Customer Reviews

Amazing detail in my music

Lightning took out my head unit and one amp. I had an Alpine sa32f s-series and a 650 head running two sets of Alpine X series components. I bought this Kenwood amp and the 709s head. The Kenwood amp and head is night and day difference. It imparts amazing detail and definitely compliments the Alpine X series components. I'm hearing things in my music I've never heard before. With my last system, I searched and tried to mitigate a horrible ground loop with no results. I'm 100% certain now it was the Alpine sa32f s-series. I've never been a huge fan of Kenwood, but my gosh the clarity in my system is almost breathtaking. The photo below was before I finished. Kenwood, my hats off to you! Next on my list is to drop a 2ohm sub in place of my 4ohm.

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Kenwood Excelon XR901-5

Good size with amazing power and sound.

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Kenwood Excelon XR901-5

Easy setup and configuration.

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Awesome little amp!

This amplifier is small and powerfull! Clean power and beautiful aesthetics Using to power 6x9 pair,6.5" pair,3" pair and 3-8" subs. This thing rocks

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Queens Village

Great amp. Installed in June of 2018 and lasted until Last week. No sound, went thru system check and realized amp was dead. Amp pushed 2 sets of xr1800p and 1 P-XRW1202WB. It sounded incredible until it died.

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Absolute powerhouse

First of all, I want to say how beautiful this amp looks. It might be hard to tell in the pictures, but it is actually a very deep greenish color. I normally wouldn't want an amp with color, but it is very sophisticated looking. This amp replaces an old 2 channel Kenwood that still works perfectly. This new amp is about 30% smaller, about twice as heavy and puts out way more power. My sub now hits so hard, it can hurt my ears. I would say it's twice as powerful on the sub channel as the 2 channel amp was in bridged mode. In addition, it sports 4 extra channels for mid/tweets. I just cannot believe how small it is for the amount of power it produces. I watched a Youtube video from Williston Audio Labs testing Kenwood's lower priced, lower power version of this amp (and a Pioneer amp) and they confirmed the Kenwood produced more power than the ratings and that amp was 87% efficient, which should translate into less heat and less power draw from your car (those are my conclusions, they didn't say that). That was a different amp model, but this one seems to be a better version of that one, so it's probably even higher quality than the one tested. I haven't tested the amp in summertime yet, so I cannot comment on how well it handles hot summer days. I can't imagine this amp not being enough for anyone. It's compact and produces a surprising amount of power.

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Solid performer...

Given its size, I'm shocked at what this amp puts out! You WON'T be left wanting for power. I'm using it on two sets of components (4 ohms) on channels 1-4 and two subwoofers (2 ohms) on the fifth. It's so powerful I didn't even touch the gains, and the sound quality is excellent. Aesthetically, this is a pretty amp. It's black, but when light catches the anodized aluminum surface, it can look grayish (as you see in stock pictures). The build is solid, with hex-head set screws on all terminals. The aperture for the speakers inputs is narrow, so standard ferrules (>16 AWG) work but protrude beyond the 'cylinder' (see picture). However, the power and ground accept 4-AWG ferrules without issue. If you're a 'bare wire' installer, you'll be fine. Functionally... flawless. But this amp does get hot with prolonged use. It's pretty warm after 30 minutes and hot after 45 (perhaps cooler if running 4-ohms on the sub channel). There is an onboard fan that dissipates the heat well, but it sounds like soft white noise coming from the amp. You won't hear it over music, but it is audible if the amp's in the cabin with you. I also get a soft turn-on pop with this amp. I know this phenomenon can be system-dependent, but I've had other amplifiers in the same system not do that. Make what you will of that. Finally, be advised that this amp does NOT accept speaker-level inputs directly. You must purchase something to convert the output (e.g., RCAs that pigtail to your speaker wires).

