Good Unit Great Tech Support

So far i really like this unit ! so much more packed into this radio than stock !! The touchscreen is a little slow but nothing that hurts the performance . I want to give a big shout out Thank You to Damien & Carl for tech support !! i was having trouble with the Maestro control unit & it came down to Ford & they're wiring !! They shipped out a corrected wiring adapter & viola it worked !!

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

Once installed you will notice how small and dim the viewing screen actually is in the daylight. The sound quality is very nice. You need young eyes to navigate through the setup process.

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A Great audio system for your vehicle.

With just about 9 years of loving my 2014 Subaru Forester, I decided I needed an upgrade to my sound. The stock Clarion supplied unit was adequate, not high-end but I never expected it to be. But I'm also an oddity (so it seems) in that I don't use my phones for music/audio, just for calls, texting, maps, games... I have an iPod (a few in fact) for my music and I needed a unit that worked with my iPod - this unit does it. And with a number of other optional screens (like extra gauges, TPMS and more), it's got enough extra features that are fun - if not always daily usable. My only real demerit for the DDX396 is the knob, which I wanted. But it's so "short" that when you install the unit with the install kit and trim, the side of the button is about the same depth as the surrounding plastic trim. WTH? Sound is good to great - based on your speakers. It's really comparable to the top-end Infinity audio system in my old Town & Country (a veritable concert hall on wheels) and sounds great! Easy to install when you get the right wiring kits. Of course, some of the wiring kits come with SO MANY bits and sets of wires, it's hard to figure out which wire sets are used and which are not. Better documentation is needed here, Crutchfield. Could it be better? Sure. But for the money, this is one of the best audio units out there. Maybe I do wish it did have navigation, too, but...

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Good not perfect

I've had my Kenwood for 1 week and am overall satisfied with the radio. The sound level is much better than my stock radio. This radio has all the features I needed. I wanted to maintain the option to listen to CD's and like the volume control knob (although it is a bit small). The interface with my phone was very easy and I now enjoy the ability to make and receive calls hands free. On the down side, the screen needs to be brighter. In bright sunlight the backup camera display is difficult to see. When in reverse there is also an annoying popup disclaimer that reminds the driver to ensure the path is clear, but it blocks a portion of the display in the process. The warning does goes away when touched. Also, the CD player sounds great but will not recognize any CD title or song information. All this is displayed is "No Title" and the number of songs on the CD.

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

Excellent sound, grate stereo, however Spotify doesn't work well.

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Good radio but watch your knob lol

I love it and it fits great. I'm regretting the knob for volume because the radio is recessed a bit back into the dash kit so it sucks if you wanna adjust the volume more than a couple levels at a time.

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Coleman

The radio has tons of great features and the backup camera is very clear. Bluetooth connects great and streaming audio from phone is fantastic. Radio worked fine for about 3 months then the buttons would not respond. Touchscreen worked fine and bluetooth for phone calls worked. Could not turn screen off at night. After a while they would start working again. Very intermittent problem. Would work fine for a few days and then lock-up again. Contacted Crutchfield and the rep was very helpful. After trying a few things advised to send it for repair. Sent the unit to FTH service center (Kenwood authorized repair). They "repaired" and sent back. I reinstalled the radio and no change. I was advised to send a video of the problem. Sent the video and was told the tech was reviewing. After a month I contacted again and was told they do not know how to fix the problem. I have had this unit now almost two years and very disappointed that Kenwood cannot repair their own unit. I am just living with the issue until I can afford to replace with a more dependable unit. If not for the problem noted above I would give this DDX396 5+ stars.

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

Great unit, easy wiring and install, would have given 5 stars except rear bracket wouldn't work. No place to attach it to.

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

Excelent service at excelent price...very fast shiping. The product is awesome, exactly what i want...thanks and continue do excelent store

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Easy to install

Not a handy person but was able to install it with the kit and directions just in time for a Mother's Day present for my wife! She likes it!

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Awesome SQ, snappy!

Pretty snazzy little unit. Has all of the hookups a basshead like myself could need. Also, from reading some other reviews, there are a few that indicate the unit is a little slower. From my experience, this unit is FASTER than several other Kenwood decks I've used. Overall, pretty thrilled with functionality, touchscreen is nice and responsive where it needs to be, and having that physical volume knob really is a blessing.

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

A great upgrade to my 1997 Land Cruiser. Excellent sound and features. Simple installation too....

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Great with one execption.

Sounds great and relatively simple install. Using the recommended brackets tho don't allow for the trim plate to be installed tho.

