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dghii · 05-16-2019, 02:09 PM

Not dissing all Kenwood by any means but...
Please take some time to try a few things in the store with the Kenwood (and JVC). I've found both to be very slow to connect to my phone via BT.

My 2003 911 came with a very expensive (at the time) Kenwood double din radio with dvd, GPS, wifi, BT etc. I think it was about an $800 radio in its day. When I would start the car, It took 40 seconds for the radio to start to play, along with always initializing to a 'home' screen. When I would select radio (HD), it would take about 7 seconds before the radio display would appear, which would allow me to change stations etc.

I could connect my phone to BT to stream audio, yet only successfully made 1 phone call before i could no longer pair my phone for calls (for some reason, in set up, you had to pair separately for audio and phone).
I gave up.
I have removed the head unit and replaced with an inexpensive double din pioneer media player that works like a radio should....music plays within a couple of seconds after starting the car. My phone connects with ~5-10 seconds as well. I didn't care about GPS and Wifi so this unit was only about $160 on Amazon.

I like the radio so much, I bought another for my 2002 4Runner!

I'm not pushing my choice, only telling you that my experience with the Kenwood bugged the crap out of me. BTW, I had a JVC single DIN in my 2000Box that worked better but was still slow to connect.

05-16-2019, 02:09 PM	#5
dghii Registered User Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Florida Posts: 2,498	Not dissing all Kenwood by any means but... Please take some time to try a few things in the store with the Kenwood (and JVC). I've found both to be very slow to connect to my phone via BT. My 2003 911 came with a very expensive (at the time) Kenwood double din radio with dvd, GPS, wifi, BT etc. I think it was about an $800 radio in its day. When I would start the car, It took 40 seconds for the radio to start to play, along with always initializing to a 'home' screen. When I would select radio (HD), it would take about 7 seconds before the radio display would appear, which would allow me to change stations etc. I could connect my phone to BT to stream audio, yet only successfully made 1 phone call before i could no longer pair my phone for calls (for some reason, in set up, you had to pair separately for audio and phone). I gave up. I have removed the head unit and replaced with an inexpensive double din pioneer media player that works like a radio should....music plays within a couple of seconds after starting the car. My phone connects with ~5-10 seconds as well. I didn't care about GPS and Wifi so this unit was only about $160 on Amazon. I like the radio so much, I bought another for my 2002 4Runner! I'm not pushing my choice, only telling you that my experience with the Kenwood bugged the crap out of me. BTW, I had a JVC single DIN in my 2000Box that worked better but was still slow to connect.