# Kenwood KIV-700 or Alpine IDA-X305S



## audioslavery (Jun 2, 2010)

Hey guys, I'm building my system for my 08 accord Coupe around my amp (JL HD900/5) and I'm looking for a nice intuitive single DIN player to setup in the dash.

Of course I'm looking towards SQ over anything, but I want something that will actually be able to scroll through my music with a reasonable convenience. I'm really open to any other suggestions you may have so feel free! Thanks!

I know these are both fairly newer decks but I'm not sure if these decks sacrifice function (SQ) for form (looks).


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## jtizzle (Jun 10, 2010)

I just bought the 305s and had it installed with a PDX-5 and two JL W1V2s in a custom box in my truck. Picked it up today and I noticed an inferior sound quality with the radio and just a general tinny sound with the unit. That is why I am on here trying to get to the bottom of it. I paid a lot of money for this new set up and I was expecting to get the best. I had a bluetooth module put in as well and I love the functionality of the call and ipod control but the sound is not that great so far. I am hoping that it is a matter of having better quality files on my iPod. Athough the tuner does suck, there is no CD to check the quality against. I am going to get some higher quality audio to test with as that is what the installer had and it sounded pretty decent.


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## audioslavery (Jun 2, 2010)

I think it might be because the pre-outs are 2v as opposed to 4v. 

That's why I went for the KIV-700 at least, I heard the sound was lousy on the Alpine, although I love the design.


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## jtizzle (Jun 10, 2010)

This really suks. Haven't had the unit more than 24hours and have listened to it less than 20 minutes and am bummed by what I have been reading. I have heard some say that it is a decent deck and they are happy with the SQ, but some have not been able to gleen any decent audio out of it regardless of the quality and bitrate played. I was expecting a really great product for what I paid. I dropped 2K on this install and my temperature is starting to rise.


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## diamondjoequimby (Jun 30, 2009)

easy. If you plan to stream Pandora go for the 305S. If you plan on doing anything else, use the KIV.


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## audioslavery (Jun 2, 2010)

I get mine on saturday but I'm doing a completely custom install, I'll post a review of it when I get around to it.


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## TEARfromRED (Oct 2, 2009)

no complaints on my end with the 305s, but the imprint piece is a must

there is basically zero tuning option without it, so add 120 to whatever you are getting the radio for


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## etang789 (Oct 12, 2010)

So Kenwood KIV-700 is the better one out of the 2?


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## ddawson24 (Aug 8, 2010)

The Kenwood piece does video I believe but that's about it. Other than that, the Alpine is easier to use, plus if you're an iPhone user the iDA-X305S has Pandora control which is a huge advantage. If anyone is having SQ issues there must be something with their setup. 2V or 4V preouts aren't going to make a difference as long as the signal is clean so it definintely isn't that. The iDA-X305S is a very good sounding piece. It has a 24-Bit DAC and high pass crossover. It also has one huge feature that no Kenwood has and that's the ability to add in an external sound processor. It was mentioned before but adding in the PXA-H100 gives you a ton of sound tuning options including time alignment, crossover, and parametric eq. So if you really are a SQ person that should be a big selling point there. The last thing on SQ I can think of off the top of my head is Alpine head units that use the USB for iPod bypass the DAC in the iPod and use the better DAC in the Alpine head unit. This means you get better SQ with the Alpine head unit. Maybe someone can speak to this but I know Kenwood only does this with some of their single din head units. Many of their head units still use a headphone style jack to transmit the audio signal which results in worse sound quality.


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## etang789 (Oct 12, 2010)

ddawson24 said:


> The Kenwood piece does video I believe but that's about it. Other than that, the Alpine is easier to use, plus if you're an iPhone user the iDA-X305S has Pandora control which is a huge advantage. If anyone is having SQ issues there must be something with their setup. 2V or 4V preouts aren't going to make a difference as long as the signal is clean so it definintely isn't that. The iDA-X305S is a very good sounding piece. It has a 24-Bit DAC and high pass crossover. It also has one huge feature that no Kenwood has and that's the ability to add in an external sound processor. It was mentioned before but adding in the PXA-H100 gives you a ton of sound tuning options including time alignment, crossover, and parametric eq. So if you really are a SQ person that should be a big selling point there. The last thing on SQ I can think of off the top of my head is Alpine head units that use the USB for iPod bypass the DAC in the iPod and use the better DAC in the Alpine head unit. This means you get better SQ with the Alpine head unit. Maybe someone can speak to this but I know Kenwood only does this with some of their single din head units. Many of their head units still use a headphone style jack to transmit the audio signal which results in worse sound quality.


Good point i didnt pay attention at the shop, this may be a reason why there was no sound playing off my iPhone when using normal iPod cable not the one supplied by kenwood that has external audio and video, but there was sound using USB Thumb drive.


