Head unit upgrade.. Thoughts, regrets?

I have been checking out some of the new Kenwood and Alpine multi media head units and was just blown away with the features, looks etc.

I've seen a lot of members with older trucks upgrading but haven't ran across any of the the newer ones doing it. Curious if there is a reason or am I just missing the posts?

If you have shout out your opinions. Everything work, back up camera, steering wheel controls, etc? Phone, Mess with the warranty, blah blah etc?

I have 2018 crew cab and this mod would just about make the truck perfect to me but don't want to mess with any of the functionality of the truck or warranty. Thanks.

 

You must just not being seeing it....tons of threads on this. I gutted everything and went with a kenwood unit...money well spent!

 

Pictures Of your installation please.

 

Nice... All controls from steering wheel work?

 

Scroll through the audio/video forum. Plenty of good info

 

https://www.tundras.com/threads/vendeta2k’s-18-cement-build.18891/

 

With the maestro unit yes....all factory steering wheel controls work

 

I upgraded my HU on my 2018, using the HU I ran previously in my 2008.

Keep in mind the infotainment in these trucks is from 2012 at best. It was a huge upgrade in terms of features and the only things I lost were the volume/tuner knobs and shortcut buttons from the OEM deck.

 

I read on a few other threads that a new HU helped the sound a lot on the stock speakers. Did you find this to be true?

 

Absolutely - I replaced the headunit on my 2019 JBL with a

$450 Pioneer AVH-W4400NEX In Dash Multimedia Receiver with 7" WVGA Clear Resistive Touchscreen Display

Pioneer AVH-W4400NEX. Have Wireless Carplay now and it sounds great.

 

Nice thanks...did you DIY?

 

I went KENWOOD and love it. Check out my build page for full audio details.

https://www.tundras.com/threads/kilos-build-stella.8212/

 

Yes, I did - I read the posts on here and put in the Maestro RR to keep the controls. There are a lot of people who used Kenwood units - I would say those looked really nice but I went with the Pioneer because I wanted the wireless carplay.

 

Nice looks great! i think i could live with out the volume knob.

 

Thanks

 

Took a few days, don’t miss it anymore!

 

JBL, it helps a little due to better signal and adjustability

Non-JBL, it helps a lot due to more wattage from deck power

 

I have a JBL audio truck. 2018, 16k on it. The sound was terrible, but the kicker for me was the horrible speaker for phone calls. I couldn’t understand anything anyone was saying.

Yesterday I swapped in a Kenwood dnx995s with full maestro controls. Works great! Ran the kenwood microphone into the stock location, and I can once again take phone calls in my truck!

Added bonus, you can control the gain level on factory amp and it actually sounds like you would expect premium audio system to sound!

 

Upgraded my JBL head unit, and then put it back in. 2019 Crewmax.

I used the w8400nex from pioneer, and enough little things were broken that it annoyed me enough to send it all back.

Things that I can remember that didn't work, even with Maestro and correct programming:

• Cluster nav AND compass were non-functional. I knew up-front this would be the case, though I would have hoped the pane would just not show up at all given the stock HU wasn't in place.
• Cluster phone call info was missing and it behaved incorrectly (phone modal would pop up stating "incoming call", even if the call was outbound, and no call metadata ever made it to the cluster).
• Steering wheel controls for phone (answer/hang-up) did not function while in Android Auto. This is an issue with Pioneer units in particular, and was confirmed with their support people.

That said, what did work was amazing. I heard my factory sub for the first time. Android Auto is amazing. Higher res backup cam was awesome. The addition of the gauges seemed rather pointless, but being able to see error codes w/o going to dealer or autozone is a nice potential bonus.

If you can get past the integrations not being perfect and losing certain factory features, upgrading the head unit makes a noticeable different in these trucks.

 

Appreciate all the inputs... Like the Kenwood's but the wireless car play is nice and clean looking.

I'm not an audio snob but yeah the stock is really bad. I'm hoping the new HU will change the sound up enough for my needs. I checked out some of your speaker builds and wow very cool but way too much for me. Would some simple upgrades of the stock speakers in the doors work wonders as well or would I need the big amp and bass kicker?

 

I just swapped the stock HU for a kenwood dnx995s this last week. It’s night and day different. The JBL audio stuff sound good now.

I’ve had experience with kenwood. They imho have the best interface and garmin navigation.

 

Looks nice, Ive been checking out the DMX905S