Hate to say it but I have had enough of this unit and it's buggy Bluetooth SLOW boot up times. I just can't take it when I have to reset the unit because it won't hang up a phone call.

Yep, it's a bitch ain't it? Hang in there, 9140 is almost here....

Go away! Go read some books!

I completely empathize with you. I HATE my 900Bt. It froze for about 5 whole minutes after a phone call.

And now I cannot get the time to set properly. Ever since Daylight Savings it refuses to set properly. The weird thing is that the clock works fine if I set it, then go to map. As soon as I go to a tuner it kicks back an hour.

I loathe this piece of crap. And to think its worth half now from when I bought it. I know its risky to be an early adopter, but this is the worst I have ever been burnt. I think I am gonna go to Kenwood also, it just sucks its gonna cost me so much more now.

Unless Kenwood has made some major updates to the user interface of their units you may want to go play with one in a store to see how difficult it is to use. I've tried 2 of their high end stereos and ended up getting rid of them out of frustration with the user interface. I found them impossible to use and navigate through but this may be different on their Navi units.

Go away! Go read some books!

Yeah, maybe this should be published. It'd be a best seller

Unless Kenwood has made some major updates to the user interface of their units you may want to go play with one in a store to see how difficult it is to use. I've tried 2 of their high end stereos and ended up getting rid of them out of frustration with the user interface. I found them impossible to use and navigate through but this may be different on their Navi units.

Agreed. But from watching video reviews of the 8120, it looks very user friendly, I don't think they're going to stray too far away from that with the 9140

Go away! Go read some books!

 

Yeah, maybe this should be published. It'd be a best seller

Let me google it..

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=pioneer+sucks+kenwood+is+better

..Or a search

http://avic411.com/forum/viewtopic.php? ... ht=dnx9140

Unless Kenwood has made some major updates to the user interface of their units you may want to go play with one in a store to see how difficult it is to use. I've tried 2 of their high end stereos and ended up getting rid of them out of frustration with the user interface. I found them impossible to use and navigate through but this may be different on their Navi units.

I agree with you here. I will never again buy something so expensive without spending a good deal of time actually using it in the store. Having said that I *did* play with the F700BT before I bought my F900BT, but there was no working GPS or XM or iPod so what I could do was limited. Still, I should have worked with it more.

There is a "learning curve" on the Kenwoods, but generally the owners I've known are happy with them. Bluetooth can be hit or miss on pretty much all decks. Go into the store, and verify your particular phone works.

Of course, there is no dedicated forum on them, which can be a disadvantage.

no forums cuse it just works.. I am 700$ shy on getting one... and I know I wont need a forum to complain about it cuse there wont be a need for one...

no forums cuse it just works.. I am 700$ shy on getting one... and I know I wont need a forum to complain about it cuse there wont be a need for one...

Go away! Go read some books!

 

Yeah, maybe this should be published. It'd be a best seller

 

 

Unless Kenwood has made some major updates to the user interface of their units you may want to go play with one in a store to see how difficult it is to use. I've tried 2 of their high end stereos and ended up getting rid of them out of frustration with the user interface. I found them impossible to use and navigate through but this may be different on their Navi units.

 

Agreed. But from watching video reviews of the 8120, it looks very user friendly, I don't think they're going to stray too far away from that with the 9140

THAT was a good one!

no forums cuse it just works.. I am 700$ shy on getting one... and I know I wont need a forum to complain about it cuse there wont be a need for one...

That makes no sense at all. Do you really think this forum is just for complaining people like you?

I agree that made no sense at all. I have the F900 in my F-150 and a comparable Kenwood unit in a company van. I like both, but I prefer the F900, I've never had any issues with it, none! I have XM, 5th Gen iPod, use the SD card for audiobooks and connect to BT with a 3G iPhone flawlessly. To ME, the Pioneer is easier to use and only slightly slower to boot. It's also much more functional.

All this talking bad about the AVICs has me really worried when I get my 90bt on Friday.

I did have problem with my time staying correct as well on my 90 BT but I set it to atlantic time and it worked, I also get those frozen screens here and there from dropped calls or hang ups on the other parties end I would have to say it is annoying. I really dont think the start up time is bad, I like that fact that this unit is very customizable, and easy to navigate around the menus. The reason I strayed away from Kenwood is because my Ex's DNX 7100 kept having problems with the cd ejecting, it was sent in 5 times then that was it.... pulled and sold. Now my best friend has the DNX 8120 and its having random rebooting issues and his G1 sounds like really bad when using the BT. Personally I do not like the menu setup on that unit. I dont know, I guess some of those Kenwoods are not problem free...

I do get a little annoyed by the sluggish response at times of my F90BT and how the voice recognition does not recognize anything I say, but over all I am happy with the unit.

I seem to have been spared from many of the problems that others have but I feel that a 3.0 firmware update from Pioneer would make this unit perfect provided it addressed some of these issues.

