Thank you, will do. I’m glad you appreciated it!

​@@carstereochick Is this still kenwoods latest model??

Thank you! So glad you found it helpful!

Thank you :)

Thank you! And love your cat profile pic 😉

I checked last month and was told it's not discontinued, just been backordered because of chip supply issues. I think largely related to Garmin on this particular model. I have some on order and last I checked they're hoping to see these ship in Spring/Summer, but no solid dates. So no replacement that I'm aware of at this time and yeah, HDMI would probably be added on a future model as I'm seeing that on some of the other newer models. I hope you're feeling and doing better now!

@@carstereochickThank you for the quick reply and the well wishes! 😊🙏 That's interesting information because I see some websites still say they're on backorder but then when I looked at crutchfield it says discontinued on the 997 XR. At least I've finally have mine so when I'm up to installing it I already have the PAC module GM1A-RST, My front and rear cameras and my XM tuner. Take care and thank you again! 😊

Hi Jay, thank you so much! Great question - they do effect the RCA pre-outs as well.

Hi Nathan! Sadly I never did get the Apple USB mirroring to work, but truthfully I haven't had the time to play around with it. Dynamic park guidance lines - that is typically an overlay done by the Maestro in compatible vehicles. If your vehicle is not compatible, you can always put on the fixed park guidance lines. You can turn those on/off and adjust them on the screen in the set up menu under the camera settings. OEM guidance lines are a tossup. In some vehicles we find the guidance lines are part of the camera, but sometimes they are actually part of the factory radio screen. I hope that is helpful!

Some of the earlier Kenwood models had a separate A/V menu for smartphone where you could tell it what device you're using, but off the top of my head, I don't think model has that. It supports both and you should be able to easily switch between devices without changing settings (like if you have a personal iPhone and a work Android for example). Without playing around with it myself, I don't know what you mean by it's stuck on Android. Hmm, try going to Menu -> Setup -> A/V (with the smartphone icon) -> Apple CarPlay Device List. You may see your device listed there and just be able to tap it to reconnect. If not, I would clear the memory and delete whatever devices are stored in there and then do the same from your phone and re-establish connection. Sometimes you just have to clear memory from both devices if you're having trouble connecting. Is it working thru the wired connection? Just not wireless?

I have not had any issues, all of the Kenwood receivers I've been selling for at least the past 4 years are complete workhorses which is one of the reasons I love them. I try to stay away from refurb's because you don't really have the whole story. Someone could have spilled coffee on in it, cleaned it up and then returned it saying it didn't work right and then eventually it ends up for sale on eBay or Amazon as a refurb. However, United Radio is great, that's where I send out radios for repair as well and in 20+ years I can only recall 1 instance where a repaired radio had to go back out and that was due to a broken volume knob, not a board/electrical issue. They warranty their repairs for 1 year. Edit: Excuse my manners - thank you for watching! I'm glad you found it helpful :)

@@carstereochick Thank you so much for your reply and the information! I have read a lot of good reviews about United Radio so hopefully they did a thorough check out in their quality control department before shipping it back to me. I'll find out on Tuesday when it arrives! I tend to shy away from the refurbished units also but since I couldn't find the DNX 997 XR I opted for the refurbished 996 XR. I must admit United Radio was really on the ball about their communications with me and letting me know timely updates. I'm just hoping that the unit works okay because I certainly don't want to pull out my console of my C6 Corvette twice! Keep up the great work on your channel here it's very informative! Thank you again!

YES! That is super annoying and I forgot to mention that, great point. That drives me nuts how you have to leave the SD card in there after you do a map update.

Thanks for the good points.

That can be done with the iDatalink Maestro ADS-MRR and K40 radar when programmed for "Any Car". The handful of cars we've used that in were actually not Maestro compatible. Working on editing a video now with this feature in a 2013 Lamborghini Gallardo. Will probably be out next month.

Yes, it's the same resolution 1280x720

The Main differences between the DNX997XR and the DNX697S are the motorized capacitive display that tilts so you can find the optimum viewing position, the wireless support for Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, and the up to four cameras. Your Yukon XL doesn't need the motorized display because the radio seats high... The 3-way speaker setup is a nice one that will put you back to the old school mode.