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Wow wow waza

Beaut display

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Kenwood and Crutchfield deliver again

Installed in a 2004 Tahoe for about 3 weeks now and working great so far. Very easy to set up and use. I like the volume knob but wish is was positioned higher on the face. Feels a little awkward to grab with a column shift transmission. Also wish it had a front USB port. I made the rear one work by running it out the hole for the cigarette lighter, but now I always have a plug hanging out of my dash. Haven't tried using the voice commands and I don't have a back-up camera, so I'm probably only scratching the surface of what this radio was meant to do. It boots up fairly quick, bluetooth connection to an iPhone is good and wired connection to an old iPod also good. Controls are easy to follow, screen is easy to read. I have the Bose sound system and even through the factory amp and speakers it sounds good. Instructions said I would have to cut a bracket in the back of the dash for this to fit and I found that not to be true. I was able to route the wires behind the bracket with enough room to mount the radio, though I did have to remove the heater control to help stuff the wiring in. Been buying radios from Crutchfield for nearly 30 years and all but one of them were Kenwood. They make the purchase and installation simple and I've been happy every time.

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

Very easy install with ready harness provided by Crutchfield.Improved the sound of my music/radio significantly compared to the stock radio.

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Kenwood Excellence

I've always loved Kenwood and made the mistake of trying something different for my last build. Well with all the shortages I had to wait over a year before this one was finally in stock again so needless to say I was so happy to see it back in stock again and bought it immediately. The display is nice and bright, the touch screen works great, it has all the great cross over settings that makes Kenwood one of the best, and this one has the +5v RCA outputs for the amps which made a very noticeable difference in my setup. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because it is a little slow booting up or making changes, and I'm not a fan of the USB being on a cable rather than being mounted in the face of the unit.

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Good radio

Very good radio for the money. I want to say that Crutchfield is an excellent company. I had a different brand radio before this one. Three different radios and all of them had problems. They allowed me to upgrade to this new unit, they were amazing through the whole process. This radio is really good for the price. It has all the features I was looking for. It's not overly complicated to use and it has a bunch of different options that make using it better.

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Marysville

I've had this deck for quite awhile, it worked fine during the "60 day return period" but it's junk: fails to come on sometimes, sometimes only says "update software", stops playing other times, and then works fine after turning off the vehicle and restarting. It takes *a couple minutes* to boot up and start playing music. And the screen is not easy to see, it(supposedly) has an up-and-down adjustment for better viewing, but ove never noticed a difference, it needs a side-to-side adjustment(isnt ever radio: in every car ever made in between the driver and passenger?) Soooo not worth the price, I should've just went to Walmart.

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bad Bluetooth connection

Just installed the Kenwood ddx396 I bought from Crutchfield. Installation was easy with the wiring harness I bought with the system. Hardest part was splicing all those wires from both wiring harness together. I took off 2 stars based on the way the music would break (would cut in/out) up while playing via Bluetooth from my phone to the stereo. I tried running my phone (samsung g22) by wifi and 5g, but the music was still cutting in and out. Radio plays fine as well as the DVD. Could it be the Bluetooth might be bad in the receiver? I was going to give it a couple days and contact Crutchfield.

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Great unit for the $$$

Straight forward installation. Set up took a bit of playing with. Tons of features. I like the EQ and other sound shaping features. The deck powers my aftermarket speakers well enough without an external amp. And the expandability is great for a unit in this price range.

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

Overall this is a pretty decent unit. I've had it installed for about a year now and I've been mostly happy with it. No major issues with my unit so far, it has frozen up on me a few times but is easily reset. The number of audio settings and options is a bit overwhelming for a knuckle dragger like me, I had a hard time getting the sound quality when using Bluetooth to match a CD but I eventually figured it out. My biggest gripe so far with this unit is the Bluetooth is very slow to connect. My other gripe is that if you have more than one phone connected to it, it tries to switch between phones on its own which is very frustrating. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to others however, I've been a long time Kenwood fan and so far this one has done its job well.

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Great value!

Great radio for the money! The features and quality of this radio make it a not brainer for the price.

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

A bit difficult to set up but nothing that can't be overcome.

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

Excellent head unit for the price, my son loves it!

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

Very nice receiver. I love the look and the fact I can put a nice custom background on the display. Works Awesome!

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

This stereo is everything thats promised. Easy install, works wonderfully, and has a sleek design.

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

Great unit, very adaptable and easy to navigate.

