# Kenwood DNX691HD review



## rxonmymind (Sep 7, 2010)

2009 Lexus RX 350
Mated to the Metra double din plate the fit & finish were perfect. Cost for me was around $700 on sale. Measuring 6.1" this little head unit punches well above its weight class in performance and sonic quality. The difference in screen size between this and the models higher is about a thumbs width. So if your looking to save some clams($200+) and size isn't an issue then this one is a great choice.Once the power has been delivered to the unit, start up time from my non scientific count is roughly 15 sec which is very acceptable in my book. This is roughly the time it takes to exit your garage and watch it close and zoom off. Access to the three screens is simple as swiping from left to right. Moving an icon is simple as pressing hard on one of the icons and holding it then moving it to the front screen thus prioritizing your preferences. Very much like a phone. I also like the volume nob that came with it and also the one touch push of the knob to mute it. The layout is simple and intuitive, offering non technical people such as myself a rather easy learning curve without even reading the instructions(except the USB connection).
Once you get a hang of this unit menu layout you realize that they made the instructions basically go in a loop with the added feature of a back button screen. Over simplifying but you’ll get the gist of it.
Pairing a Bluetooth was straight forward and while I don’t have the purported high def of APTX imbedded in my 2011 Motorola RAZR HD phone, I noticed no loss of sound quality streaming directly from my device. Streaming from Spotify, IHeart was ify via BT depending on the music. Some sounded a mile away while others were front & center. My main phone based radio is Sky FM which runs at 320k streaming across all genres and sounds excellent. This unit also supports FLAC files via flash drive for you hard core audio addicts.
Specs using a USB are as follows:
MP3: bit rate of 8-320kbps w/ sampling frequencies of 8-48kHz
WMA: bit rate of 5-320kbps w/ sampling frequencies of 8-48kHz
AAC: bit rate of 16-320kbps w/ sampling frequencies of 32-48kHz
WAV: bit rate of 16-bit w/ sampling frequencies of 44.1kHz
FLAC: bit rate of 16-bit w/ sampling frequencies of 8-48 kHz

Speaking of usb connection I’ve yet to figure this out fully and while I’ve played with its menu this is one instance where I’d get lost attempting to explain its functions and is to detailed to go into. Access into this area of folders and pages is not unlike a DOS file with touch features. PIA. Also for some reason once I plug in the usb to my phone it defaults to a random video from a year ago.

CD quality is outstanding as I’m able to hear details that were not present on the previous factory HU. I attribute this to the Helix dsp and proper calibration of the speakers that is paired with a JL audio 100/6 channel amp for its outstanding sound. So really not a fair comparison. But, if I were to go with poor sonic memory I’d say this is better than the last system. There I had the Pioneer AVH- BT3200 HU, JL audio z series speakers JL audio subwoofer, along with100/6 amp & 250/1 sub amp. Much better hands down. 
HD Stations. Perhaps the only weakness of this system is its lack of being able to pull in stations only several miles out of town. When it works the sound is “close” to cd quality. This unit offers automatic switching mode which allows it to be in HD 1 when available but regular analog in other cases. A nice touch. It also allows the user to go into menus that lets you choose full digital but I’ve not had success with that so left it on auto.


Navigation while I’ve had only several times to use it seemed good. The features I like are the “pop up” gas stations and restaurants that show it along the route. While I’ve never ran out of fuel one can have a car go kaput. 
My wife on the need for the nav unit said “Why do we need a navigation unit? You have me and we have your phone & mine”. 
Several reasons actually. Saving battery life, possibility of service being out, listen to my sky based radio stations and finally while she may have the navigation on her phone it’s a pain in the rear to have a phone call come in while navigation is on as is normally the case on our road trips. One cannot run a navigation unit while talking simultaneously on the said phone. With four kids they always “need” mom and my wife is constantly taking calls. This navigation unit has freed up both our phones and unlike other HU is not intrusive or obnoxious when it gives it directions while you’re listening to your music simultaneously. It’s rather silent in the back round when telling you to exit but tuning your ear to its prompt will allow you to look and take appropriate action.
The speakers in the 2009 Lexus RX 350 are very good speakers once you have them dialed in. This after having come from Focals 30th anniversary V165 poly glass speakers and JL Audio z series speakers. Once dialed in with a DSP such as the Helix sound processor you notice how the 6x9’s are able to kick and deliver solid mid range bass and lower octaves down to 70 even 60hz. During my two hour commute the lack of ear fatigue is a welcome absence that would be an hour into the commute with the JL audio speakers. The tweeters are mellow and smooth unlike some that give off that metallic brightness often found in titanium thus giving excellent clash of symbals and high picks of guitar strings. One can listen to many music genres and hear the artist slide their fingers along the strings. The mids offer a clarity that is also mellow and detailed. You can hear the artist breath in be it Norah Jones or other jazz singers giving a warmth to the ears and are laid back. 

