Brad aka Tobasco on the forum came to me with his brand new grand sport vert looking to upgrade the stereo. He specifically bought a non nav car and saved the money for a far more feature rich aftermarket nav unit. He decided on Kenwoods flagship model the DNX9960. It features garmin based nav, can play a dvd movie, usb, ipod, bluetooth, voice recognition, and is backup camera capable.

For the install we used a metra dash kit that Dennis (doubledmods / C5 bearsfan) sanded down and sprayed and it looks great. As far as the wiring goes we used a pac os2bos2, pac chime adapter, peripheral steering wheel control box, and a gm antenna adapter. Here are a few pics of the install and some of the unit.

Onstar remains 100% functional, as well door chimes, and RAP functions just like OEM. Steering wheel controls also work flawlessly, including the bluetooth button will answer a phone call on the dnx.

After playing with the unit a little bit it is awesome.

Note clicking the pics will enlarge them



The Vehicle





Stock unit coming out





OEM goodbye





Temporarily taking center channel out to install nav antenna





Starting to run some of the wiring





The backup cam





Did I mention the navigation features picture in picture





Equalizer





IPOD





IPOD Controls





Ipod Artwork





More Artwork





Bluetooth menu





Watching a concert DVD


Im sure Brad will chime in with how he likes the unit thus far.

 

looks awesome......I just put a 9960 in my 06 Coupe today.

 

Wow, outstanding.

 

great job on the install Greg

I can put this package and any other together for anyone intersetd as well.

just send me a pm for the info

 

Couple question on the install as I'm looking at the 9960 also.

Are you able to use the existing mic for on-star, and if not, where did you place the new mic? Where is the voice recognition switch mounted?

When I looked at the wiring diagram, I didn't see needing a VSS connection and reverse is only when using a backup camera, correct?

Is there a by-pass for the parking brake safety feature?

Any wiring diagrams/tutorials for the PAC SWI adapter and how to program all the steering wheel controls? Also, which model/revision did you use to allow control of the phone buttons?

More importantly, when are you coming to Atlanta again?

 

Greg,

Trying to tempt me again?? :

 

Yes you can ground the wire that goes to the ebrake and that will give you all functions like address book, DVD on, and you can push the talk button and say rear camera while going down the road and it will pull it up on the screen. I didnt have any luck with the Pac modules they lasted a week then burnt up, Bose amp pulls to much current in the 2008 and 2009. Went with Metra everything is working good now, Metra had one module for all functions, Mic is up by review mirror. Buttons are on side console under shifter. I have an iphone, the bluetooth works great. It transfers all contacts , missed calls, and call log, I am using a ipod and usb stick for music works perfect.

 

OEM mic stays for onstar

Brad will hopefully post a pic of the bluetooth mic used for phone calls and voice recognition. The button for the voice recognition is installed sort of near where your right knee would be on the side but not where you would accidentally hit it.

Parking break is grounded to bypass all the nanny's

 

Great Job, Greg! As ususal...

 

Three questions.... Greg or Dennis or Brad...

1) Is it just the angle but in the bottom 2-3 pictures the top of the unit doesn't seem to line up with the Metra bezel. Looks like it's tipping forward.

2) Can the Metra be sanded smoother? Color looks right, but still seems more textured that the plastic around the HVAC

3) What type of ipod did he have? Greg when you did my 5140 on my C5 the album art became all pixelated once I switched from a std ipod to my itouch. Kenwood said it could not be fixed as it was how the itouch processed the album art. I was wondering if the newer generation Kenwood units had fixed this firmware issue.

Looks like a killer unit. I cannot wait for to get the rest of my $ together so I can get Greg working on my 06Z.

 

I bought the same combo from Dennis and installed it myself with help lol....

1. the unit has an adjustable angle setting, so it may be tilted in the pics but is adjustable.

2. The dash kit can be sanded, but from my experience I would also give it a quick coat of paint to make it look better after you sand it.

3. I am using an ipod classic and the artwork shows up just fine.

 

Greg and Dennis - thanks again for all the help, support and great advice. So far (although I've only had about 2 hours of actual time in car to play with it so far) I absolutely love this thing. It is SO much easier to use than the last Kenwood (single DIN) flip unit I had and offers so much more.

I get home from from a week in North Carolina on Friday and I'll try posting up more pics that you're looking for. If anyone wants anything specific, just let me know.

To answer the above questions:

1. Yes - the angle is not flush - I've got a vert and I've noticed that a flush angle gets a little more glare than I wanted, and the unit allows various angles. I'll take some pics of the various angles when I get home.

2. Dennis can help you with the sanding smoother issue. I think it looks nice though.

3. What I was using when I took these pics was my "old" iPod Video - either 2nd or 3rd generation. I've also got a new iTouch so when I get home I'll put that one in and see if there's any album art distortion or not - again, I'll take pics.

When I've got more time, I'll provide a little more detail on the unit as well. But right now I am a VERY happy camper with this unit.

 

I am working on getting 10 more 9960's next week if anyone is interested eithe rpost up or PM me. I think 3 of the 10 are spoken for already


thanks Brad

 

tried to call AAMP today and my guy was gone
will try again tomorrow

 

Thanks Brad..... I appreciate any extra pictures.

Greg Dennis.... I thinking of going with either the 7160 or the 9960. What do you get with the higher model unit for more money?

 

Voice recognition, picture in picture, more equalization options, and a slightly nicer user interface.

If you were happy with your old unit I highly recommend the new 6 series i believe its a 6160

 

Great review, etc.....

I need to listen to one of those units, hopefully they are better musically than what has been coming out in NAV units, I just want to be able to recommend good units to our fellow enthusiasts here!

I will be playing with a different brand soon that has digital output so I can test some outboard processors, this gets complicated, time consuming, costly sometimes, etc, an all in one unit with great SQ would be perfect so I hope this is one

Rick

 

Rick - I'm really not the one to share specific quality differences between different Head Units, but all I can say is that the sound quality (maybe it's the EQ or various sound processor options that it offers) is SIGNIFICANTLY better than the OEM/Bose unit.

I did not change out my Bose speakers. I had heard that a new HU would really open them up and I can now agree. This certainly doesn't suggest that if I wanted even a better sound that I couldn't improve, it's just that I'm happy with the unit and sound performance right now.

I'm sure once I blow the Bose, I can see what improvement gains I'll have then!

 

I'm hoping that even the non-Bose speakers will sound much better when I add this HU to mine.

 

OK - finally got around to taking a few more pics.

Here's one I forgot to take before which shows the "Main Menu"



Here's a pic of the Bluetooth/Voice Recognition mic:



Here's the button to activate the Voice Recognition. It's up high enough and toward the front (still reachable) that I can't hit it with my knee unless I really try...but I'd probably hurt myself



USB port conveniently placed in the glove box:



Here's the iPod hookup in the console (along with the remote that comes with the unit):



Someone wondered that it looked like the angle was funny - yes it was! I actually took the pic with the screen angle toward the floor, as depicted in the first option on the left - but these are the angle options:




I'm still playing and learning. Just found out that if I swipe the screen left or right while in iPod mode, that it scrolls all through the albums on my iPod, then I just slightly move my finger on the album cover and it turns the cube to see each track. Then all I have to do is double tap on the screen and it starts the album. Cool!




If anyone has any other questions, don't hesitate to ask! Or if you want a different picture than is represented here, let me know!

I'll be at the Cruise-In next week if anyone wants to check it out!