My 1:1 Comparison of Kenwood 9140 and Z110BT

[james2266]

Ok, I finally got to doa demo of these two units first hand although it wasn't exactly the way I wanted to do it. I wanted to demo these in the same dealer board with the same speaker amp setups. My installer happened to have the new Z110BT in his personal car (with only front speakers - albeit $1k Hertz comps and no amp) and the kenwood in his board. It did however give me alot of info that I feel might be beneficial to other potential buyers of either unit. First I will say that I currently own a Kenwood DDX814 so I know that one quite a bit better than the new Pioneer. The 9140 has nav and voice control that my 814 doesn't have and that's about the only difference. So, here goes my analysis:

 

The Ipod interface is sweet on the Z110BT. No delays in loading album art. The Kenwood (even with latest firmware update) takes about 4-5 seconds to load and won't allow any further function until it is loaded. The categories across the top are well placed on the Z110BT and super fast button reaction time. The album art can be two different sizes but it appears that you have to hit the picture on each new song if you want to keep the larger picture (not 100% on this tho as forgot to test it out fully) The big picture is larger than the Kenwood but if you do that you do not get song title, album or artist info. The Kenwood pic size is the between these two sizes and is fixed. The Kenwood has 3 different lines for info as well which has a nice feature of allowing you two choose what you want on these three lines.

 

Both units have SD card slots mainly for nav system upgrade or personalized POIs. Both units have ability to read USB thumb drives but the Kenwood has two USB pigtails on the back of the unit while the Pioneer only has one. ie. On the Pioneer you can have an Ipod OR a USB thumb drive while the Kenwood you can have both as I currently do. the big difference is that the Kenwood still allows album art for USB drives but the Pioneer does not. That is a big one for me as I love album art

 

Now, radio. I have went into this on another post on this site. Kenwood gets the big thumbs up from me over the Pioneer. The Pioneer has very limited RDS functionality if any at all. The Kenwood has full RDS functions with a TMC channel for future use (at least for me in Canada anyways). The Kenwood gives song and artist name, station name and other info that might be available. The Kenwood once again has three lines available for this and can be customized as you see fit. The Pioneer would only give me station name (some people have said it gives them song and artist but only on one line and at 8 characters at a time). Also, on an an RDS tuner (Kenwood) you can do a search by station genre type which is kind of cool especially if you are in a new area that you don't know the radio stations.

 

DVD play are both similar on both units I believe as I didn't really get into this on the Pioneer and have only used a little on my Kenwood.

 

Nav functionality on the Kenwood is great. I will say that I wasn't near as find of the Pioneer's however. My installer went so far as to say it sucked actually! He demo'd his reasons why on the Pioneer. It is a very accurate nav system on both units. Where the Pioneer falls down is in how you look up POIs however. Say, you are looking for the nearest Wendy's (as we did). Type in Wendy's into the POI search and the Pioneer pops up all the nearest Wendy's. It only gives you distance to each one. If there is only one in town this is fine but you see here we have probably 15 or so in town. It does not however give you any other info so for us it was confusing as to if we had found the one we wanted or not. We clicked to go to the map and hit scroll to move the map around to see if it is indeed the one we wanted. the real problem with the Pioneer is if you get to this stage and it isn't the one you want or is for that matter you have to start all over again from the beginning of the Poi selection process (ie. type in Wendy's again) . On the Kenwood, it gives you the distance to each but also gives you direction (ie. N,S,E,W) and also gives you the address of each place. Awesome. You know immediately if you have the right location. Even if you are in a town you do not know, it will still allow you to go to the map and scroll around to get your bearings and immediately pop back to the POI selection screen and not have to start all over again. I have no idea why Pioneer set it up this way. I agree with my installer after seeing it. Retarded!

 

Another thing my installer showed which could be a real annoyance for some (probably me too), is that on the Pioneer the dimmer is setup off of the headlights while on the Kenwood it is setup off of the GPS clock. While both ways sound normal enough, if you have auto headlights as I do and my installer also did, the headlights come on when you get a rainstorm or darker day sometimes. In this instance you don't want your head unit dimming right down usually. The Kenwood there is no chance of this being an issue.

