KENWOOD DMX958XR EXCELON Reference 6.8" Full HD Capacitive Touchscreen Car Stereo Receiver, Wireless Apple Carplay/Android Auto, Bluetooth, AM/FM HD Radio, MP3 Player, USB Port, Double DIN, SiriusXM

I have been putting systems in my cars since the 90's. This is by far the best deck I have had in long time maybe ever. I have ran Pioneer, Alpine, JVC, Sony and of course Kenwood. The last Pioneer deck I had " 1770 NEX" was a terrible deck and Pioneers quality control on multiple different decks is bad. Basically the board on the Pioneers go bad after a year or two. I decided to go back to Kenwood and boy am I glad I did. If you don't run a full setup - meaning amps with your deck than there are cheaper Kenwood decks that will do you well. But this deck has 5 volt outputs for people that run amps this means cleaner and louder sound. And this deck has separate controls for the sub and crossover points for tuning. This deck has way more programmability than any other deck I have used and way more than the Pioneer deck I had. The sound imaging that I can dial in is absolutely fantastic! There are many choices to give the sound stage just about any type that you want in your vehicle. I run this in a 2011 Ford F-350 and all the options for bringing the highs and lows together to be musical and not just overbearing bass is simply awesome. The menu is intuitive and makes a little exploring very rewarding. The screen clarity in daylight is great, very sharp. If you are looking for a deck that can bring your amps and car media all together than you have found a very good spot to start. Are there better decks out there, yes and Kenwood makes them, but for the price point? Nope, just a smile on your face when you crank that dial up.....

It is an excellent product, it exceeded all my expectations. My old car (“PICHIRILO”) turned out very well. I updated the vehicle audio to give it to my son and he also liked the sound update; it is very fluid and easy to use; excellent connectivity and the use of hands-free with the apps related to these is very practical.I bought a new vehicle and I don't see the difference with the audio, apple play and parking tools. It has been an excellent option.

No matter where I put the GPS antenna, the gps is off by a road or two which.. when I’m on the highway it’s constantly trying to reroute me back to the highway because it thinks I’m on a side street. The Apple play is hit or miss whether it connects; resulting in no phone, messaging, music.. etc. For screen sharing, it doesn’t connect. I have to shut my vehicle off to get it back to the Home Screen. The back up camera is super delayed. I’ve adapted to just tapping the camera button a few seconds before reversing to be able to use it without waiting to reverse. The sound is pretty awful. I listen to a wide range of music and the EQ just doesn’t adjust like my stock radio does. What sounds good for country sounds terrible for rock. I mounted the mic behind my steering wheel on my dash and it won’t stay adhered. Overall, if I’d had time to remove it and reinstall my factory Toyota head unit to return this one, I would have. Pretty disappointing for manufacture name honestly.Pros: The screen clarity is awesome. It’s user friendly when navigating the screens and when it works it’s great but I’d say it doesn’t work as intended more often than when it does work.

Its a really good headunit, it has a lot of good things going for it, very few bad.Great things- Screen is amazing, much better than Pioneer, the resolution is higher and the color is much more vivid.- Very fluid, pioneer was very lagish, this is not to the level of modern phones, but its not bad, good improvement.- Quality of sound, you can call it placebo, but i do think there is a very tangible sound improvement over my past pioneer head unit.- 5v Pre outs, a good unit to plan on amplification.- Great format support, even videos run very fluid. Audio wise, it can play almost all my formats, i think one i cant, but cant remember which.BAD- Menus and browsing, its not bad, but its not intuitive, i feel pioneer is much better organizing their menus.- Waze and GPS, not sure what's wrong still, could be my side, but I cant always get a clear signal from the GPS antenna, making it not as reliable on carplay as my pioneer was.- Att button, i would have prefer a MUTE button, its a small thing, but I prefer to mute fully in case i enter a drive through or I'm stop by police, etc. I don't see the gain of att over muting.- Fan, i cant hear it, so don't worry about it making noise, i just see it as a liability, in case it wears down over time, i feel Sony new headunits are fanless, so should be this unit, there is space for a big heatsink now that we don't have optical drives, but not a big deal either.Overall i feel its a very good head unit, this and Sony 6000 should be in the short lists of anyone looking for a modern double din head unit, i feel sound wise, Kenwood > Sony, but to each to its own, both are great units.

Sublime. Sound quality is exceptional. This serves as the control for music through Apple Music from Samsung S23 to Helix M6 DSP and Morel Elate 2 way speakers.

I had it professionally installed, and added back-up camera. I am enjoying all of the great features this unit offers. My favorite feature is the wireless android auto.

Everything new and arrived as expected. Installed without issue. Kenwood Excelon is quality

Unit sounds good, carplay connects fast and smooth but gps inaccuracy makes gps unusable and Kenwood support says they’ve know about the issue for at let least a year and no fix then support stoped responding. I attached a screenshot, im in the orange traffic at the top. it does this 80% of the time. so if you don’t need maps it’s perfect, best screen I've ever seen on a aftermarket radio, fast, and buttons feel good and looks really good. I went back to my atoto $120 radio so i can use maps