@@velocast Thanks for that info. I'm thinking of buying two units, one for a 2005 Silverado the other is a 97 Land Cruiser. I doubt that either are new enough to work with Maestro so there would be options I'm paying more for. Actually, both units probably support Maestro input/output. I kinda like the top slot loading more than a motorized display. Wireless Carplay would be cool though. Hmmm

Hi William, thanks! Unfortunately no way to change or add what is being displayed on the secondary source screen shortcuts. My understanding is it just to display the same 4 icons you have on the home screen. Regarding the camera message, I think there is a way to change it. I don't have that model on display at the moment, but I do have a similar model and if I go into Setup > Camera > Rear Camera Message options are Always Display or Clear After 5 Seconds. I don't see any option to turn off completely, but at least you might be able to make it go away after 5 seconds.

Sure if you keep the volume at a lower level. Loudness is a misnomer. It’s for listening at lower volumes, it boosts frequencies that are harder to hear at lower levels. If used at higher volumes it can cause distortion.

Thanks Elvir, I'm so glad you found it helpful! I don't have an ETA right now, but I have a meeting scheduled with my Kenwood insider after the holidays and I will be sure to prod him for some answers. I'll keep you posted.

@@carstereochick thank you so much. Happy Holidays!!!

Happy Holidays to you too!

The hang up has something to do with Garmin supposedly. Apparently they are still dealing with chip shortage issues that affect this particular model. The general consensus with the folks I spoke with is they're *hoping* these delays are cleared up in a couple months or at least by summer, but there's no guarantee. It is not discontinued. In fact I just put an order in for some and basically hoping they show up in the Spring. I have seen shipping/product availability improve on some of the less sophisticated models. We're even seeing price drops which is great, so it seems supply chain issues are improving, but this model is still affected at the moment.

Oh, that's a really good question. I had to dig the manual out for that because we don't get HD inside our showroom!. Right where the channel is displayed "95.5 HD1" - right before the "9" should be a small, round up/down icon. When you tap that it should toggle between the various HD channels available on that station.

@@carstereochick yeah I must not have a strong enough HD signal because it's grayed out on the top. Once in awhile it turns gold like it's on for real I'm certain channels.. I'm wondering if this radio has an antenna attenuation adjustment like the ones in the olden days LOL. 07 nitro and I drive a Kenworth with an old beat-up HD radio in it and they both get HD fine so something with this new one going on possibly

I figured it out. Metra harness had an extra wire that had to be wired in to the amp remote. Silly. I was at my wits end

What car? SiriusXM through iDatalink only works on select years, makes and models - you may need the SXV300 tuner for your install. Have seen this feature in some GM models, but not all because sometimes the SiriusXM tuner is built into the OEM radio so that feature is really vehicle specific and even sometimes trim level specific. Regarding the other issues - if you're not getting any info from iDatalink module, SWC not working, not turning on stock amplifier, etc. you may have a bum ADS-MRR or perhaps you entered the radio serial # incorrectly when flashing the module. I once had a client have a similar issue and I told him to bring in the ADS-MRR he bought online so I could try and see what was up and flash it for him. Turned out he had an ADS-DEMO-RR which is what I use for display purposes. It's packaged exactly like a regular module, but it won't actually ever work in a car. I would try re-flashing the Maestro and resetting it. One thing I learned is you should flash it for a completely different year, make and model vehicle to properly clear/reset the unit. Sometimes if you just re-flash it for the same exact car it's like it doesn't clear the cache properly in the module.

Ah! I was going to say that at 1st, but was thinking SWC and everything else in the Maestro wasn't working. Good job troubleshooting!

I thought I had included that! Whoops, it's a solid 23 seconds, I timed it. I guess I forgot to include that clip in the final video. Great question, sorry I forgot to include! I have Kenwood in my Jeep and honestly I always remote start my car so it's on by time I get in and even if I don't remote start, it always takes me time to get settled in before I take off so the slower start up time never bothered me.

@@carstereochick Thank you! Great review, by the way. I'm always looking for the next best radio out there.

Also it is the DDX9907XR did you review that model?