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## etang789 (Oct 12, 2010)

etang789 said:


> Good point i didnt pay attention at the shop, this may be a reason why there was no sound playing off my iPhone when using normal iPod cable not the one supplied by kenwood that has external audio and video, but there was sound using USB Thumb drive.


Ok I have double checked it seems like they do need to have a separate audio/video in cable which is very dumb, and they cannot display song info if you are controlling from the iPod!

http://manual.kenwood.com/files/4be49a3036957.pdf


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## matrix_sid (Mar 2, 2009)

I'm not an iphone/ipod user and would prefer to play directly off usb sticks but does anyone know if the kenwood will play video directly from usb without the use of extra audio/video cables required?

I'm in 2 minds still at the moment between these exact 2 head units and can alway use my phone with aux lead to watch video on the move with the Alpine if ultimately the Alpine is way better.


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## The Baron Groog (Mar 15, 2010)

If you intend adding bluetooth then forget the KIV-doesn't work with the iphone on BT (well does a little, but when a call comes in it interupts and won't then put it back on)


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## ddawson24 (Aug 8, 2010)

matrix_sid said:


> I'm not an iphone/ipod user and would prefer to play directly off usb sticks but does anyone know if the kenwood will play video directly from usb without the use of extra audio/video cables required?
> 
> I'm in 2 minds still at the moment between these exact 2 head units and can alway use my phone with aux lead to watch video on the move with the Alpine if ultimately the Alpine is way better.


I'm not sure if there's any head unit that will play video directly from a thumb drive. Typically that's where you'd just use the auxilary input a head unit (like you mentioned).


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## jim walter (Apr 10, 2010)

ddawson24 said:


> It was mentioned before but adding in the PXA-H100 gives you a ton of sound tuning options including time alignment, crossover, and parametric eq. So if you really are a SQ person that should be a big selling point there. The last thing on SQ I can think of off the top of my head is Alpine head units that use the USB for iPod bypass the DAC in the iPod and use the better DAC in the Alpine head unit. This means you get better SQ with the Alpine head unit.


This.

If you're looking to do some DIY work and upgrade your sound, do yourself a favor and slap on an H100. As far as SQ and tuning flexibility, there is nothing this side of a $500+ external Audio Processor that can do what it can, all while integrated into the deck's controls and upgrading you to 4V Pre-outs and cutting your RCA length to much smaller runs to further get rid of noise.


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## etang789 (Oct 12, 2010)

ddawson24 said:


> I'm not sure if there's any head unit that will play video directly from a thumb drive. Typically that's where you'd just use the auxilary input a head unit (like you mentioned).


The Pioneer can but it will have to be in DIVX format


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## Irishdrunk (Feb 22, 2011)

I have the ida-x305s w/h100...I love it. It has a usb port on back and comes with a cord to extend it out to wherever you want. I use my iphone or flash drives for music
It doesn't play video on the screen though
If you go with the Alpine, you'll want the imprint module for the features. I don't personally use the auto-eq (although I do have a couple curves stored anyways)
Bluetooth module as well, albeit I'm a little pissed that the one that came with the iDA-X305sBT model won't do bluetooth audio....well alota pissed haha

I've never used the Kenwood so my opinion is biased, but I'm almost as happy with my setup now then I was with my cda-9835 for years so that should say something lol
Pandora is awesome...period


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## fuzzysig (Feb 4, 2010)

theres nothing special about the mechless units that were made previous to this year.

all they did is remove the cd mechanism and charge you more money for it.

i took apart a few of them and they are empty.

big disappointment.

not sure abotu the newer models they might have redesigned the innards to make better use of all that empty space.


as much as i like alpine sound im voting for kenwood.

it makes up well in features compared to alpine.

more sound processing options onboard
bigger screen 
better design to blend in the dash

NO GIANT CHROME SUPER BUTTON.
less ipod(apple) fluff simple interface.

dont know whats up with these companies, they are trying so hard to squeeze out maximum dollar out of everything, instead of making good products that dont need advertizing.

heres a compare link to crutchfield of both units.
http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Prod...Items=01|113KIV700&compareItems=01|500IDA305S

alpine vs kenwood
2 volt vs 4 volt
blue/red vs variable color
eq: 2 band vs 5 band
dsp: optional vs built in
remote: optional vs included
ipod: audio vs audio/video
aux: optional vs rear
usb vs flash/usb/zune
av in: none vs 1
fm: plain vs RDS tuner



so ye i think kenwood wins just by features.


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## 1980corvette (Mar 9, 2010)

where would the BT900 fall in all of this?


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## fuzzysig (Feb 4, 2010)

bt900 what? pioneer or kenwood?

if you mean kenwood kiv-bt900

then it has bluetooth.


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## 1980corvette (Mar 9, 2010)

yes, kiv-bt900

so basically every feature is the same as KIV-700 except it has bluetooth? pretty big price difference then


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