I wrote a post a couple months ago on what I thought would be the best single head units for 2012. Recently my sales staff and I had a chance to do an A, B, C listening comparison between what I thought would be the top three single din head units for 2012. We carefully listened to a few different tracks over and over again between Alpine’s CDE-HD138BT, Kenwood’s KDC-X996 and Pioneer’s DEH-80PRS.
In our opinion, the Kenwood KDC-X996 wins hands down. The top of the line Kenwood Excelon head unit proved to have the best sound quality, best mix of features and best audio control. For the full review, complete with hands on demonstration, watch the video below.
10 Comments
Thank you, Annie! It was solely on your recommendation that I purchased the KDC-X996, and I’m glad I did. The menu’s, as you described, were a little tricky at first, but they ARE learnable. I am running the 996 through a JL HD900/5 into 4 JL C5 coaxials and a Polk SR 12″ sub. All of that sonic goodness is packed into an International cabover truck. The sound quality is the best I have ever heard with my own two ears, but I did not realize that until I replaced the old Pioneer deck with the 996. Thank you so much!
I’m so happy I was helpful, thank you for the kind words 🙂
Hi Annie,
What’s your opinion about Blaupunkt Toronto 420BT? This head unit is in the same quality order than the KDCX996, the Pioneer DEH 80PRS and the Alpine IDA CDA117?
Thanks in advance!
Guillermo
Hi Guillermo,
I’m not a Blaupunkt dealer and have not dealt with their product in a long time, but based on specs alone, it’s not even close. It only has a 3 band EQ and 2 volt preouts – definitely not a sound quality deck. Thanks for checking out the blog!
Annie
Browsing the site for the first time and definitely loving all the in depth reviews.
Also like that you show love for some Kenwood Excelon units!
Bought the kdc-x794 (which is the -x994 minus BT) a couple of winters ago and still havent found anything from alpine or pioneer to compete with it in the price range for sound shaping capabilities and 5 line display. Disappointed that the new -x796 model has lost the display, and some of the sound capabilities.
As far as the display visibility problems, def harder to see than a single line or double line display, but there is a crap load of options to adjust text size and color to make it easier on you.
Keep up the good work!
Thanks Gabe!
I hope some one can help as I would like to order a kenwood KDCX996 for my new Fiat Abarth 500ss (the factory radio uses windows blue.me) so i can use my iphone and ipod. The Std Fiat radio has controllers on the steering wheel, how do i get the same functionality on the kenwood. What cable do i need? I know the kenwood is “steering wheel ready”
Please help
Hi Leon,
Where do you reside? The US? UK?
This is what our shop uses for many European applications. The Unico Dual Plus. They do list your car as compatible. I use an importer from Pennsylvania, Perzan Auto Radio.
That should do the trick for you.
*tapping foot with arms crossed* waiting!
Hi Sean! I am sadly awaiting my shipment of new head units from Alpine, they have been back ordered 🙁 I was expecting them last Friday. Otherwise, I would have just gone to my display and checked it myself. You can’t really tell from Alpine’s website, but after opening up the owner’s guide to verify, I was able to confirm the CDE-HD138BT does give you either the 5 or 7 Band parametric EQ and the CDE-HD137BT only gives you the 3 band EQ (also has a lower voltage preout).
Wow, you’ve definitely been an Alpine fan longer than me. I was 5 years old in 1988. Speaking of made in Japan, I do still have an F1 Status system (available for purchase as well).
And yeah, all head units (Alpine, Kenwood, etc) do get to that point where the sound gets funky even if you’re using an external amp. More so just on distortion, I haven’t actually noticed it on mids/hi’s, but I also have been running an OEM integration system for the past 3 years in my car (mostly optical). The last time I was running an Alpine deck in my own car was the pre-amp only model (CDA-7995).
In any system, we just always try to find that level on the head unit where the preamp starts to distort and tune our amp with that point in mind. As far as sound quality on bluetooth goes, I haven’t had a chance to test the new Alpine’s yet. From previous experience, the Kenwood’s usually had the most options for tweaking sound quality with bluetooth (mic gain, noise cancellation levels, echo cancellation levels). The Alpine does have mic gain adjustments, however. Thanks for commenting!