So the WiFi is for using wireless CarPlay/Android Auto. The way that works is you 1st pair to the stereo like any Bluetooth setup. The initial handshake is done by Bluetooth and then the rest of the connection is done by WiFi. That's how the radio is wirelessly sending the information to the display, it's done over WiFi transmission, but it's not like the receiver itself has any type of cellular data or internet, it's just how the audio/visual information is transmitted wirelessly. I can't answer your second question unless you tell me what model amp you're using. You're either going to set up the crossovers on the head unit or on the amp, but not both. Assuming it's just a subwoofer amp (mono) you could put the high pass filter on the interior speakers (HPF) to 80 Hz which tells the interiors to play 80 Hz and up. Normally we set the sub filter (LPF) at the amp to the same thing so the sub plays 80 Hz and down. I'm a fan of the Kenwood eXcelon products. This and the DDX9907XR (same features basically minus built in GPS) or the DMX958XR are some of my favorite sounding head units.

Hi Martin, I’m so glad you enjoyed the review! Due to global supply chain issues, availability on most car stereos is quite limited right now. Your best bet is to reach out to an eXcelon dealer in your area and see if they’ll let you reserve a backorder. Keep in mind, lots of small shops like mine are only selling head units with installation services because of the limited supply. If you don’t have any dealers in your area, I believe Crutchfield can at least notify you when they get some back in stock.

Some Pioneer decks have that feature too.

I'm assuming you mean it's receiving stations analog only, so the actual FM/AM tuner is working, just no longer receiving HD? It's possible the receiving mode accidentally got changed. When you're on the FM/AM tuner screen, there is an arrow or tab on the left side. Tap that tab and there is an option that says something like RCV for receive mode. Make sure both analog and digital are checked off.

Both of those are off, it’s on auto. It won’t let you change between stations or channels unless you do it on the FM 01, FM 02 etc options it gives you on the right side of the screen, and even then none of them work nor play anything so thought I’d ask you on here since I haven’t found anything about it online and it just did it randomly out of nowhere

Can you be more specific? When you said the HD radio stopped out of nowhere, I assumed you meant the HD was no longer working as in all of the stations that were normally there were available, but no longer coming in HD quality. Are you saying you can only cycle through existing presets? And you can't do manually tuning? So when you hit the up/down arrows towards the bottom of the screen that you were using to seek stations, it's instead cycling through your presets? Is that correct? If so, on the top of the screen it says Auto 1 Auto 2 or Manual. Tap it until it says manual and you'll get it back to manual tuning when you tap those arrows. Auto 1 makes it seek strongest, Auto 2 changes the function to preset seek and Manual is manual tuning. May seem redundant, but this is how you change what the functions on your steering wheel controls are doing. Some want preset seek, some want regular seek and others just want manual tuning.

Sorry if it doesn’t make sense but I can do all of that except none of the stations seem to work. No sound plays at all, seems like they’re not getting any signal at all

Okay, that's odd. No sound plays at all, as in it's dead silent on all channels? Or is it static? The only time I've ever seen that happen where it's dead silent, is when the receive mode got accidentally changed to digital only. I know you said it's on auto, but have you tried switching it to analog only to see if it receives? I'm assuming it's dead silent. If there is static on all channels then I would suspect an antenna connection or antenna issue. Or maybe the region got changed somehow. You can also try a hard reset. Go into menu, setup, special and select initialize. That will reset ALL settings back to factory, but the audio recall feature should still be applicable (according to the manual). If you haven't saved your audio settings, I would go in there and save it under audio memory before you reset so you can recall it after.

If you are a sound quality person I prefer this Kenwood. I have sensitive ears - especially to top end frequency range and although I love the features of Pioneer, I do prefer the sound of this Kenwood. Personally I think it is more detailed, a lot smoother, punchier in the bass because of the higher voltage pre-amp and more audio control features. Graphics and looks/ease of use? I think Pioneer does a better job in that department. Reliability? Kenwood. Much lower failure rate.

@@carstereochick I appreciate the response. Just can't believe how much it costs. Thank goodness for pay in 4 paypal lol

LOL I know, but hey, if you don't need sat based GPS navigation or CD consider the DMX957XR.

Has the HD screen and 5 volt per channel. Perfect. Thank u

@@carstereochick Just some info. None of them have Navigation built in the DNR and DNX series are nav units. The Only difference in the DMX957XR and DDX9907XR is the DVD player. Now didn't really need to watch this video but got on your channel after you done the comparison of the 9907 and the 7706. I have 2 of the 9907XR's after I got mine about a year ago then wifey decided she liked it. so now we have 2. but just ordered the 706 for my daughters car. and was watching the distortion comparisons. Would really liked to seen the distortion on the internal amp after you turned the bass level down. As my daughter doesn't have amp or amps and will be running off the HU for a bit til she saves her pennies to upgrade.