No review of the dvd playback. I mean I stuck on in and played well without ghosting, screen pixels shoing and such. The blacks seemed good while sound was excellent. f'll never use this feature ever while driving but do have plans to have it connect to the back area for our daughter one day. I'll report then.

A few tips I found along the way which will make your life easier. The heart radio station has two apps. One being a desktop version and the other an auto mode app. The latter is crap. Stick with the desktop mode. Yes the latter has the advantage to throw what’s on your phone to the HU but its layout and lack of features leaves a lot to be desired. High school kids could have made a better app.
In my case I found that the Amazon mP3 app was interfering with my phone by “pinging” every ten seconds which made listening to Bluetooth streaming unbearable regardless of the mode I used. Even attempting to listen to songs directly on my device was being stopped. This took a solid week of sleuthing, researching and process of elimination and finally found out purely by accident that it was this sole app that was jamming everything up. In five days that I had downloaded Amazon mp3 it had used 1.5GB of data. I thought this odd as I barely used it. So bye and viola! music was restored to all my music based apps.

In case your curious I decided to keep my stock 3 way component Pioneer based system and glad I did. Once calibrated the 6x9 are able to play with authority and sheer power while being delicate at the same time. Listening to John Meloncamp "Ain't that America" via bluetooth I was able to hear the deep pull of the bass guitar string in the opening sequence. While a little later a delicate "puff" of drum some half way through the song was nicely balanced with the mids and tweets. 

The imaging of the mids on the dash and tweets in the pillars, give it amazing depth and pinpoint accuracy for a spacious soundstage. I’m usually in need of a subwoofer as has been the case in all my vehicles but these 6x9’s are amazing and the star of the whole three piece set. That says something about these 6x9’s. In fact I’ve lowered the bass response via the HU by two clicks and have hit the sweet spot without the music distorting or sounding muddy. Solid, strong bass response. All this I credit to having a whole system makeover and worth every penny.
Take care & thanks for the read.


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## JerseyBiker (Nov 30, 2014)

rxonmymind said:


> 2009 Lexus RX 350
> Mated to the Metra double din plate the fit & finish were perfect. Cost for me was around $700 on sale. Measuring 6.1" this little head unit punches well above its weight class in performance and sonic quality.


Great review. I guess what would be a model or 2 model down, the DNX571HD is on my short list for a new system. I have a concern I'm wondering if you are aware of. Apparently Kenwood uses a micro SD card installed internally that somehow gets corrupted and making navigation and other features useless. Google "kenwood dnx low mem gir". I found this out while checking out reviews. It seems like most with the problem have the older DNX570HD unit. Everyone with the issue have a hard time getting anywhere with Kenwood addressing the issue and supposedly their customer service is horrible. I was really close to getting the DNX571HD but now I'm a little apprehensive. Have you heard about the SD card issue?


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## rxonmymind (Sep 7, 2010)

JerseyBiker said:


> Great review. I guess what would be a model or 2 model down, the DNX571HD is on my short list for a new system. I have a concern I'm wondering if you are aware of. Apparently Kenwood uses a micro SD card installed internally that somehow gets corrupted and making navigation and other features useless. Google "kenwood dnx low mem gir". I found this out while checking out reviews. It seems like most with the problem have the older DNX570HD unit. Everyone with the issue have a hard time getting anywhere with Kenwood addressing the issue and supposedly their customer service is horrible. I was really close to getting the DNX571HD but now I'm a little apprehensive. Have you heard about the SD card issue?


