What the hell are you talking about that "kenwood is 90% software and 10% good sound quality?.... pioneer is 100% sound and software!" ?
That makes absolutely no sense. Have you ever even owned a Kenwood?
Like a handful of other people on this board, I appreciate better sound components in my stereo. Pioneer is a lot of flash and cute graphics, but you have to spend well over 3 bills to get something that's considered on par with the upper echelons of head units.
Kenwood has had build quality issues with the DMASK setup. I don't deny that. But I can look past that knowing that the MP919 in my MSP is much better s/q-wise (to my ear) compared to anything under the Pioneer P8600MP in their lineup. My friend has a P860MP - lots of flash, some neat features, but otherwise hohum.
For my money I'll take a Kenwood KDC-X589 with 4 volt preouts, Burr Brown DACs, and a much better S/N ratio than Pioneer ever had - all that from onlinecarstereo.com for $180. Try getting that in a Pioneer for anything under $300.
Here's a little armchair comparison of specs for the Pioneer 770MP and P80MP with two Kenwood Excelons:
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-yy39YO3jxIi/cgi-bin/ProdComp.asp?g=300&c=3&s=0&cc=01&pt2=0&ITM113KDCX589=on&ITM130DEHP770=on&ITM113KDCX789=on&ITM130DEHP80M=on&x=28&y=1
Ben
P.S. I also owned a Kenwood back in 1996 - again much better quality than anything Pioneer had for the same price at that time.
P.P.S. I wouldn't buy a regular Kenwood these days - just the Excelons. Better components and longer warranty.
(ebay)