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Great Deck for the price!!

Love this deck, this is actually my second one. First went to my Tacoma, my daughters Pioneer just went out, so I bought another DDX396 for her GMC. This deck has great features, and is easy to navigate through the screens

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

Love this so much

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Everything you need

This unit has everything you need in a double-din car stereo: large touch screen, the ability to play CD's/DVD's, backup camera capability, and a volume knob. The menus are easy to navigate and there are more customization options that you will likely ever need but they are there. Power output is nice. Sounds much better than stock but I may add a subwoofer at some point - thankfully there is a subwoofer output to make that easier. I'd say this is the Swiss Army knife of head units - everything you need and nothing you don't. Highly recommended!

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

This was a very nice and needed upgrade to my 2006 Tundra DC. It has all of the features I could ever want. It's the first model in the Excelon series but it packs a lot of great features for the price

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

This unit was the perfect fit for my needs the controls are easy to use and it sounds great even with the 6 year old stock speakers. Eric at Crutchfield really help with all the right parts and help me choose this unit. He found the unit to fit my needs without overselling me. I always check Crutchfield before buying any electronic equipment.

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

Great stereo for the price.

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Great Receiver

Only had it for about a week but so far I'm very impressed. Easy to use and exceeded my expectations.

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Great unit married well 2018 jerp cherokee

Great unit, worked well with wife's 2018 Jeep Cherokee.

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

Happy with everything

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Definately recommend

Great for the price. Did everything it said it would. Looks great installed.

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Great headunit

Absolutely love it Sound quality is great. Easy to install

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

Great unit! Makes my chevy camaro sound way better. Only thing i worried was it got warm pretty quick. So far no issues!

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2006 xterra

Got it for my wife's 2006 Nissan Xterra. looks great in dash like it was factory with the color display option to match the orange display lights and makes the kickers sound amazing with all he cool sound control options. easy to install as well. kenwood is a great brand.

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

Fit great in my chevy colorado. Works way better than factory radio plus I have back up camera

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

Awesome!!!sounds great.

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

Really great unit overall, only complaint is ever time you adjust the eq, the music stops for a second. Little annoying after a while. This is the only drawback in my opinion, everything else about this unit I love.

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

Nice unit, works great.

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Quality all around

Awesome unit! Tons of great features to dial in your sound. Can't go wrong with Kenwood. Looks great in a 06 Ranger. Shout out to you Crutchfield for making this a effortless purchase as well. It was a breeze. Fast free shipping just days before christmas. It was a gift for my son and he loves it. Happy Holidays!

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

Great unit, good integration with factory features

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

I have not installed yet....I was able to mount with the factory mounts so that was simplified, awaiting wiring harness for antenna and a direct plug in for the wiring harness.....not sure my 2008 nissan Frontier was a later in the year model but the antenna has a "special plug on the nissan end, I was able to purchase an adaptor for a direct plug into the factory end and into the receiver. The harness for the speakers illumination power...etc was also obtained from a 3rd party supplier, but my son is thrilled with the options on the receiver.

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Don't hit bumps with this one.

Every time I hit a bump, the screen goes blank and I have to do a hard reset pushing the little button in the top left of the face to get it to work again. Oh, and I have to reset EVERYTHING in the system pertaining to the sound profile. This is ridiculous and shouldn't be happening to a new stereo.

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

I could possibly give a better review if i was able to get the stero working as it should However it looks pretty and may have potential

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

Dim screen, slow to connect to Bluetooth, slow boot up, bad quality for backup camera, radio sucks.

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

Its worth it

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Better than expected.

Great unit well worth it. After having a great pioneer unit I was having trouble finding a better unit than the old one. This unit out performed it in most areas.

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

Great product, as always from Kenwood! Easy installation and simple setup. Dash modification was simple, just had to youtube it for instructions.

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

great system

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

radios satellite port broke. Had to get a replacement. One of many issues I had with my Crutchfield purchase. I definitely will never do business with them again.

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Fully featured unit at a great price!