 

Lastly, voice activation. I actually liked the Pioneer probably a little better here than the Kenwood although I think the Kenwood would get confused less often. We had some problems with the Pioneer recognizing artist names and such but it would ask more questions and eventually get you there. The Kenwood goes by line number on most screens however (not noted in the manual and even the reps didn't know this) it will allow you to say names of anything posted on that particular screen. What I mean by that, is you can't say play the artist AC/DC from the normal ipod screen if you have Heart playing currently but if you get down to the point of where you have AC/DC listed on the list screen you can then say play AC/DC and it will start playing. On the Pioneer you can say play AC/DC from any screen on the IPod screen. If it recognizes how what you said it will jump right to AC/DC. You can change sources on either unit but Pioneer is once again a little quicker if it recognizes what you said right away. The Kenwood you might have to say change source and then name your source or line number. The one nice thing about the Kenwood is that it will jump to a keyboard screen for alot of things instead of rejecting outright like the Pioneer does if it can't understand you for gps addresses and even phone numbers. All in all, they will usually both get you to the same conclusion but I find the Pioneer is a little quicker at it provided it understands you fully. The Kenwood probably fails a little less often mainly because it doesn't have as big a vocabulary on each screen.

 

As for sound quality, they are both good although I think the Pioneer has a little better bass-response. This was hard to check however as this installer was only using the front speakers and his board only uses the front preouts on the 9140 too. Unfortunately, the only way to truly test both of these will be to plug in a Z110BT into my dash and run it with the same stuff I currently have (not likely to happen anytime soon). I will say that they were both very crisp and clear. It was tough to compare my $400 Infinity Kappa comps to my installers $1k Hertz comps... He had a ton more bass out of those things but I think that is mainly the speaker quality. The Kenwood has WAY more audio control tho. It has a 13 band eq compared to the 7 band eq of the Pioneer. The Kenwood has 5.1 DSP, SRS, speaker size, location, better (more) crossover selections with crossover slope selection and DTA that the Pioneer doesn't have. The Pioneer has a bass booster, Loudness control and a form of DSP but not 5.1 that the Kenwood does not have. I think the Pioneer you could make alot more bassy than the Kenwood with these functions but the Kenwood will sound better overall I think. If you got a good eq with DTA you could probably make the Pioneer sound as quality but more bassy than the Kenwood but then you would have to shell out more dollars for that and find a place to put it too as well as possibly losing your deck's volume control (if it is an active eq). Not something I really want to do. If you get a passive eq that wouldn't be an issue (I think I have that right anyway - kinda new to the idea of eqs). There is really no cheap way to get 5.1 surround out of the Pioneer however. I know Audison makes a 5.1 amp but it is over $1500 if I recall. That does sound awesome tho...

 

The Bluetooth works pretty much the same on both units from what my installer said. We did not test this on the Pioneer tho. I will say that the Pioneer finds a cell phone immediately always but the Kenwood I have had issues with this if you turn your cell on after the deck has been started up. I have to go into the BT setup screen and manually activate it in this instance. The Pioneer supposedly finds a cell at all times so you can turn your cell on after it has started up and it will connect to the cell. It is once frustration I have with the Kenwood.

 

Well, I think I have covered it all here. For me personally I think I like the Kenwood over the Pioneer. Then again it is also has a higher retail than the Pioneer. I am finding that the Kenwood is being discounted alot of places however while the Pioneer is not - probably more due to the newness of this unit than anything. I am probably missing something so if there are any questions feel free via PM or here.

[VBLUE42]

Where the Pioneer falls down is in how you look up POIs however. Say, you are looking for the nearest Wendy's (as we did). Type in Wendy's into the POI search and the Pioneer pops up all the nearest Wendy's. It only gives you distance to each one. If there is only one in town this is fine but you see here we have probably 15 or so in town. It does not however give you any other info so for us it was confusing as to if we had found the one we wanted or not.

 

I think you certainly missed something here. With both VR and typing the POI name in you do get detailed info before selecting for your route. If using VR, once it displays the list of several choices, hit the VR button again and say, "get details for number ?" At this point it will show you the city and street the POI is located at as well as the phone number. If typing the POI in on screen it will give you the choices with a text file to the right side that you can click and get the same info. This is covered fairly well in my navi demo vid.

