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iphone nav with aftermarket headunit?

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dan96max

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 28, 2010
10
0
Looking to pickup a new headunit for my car. How does the nav work on an aftermarket headunit? I have both TomTom and Navigon apps. Will it play audio over the speakers via bluetooth or is that only phone calls? Will i get nav over the speakers when it's plugged in via usb?

I'm looking at this kenwood

Thanks!
 
dan96max said:
Looking to pickup a new headunit for my car. How does the nav work on an aftermarket headunit? I have both TomTom and Navigon apps. Will it play audio over the speakers via bluetooth or is that only phone calls? Will i get nav over the speakers when it's plugged in via usb?

I'm looking at this kenwood

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Oh yes, they will play over the speakers. I just installed my Kenwood a week ago, and it has been nothing short of awesome!
 
Drakdaddy said:
Oh yes, they will play over the speakers. I just installed my Kenwood a week ago, and it has been nothing short of awesome!
Click to expand...

It'll play the turn by turn instructions over the headunit? over bluetooth or via usb?

Which kenwood did you end up going with?
 
dan96max said:
It'll play the turn by turn instructions over the headunit? over bluetooth or via usb?

Which kenwood did you end up going with?
Click to expand...

The Kenwood Excelon KDC-X994

Obviously not as good as the one that you want, but it plays everything through the speakers when it is hooked up through USB. I havent tried bluetooth yet, though
 
Drakdaddy said:
The Kenwood Excelon KDC-X994

Obviously not as good as the one that you want, but it plays everything through the speakers when it is hooked up through USB. I havent tried bluetooth yet, though
Click to expand...

Nice thanks! The screen sold me on the BT900 otherwise I probably wouldn't bother changing what I have. The kenwood I have is pretty functional, just doesn't do iphones at all for some reason and it's purplish screen is really hard to see during the day.
 
i forgot one other thing, your still able to use the controls on the phone while it's plugged in obviously right? so you can use the nav apps. This is the first head unit i've tried connecting any apple product to, thats why I ask.
 
dan96max said:
i forgot one other thing, your still able to use the controls on the phone while it's plugged in obviously right? so you can use the nav apps. This is the first head unit i've tried connecting any apple product to, thats why I ask.
Click to expand...

Yeah, you can still use all the other functions because of the multitasking. I have a panasonic HU with the navigon app, FYI.
 
I have an Excelon KDC-X693 and it works well with the phone. It also goes through USB though. I thought about the 993 but I didn't think I wanted bluetooth at the time. Oh well.
 
I have an eclipse cd5030 and yes through USB everything works perfect. As for Bluetooth it works as long as the HU supports BT audio. I think BT audio sounds like dung so I disabled it and use use only.
 
Silenthillnight said:
I have an Excelon KDC-X693 and it works well with the phone. It also goes through USB though. I thought about the 993 but I didn't think I wanted bluetooth at the time. Oh well.
Click to expand...

are you using an iphone 4? I'm wondering if the kenwood cable will fit with an iphone bumper.
 
I got a chance to hit the local audio store today. They had the KIV-700 on display but had no audio hooked up to it. I plugged the phone in via usb and it read my music fine. I had the nav app open and no sound was coming from the iphone speakers so I can only assume it was being sent through the headunit.

The KDC-X994 actually supports full audio over bt which they told me not all kenwoods do that. I ordered it anyway. If the KDC models work fine I can only hope this KIV-BT900 will play the voice commands.

I emailed kenwood and they told me the 3gs only passes ipod audio to the headunit. but they also said nothing was really tested with the iphone 4 and updated softwares. They also mentioned an external nav and how to hook that up so not really sure if they understood my question.
 
Not so much help but if they have one out the allows you to upgrade the firmware of the head unit it might be of value. Have a Kenwood excelon kdc-x943. When I got it played perfect with my iphone 3gs and I forgot which update on my iphone did it but the head unit would no longer control my iphone. So everything I did had to be done through the iphone except the volume. Have an ip4 now nothing has changed on the issue. Kenwood just said they had no real way of keeping head units up to date on every iphone update. Which is true but did not make me feel any better. BTW it still connects through the usb and will charge and play the music through my speakers but all song changing etc has to be done through my iphone.
 
rans0m00 said:
Not so much help but if they have one out the allows you to upgrade the firmware of the head unit it might be of value. Have a Kenwood excelon kdc-x943. When I got it played perfect with my iphone 3gs and I forgot which update on my iphone did it but the head unit would no longer control my iphone. So everything I did had to be done through the iphone except the volume. Have an ip4 now nothing has changed on the issue. Kenwood just said they had no real way of keeping head units up to date on every iphone update. Which is true but did not make me feel any better. BTW it still connects through the usb and will charge and play the music through my speakers but all song changing etc has to be done through my iphone.
Click to expand...

That really sucks. This one is update able but I'm sure they only make updates for short periods of time. It's made for an iphone and has no cd player so I would assume they'd stay on top of these models.
 
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