I was tempted when I saw the specs on the Kenwood DNX9960, but once they put the manual up, and their "Advanced" voice recognition works just like the 9140, I couldn't buy my Z110 fast enough.

The DNX9960 requires that you be staring at the screen to use the voice recognition with your iPod. Instead of saying "Play Artist Green Day" like the Pioneers, you have to say "Search Artist G" then look at the screen and say "Next Page" (like 8 per page) until the one you want is on screen, then say "Line 4". The Garmin nav with the lifetime subscription to NavTraffic would have been cool, but I listen to music about 200x more than I use navigation anyway, so I'll take the Z110 for half the price, thank you very much.

You made the right choice as I did as well finally. After grabbing the DDX 814 last year a meer 2 weeks before the Z110BT came out, I finally just corrected that situation. The 814 I never could get to sound right until I got a $1k external processor in place. With that processor now, I have no need for a crazy eq or DTA which IMO are about the only reasons one would jump for the kenwood models. IN the end, it was the retarded iPod interface that made me make the switch. I am getting my Z installed on Tuesday and absolutely can't wait to play with this thing. I have even heard the PAC SWI unit works better than the kenwood version which was pretty much unusable because of the delays. Getting voice recognition that works like this is going to be golden (if it works for me that is which I have heard it is reliable). I just spent last night reading the manual pretty much cover to cover and this thing seems to have a much better interface in pretty much every screen. Even the dvd controls sound so much simpler to use. The Bluetooth setup sounds more simple too. I never could get my phonebook to upload into my 814 and I am curious to see if it works on the Z. That part doesn't overly matter too much tho as I am almost certain I will be getting an iPhone 3G soon.

I have loved the voice recognition, and it's fairly reliable, depending on your accent.

The Pandora integration is making me rethink my avoiding the iPhone with the mandatory data plan. Streaming music comparable to XM/Sirius + the usual data plan goodness might be worth paying an extra $30/month for.