[Scott8659]

I hope you liked the Kenwood UI because you will need it when doing the voice commands as well. Here is an example bluetooth phonecall sequence:

 

On the 9140 it goes something like this:

1.) Press button to initiate voice command

2.) Access phonebook

3.) Page

4.) Page

5.) Page

6.) Look at screen to determine line number of the contact you are looking for.

7.) Say that line number

8.) Look at the screen to find the number you want in that contact info

9.) Call that number

10.) Confirm

 

On the Z110BT it goes something like this;

1.) Press button to intitiate voice command

2.) Say "call Tom mobile"

3.) Confirm

 

Having to look at the screen that many times to make a phone call defeats the purpose of having a handsfree system. I really wanted the Kenwood since it would have been about $500 cheaper. After reading the manual and seeing first hand how bad the UI was I just couldn't bring myself to buy it. On top of all that it is still slow as hell even with the updated software.

 

As far as RDS I get full information including artist and song title for any station broadcasting it. The Canadian models may be different but I can verify 100% that mine works. It may not be as nice as the Kenwood but 99% of my listening is iPhone/iPod and the Z110's iPod interface really smokes the Kenwood.

[james2266]

hey Scott8659, where are you located? I am wondering if the US models might have more RDS functionality possibly. I am actually new to ipod (yeah I know...) and finding I use it more and more all the time. You are right, the Pioneer's ipod interface does seem alot nicer. I guess I am still torn a little bit. There is a large part of me that is loyal to Pioneer after many years of owning cd players of theirs. Up until i bought this Kenwood (and that was indeed difficult) I swore I would never buy a different brand of car stereo actually. I really want to hear what this thing sounds like with an aftermarket amplified system attached to it. My big complaint with kenwood is still its apparent lack of bass on the sub channel unless you have it in Dolby mode. If I bypass it I can barely tell I have a sub actually.

[fe342185]

I really like the scrolling text on the 9140. Long names just get truncated in the Z110. An example is when listening to XM (Howard Stern), the name of his guest does not show or is cut off. I have not looked yet but sports scores might be cut off too I'm guessing. Ipod songs should scroll if its long in my opinion. I wish we had that.

[Scott8659]

Strange because the RDS info scrolls. I'm in Columbus, OH and I get RDS info on the stations that broadcast it. I'm only using the built-in FM tuner so maybe the HD tuner is different.

[04SCTLS]

I had a Pioneer F series before my 9140.

I'm sure the interfaces are very similar to the Z110BT.

I liked the more comprehensive Pioneer ipod interface.

Didn't get far evaluating the Pioneer nav or phone before switching to the Kenwood.

 

I like the Kenwood Garmin GPS better than the pioneer.

Still have to sync my phone.

I'm sure it will be fine for my needs.

Don't care about the voice commands.

It's quicker to just use the touch screen.

Looking forward to the TV tuner that's coming out.

 

What I especially like that Pioneer doesn't have is the remote that comes with the Kenwood.

I mounted it with some velcro on the console and don't even bother with

the steering wheel controls anymore.

The remote has a jog shuttle and controls for the Nav, Audio, DVD/CD, and the upcoming TV tuner.

It also has the screen tilt controls for glare.

[james2266]

Hmm... you've got me thinking a little on that too. Your interior layout is remarkably similar to my Camry SE actually. I might look into some velcro and do similar to your setup. I haven't played with my remote too much but it is very useful for dvd. I actually can't figure out dvd navigation without it. I actually reset up my system today with my copy of Star Wars 3. I had my sub WAY too loud I found. I moved it back down to 0 from 5. I had to change the crossover for that up to 100 Hz too and it sounds alot more normal now. Man, one could spend 6 months getting this thing just right sound wise. I think the latter is due to my other speakers just not great at the lower frequencies.

[james2266]

It was also cool performing the THX tests that come with that dvd. The 20-20k Hz sweep test was pretty cool and it actually did alot better than I thought it would. I will have to re-run it now that I have turned down my sub. Man, was I ever getting some serious rumble out of that thing there. I haven't even touched the eq for any of the speakers yet. I might play with that or just pay to have the RTA re-done on it at my installer. Get him to do both front and back this time... Just wish this Kenwood had some more control on the sub (eq wise). This is one thing the Pioneer just can't match. 13 bands gives you so much more control than 7 on the Pioneer I think. I am still looking at both units however as the Pioneer definitely has it's bonuses too.

[VBLUE42]

Honestly there is not much noticeable difference in sonic quality between the two units when it comes to their EQs.

