Sony XAV-AX5000 vs Kenwood Excelon DMX906S

skshrews

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Any opinions about quality, ease of install of these two units into a Honda Civic with the base 5" infotainment unit and MT?

Looking at these as both capacitive touch screens.

Thanks
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I like the Kenwood units for their sound and reliability. But many, many online reviews criticize the Bluetooth/cell phone connection part of it. I don't know if Sony is any better. But definitely check out that part of the Kenwood before you buy.
 

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Any opinions about quality, ease of install of these two units into a Honda Civic with the base 5" infotainment unit and MT?

Looking at these as both capacitive touch screens.

Thanks
I got a kenwood excelon in mine. I also had the 5” screen and MT. I love the sound quality but yes the connectivity sometimes acts up. But I’m not sure which causes it, my iPhone or the stereo. Bluetooth isn’t perfect anyways
Honda Civic 10th gen Sony XAV-AX5000 vs Kenwood Excelon DMX906S C07E86A5-F47E-48AA-BDF7-DD2B14A9B0FA


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kperalta

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Sony headunits unless it's the RSX-GS9 suck ass. The 9906s gives you wireless apple carplay/android auto and more reliability.
 
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skshrews

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I'd be using AA essentially exclusively. The iDatalink/wallpaper stuff I don't care about. Want to keep the steering wheel controls.

Sony has better boot-time and is a smaller, cheaper unit.

Reliability is always hard to gauge from reviews.
 


kperalta

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I'd be using AA essentially exclusively. The iDatalink/wallpaper stuff I don't care about. Want to keep the steering wheel controls.

Sony has better boot-time and is a smaller, cheaper unit.

Reliability is always hard to gauge from reviews.
I have experience with the XAVAX100,1000, and 3000. I've installed maybe 10-12 total of all 3 combined. I've had customers come back for issues 7 times. Had to swap out 5, two for dead screens, but they still turned on. The other 3 were dead completely. I'm not the only installer I know that hates Sony radios.

They're garbage.

The iDatalink isn't mandatory on your trim, but it sure as hell looks mandatory for all others as the iDatalink Maestro is the only interface I know of for now that will easily retain the side camera. It's also for retaining vehicle settings within a radio as well as climate. So whereas you don't care, nor need it. The rest of us will.
 

Royalz_2o9

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I have experience with the XAVAX100,1000, and 3000. I've installed maybe 10-12 total of all 3 combined. I've had customers come back for issues 7 times. Had to swap out 5, two for dead screens, but they still turned on. The other 3 were dead completely. I'm not the only installer I know that hates Sony radios.

They're garbage.

The iDatalink isn't mandatory on your trim, but it sure as hell looks mandatory for all others as the iDatalink Maestro is the only interface I know of for now that will easily retain the side camera. It's also for retaining vehicle settings within a radio as well as climate. So whereas you don't care, nor need it. The rest of us will.
so they make an adapter to retain all the factory functions like climate and the lane watch for lets say a touring trim?
 

kperalta

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so they make an adapter to retain all the factory functions like climate and the lane watch for lets say a touring trim?
It will be out hopefully soon. But yes, they have a module that will do that. It works for older civics like the 2015 and stuff but not ours yet.
 
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skshrews

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Bought the
Kenwood Excelon DMX906S,
mainly due to the wireless connectivity.
Install wasn't too bad, main issue me being an amateur installer.
Steering wheel controls don't work, and I'm working with Crutchfield regarding this issue. Reverse camera isn't working, but I haven't hooked up the reverse light-power wire connection- I have to get up the gumption to pull the panel below the steering wheel off.
I'm not an audiophile, but the sound improvement is noticeable immediately. The screen is bright, very responsive,capacitive. Boot up time is very good. Wireless connection has worked well (so far).
If I ever finish the full install, I'm going to post a separate "Amateur's Tips" post based on my own experience.
 