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Great amp

So far, so good. This amp along with a JL TW3 sub really woke up my OEM Toyota Tundra system. Nice compact form factor for the power output and a clean chassis made for a pretty neat and stealthy installation. Having the remote bass knob is a game changer. First time I have had one. The only anomaly was that I had to crank the gains up very high to get the full amp output. Maybe due to the nature of using the line level outputs from my OEM system... IDK, first time IU have tried that,

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2017 Civic LX stereo upgrade

Current have this installed in a 2017 Civic Lx with a Pioneer HU and Polk audio components up front with replacement sale panels from Honda. Along with Polk audio coax speakers for rear fill all running at 4ohms. The Sub channel is currently running at 4ohm with a JL Audio 12w3v3 at 4 ohms in prefab ported box at 400watts. The amp has a perfect balance of lows and Highs for my tastes. Now if I wanted to add more BASS I could just add another JL w3 4 ohm speaker and run the amp at 2 ohms for 600 watts and to be honest if I were younger I probably would. As for the highs this amp plays a lot of details in the music that I feel some of the cheaper amps just cannot play. Could be the speakers, the amp , the car or just the right combination of all 3

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Amp

Great little amp

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Kenwood Excelon XR901-5

Unbelievable power for the size and and price!! I am extremely happy with my purchase

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Great amplifier, solid feature set and appearance.

Very nice amplifier, stellar upgrade over the 27-year-old factory amplifier. I'm using it to replace the Infinity Gold amplifier in a 95 Grand Cherokee as well as a Kicker mono amplifier that was driving an MB Quart 12" sub.

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Perfect Combo!

Very clean power. When you set the gains correctly it will do exactly what it was ment to do. Being a Professional audio producer It doesn't have to be loud...but it can, I enjoy listening to different types of music and pin point mixing styles and details and I feel that i've done a very good job by choosing this amp combined with Polk Audio speakers.

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Kenwood Excelon XR901-5

Nice compact size,and awesome sound!

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Kenwood Excelon XR901-5

Good amp with enough power to feed 4 speakers and a subwoofer

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great punch

Excellent amp I installed it in my tundra an sounds spectacular.

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Kenwood Excelon XR901-5

Nice affordable power. This cleanly powers my Hertz components, Focal coaxials and JL Audio sub with room to spare. An easy install under the passenger seat (with one quick call to Crutchfield).

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Kenwood Excelon XR901-5

I have installed this amp in my 2006 honda odyssey and i love the power it has. And the bass is really fablise I love it.

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Kenwood Excelon XR 901-5 Amplifier

I bought this amplifier to replace the previous model. It drives a set of Ke wood Excelon separates, a pair of Kenwood Excelon 2 ways and a JL Audio 10 inch sub. It sounds amazing! It also comes with a wired subwoofer control knob and is super clean. For the price, I don't think you will find a better sounding amplifier.

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Kenwood Excelon XR901-5

Powerful little workhorse of an amp!

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I love it.

For the punch it packs with 5 channels and still being small enough to hide away it's impressive.

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Kenwood Excelon XR901-5

Great Amplifier. Installation was easy and the setup intuitive.

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Kenwood Excelon XR901-5

Great amp. I was very surprised at the power and clarity of this thing!

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Kenwood Excelon XR901-5

great unit compact size

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Kenwood Excelon XR901-5

For the money, it's clean and runs cool

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Kenwood Excelon XR901-5

Great Amp!! Plenty of power to my 2 6.5 and 2 6x9. Enough to push 2 10's. This little amp was worth it!

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Superb 5 channel amp!!

Great amp that produces enough power to my Kenwood XR 1700P fronts, Kenwood coaxials in the rear doors and rear hatch, and Kenwood 12 inch sealed sub enclosure. Fits with plenty of room under my front passenger seat in my 2018 Toyota 4Runner.

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Amazing 5 Channel

The XR901-5 is one amazing amplifier! It has everything you need in one small chassis and fits comfortably under the passenger seat. I upgraded from the excelon 700.5 in my 2009 Honda Accord because I wanted the speakers (Phoenix Gold R series components front and RX coaxials in the rear) to get even louder , this amp delivers! On the subwoofer side it has plenty of power to get very loud without being obnoxious. I'm running a Massive Audio Hippo 84 in a custom ported enclosure since the Hifonics XXV 12" with custom enclosure was just "too loud" for the setup. If you are on the fence about purchasing a high quality 5 channel amplifier I highly recommend you get this amplifier. .

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Awesome amp!

I put one of these in my 2011 Subaru Outback, to replace the factory Harman Kardon amp under the passenger side seat. It fit perfectly in the factory location and has a ton more power. I am using it to drive the Infinity replacement speakers. Works wonderfully! Great choice for your car!

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