In depth Review: Kenwood DNR1007XR vs Alpine ILX-F511

I recently had the DNR1007XR and switched to the ILX-F511. Here are my thoughts on both.

They both have the pros and cons. The reason I switched is because the Alpine can auto connect to Android Auto. It's not a big deal to have to press the button manually to connect on the Kenwood, but I'm a type of person that just wants to get in the car/truck and go. My second reason was that I was hoping with a single din chassis, I would be able to get the dash kit flush mounted to the dash. Unfortunately, I was not able to because the Alpine comes with a mess of wires. I may pull it all back out and attempt some kind of wire clean up.

Kenwood vs Alpine
Installation: About the same. Although I think I struggled more with the kenwood's double din size. One plus with the kenwood is that it has all the RCA video connections hardwired into the unit. The F511 only comes with 1 RCA adapter for the alpine harness. If you want to connect the front camera, you have to purchase another adapter, which is $20 on crutchfield. It would have been nice if the Alpine slider moved in .5" increments to get a better installation, but 1" isn't horrible. It will only slide in that one extra position. So it's either fully in or out. It would have been a huge plus if the Alpine came with a din cover plate. So many cars these days come with double din radios.

• Connections: The kenwood is a very typical headunit. Built-in RCAs with only a few connections for the kenwood harness, GPS, and Mic. The Alpine uses all harness connections. This likely is how they are able to keep it sized to a single din and not double. This means you will probably have a bunch of unused connectors in the back of the radio. For the Tacoma, the limited space behind the 2G radio means that it's going to suck to install it. The Alpine's single din does mean you can tuck the wires under the chassis though, so it's a slightly easier install.
• The kenwood has front, left, right, and rear camera inputs. The alpine only has front and rear. The kenwood does not have a trigger input for the left/right inputs, so you either have to use the HU controls to switch, or use a video switcher like I did that funnels all the videos into the back up camera input so that it interrupts the screen when using the turn signals.
• The alpine comes with 2 usb connections. One is for charging usb devices, but at a low amp rate. The other is for AA/Carplay/USB media. The kenwood only comes with the single AA/Carplay/Media usb connections.
• The alpine comes with an HDMI in and out. Kenwood only has HDMI in. Both use a cover plate that prevents the HDMI cable from coming out, but the Alpine's design is only for thinner cables. I had to trim down the HDMI cable to make it fit whereas the same cable for the kenwood wasn't an issue.

Screen: The Kenwood's screen colors are better. It's not even a close comparison. The vibrancy of the Kenwood is far better than the Alpine. I've searched around and it doesn't seem like the washed out screen of the F511 is limited to this model. This is also true for the backup camera on the alpine. The color is so faded that it almost looks black and white. They both have the same resolution, but that's about it. The F511's black area of the screen is thinner than the 1007XR, so the display area is larger. The F511's lighting is more advanced though. It uses a light sensor to automatically dim the back light so it's not bad at night. It doesn't have an orange wire that you have to connect. You can also adjust the dimness by 2 increments, but leaving it default worked well. The Kenwood uses the standard orange wire, but it barely dims at all. It's still super bright at night. The alpine screen is thinner than the kenwood's.

Function: Both are very responsive. Neither have any sort of lag when switching between the various settings or menus. Obviously, the alpine does not have a volume knob, but I rarely use that anyways.

