25 Kicker speakers (with the entire car dampened with damplifier pro). It all comes together well for my kiddy-car Accent.
Rating: 5 / 5