Installed my Kenwood Excelon 693

So i just put my new kenwood deck in I went with the Kenwood excelon 693...it is my first kenwood...i am usualy an Alpine guy...Curious if anyone has this or possibly the KDC-993 had a couple of programming questions.

IN the pics below just to show you...I have the left side knob orange, and the screen orange (try to have everything match usually but it just looked so cool mismatched), and the right side knob fades in and out to all the different colors.

P.S. Please excuse the incorrect date...i keep forgetting to fix it...

 

post TONS of pics.

this is the unit I am looking at, so im also very curious what you think of it so far, specifically I've heard a lot of bad things about the right side knob having to be depressed and it being really inconvenient, although based on it's position in the dash of the tacoma it might not be that bad.

 

Honest to god i have never liked Kenwood. But i really do like this deck...so far... I was leerious about the knob as well but it isnt all that bad...Almost all decks these day are using the single control knob. The the remote makes it easy to just skip to next songs etc.

I was going to go with the regular 942 but the display was UGLY...and then the excelon 993...then i realized i didnt really need what the 993 had (built in blue tooth, I already have a parrot) for the extra money.

The Excelon display is great the color schemes are fun to mess with. I am usually the type that like the OEM colors to match but you can mix and match everything you can change the colors for both sides of button and the display.

The EQ is great i listen to alot of rock and metal but with a few other things mixed in...So i usually cusotm set my EQ and this has i believe 5 bands...Plus road noise and a few other feature...Very loud deck! plus 4v Preouts and USB for direct Ipod control.

I bought this deck mainly for IPOD control...I wanted something that would be direct connect and would be fast to scroll through my 1000+ songs...This does it...the ipod registers right away and it is quick to allow you to search alphabetically or just to scroll through the whole. list...You dont have to wait forthe info to be displayed it all pops up.

IF someone is on the Fence about this Deck I would say GO FOR IT...I like it alot and it works awesome sounds great. i would give it 4.5 out of 5 again the only setback is the control knob, but when using the remote it really isn't an issue. Considering the knob really is no other way they could build something to do this many fuctions and still look appealing so the knob IMO is a non-issue...

 

What are all the options as far as changing colors?

EDIT...disregard...found it in a review. Just wanted to make sure you could make it all to match the Taco inside

http://signature.crutchfield.com/s_113KDCX693/Kenwood-Excelon-KDC-X693.html?tp=5684

 

Mudvayne!

Installing the same deck. Just finished all the soundproofing and wiring. Starting on the dash tonight.

 

Nice Looking HU. I like Mudvayne part the Best.

 

basically as far as colors it is the whole color spectrum...ROY G. BIV i think i read it someplace that it is about 64 total variants. The orange matches the toyota perfect but it is a little boring when you see it doing the color change...Thats why i showed a couple different colors in my pics...my rigth button is continuously changeing colrs

 

Any problems with the fold down face, Crutchfield says that it "may" not work.

 

works 100% no issues at all...I wish it was spaced a little further forward...but i will live. almost completely recessed into the kit...I think there is another option if you dont use the stereo's "can" but it only bumped it out an 1/8 inch more...and i didnt feel like ripping it all out to try it that way..

 

Hey, I have the same HU since Thanksgiving.......love it! No issues with the fold down faceplate using the metra dashkit.

See here: http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/audio-video/62543-my-new-hu.html

I guess being a boring old guy , I like matching mine with the rest of the lighting scheme.

 

I was considering that deck but went with the Kenwood KDC-X493.

Decided to go cheaper and less fancy, also like the USB port right on the front of the face and non-fold down face plate.

Order just shipped, going in a 2007 Access Cab.

Kenwood KDC-X493
MTX JackHammer JH600
JL Audio PowerWedge CS112RG-W1 12"
Kenwood KFC-1682ie 6-1/2"/6-3/4" 3-way
Kenwood KFC-1662S 6-1/2" 3-way Speakers


Got the MTX amp on sale, 2 pairs of kenwood speakers knocked 50 bucks off the deck so it was barely 100 bucks.

At some point in the future I'll probably get kick panels and put components in them with an amp wired directly to them. Until that point the above should get me through.

 

I think this is a common misconception...
The KDC-X693 or KDC-X993 has a USB port but it is an attached cable...You can put it anywhere i ran mine to the glove box...It does ipod direct control or USB thumb drives and it is all controlled form the deck...Thus a good reason to have the 5 line display.

 

Just ordered this exact deck tonight. I can't wait.

 

No, I knew that the X993 and X693 had USB ports but were a cable that attach to the rear.

Read the stats and looked the image over at Crutchfield.

I just like it in the front combined with non-flip down face plate. Also like the cheaper price.


/edit The other thing that convinced me off the X993/693 was the fact it had two of the knobs that all the reviewers seemed to be complaining about. At least I'll be stuck with only one of them.

I hear you with regards to the 5 lines of text for going through Ipod files. I plan on running a small USB thumb drive and maybe only carrying 5-10 folders with 10-15 songs per folder. Don't own an Ipod and don't plan on owning one any time soon.


Sounds like I'll be using the remote to control the deck for the majority of listening.

 

I actualy really considered Alpine IDA-X305 digital medai player...but i felt i should still have a CD player...They aren't obsolete yet

 

Hey Sporty,

Have you connected a thumb drive yet? Does it read/shuffle /play thru all the subfolders? Sometimes burned data CDs wig-out when reading through folders...

The USB cable was a big selling point for me, plan on fabbing it into the aux port under the a/c controls. Thought it would be cool to stab a flash drive into the port and go.

Found 8gb-16gb flash drives for 10.00-25.00 online, better option than using an iPod IMO. The 16gb should hold about 3-4000 songs, figured on buying 2 and rotate them in and out.

Thanks,
Ray

 

this was my thoughts exactly...I havn't tried it yet though...

The thing about having the ipod is it will allow you to play randomly through the songs list.
when you have a Flash drive you are at the mercy of what is within a specific folder, you cant have acces to everything.You could dump all the songs into a common folder,but then you loose any organization.

The ipod allows you to sort "on the fly" so to speak, either by artist, song, album, etc, thats the beauty of the MP3 players, their software allows you to access your songs as you please in a couple different manners...

I am wondering if you could create a root folder with all the songs, and then create Artist folders or album folders, with shortcuts linked to the root folder? Instead of having the actual file in 2 different locations?

 

Thanks for the input.

Can't wait to play around with it.

Probably just put a bunch of random songs in one folder and hit shuffle, like a driving playlist.

I like songs popping in and out in weird places and times. Metal to blues to rock. Makes me laugh when the pod shuffles from something like Children of Bodom to Johnny Cash...

Also don't want to end up in a ditch fiddle-fucking with the buttons trying to find a artist or song.

Be waiting to hear how the flash drive works if you get a chance. I still have a few days ahead of me on the install.

Thanks,

Ray

 

I have been using a flash drive in my setup, works great. Currently have about 2500 songs in 10 diff folders. Also, the search function will not work while set to random play. Although you can't randomly play folders, you can randomly play songs within the folder.

A note on the flash drive, if it contains ANY proprietary software (such as in the sandisk drives), you need to remove that and format the drive using FAT 32.

here is a link that might help:

http://www.kenwood.com/cs/ce/audiofile/index.php?model=KDC-X693〈=english

 

Fuck i am just gonna use my Ipod...way easier