This is my third Kenwood replacement of a factory radio. All of my vehicles (three of them) are close to 20 years old, but are garaged and maintained so not having a car or truck payment allows me to "splurge" a little on nice upgrades. I like to add things but always try and keep the factory appearance as best as possible. The installation in my case, Ford F-150, took the better part of a Saturday, only because I'm not in a rush, can stop and use any other vehicle if I need to go anywhere and I usually stop at various points to tidy up my workspace. I also think about the best runs for wires to the bluetooth mic, rear camera or other accessories . This unit really contains a lot of great features for a very reasonable price. And I also bought four new speakers I have yet to install, but even with 18 year old speakers in the F-150 this went into, it sounds great. It takes some patience regarding pairing your phone, loading your contacts, setting up the many different audio adjustments but you can be up and listening quickly and can learn and fuss with a "deep dive" programming later on. I had to cut away a fairly large piece of the factory plastic OEM mount to get this to fit properly. I used a dremel with a cut off wheel and a fine X-acto saw blade. See pictures for the gory details. It sounds amazing and I haven't installed my new speakers yet or finished the rear camera wiring runs as I'm waiting for a bit warmer temps.

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

love the radio

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Crutchfield Rocks

I ordered this with Crutchfield's recommended install items including the Maestro so that I could retain my steering wheel controls. I also paid for the service where Crutchfield does the wiring for you. WORTH IT! As a novice on stereo installs, it definitely helped. Worth every penny. I had to review the installation instructions a bit and watch some youtube videos, but then everything went very smoothly. Overall a great experience and saved a bunch of money rather than paying a shop to install a new radio. The radio itself is good. Integrates well. My phone is still connecting for phone calls through synch on my ford truck, even while streaming music to the kenwood. The maestro connects into the ODB-II plug so guages are now viewable on the radio, including tire pressure readings, which my truck doesn't show on its own. So that was an unexpected bonus.

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

Works great!

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Exxeptional

Great product. Gave my system a whole new sound.

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

Good features, but it drops my Sync calls!!! Very frustrating!!!

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Solid unit

Pretty simple install. Overall it's a solid unit for the price. No issues as of 2 weeks of use. Screen brightness leaves alittle more to be desired mid day but it's not terrible, can see everything still unless wearing colorized sunglasses.

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Nice unit

It is a nice sounding stereo but I really don't like the smooth face control panel. In the sunlight it is very hard to see and I guess I am old school when it come to knobs and buttons.

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KENWOOD ROCKS

Awesome looking Stereo...totally Love the thing...has all the features I need..Now I just got to learn how to use it...and the features!!!

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Great Unit!

Great unit. Installtion was easy and fast. Thank you to Crutchfield ReadyHarness! Stereo sound better than factory unit. Easy setup.

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

Fit well in my 2003 expedition, gave the interior a cleaner look. User friendly, didn't have to reference the instructions to much to complete the set up.

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Great Head Unit

Outstanding head unit. Fairly easy to set up and use. Love the touchscreen. Nothing less than I would expect from Kenwood. This is my sixth Kenwood Excelon and they've all been great.

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

Installation is pretty straight forward. There is a short YouTube video by Ry the Car Guy which shows how to disassemble the required dash section on the X. For my Xterra, the best option is to reuse the factory metal radio mounting brackets and the faceplate that comes in the Kenwood box as both work perfectly with no adjustments needed. 3 screws line up perfectly on each side mounting plate. I drilled a hole in the top dash cover to run the microphone wire through. Been using the factory radio since 2007 and the oem speakers are now playing sounds they've never played before!

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

This radio was recommended because I listen the AM/FM most of the time and it should have a good reception. It has good reception and sound quality and I'm still trying to figure all of the little things about it. The bluetooth hooked up to the phones real easy and the sound quality is good. If you mainly listen to am/fm you will be happy with this radio.

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Great unit!

Very nice unit!! deliver was fast and the free tech has been fantastic.

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

Worked as well as can be expected no issues with the install.

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Excellent

Installed in a 2004 Chevy truck. Touch screen is nice and responsive and it loads up my music every time with no issues. Sounds MUCH better than the factory head unit did and with the pac interface/installation kit and a ready harness everything is pretty much just plug and play. I'm not a fan of apple car play personally, and this one doesn't have it so that is one of the reasons I went for this. I also installed a backup camera and it works perfectly every time i put it in reverse. This unit has everything I needed, and in terms of actual quality of the system, it can't be beat. Kenwood's Ecxelon products are top of the line. It really ties the interior of my truck together too. Definitely happy i chose this unit and would recommend it to anyone looking for a nice unit.

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

Very nice product, and fairly simple install

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

Just received the products. Haven't installed them yet but it looks like Crutchfield has done most of the connections to the harness for me!!! Great place to do business. Would give 5 stars but to soon for me to install, gotta work, maybe this weekend.

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Extreme value

Great unit for the money.

