Q for killerb and other kenwood HU owners

umaronly

Hi
How does the x991 sq compare to the following hu? I am not good at sq tuning and use my pioneer 880prs with its auto ta and eq feature to enjoy my sound. Does the kenwood have this ability? of auto ta and eq etc? how would you compare? I need help in deciding on a HU for my new car, and am leaning towards the following:

1. Kenwood x991
2. Pioneer 880prs (own already)
3. Alpine 9887
4. Nakamichi cd700II/cd500

Take care

killerb

the x-991 doesnt have the auto tune, but i like to tune mine with an rta and my ear. i have been into car stereo for over twenty years and i just love the excelon h.u. its the best sounding unit i ever heard imho. you cant go wrong with any of the four you posted.

umaronly

Can u explain how you tune it by rta? what is an rta btw? I am looking to buy the kenwood because of its nautrality (I hear alpine and pioneer colour the sound somewhat even at flat eq) and I am looking for the best possible sq...so what do you recommend and how for this hu...any pointers on how I can tune it myself accurately?

killerb

a rta is a real time analyzer, it kind of takes a picture of sound. you run pink noice through your system and it samples the sound and takes a "picture of the sample". from there i use my eq to flatten the freq. response. i do the right and left channels separately and make sure that the freq. responses are as equal as possible. an example is if i have 75db on the left at 1000hz and 77db on the right i cut 2db from the right and so on. this helps keep the image stable and not wandering across my dash. from there i tune by ear. it takes some time but its worth it. here is a link for the rta i use.

http://www.phonic.com/en/packages/en/other/testers/paa3.html

umaronly

Thanks for the info killerb. One more Q, is the kenwood KDC-X9006U the same SQ unit as the kdc-x991? Can you please confirm this, since in this area x991 is not available and the x9006u is the top line model...thanks (i tried looking up the website but could not make much sense of the units, so need your advice on this...thanks again)

killerb

i didnt even know about that unit. it has the same specs and layout as the x991. they also share all the features, i say go for it!

umaronly

Yeah, I saw that too, but I am not too sure whether the x9006 has the ODD 24 bit wolfsons (2 of them?) as the x991. Plus, the speaker selection options (size, placement etc) and the g-force meter (just askin..) are they all in there as well? couldnt make sense of it myself so just wanna make sure all the sq and tweaking things and the looks are the same (dont really care about sirius etc much), and once again, im just making doubly sure..

Thanks bro

umaronly

Hey one more question, the key illumination in x991, is it fixed at blue or can you change it as well? or maybe turn it off or something?

Thanks a lot man you're a real help

killerb

i never messed with the key illumination, but i would imagine you could change it. as for the tuning options they look identical. i couldnt find any info on the d/a convertors, but im sure they are the same since both have the same s/n ratio of 110 db. ill look into it more for you.

killerb

i looked and i dont think it has the g-force meter. here is a link to the manual so you can compare.

http://www.kenwood.net-disp.com/i/07products/kdc_x9006u/pdf/kdc_x9006u_english.pdf

umaronly

What about the DACs? did you find out about that?

killerb

no, i could not find any info on the dac's maybe you could call them and ask about them.