No I haven't heard of any issues. However like my phone a 2011 Droid Razr I pretty much have left it stock. I believe the low memory is a result of downloading updates via Garmin. I don't have to update something every year as most of the places I frequent are well known and for the occasional long trips the major destinations haven't changed. In this case and that of phones newer isn't better. On their customer service I found it to be excellent and prompt when it came to answering emails and live voice. Altoug one guy played dumb and said "sir I can't hear you, we seem to have been disconnected" (with someone laughing in the back round)and hung up but I heard him fine. He was lazy pos that for the most part shouldn't detract from the rest of Kenwood staff. having said that I can't imagine they send all their csr staff into some room and have them become experts on the car stereo's. many are just hired to read from a three ring binder and their default response is " send it in for repair" if the questions become to technical. Getting paid minimum wage is the help your getting. This is why I advocate buying from the dealer. It'll come down to you and the shop to become experts on your system. Nuff said.
However for those itching to get into the guts of the HU and are proficient with coding/adding gifs and so forth I did find this tinkering with it.

Go to NAV
View maps
press the menu options below the two car icon
trip computer/odometer/distance etc..
Press the oval button on top that shows MH for 5 sec
bingo you in the system in a general sense.

Haven't found access to the hard drive yet or the SD card. Just played around with it for five minutes and now have other duties.


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## Hammer1 (Jan 30, 2011)

I have have the DNX691HD now for about 6 months and have not had one problem with the Nav for low memory might of been a problem with last years model. This HU has worked flawlessly for me


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## rxonmymind (Sep 7, 2010)

QUOTE=Hammer1;2203498]I have have the DNX691HD now for about 6 months and have not had one problem with the Nav for low memory might of been a problem with last years model. This HU has worked flawlessly for me[/QUOTE]

That's good to hear! Funny thing when I went to buy mine at an authorized dealer (Paradyme audio) and in this case I'll mention because they were solid. The first unit they put in was working great for less than 18 hours. Dropped off the car off on a Wednesday and picked it up Friday around 3. I was a happy road warrior until the next day. Wake up in the morning to go get some coffee and the unit wouldn't connect via BT for nut'n. Went back ton the shop when they opened and three employees couldn't connect via BT either. Went through updating firmware, reset on the unit, hard reset on my phone with zero results. The demo model worked so we knew it wasn't us. The boss had them put in a new one after an hour of fiddling with it. Kudos! 
This unit also exhibited the same issue playing music but like I said once I deep sixed the Amazon music app it all went smoothly. Albeit after ten hours of grinding away at the issue. 
Now that I've owned for a bit if after reading this your afraid to get it I'd say don't be. Sonically it's an EXCELLENT unit and intuitive with fast load time for radio. Now if you turn off your car when you were on BT(Google music-BTW I highly recommend it) it takes couple minutes for the unit to send a signal to your phone, have the phone automatically tap into their cloud music then throw it on the reciever. This is if you do nothing and let the unit do it itself and will play the last song you had on. Very cool feature.


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## rxonmymind (Sep 7, 2010)

Woohoo! Got another early Christmas surprise from the wife today. Going to have the the area where I'm installing measured and quoted tomorrow!! Yes! Thinking either a PDX 1/500 or JL audio amp. Hmm. Has to be a shallow sub. The amp will be going to the left of the Helix DSP.


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## rxonmymind (Sep 7, 2010)

I've decided on the JL audio shallow subhttp://www.jlaudio.com/10tw3-d4-car-audio-tw3-subwoofer-drivers-92184
Paired with the JL audio xd 600/1
This sub will be a downfiring "corner" non ported sub enclosure hidden underneath the cargo area. Any Lexus RX owners with custom installed sub?


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## rxonmymind (Sep 7, 2010)

Update on the navigation.
The brightness of this nav during night time driving was more than annoying. Even though the shop correctly wired the auto brightness dimmer to the vehicle headlights it did little to dim it. 
So just yesterday by accident as I had my finger on the MENU button a little to long during navigation mode, it went into a sub screen. Hot dog! Look what's here. Contrast, brightness and black adjustment. Yes! Took some tweaking to get the setting exactly right to my liking and now I'm not being blinded by my head unit.