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

I am not only impressed with my new Kenwood radio for my pick up truck I am extremely impressed with the support that I received from the technicians at Crutchfield wonderful thank you so much Terry Steinheiser

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2002 Chevrolet Tahoe

Installed this DDX396 unit in a 2002 Chevrolet Tahoe. Installation was challenging but not too bad. Required purchasing a new Dash panel and cutting some internal dash plastic. In service for 10 months. The following is my user review. 1) Stock radio had a time display anytime car was on regardless of radio status. This unit only displays time when it is powered up. Now I have no clock when radio is turned off. 2) Backup Camera does not work unless the unit is powered up. This is not like my newer cars where the camera works even if the unit is turned off. 3) There is a 12 second delay in the Unit powering up. This is a pain when in a hurry to back the car up without the camera working. Plus, there is an interruption in the display a few seconds after powering up. 4) The unit illumination will not dim with the panel light dimming. Verified correct wiring. A real pain at night. 5) The Equalizer displays when I adjust the volume knob. Not every time, but often enough to become a nuisance. 6) The volume knob is too close to the left edge. Difficult to twist with my thumb striking the dash trim. 7) The backup camera quality was poor. Many times it was a total white out. I ended up replacing the camera and it worked better. 8) Difficulty in paring unit with other devices. 9) Nice to be able to change illumination colors and background imagery. I probably would not have purchased this unit had I known these issues beforehand.

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

Sounds great and the display is great however mine constantly will not connect to Spotify, Pandora, or my Sirius tuner. Wait a while and everything works well again. It's a bit frustrating.

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

So much better than stock

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Meh

I put this in a 2014 Equinox. I'm kind of torn here. I mean, it's a decent unit. After spending around $500 for this unit and the necessary harnesses, and a call to tech support......, Crutchfield updated the "notice" on the harness page to where it says I'd lose the factory screen AND the "call" buttons. Tech support wasn't much help either responding with "well, it is what it is and if a different harness works for you I guess use that one". On top of that, the "back-up" cam now looks like I'm viewing an image from a point-and-shoot camera from the late 90's. The image is extremely noisy to the point where it's practically useless. The factory screen was clear and noise free. Not sure what the problem is considering there is no way to adjust video gain or any noise reduction. As far as the rest of the unit, like I said, it's decent. The mic is clear and Bluetooth seems to be working well. The screen is kind of prone to glare but where it's mounted in my Equinox, it's not bad at all. However, no amount of screen adjustment fixes the terrible back-up image. The touchscreen works well. There is NO physical "eject" button but you get use to it. In conclusion, I'm kinda bummed about my "Excelon" experience and my Crutchfield experience. Both have left me with a feeling that I should have just stuck with my stock radio...

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Do not buy this radio

This is the most disappointing piece of audio equipment that i have ever purchased. The bluetooth is absolutely terrible. It will pair so-so with one phone, but not with two. It takes forever to pair and then audio won't play correctly. You can do much better with any other unit. I would give it a -5 if possible. With that said, the installation kit is great and the instructions were great. It shipped fast.

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2016 nissan altima

Really good stereo, factory back up cam for my car works good.

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

Easy to use & simple Bluetooth connectivity

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

Great unit other than the video play capabilities. Can only play early mpeg and avi movies. Most movies today download in an mp4 format. DVDs work but are outdated. Kinda pointless for usb input unless you are just playing music. However, good price for what you get.

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

I would buy this radio 10 times over

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

Good product. Thanks

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396

Exactly as described. Excellent video and sound quality.

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Kenwood quality

Sound quality of this head unit is amazing super clear clean and precise lots of tuning options and tools, it looks great, thats a plus ,clear screen and very responsive Kenwood never disappoints.I bought it as open box and it was like new! Crutchfield has become my number one choice for buying audio products, great service, fast shipping

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Excellent replacement for my factory audio!

Excellent value. Great sound. Lots of features. Replaced my base factory radio that had no features. Needed a hands free unit and it works great with my Samsung S8 active phone. I am so glad I purchased this unit! Installation was easy with the installation kit. I was able to retain my steering wheel controls and hook up my back up camera. The only SLIGHT downsides are that the display is not real bright. If I am wearing sunglasses while driving it's a little difficult to read the screen. The back up camera is a little fuzzy at night as compared with my previous mirror-mounted camera. Otherwise an outstanding, great sounding unit for a very reasonable price. Crutchfield is an awesome company to do business with. My sales associate was Archer and he was extremely helpful! A great purchase experience! I won't buy audio anywhere else! Thanks!

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Kenwood Excelon DDX396