Head Unit Upgrade

Been doing a lot of searching and can't find too much. For those of you that have upgraded your head unit, what did you go with? I have an iPhone and would like Apple Carplay. Don't care about DVD/CD's. Looking at the Kenwood Excelon DMX706, let me know what you think. Will also be purchasing a sub/amp later on

 

Anyone?

 

Go check out the audio video forum... Hang onto your wallet. Lol

 

I've got a Kenwood in mine and I like it a lot. The Carplay works really well with only a few glitches in the last 2 years. Mine has hardwired carplay but some of the newer ones work wirelessly. I mainly use Spotify, Apple Music, and Waze.

 

I have the Kenwood DNX996XR and have been happy with it other than the fact that is was a real PITA to fit. If I had to do it again I wouldn't get the DVD receiver. It has wireless CarPlay and inputs for front and rear cameras. Do you have any specific questions?

 

Kenwood dmx906s. Wireless Apple carplay for the win. It’s worth it

 

I have an older Kenwood Excelon (9902s). It is probably a year early for a smooth phone experience, but the DSP and 5V outs are great. The Metra Axxess steering wheel adapter is fantastic, but you can get the one (Maestro?) that also interfaces to OBDII and shows monitoring data, which works with even this old of a head unit.

 

Yup. The Maestro allows for the display of individual tire pressure and other obd data.

 

I have the Pioneer DHM-1500NEX. Really like it, very easy to use with all the CarPlay apps - Waze, Gaia maps, google maps, tune in radio and Sirius.
I ended up getting it for $380 CDN with free install plus parts.
I went around to the different shops seeing what everyones best price was. huge difference in price between shops.
You can put in low offers on eBay and Amazon to sellers as well.
Kenwood is good stuff as well. Good luck!

 

I went with a Pioneer DMH-1500NEX. It is wired CarPlay, but I usually have my phone plugged in anyway. Huge improvement over the basic Entune. Get the Maestro module too.

 

Any jvc kenwood pioneer high end would be killer

 

So many damn options. I don’t really care about wireless CarPlay since my phone is usually always plugged into the USB port. Almost tempted to pay someone to install it. I’ve done a few head units and they were all nightmares

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/forums/audio-video.12/

 

I know my man I was in the same boat. Actually was originalky gonna get the head unit u mentioned dmx706s but someone told me how nice it was to keep the phone in your pocket for those quick in and out trips and man it has been Game changing not having to have that cord all the time. Or Occasionally leaving phone in car bc it’s chained up on a charger. Wasn’t much more. I bought this tech package from Best Buy and they install anything u can buy. $200 for the year. If they ever open back up I’ll keep getting more use out of it lol. Will have them do a dash cam , etc. little things.

 

I went with the cheapest alpine head unit crutchfield had that offered apple car play. It’s been alright but about 50% of the time the unit doesn’t “accept” my iPhone when I plug it in and have to replug it in sometimes even multiple times for it to work. Other than that it gets the job done well. I’m not sure if a more expensive unit would fix that problem or not but to me the couple hundred bucks I saved is worth having to plug my phone in twice. Like pretty much all mods, it depends on your budget and what you like. There’s so many different head units out there that I’m sure you could find exactly what your looking for. Crutchfield is an amazing website and gives you all the different harnesses and trim pieces you need to install it for free. Makes it very easy and simple.