Yaay!


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## JerseyBiker (Nov 30, 2014)

rxonmymind said:


> No I haven't heard of any issues. However like my phone a 2011 Droid Razr I pretty much have left it stock. I believe the low memory is a result of downloading updates via Garmin.


I asked you about the internal memory card issue some have had with the Kenwood units a month ago. Anyway I was still a little apprehensive and ended up buying an Alpine NAV stereo. I purchased it from Amazon and had a local car audio shop install it along with a rear view camera, steering wheel control and SiriusXM tuner. Boy was the Alpine a big mistake. I did not like it al all. I'll take forever explaining the issues I had with it so I won't. Anyway I asked the shop that installed it how much to remove it so I can send it back to Amazon. They told me if I bought a unit from them they wouldn't charge me labor to remove the Alpine and they would match or come close to what Amazon is listed. I knew they had the DNX691 because I saw it in the shop. I made an appointment to have it installed the next morning. I ended up leaving with the DNX861HD instead. I have a 2013 Toyota 4Runner I bought new and expect to have for quite a few years so I figured I may as well go all out. Anyway I love the 891. It is ten times better than the Alpine. I just wish I went with a Kenwood in the beginning like I started to but I let bad reviews sway me. I ended up wasting a lot of money for 2 installations.


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## JerseyBiker (Nov 30, 2014)

rxonmymind said:


> Update on the navigation.
> The brightness of this nav during night time driving was more than annoying. Even though the shop correctly wired the auto brightness dimmer to the vehicle headlights it did little to dim it.
> So just yesterday by accident as I had my finger on the MENU button a little to long during navigation mode, it went into a sub screen. Hot dog! Look what's here. Contrast, brightness and black adjustment. Yes! Took some tweaking to get the setting exactly right to my liking and now I'm not being blinded by my head unit.
> 
> Yaay!


I really haven't notice an overly bright screen on my 891. I haven't used the NAV much at night yet. But it's nice to know there is a solution if needed. There's a big difference in your before and after pics.


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## rxonmymind (Sep 7, 2010)

JerseyBiker said:


> I asked you about the internal memory card issue some have had with the Kenwood units a month ago. Anyway I was still a little apprehensive and ended up buying an Alpine NAV stereo. I purchased it from Amazon and had a local car audio shop install it along with a rear view camera, steering wheel control and SiriusXM tuner. Boy was the Alpine a big mistake. I did not like it al all. I'll take forever explaining the issues I had with it so I won't. Anyway I asked the shop that installed it how much to remove it so I can send it back to Amazon. They told me if I bought a unit from them they wouldn't charge me labor to remove the Alpine and they would match or come close to what Amazon is listed. I knew they had the DNX691 because I saw it in the shop. I made an appointment to have it installed the next morning. I ended up leaving with the DNX861HD instead. I have a 2013 Toyota 4Runner I bought new and expect to have for quite a few years so I figured I may as well go all out. Anyway I love the 891. It is ten times better than the Alpine. I just wish I went with a Kenwood in the beginning like I started to but I let bad reviews sway me. I ended up wasting a lot of money for 2 installations.


I appreciate the update and frankness of your experience. It's unfortunate you had such a bad experience. Your experience with online ordering is something to consider especially a hey component of the while system, the "brains". Combined with the faulty head unit I had and your dissatisfaction it's a no brainer to go with an authorized shop vs saving a few coins online. (They were about to change it second time until I found the Amazon music "bug".)




JerseyBiker said:


> I really haven't notice an overly bright screen on my 891. I haven't used the NAV much at night yet. But it's nice to know there is a solution if needed. There's a big difference in your before and after pics.


Thanks. I drive a lot to work at night for my graveyard shift and the one thing I can't stand is having to put on SPF sunblock to avoid getting a tan from the head unit. Eye fatigue for me is real in that my eye's are constantly fighting to see at night bit having to fight the brightness inside a vehicle.


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## rxonmymind (Sep 7, 2010)

Head unit will be receiving a JL audio slim sub 10Wt3 tomorrow. Woot.


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