Trying to decide between the Kenwood Excelon DDX-7015 and the Eclipse AVN 2454. I am not concerned with price as I have found them online and they are very close in price. Just wondering what everyones opinions were and if some of you want comparisons of the two with the positives and negatives of each.

 

eclipse: looks stock, mp3 is weird and slow, navi is built in, navi is the best in the world, cant punch in a phone number for destination (kenwood you can i think), cant watch dvd movie and do navi simultaneously (kenwood you can)

kenwood: looks bad imo, sound quality is great, navi is a seperate hide-away unit, i think it has RDS (eclipse doesnt)

i went with the Eclipse and i have no regrets! if i had to do it all over again, i would do eclipse...

btw, my moms lexus came stock with the Eclipse AVN, but its better than mine!!!

 

So it sounds like the Kenwood is a better unit. Besides the fact that it doesn't look stock and the nav unit is separate it seems to have many positives in its favor. So the Kenwood you can use the navigation and DVD simultaneously? Thats one of the main things I am looking for... I don't want to have to swap out discs all the time to switch between them.

 

Looking to buy the Eclipse. Where is a good place to buy? How much for the unit? Kit? Installation?

 

hm.. have one AVN2454 on sale.... used for 3 months perfect condition.. PM me....

1650..

Ed Lin

 

you might also want to look around on the net for the upcoming Pioneer AVIC-D1...

it is basically a double din version of the new AVIC-N2 flipout, and includes the new XM NavTraffic feature which can download traffic info in major metro areas and route you around it (provided you subscribe to the NavTraffic service). the Pioneer also has the performance meters that can measure acceleration, lateral G-force, angular velocity, etc etc... my only beef is that the unit doesn't have internal DVD playback, you need a separate DVD player. Pioneer AVIC-D1 Press Release

 

I've been looking at the D1, but can't see that it's been released yet. Not even any on ebay (which is a good way to know when they're available!)...

 

according to crutchfield it should be out 04/29, for $1599. i'm really looking forward to it, i'd like the ecplise but don't want to go through the trouble of of buying one. maybe one day they'll get a clue and let customers actually buy their gear(i know they are on ebay but i'd like to avoid that)

crutchfield avic-d1

 

WOW, that looks promising. Too bad it doesn't have dvd playback. So are these double din units only for Japanese cars?

Can anyone confirm which navigation has phone number lookup? I know my Kenwood that I bought 2 years ago didn't. (kna-dv2100)

I also hate the factory BOSE mp3 playback. Its useless!! It takes so long to display what song your listening too. So if you looking for a particular song on a full 160 song disc, you can forget it!!!

 

the Eclipse AVN5495 has phone number look up, not sure about the AVN5435. The 5435 is SAT ready, and the 5495 should be SAT ready by the fall. (they are comming out with a seperate unit for it. )

 

-- kenwood has a slot for the navi AND a slot for the dvd?
-- the d1 has only 1 dvd slot and 1 audio cd
-- 5495 same as d1

 

Wow I didn't realize that the Navigation DVD player was so expensive for the Kenwood. Well I guess it doesn't matter about Navigation for me anymore because I am installing a car computer that has navigation but I still would like a double din DVD player. I can't decide between the two... I like how the Eclipse looks stock but the Kenwood has a slightly better picture and better sound.

 

where did you get this info? my 2454 doesnt have phone number lookup, but it does give me the number after i give the address info destination... weird!!??

 

It looks like he is talking about the 5495 not the 2454.

 

I can't believe that the D1 won't be able to play DVD movies without a seperate DVD player!!!!! Ok well I just eliminated that one from my list.