Hey guys,
I have a 98' gs400. Looking for a flip in dash dvd/navi touchscreen unit. I like the Kenwood series but also know about the Pioneer Avic. Wondering if you guys can tell me your recomendations. Visually the Kenwood looks better to me, but the features im not quite sure which one would be better.


-Kenji

 

Alpine, Eclipse, Pioneer, Kenwood.

 

i just bought the kenwood ddx8017 and love it... got it with the navi option... here is a pic of it... but this is the older model

 

I was actually @ a car audio shop today and was looking at this very same thing. I really like the Eclipe set up that a lot of people have gone to, but my personal taste is leaning towards the Alpine - something like a IVA-D310 w/ the added NAVi unit. I like the fact that Alpine has all the individual components so you can really run a lot of stuff. You can watch the NAVI, be listening to XM, while people in the back seat are watching a DVD. That's way more than I'll ever do, but I like how you can add on to it and don't have to drop all the $$$ at once.

Like I said, that is just my personal taste. I'm sure there are CL members out there you have give you the pros and cons of every unit on the market.

 

The nicest eclipse is cool. It has a built in hard drive and automaticly rips every cd you put in to its hard drive. It can store about 3000 songs! But it rediculously expsensive!!! $2000 I beleive!!!

I'm probobly going for the pioneer avic d1. I really like the nav traffic feature, it would be nice to know where a traffic jam is before I get there...

 

alpine is a lil over rated. eclipse is good but navi is not very user friendly. pioneer is easy to use. plus its cheaper. i say wait for the new pioneer Z1. it seems to have EVERYTHING.

 

Anyone have an opinion on whether it is better to have a stationary double-din Nav screen, or a flip-out single-din??? I'm of the opinion that the motorized parts/gears will tend to break, and then you have to yank all that crap out of your dash and get it fixed (because I had this happen too many times with in-dash cassette players, and some good ones too, Denon, for instance). Other opinions welcome.

 

i like the double din. it fills in the dash better.

 

you're a little low there on the price of the eclipse unit, but not a whole lot.

Yes the alpine set up is cool that you don't have to drop all the money at once...BUT...that means that you have to make room for other things that you want to add on. With the eclipse unit you can do all of the above with less hassle. The new eclipse units 5495 and the 5435 both come with many options that the other units do. The 5495 is the top of the line Eclipse double din unit that comes with a single disc drive that reads CD/DVD/MP3, also has a memory stick slot and a 30GB hard drive that has 10GB dedicated solely to the Navigation system. This means that you can be watching a DVD or listening to music and still have navigation prompts. The 5435 is a dual disc drive unit that has a CD/MP3 drive and a DVD drive. The DVD drive is for either movies, or for the Navigation.

Both units come with AUX(AV) In and Video out capabilities. This would enable you to run a second DVD player and rear monitors. You can also add a backup camera, Sirius radio capability (5435 only) and a few other aspects. The real nice thing about the eclipse unit is that it's all in one spot. You don't need to hide a brain anywhere and run wires all over anymore. At the moment I have a 2454 that I am going to swap out in the next few days for a 5435, mainly because the 2454 doesn't play DVD-R and I have quite a few of those. Now normally the DVD function is locked out when your car is put into drive. With the eclipse unit it is easily overridden. There's no need for drastic measures like with the AVIC-N2, all it takes is grounding one wire. *Note: I do not encourage this as it may lead to an accident* But to be honest...it's great having movies for long drives, and with the eclipse unit switching from DVD to CD or MP3 takes about 10 seconds tops.

I've been using eclipse units for 7 years now, and they are by far my favorite.

I'm more of a fan of the double din units, especially for our cars because it keeps it clean looking. Also like you said, it seems as though flip outs would have more of a tendency to break, I've seen quite a few myself.

 

I understand that Eclipse is coming out with a revised double-DIN unit this Spring with Sirius Traffic (live) add-on capability as well. Info not out yet on it, but I'm probably going to wait for this.

 

That's all I had to hear. It's double DIN for me. Gotta get it all together before this year's 2nd Annual Lexfest!!!

 

after seeing the pics and reading the descriptions in the Avic-z1 thread...I'm not going to lose any sleep about keeping my 5435. There are a few minor changes that appear to be made but nothing that would make me be concerned about not having it I'll keep you posted on the info, I just got a job at the audio shop that I've been going to since I was 16. I'm doing all of their inventory, shipping, receiving, and warranties so I'll be getting all kinds of info on Eclipse products as they are one of our best lines.