• Equalizer: Kenwood has the better interface. It's much easier to use because you can just touch which band you want to change and slide it on the screen. The alpine makes you use the buttons below the EQ to switch bands and adjust the gain. Where the alpine shines is that you can move the bands around to adjust which bands you want to adjust the gain. The kenwood is locked into the standard EQ range. Not a huge deal for most people, but it's fun to play with. The Slope GUI is equally difficult to use in the Alpine, but the Kenwood's is easier to understand. They both have 3 user presets. The Alpine is easier to save. You press and hold the preset you want to save your custom tune to and it saves it. The kenwood, you have to go through a separate menu to save the custom setting.
• Timing: They both have timing, but Kenwood also has a built-in setting that can adjust for the front driver. I didn't see anything like that for the Alpine.
• Startup: I feel like the Alpine starts up a hair faster than the Kenwood. It also doesn't make you wait 10 seconds to see what's being displayed on the HU. The kenwood has the annoying user warning that last 10 seconds before it goes away. The alpine also auto connects to AA and Carplay, so that's a huge win in my book.
• Updates: The only way to update the Kenwood is by using a flash card that you plug in behind the screen. The Alpine is able to perform over-the-air updates, however, it couldn't find my phone's hotspot. It would only connect to home wifi signals. It can also use the standard usb port.
• Customization: The kenwood allows you to upload your own wallpaper using another kenwood app. The kenwood has a bunch of color options for the physical buttons on the screen. You can go from pink to white and all the colors in between. The alpine does not have customizable wallpapers or button colors.
• Phone calls: I had issues with the kenwood's BT phone calls. The person I called would get an echo of their own voice. However, this didn't happen during Android Auto calls. I have not made any calls yet using the Alpine, but will update if there is something peculiar.
• Android Auto: Both units performed well. They're both fast and responsive. I had no issues with either unit recognizing my voice for google commands. I use my custom oem mic adapter, so performance may vary with which mic you end up installing.
• Carplay: I don't use apple products except for work. Sorry
• Alerts: It was cold this morning and one of my tires was reporting 24psi, so when the HU started it, it showed me the vehicle status with the 24psi in red. That was unexpected to see, but pretty cool. The kenwood was also good at alerts. It would give you a chime and then display the issue.

Overall - both units are very good with the Kenwood having many features that are better than the Alpine. I'm a function over form kind of person for the most part, so the screen colors is not as big of an issue for me as the auto connection to AA.

 

Alpine


Kenwood

 

Phone call update
I am having issues with the Alpine during calls. If I initiate calls from the HU, I get some kind of electronic feedback followed by about 30 seconds of no audio before it starts to work. I tested this multiple times by calling a company that has an automated telephone service. I also tested by calling my sister. If I take a call, the audio comes in right away. In both scenarios, the other person would hear static and echo. I was able to make a small improvement by going into the HU settings and changing the Microphone EC/NR to 3 (for large spaces), but it was not ideal. I then switched my phone's BT setting. It was initially set to "Other" and I changed it to Headphones. This made a much bigger improvement in call quality for the other person. The same call quality issue occurs if I use the HU to make the call, but not so from my phone. I don't think this is a mic issue because of the initial delay when I use the HU.

I have the enfig mic that I'm going to try next. It's raining on Saturday, so I probably won't get to do anything until next weekend.

 

I found the video settings for the camera and was able to adjust the colors. Too bad there's no adjustment for the screen itself.

 

Thanks for all this info... I might upgrade one day when I have money back in my account after buying the truck and about $2500 worth of other upgrades

 

Wanted to update. The enfig mic is working well. The Alpine didn't like my OEM adapter like the Kenwood. Also, I found a way to adjust the rear view camera settings. If you put the truck in reverse so the rear view camera video displays, you can touch the display and it will bring up a menu. From here, you can shut off the alpine grid lines and move the warning text from the top to bottom. Moving it to the bottom is the best option since it doesn't block your view at all. I sometimes had trouble seeing what was behind me because of the text when it was at the top.

 

On the alpine grid lines, do the yellow lines turn with the steering wheel like he factory radio does. Overall which radio did you prefer the alpine or the Kenwood?

 

The oem lines in my 2.5 gen doesn't turn with the wheels. I'm not sure if there's a feature in the RR2 that would allow that in a 3rd gen. The alpine on its own will not curve. I prefer the alpine over the kenwood. The panel brightness is almost unbearable for night driving on the kenwood. I like that alpine has different levels of brightness you can set. The audio level for navigation can also be set on the alpine as opposed to just using your phone.

I honestly don't miss having the volume button like some people keep saying I would. I used steering wheel controls 99% of the time, so it's unnecessary.

There is also a screen protector made specifically for the alpine which you can't tell is even on there. Kenwood doesn't have any.