[whobedaplaya]

OMFG another Lincoln LS owner. Ohai! Do I know you from LincolnvsCadillac?

Here's my 06 LSE :

http://i700.photobucket.com/albums/ww8/ ... resize.jpg

http://i700.photobucket.com/albums/ww8/ ... resize.jpg

http://i700.photobucket.com/albums/ww8/ ... resize.jpg

[04SCTLS]

OMFG another Lincoln LS owner. Ohai! Do I know you from LincolnvsCadillac?

Here's my 06 LSE :

http://i700.photobucket.com/albums/ww8/ ... resize.jpg

http://i700.photobucket.com/albums/ww8/ ... resize.jpg

http://i700.photobucket.com/albums/ww8/ ... resize.jpg

 

I'm on the LVC board as 04SCTLS

What's your handle?

[04SCTLS]

Hmm... you've got me thinking a little on that too. Your interior layout is remarkably similar to my Camry SE actually. I might look into some velcro and do similar to your setup. I haven't played with my remote too much but it is very useful for dvd. I actually can't figure out dvd navigation without it. I actually reset up my system today with my copy of Star Wars 3. I had my sub WAY too loud I found. I moved it back down to 0 from 5. I had to change the crossover for that up to 100 Hz too and it sounds alot more normal now. Man, one could spend 6 months getting this thing just right sound wise. I think the latter is due to my other speakers just not great at the lower frequencies.

 

I just love, LOVE having the volume and the "next" key at my fingertips.

I use ipod mainly and have it set on random and just use the next key mostly.

I couldn't get my steering controls to work so there was no way to change tracks from the GPS screen.

There should be track+ and - buttons on the head.

The volume buttons on the unit are small, the one on the remote is a nice size.

Funny thing is the remote won't work unless I have the SWI JACK steering interface hooked up but the steering controls themselves don't work.

I checked it for having the red wire soldered to the correct terminal and this was the second one I got from sonic electronics.

With the remote in place I don't really care about the steering controls anymore.

 

Oh, the Joy!

[james2266]

Yes, the remote is a factor for me too. I am really thinking about velcroing it to the center column too like you did. I don't really use it much at all right now but I have been told that on the coldest of winter days (and it gets cold up here...) it can actually save your touch screen. A couple of installers have said that is usually when they fail. If you use the remote tho you aren't touching the screen and therefore you won't fry the thing because of touch in icy cold weather. What kind of speakers you got in that thing anyways? I am trying to get a read on what speaker brands sound good with this system. I will say I am not overly impressed with what Infinity Kappa sounds like so far really. Once I play with the eq a little more that might change a little but I really feel they are just far too trebbly for my liking. Hertz sounds great but I'm wondering what other brands.

[04SCTLS]

I got 4 of these Kappas for my doors.

They're powered by a Rockford Fosgate "old school" 500a2 parallel wired

for 2 ohms

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Infinity-Kappa-682- ... 286.c0.m14

 

Got these tweeters.

Liked the size and how they fit in with my car.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Pyramid-TW17-2-Sate ... 286.c0.m14

 

This is the 1/2 din 3 way crossover.

Only Pyramid makes one like this in the 1/2 din size as far as I know.

I had one 12-13 years ago so they've been around for a while.

I thought the backlights looked cheezy so I took the front off and painted the bulbs with

black nailpolish.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... K:MEWNX:IT

 

The eq is a pioneer I had in another car. I paid 189.00 for it but it was discontinued 10 years ago.

Kenwood had one for 175.00 but sonic shows it discontinued.

Kicker has one for 100.00 and others go as low as 40-50.00.

I put the kicker into the car (97 Camaro Conv) I took the pioneer out of.

 

My subs are something like this but I got mine 4 years ago. They have the metal cone instead of paper.

They're dual coils and can easily handle the 1000 watts rms from the RF "old school" 1000.1 mono amp.

 

http://shopping.yahoo.com/p:Audiobahn%2 ... ZRNKxQSL4F

 

I built a custom 3.7 cu/ft slanted box for the subs that takes up minimal trunk space and vents into the car

where the factory subs were.

3 amps and a cap are mounted to the other side of the box which is quickly and easily removeable from the car.

The 4th amp for the tweeters is a small one behind the glovebox.

That's it so far