2 other issues come to mind now about my 90bt. 1) The sound quality is not that great, there is a constant hiss from the system at low volume or no source. This isn't a grounding issue since the noise doesn't change intensity or pitch when I rev the engine.

2) The touch screens sensitivity is horrible, even after many calibrations. I always found it hard to get the XM presets to change you had to hold your finger perfectly still while driving at 80mph to get the damn thing to change. You could see the button light up when you touched it but still you have to hold it there just a little longer which makes no sense.

There are just so many little things that have now added up to me getting something else. Better or worse I just need something different before this deck finds its self being tossed out my window at 80mph.

I do get a little annoyed by the sluggish response at times of my F90BT...

If you haven't already, try chaning the memory allocation so that more RAM is used for "programs" vs. "storage". I have RAM allocated ~ 90% for programs, ~10% for storage. My 700 shipped with the 2.0 firmware, with RAM allocated at ~ programs ~30%, storage ~70%.

I've noticed about a 75% increase on button reation and screen transition times. Basically the unit is much more responsive switching between screens. Aside from switching to/navigating SD card, it takes a second or less to move between screens.

I do get a little annoyed by the sluggish response at times of my F90BT...

 

If you haven't already, try chaning the memory allocation so that more RAM is used for "programs" vs. "storage". I have RAM allocated ~ 90% for programs, ~10% for storage. My 700 shipped with the 2.0 firmware, with RAM allocated at ~ programs ~30%, storage ~70%.

 

I've noticed about a 75% increase on button reation and screen transition times. Basically the unit is much more responsive switching between screens. Aside from switching to/navigating SD card, it takes a second or less to move between screens.

Are there instructions on how to do this? Is this in the AVIC software or in Windows CE?

Thanks for the info.

2 other issues come to mind now about my 90bt. 1) The sound quality is not that great, there is a constant hiss from the system at low volume or no source. This isn't a grounding issue since the noise doesn't change intensity or pitch when I rev the engine.

I agree with you, I even went to store I bought mine at and swapped it out to test it and the new unit made even more of his. I can hear even more because I have after market amps and you can hear the hiss when when you switch from source to source and when you pause any source CD, iPod, SD etc. the only source it doesn't his is FM & HD radio, I don't have XM so I can't say if it does it on it. Again it is not an grounding issue or power wires crossing the RCAs, it is the head unit it's self. I called Pioneer and they said to send it in. Right then I am stuck without a radio for however long it takes to get it back... no thanks.

Other than that this unit has been ok... I used to get the long pause after a call but I lowered the Master Volume down to 0 and now the unit doesn't pause any more, well if it does it is short pause. Just an FYI when you lower the Master Volume it does not give you turn by turn directions... in other words it doesn't interrupt the music when it need to tell you to turn.

I feel for the money I paid I can't really complain because my F90BT came with everything I wanted it to do outside of Backup Camera and HD Radio. I have noticed that lately the bootup time has become shorter around 20 sec and music plays almost as soon as I turn on the car... maybe 10 sec.

2 other issues come to mind now about my 90bt. 1) The sound quality is not that great, there is a constant hiss from the system at low volume or no source. This isn't a grounding issue since the noise doesn't change intensity or pitch when I rev the engine.

I agree with you, I even went to store I bought mine at and swapped it out to test it and the new unit made even more of his. I can hear even more because I have after market amps and you can hear the hiss when when you switch from source to source and when you pause any source CD, iPod, SD etc. the only source it doesn't his is FM & HD radio, I don't have XM so I can't say if it does it on it. Again it is not an grounding issue or power wires crossing the RCAs, it is the head unit it's self. I called Pioneer and they said to send it in. Right then I am stuck without a radio for however long it takes to get it back... no thanks.

 

Other than that this unit has been ok... I used to get the long pause after a call but I lowered the Master Volume down to 0 and now the unit doesn't pause any more, well if it does it is short pause. Just an FYI when you lower the Master Volume it does not give you turn by turn directions... in other words it doesn't interrupt the music when it need to tell you to turn.

 

I feel for the money I paid I can't really complain because my F90BT came with everything I wanted it to do outside of Backup Camera and HD Radio. I have noticed that lately the bootup time has become shorter around 20 sec and music plays almost as soon as I turn on the car... maybe 10 sec.

Hiss is usually a result of volume or gain being set too high. What type of amps do you have? I wonder if the gain is not set high enough on them causing you to increase the volume on the avic or if the gain is set too high on the amps you are introducing the noise from them.

To change memory settings:

- Boot into WindowsCE (well documented on this board)

- Go to "Start"

- Go to "Settings"

- Open "Control Panel"

- Open "System"

- Under the "Memory" tab, set memory allocaton accordingly

I actually lowered my gains because of the hissing. I used to have a Alpine CDA-9886 and I never got the hissing I get from my F90BT. Each amp is ground separately as well. It is not the AMPs or the speakers its the head unit. I just read the manual again you can adjust the SLA for each source but you are only talking +-4 so I can't see that doing much but I will give it a try. BTW I went this weekend and bought ground isolating filters and still getting the hissing.