Kenwood DMX907S

Anyone have one of these radios? Crutch field has them on sale for a hundred bucks off til tomorrow and I'm thinking seriously about it. With all the extras needed to make it work it's gonna be $750 or so and I wonder if it's worth replacing the perfectly good factory radio. Any thoughts?

 

Depends of what you have like OEM in your truck, and how you not happy with it. Would be nice if you can provide the link to mentioned unit to have closer look.

 

I have several hundred CDs recorded on a flash drive in high resolution WAV format that it would be nice to be able to play in the truck. Sure, I could reformat them as MP3 or WMA and as a matter of fact I did just that but the sound quality is a bit... lacking.
Here's a link:

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_113DMX907S/Kenwood-Excelon-DMX907S.html?tp=5684#&gid=1&pid=1

When I replaced the busted factory CD player in my '05 with a cheap Pioneer unit the sound was vastly improved even with the stock speakers. I'm just wondering if the Kenwood would yield the same results.

 

That is a good head unit. You will need a Maestro to retain steering wheel controls.
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_794AD...tro+idatalink&awmt=e&awnw=s&awat=&awug=111174

 

Well... What to say? IMO, this Kenwood HU is impressive to me... No NAV, but overall - looks really good. Quality of sound? My experience is totally opposite, after speakers replacement even questionable OEM head unit starts sound NORMAL, and after HU replacement... Heaven reached!!! (BTW, all experience with Kenwood, HU was DNA 6160)
So my point - I'll start with speakers replacement and sound proofing ANYWAY. Due timeframe you mention (discounted price of HU), buy this Kenwood. Seems very fair price for this. Good luck with your project!

 

i have the DMX905s so 2 versions older. only complaint it lack a scan funtion for the standard radio

 

going down this rabbit hole. I replaced the headunit, speakers, added sound deadening, amped all the speakers and installed a subwoofer. The headunit is an improvement over the stock one but i wasnt happy until i amped everything.

 

Yeah, I knew that, the HU is $550 and another $200 for the installation gear.

 

That's right approach, IMO. Totally agree about amplifying!

 

The last thing I would listen to is the standard radio so that wouldn't be a big deal.

 

So... nobody's gonna try to talk me out of this?

Too late, order's placed.

 

You did right thing, I'm sure. Price is right, unit you order is beauty! Enjoy your sound!

 

I have this exact stereo in my truck. Just finished up the install last week. I picked it specifically because it was a decent price, I can have two phones connected to it (I have a work phone in addition to my personal), it has wireless Android Auto/Apple Carplay, I can add more cameras to it and it has more power to produce better sound over the OEM head unit. Also, it isn't a NAV unit but with Android Auto/Apple Carplay you have the use of Google Maps and Waze.

It wasn't clear to me all the extra adapters I would need but I was able to eventually locate all I needed to retain the use of the factory FM antenna, SiriusXM antenna, GPS antenna and the OEM backup camera.

I didn't get the Maestro unit, I went with a simpler product from Axxess Interfaces. It was a bit cheaper than the Maestro unit and simple to wire in. All it does is retain the steering wheel controls - none of the added features of the Maestro unit.

I also added the SiriusXM adapter so I could use SiriusXM on this head unit.

I'm hoping you have all you need for your install. If you'd like, I'm happy to add some links for everything I bought to get my DMX907S fully functional in the truck.

Enjoy it! It's a really nice radio and I'm very happy with it.

- Jeremy

 

Enjoy it, you'll like it

 

its a good buy, Im not a great installer but ive installed 3-4 radios in various cars + amps + Caps + subwoofers. the masetro is not bad to install just take it little by little.

I have an ipod in the glove compartment wired to the HU so i can have access to all my songs at will. Routing that specific wire was a pain since its packed with blower moter etc.

 

Can anyone post a photo of how this looks installed on your dash? Also, I am wondering if any of you have anything to share about how it works now that you have had at least a few months with it. I am thinking about buying this unit and want to know how it went for all of y'all

 

I've had mine in for about 3 months now. Over all I'm pretty happy with it. The sound quality, even with the factory speakers, is much better and Android Auto is great. There is a bit of a learning curve involved in the operation of the different features and I haven't actually had the time to get all of them figured out yet; but I'm getting there.

After unboxing everything I was a little intimidated at all the wiring I was gonna have to do but I took it step by step following the directions and it was pretty straight forward. There are a lot of extra harnesses included that aren't needed which makes it seem more complicated than it really is.

A few notes and (mostly minor) complaints.

Don't bother hooking up the park brake wire just ground it. For some reason the Maestro won't read it.

I'll admit to being moderately "technology challenged" but I found the Maestro website to be less than user friendly when attempting to flash the unit but given a little time I got it figured out.

Every music player I've ever used shows the length of the song playing and the elapsed time. Not the Kenwood, just ET.

When playing music from the flash drive in shuffle mode, if I shut the truck off and ,say, go in a store, when I start the truck back up and the song track changes the display will show another random track playing but it will actually be the next song in the previous folder instead.

The gauges feature is great! Unfortunately though transmission temp, which I really wanted, is not available. It's in the onscreen display list but its grayed out so it can't be chosen.

Kinda wish I'd stepped up and got a larger screen but don't really think it would be worth the extra bucks, for me anyway.

I'll give it an 8 out of 10.

Oh, and here's a couple of pics. Yes I was playing around and put up a photo of my cat as wallpaper. If you're a dog person you can use something else.

 

Awesome! Thank you so much! How fast does it start up and connect to your phone when you start the truck? I just rented a car while traveling and it had Android auto. It was nearly instant on and the Bluetooth was connected immediately. I would really like to find that level of experience in my taco.

 

I wouldn't say it comes on instantly, it takes a few seconds but not long enough to be annoying. Start the truck up and by the time I have my seat belt fastened and grab the shifter for reverse it's up and running.

Edit: The "don't play with the touchscreen while driving or yer gonna die" warning message stays on for 10 long seconds after the HU boots up but there's a button to exit out of it immediately if you don't want to wait. The back up camera will override the warning though so by the time I'm out of the driveway it's usually gone on its own.

 

I just bought the DMX907s for my LX470. I'm looking to completely replace the original Nakamichi unit that failed. loaded with features that I need to learn how to use. I didn't realize is has GPS capability. I need to read up on that