Hi Marco - Sounds Incredible Mobile, we're in Brookfield, CT.

Yes.

Download it from Kenwood's website - unzip it directly into a small USB drive formatted to FAT32. Nothing else can be on the USB drive and for some reason smaller USB drives work better - I use an 8 gig for updates. Then with the car running, plug the USB in, the radio will recognize there is updated firmware and ask if you want to update. Tap yes and let it do its thing. Check your firmware version 1st, depending on when you purchased it, you might already have the latest software. Here is a link to the update which also has step by step instructions. www.kenwood.com/cs/ce/mm/firmware/2020/2020a/eng.html

Yeah, I realized I forgot to go over that after I recorded everything. At 3:47 I do show my DMX7704s which has the same FM/AM tuner operation. It has scrolling presets - which I can't stand. And you can't do preset up/down through SWC programming. Good catch!

I'm pretty sure you can renew right through the app on your phone.

@@carstereochick thanks

If your TPMS light goes off it’s nice to know which tire specifically is low. Some vehicles give you that info anyways, but there are some cars that just pop up with the generic light. Definitely not a feature everyone can use, but the few that can do appreciate the added vehicle info. I don’t think it needs to be a widget on the home screen though, could just leave it in the vehicle info screen. Thanks for watching!

@@carstereochick sorry, I was just being a 50 year old fat! I'm well aware of what it is and it's usefulness... I was into car audio since the 80's and have seen many things regarding car audio since then! It's just not what it used to be! All brands look the same! Have the same or similar features! Everything is buried in a menu! I just want to listen to some music and have instant access to some key controls that I can adjust without looking while I'm driving... I only look at the menu when I'm hungry... What happened to the days when 95% of everything that was adjustable was right there on the face of the head unit? I don't know, maybe I'm just old? But I have always had a great system in all my car's while most if not all the people who also got into car audio that I personally knew just have whatever came with the car these days... These people only did it just to be better than everyone else, but it didn't bother me! It was only ever about the music! All this DSP stuff isn't as good as people believe it to be! Go ahead and pull out a speaker from a later model car and connect it to a normal amplifier and compare it to a normal car speaker! You will quickly hear how much work that DSP has to do to get it to sound the way that it does... And you can't just upgrade the factory speakers either! The DSP isn't programmed to work with anything else other than what came with the car! Yeah I know, first world car audio problems LoL... My kids are just as old school as me! I figured that if I got them into it, they couldn't afford drugs... It worked for me and it's worked so far on them... That's what I call good parenting... Anyway, enough rantings from me! You have a great channel, you kinda remind me of a car audio shop that I walked into back in the 90's where they had a female sales girl working! She was talking to me about car audio and melting my heart in the process! I think that I spent far to much money in that place LoL! But I was on a different high... The good kind...

That is really interesting, I have never come across that issue when updating Kenwood models with the latest Garmin maps. Have you reached out to Kenwood about this?

@@carstereochick reading through questions and complaints on forums apparently they're not much help, Garmin express is only giving the 2019 update there's not even an option to buy something, So that just leaves me experimenting with maps i can find for free. Pirate bay here I come

Mine has never worked and Kenwood has been useless. Updates don't work and now I have nothing on my right channels.

@@donniehoward6821I managed to find some unlocked maps on forums but they don't work the same as the original, Maybe try a factory restore see if that fixes anything?

Technically, yes, but just keep in mind you'd also need an HDMI to analog adapter to do that which will step down/degrade picture quality. Usually we are using the A/V-in to do things like retain a rear seat entertainment system in a 2013 Tahoe with the premium Bose/Navigation radio for example.

The lower panel with the volume controls failed? I'm extremely surprised to hear that. Out of all the brands I carry, Kenwood has the lowest failure rate. The ONLY time I've ever had a client with a Kenwood where the lower button panel failed it was due to liquid intrusion. Wrangler owner, top off, got caught in the rain. It has a 2 year warranty, did they repair it for you? Or did it happen past the warranty period? For the Wrangler client, he was past his warranty, but I was able to get it fixed for around $180 at United radio. I do agree the lack of updates on the GPS is pretty crappy.

I know! But wireless mirroring for Android at least ;)

@carstereochick I bought a dnx996xr, so wireless mirroring is dope, I have an S21 Ultra, and I'm using Samsung DEX on the indash. 👍