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skshrews

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Install (a few points I wish someone had told me)
On the internet, you'll see people pop off body panels very effortlessly, but it's not that easy.
The plastic interior panels are tightly fit together. The space between them is essentially non existent and even a pry tool has a hard time.
That being said, I found pulling up, rather than "prying laterally" was the best method, and helped limit deforming the plastic panels.
The panels give a hideous pop when you have pulled them, They are held in by v-shaped "pins" that are wedged into sockets. Keep the ones from the original OEM head unit just in case one breaks.
Two clips on either side of the AC hold it in place. Towards the bottom of these clips is a small space you can apply a little pressure to loosen the pins. Once they are loose, you can pull to remove the unit. Two connections to the AC unit can be removed by pressing the elevated area of the clip. The larger one is obvious, but the smaller, white one has a very small ridge on the back that is not so obvious.
The OEM head unit itself comes out relatively easily at this point. Two screws at the bottom are easy to remove with a Phillips head screwdriver.
More clips on either side can be pressed with a trim tool. I found trying to remove trim with my finger tips impossible.
The clips on the back of the OEM head unit are relatively easy to remove and have obvious ridges to compress at their attachments.

Attaching the case to the Kenwood 906s required removing the metal sleeve around the unit, and using the larger screws supplied. It was awkward as the front face and side panels are just pressed together, so getting the side panels to stay in place while you are screwing them to the head unit was a challenge. I propped up on paperback books that allowed the front-plate to hang over the front edge, and let me get to the sides of the frame.

I used the PAC USB-TY1 Toyota/Lexus OEM USB Port Retention Cable (Amazon) , to keep the in dash USB port connected to the Kenwood USB ports.

Getting the USB cords from behind the head unit to where they could be accessed was also difficult. There is a small space at the lower, rear, left of the glove box you can thread them thru. From there you can run them to the console.

The most difficult part of the install was keeping the steering wheel controls. I reset the Axxess unit several times, actually used the micro USB port (to cover requiring a prying screwdriver to open) to update the unit (4.17>4.18), but nothing worked until I rewired the harness per Crutchfield instructions.
I tapped into the reverse wire under the drivers side dashboard, under the steering wheel (green wire, far left position).

The unit itself has worked well. Wireless connection has worked about 90% of the time. Problems arise when transitioning from WiFi to cellular connection (like leaving vicinity of house), or turning vehicle on and off.

Android Auto, had it's quirks. Map orientation arrow frequently disappears from the screen. Google assistant works without problems maybe 30% of the time-the rest of the time it does not respond, misunderstands, or does not answer correctly. Touch-points and buttons are still too small, despite the large screen (why Google? Why?).
From start to Android Auto opening is 37 seconds by my measurements.

Rear camera can be set to appear as soon as he unit starts.

The unit itself has worked well. Wireless connection has worked about 90% of the time for Android. For Apple, you have to bypass some "parking setting" to use Carplay wirelessly (at least in my car model), others have complained about this.

Problems arise when transitioning from WiFi to cellular connection (like leaving vicinity of house), or turning vehicle on and off, but these are minor issues. The screen is bright and responsive. You cannot "pinch-to-zoom". Glare can obscure the screen, but only in rare, specific lighting situations.

Android Auto, has it's quirks. Map orientation arrow frequently disappears from the screen (?why). Google assistant works without problems maybe 30% of the time-the rest of the time it does not respond, misunderstands, or does not answer correctly. Touch-points and buttons are still too small, despite the large screen. The screen is set in from the frame by a few millimeters, so the bottom edge of the screen can be difficult to touch.

From car start to Android Auto opening is 37 seconds by my measurements.
Rear camera can be set to appear as soon as the unit starts.

Sound quality is better than stock, but I'm not an audiophile. I was able, after some fidgeting, to keep steering wheel controls. Note I went thru Crutchfield, they created the wire harness, but I had to change a few wires myself to get the steering wheel controls to work.

Overall, worth the price and effort. I can just get into the car, turn on the ignition, and the unit/phone connect-I never have to remove the phone from my pocket.
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