Sound Quality from F90BT to Z110BT

[EdmontonBrad]

Something I thought to share for considering the Z110BT:

 

Quite a few years back I had a beautiful sound system in a car I owned. I've wanted to achieve that sound quality again and so over this year and the last I began a system in my 2006 Dodge Ram Megacab.

 

I installed a F90BT this summer and was disappointed by the amount of static hiss at high volume (unit goes up to 65). Even though the F90 is rated at 4 volts I thought it would be better. I also was surprised that the cooling fan of the unit could be heard.

 

So the unit was ok, but I thought maybe to look into buying Kenwood's flagship unit instead. Had a car audio guy show it to me, but I wasn't impressed by the features or the sound - especially for the price.

 

I decided to buy the Z110BT and I also bought a line driver (Audiocontol Matrix) - got them off of SonicElectronicx for cheap. Well, when the F90BT was swapped out, I had it done without the line driver.

 

I was SHOCKED at how much better the Z110BT was for sound quality. No fan noise. Very, very little hiss even at high volume. The unit volume goes up to 40, and at 18 (45% volume) it is loud unlike the F90BT which I had to turn up to 50 (76% volume) to be loud. And it was a straight swap...no other changes in my system or gain changes anywhere!

 

It is like this unit truly does put out 4 volts while the F90BT might be only a 2-volt unit. With all the features this unit has, its speed in its operating system, and the sound quality... I've never had a better head unit!

 

It will be interesting to add the line driver to finish it off. Pioneer did well in the engineering of this thing. It's well worth the $$$ for those considering buying.