Hi,



I thought I would post a review of my new system. I recently installed a
new Kenwood Excelon KDC-X679 HU, a KAC-X541 4 channel amp, Sirius tuner,
Orion amp, Polk Momo 6 x 9 speakers in front, older Polks 6 x 9's in the
back and a home made sub-10" Titanic driver.



Pros: Kenwood Excelon KDC-X679 HU A beautiful HU with all the bells and
whistles. The HU has an angle adjustment, a sub out, 5 volt preamp, and
everything else you would ever want. It's even HD ready. One of the
reasons I bought the Kenwood HU is that it supports Sirius. I did the
research and for me Sirius was the way to go.



Cons: The volume control is a little small and makes it difficult to use
when on a bumpy road. The work around is to use the remote. The remote
works well but you have to press 3 to 5 buttons (depending on the channel)
to change channels. You can't change channels using the Siruis tuner
without the remote. The HU allows for several channels you can program into
memory but 6 memory channels doesn't cut it. Also, the manual is not very
comprehensive and doesn't really explain crossover points and settings all
that well. I found this true for all the Excelon products I purchased.



Pros: KAC-X541 4 channel amp: Lots of clean power, built in crossovers, gain
settings, thermal fan, gold plated posts, all in a very cool looking
aluminum case. There is even an LCD that lets you monitor the vitals of the
amp. I had my heart set on a JL or Sound Stream amp but then I found out
that I could control the amp's crossover settings and monitor a whole slew
of functions via the HU. This amp sounds wonderful with lots of clean
power. Unfortunately, I only have an older Orion amp for comparison which I
haven't gotten around to testing.



Cons: Unfortunately, I haven't received an email from Kenwood on how to
hookup the Sirius tuner and the cable which allows you to control the amp.
They both plug into the CD changer plug on the back of the HU. CD changers
come with a pass through but not the Sirius tuner. It has a plug for
"Slave" which is the same pin configuration as the tuner/amp but when I
hooked a cable from the Sirius tuner to the amp I couldn't get into the
amp's control screen. I called Crutchfield and was told I would have to buy
an A/B switch for about 75.00 and mount the switch somewhere that I could
have access to it and then they said it may not even work. While I like the
amp I doubt I would have purchased it if I had known that I couldn't control
it from the HU. Honestly, I turned off all the electronics (crossovers and
filters) and am using the crossovers built in to the HU. In any event, the
amp is built well and is laid out nicely. When I turn up the volume I have
loads of clean power at my disposal. Having the fan is nice insurance too.



Pros: Sirius tuner: Awesome. Even on a rainy day I have excellent
reception. This really surprised me since my home satellite goes out on
rainy days at times. Sirius offers and excellent selection of content and
the best thing is that the SQ is CD quality. I've compared CD's and the SQ
of the Sirius tuner and found them to be equally great.



Cons: It would be great if the tuner was built into the HU. I also think
that 9.99 is the right price and that 13.00 a month is a bit high.



Pros: Polk Momo: These speakers came with beefy external crossovers which I
mounted inside my door panels. The sound is awesome. The highs on a piano
may sound a little artificial but I think this is par for the course with
car speakers. Overall the sound is well rounded and very smooth. I want my
Pathfinder to look as stock as possible so I didn't use the grills or buy
component speakers. These speakers have a beautiful stylish aluminum basket
which is a shame to hide inside a door. They are buit very well too. My
second choice were Infinity speakers but I had an older pair of Polks and
wanted to match my fronts and back as best as possible.



Cons: The grill covers are a bit cheap. I mounted the speakers in my doors
and left the stock grill covers.



Pros: Orion Cobalt Blue Amp - I have this baby bridged. It does a great job
of powering my 10" DIY subwoofer. I bought this amp used for 35.00 and it
worth every penny. I believe this amp puts out about 230 watts bridged. I
have the gain on my HU's sub adjustment at about +7 db's. This gives me
lots of bass at lower volumes. At higher volumes I need to turn this
adjustment down.



Cons: The speaker connections don't support larger gauge speaker wire.



Overall I'm quite pleased with my system. My wife wants satellite radio now
after hearing my system. So I may give her my Excelon amp and but a JL or
Sound Stream. Interesting enough Crutchfiled sells the Excelon amp for over
400.00. I bought it for about 220.00 which is not a bad buy for a 4 channel
amp with this quality.

Cons: The volume control is a little small and makes it difficult to
use
when on a bumpy road. The work around is to use the remote. The
remote
works well but you have to press 3 to 5 buttons (depending on the
channel)
to change channels. You can't change channels using the Siruis tuner
without the remote. The HU allows for several channels you can
program into
memory but 6 memory channels doesn't cut it. Also, the manual is not
very
comprehensive and doesn't really explain crossover points and
settings all
that well. I found this true for all the Excelon products I
purchased.

I thought I'd add, for anyone interested, that a couple of the above
points are incorrect.

- You CAN change channels on Sirius using the headunit, in fact you
have full functionality for selecting a new channel by number, or by
genre. The display is also fully customizable so you can display 2
combinations of channel/artist/song name/clock etc.

- There are more than 6 memory channels, in fact there are at least 4
banks of 6 which is plenty for most people. I store all my Sirius news
channels on bank 1, pop music on 2, classical on 3 etc.