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Just completed upgrade to X940 from F700


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Upgrade in my 2007 Mustang went extremely smooth. Considered other brands but returned to Pioneer since I already have the XM and HD boxes installed. (And who wants to give up avic411?) In fairness I looked at a JVC unit in Best Buy and did not like their busy, almost garish, home screen. I much prefer Pioneer's minimalist approach in that regard. Although I've only played with the X940 for a few hours I'm generally pleased. Certainly the new functionality is very nice (DVD, streaming bluetooth, app mode) and the unit is much more responsive. The AV interface takes some getting used to, particularly learning to scroll vs. select, but it has a more modern look and feel. I haven't spent any time with the nav system but don't really expect it to be a huge improvement over the F700. I don't miss the voice recognition since I never used it.

 

Installation was hassle free since I was upgrading. I opted for a new Metra harness rather then taking apart the old one. The wiring was generally the same although not a direct swap. Otherwise it was pretty much plug and play. (The GPS antenna matched fine but I've seen posts where some people had a problem. Guess it depends on which units are being swapped.) I did have to wire in the new speed sensor wire since the F700 did not have one. Of course, I did the mute wire bypass.

 

Overall, I recommend this upgrade to F-series owners. No, Pioneer hasn't corrected some long time issues (i.e. the head scratching HD Radio presets being obvious) and the X940 cannot be modded--yet. And don't forget the cost of a new iPod/iPhone cable. Pioneer nickles and dimes us to death even for a head unit designed for iQuipment. All that said the feature set and responsiveness is light years ahead of the F-series.

 

Oh and that tiny, little volume knob. What the....??? In just my early testing I accidentally changed the source while only trying to turn the knob. Thomas has already received my knob order.

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Glad to hear you're a happy camper!

 

I'm not dissatisfied with the nav (maybe my standards are too low, but I think it compares pretty well to our Garmins). When I'm entering information, I like the way it shows you only the possible keys for the next character. I am not too happy about the scrolling. Dragging your finger on a list is either hit or miss or requires a skill I haven't mastered yet - but I will say I am getting a little bit better at it! I wish there were a way to scroll a line (and only one line) and/or a screen (and only one screen) at a time. I play my music from an SD card and it would be nice to see album art from it, but that's a small issue.

 

All in all, I'm pretty happy with mine. I hope you're as happy!

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Roadking, no doubt the engineering staff at Pioneer makes some interesting choices. Another one--besides the HD presets that bugs us all--is the lack of scrolling titles in all source inputs. I don't understand why it's not available for all sources when some have scrolling (HD radio for one). XM is limited to about 16 characters for each title line and that's it. At least Pioneer could be consistent. These are the kind of little bugs that could be so easily overcome. But then what would we have to talk about on avic411 :)

 

Regarding knob replacement see this thread in the hacks/mods forum: http://avic411.com/index.php?/topic/33285-x930bt-knobs-are-finally-in/

 

Thomas provides a great product. I used one of his knobs on my old F700 and have a new knob on order for my X940.

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  • 1 month later...

I also just did the upgrade since I broke the screen on the 700BT. My upgrade consisted of pulling out the old radio, adding the USB and Aux cable. The old plug had all the connections on it and I plugged it in. Worked perfectly. Never thought it would be that easy. System is so much better than the 700

 

OK, now I'm confused!

 

The OP said the wiring was generally the same but not a direct swap. And you said it just plugged in and worked. Could someone please tell me which is correct?

 

I went from the 700 to the 940. I used a Metra harness with the parking brake bypass for the 700. It sure would be great if I could just pull the 700 out and just plug the 940 in, but I fear it won't work that way and I'll have to get another harness and do another re-wire job.

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My original install used the Chrysler C2A-CHY2 harness. The installer wired all cables on from the pioneer to the harness. I pulled out the 700 disconnected the back connections and just plugged them in the back of the radio with the exception of the USB AV cable. The unit, mic and gps antennae worked perfect. The VSS wire was included in the Chrysler BUS. It was a 20 minute swap because I did it in the dark by myself. It was stupid simple. Now the reason my install may be different is since I am installing in a Jeep Wrangler.

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I just upgraded from a F90BT to a X940BT. The colored cables with the black connector that connect to your car specific harness is the same. The only difference I noticed is the blue cable is for the power antenna signal on the F90BT and the RCA harness has the blue/white cable for controlling the external amp.

On the X940BT there is no blue/white on the RCA harness. The blue/white is on the black connector and can be used to control both the power antenna and the external amp. Of course if you use the harness from the F90BT you would end up using the blue cable for this function since it is the same exact cable as the blue/white on the X940BT.

The RCA connection is different as mentioned earlier.

The cable for connecting the phone is different. It has a usb connector and a 3.5mm female audio connector.

I used the same gps and mic from the F90BT.

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  • 2 months later...

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