Oh yeah.. use a mild cleaner wax/polish. Rubbing compound would annihilate the thing. Maybe if you wanted to repaint it.

They make plastic polish.. but I think it would be same as general polish. Wonder what if you Zaino'd it..

 

ok good to know. mild cleaner then I'll wax the *****. I have some really mild wax that should do the trick. I'll look at it again in the morning when the sun is out and see if my point of view is different.

Guess I'm gonna go with a 5120; no point in putting something blingy in this, lol. People with the 8120 and 7120's: Where are you mounting your GPS receiver antennas?

 

I put mine above the red LCD panel where the factory navigation screen would go. Reception is very good, and there was a lot of room. I put the sirius unit and antenna here too.

 

Mine was put on the far right side of the dash next to the windshield. By the way, difference between the 5120 and 8120, a lot of it is that the 8120 is a MUCH higher end audiophile style radio. No comparison between the two, not to mention the 5120 doesn't have builtin bluetooth.

Put a different way, if you enjoy listening to the sound, get the 8120/812. I got the 812 because I already had the Kenwood Nav with my soon to be going on sale 819DVD and the two units are otherwise identical.

A bit of caution though. I found out that the new KAB connector on the 2008 video units doesn't have a splitter for multiple devices yet. Meaning if you get a new Sirius/XM/HD radio devices, you can only have one of them connected because none of them allow for passthrough.

My solution: I am going to connect the new HD200 into my oldstyle passthrough Sirius receiver view the old style 5 pin connector and then use the 5 pin/KAB adapter with the HD200 on the Sirius into the HU.

I won't be able to pick up XM channels on that receiver, but since I wasn't getting them anyway I can live with it for awhile.

 

Got my kit today after buying it on Ebay from Integrated Solutions. I don't have any of the finish problems others have had. I guess they like me more.

 

I am definitely a lot less knowledgeable about this stuff than I should be. I see the 8120 has 5.1 audio output for DVDs, but when listening to regular music, any stereo is going to output the sound to all the speakers and you can select with balance and fade, etc. Is there another difference like the SNR is better in 8120 or the D/A converters in the 8120 are better, or just overall better sound processing? Or is the same basic innards with a better screen better DVD playback, built in bluetooth, and better customizability?

Seems like sticking the antenna on the underside of the center console where the factory nav would have went is a good idea. I was thinking the same thing.

 

If you're not going to need/use the following: bluetooth, amplifier, new speakers, subwoofer. Then you don't need the 8120.

It's worth knowing that the 8120 has 2 year warranty vs 1 year in other units. But this is a small issue.. or a big one if yours dies a year later.

 

Here are the major differences off the top of my head:

1) 8120 has 5v RCA output on 6 channels, 5120 has 2.2v output on three channels.
2) 8120 has time alignment for speakers to account for distance from the listener, 5120 does not.
3) the 8120 has builtin bluetooth

Probably more but Kenwood's website can do a better job comparing them than I can.

 

Hey bro! How did u put ur name on that display????

 

You hold the mode button until you can change it. It's all detailed in the manual of the kit.

 

Sunday night I ordered my kit from installer.com and got the initial email. It said I would get another email when the item shipped. How long does it take them to process and ship the order? What has been the wait time for anyone else who ordered from installer?

 

Thanks man..i look forward to do that..hopefully i'll make it

 

they will ship them as they get them, there's no way to tell when you will have yours shipped because there's no way to tell how many people ordered it before you, you can call them and they might tell you where you stand on a list of people, they don't have a bunch of them to just ship out, so as metra sends them to them, they ship to there customers.

 

i ordered one Oct 7 and it still hasn't shipped.

 

I had ordered from them as well. I canceled because they told me when I ordered that I was # 2 on the shipping order, but then when I called 2 weeks later they told me I was # 5...

I ordered from www.absolutesoundsystems.com and got it in 2 days.

Absolute Sound, LLC
(520) 272-4781 / 795-2979

Chris

Installer.com still has not refunded my card.

 

There is a possibility that stock is being withheld because of the defects.

 

I will be installing a nav receiver and am reading the part of the instruction manual about the car speed signal input. Where do you hook up the speed signal input to? Is it necessary?

 

It is if your Nav unit requires it. I have a DNX8120 which does not need it. The manual states hooking it up to the ODB-II connector or something.. I didn't bother because I didn't need it.

 

I think the Metra kit might tell me but I haven't received it yet. I guess I'm just getting a little ahead of myself.

 

If your car stereo is talking about it then you need it.

 

\

Yes you need to connect the kit and the stereo to the obd 2 and yes the manual for the kit includes the wires to do this and instructions on how to wire it up.

 

If my stereo talks back to me, I'll ground it for a week.

 

Gotta agree with you a hundred percent with this. Don't get me wrong, there are some really nice features with the Metra kit and the fit is incredible, but the finish of these things really left a lot to be desired. Cant have it all I guess. I've done some mods to my 8 but nothing with the interior. I guess the minor defects can be cleared pretty easy but I just couldn't justify messing around with my interior and surrounding a $1200 radio with this thing.

I see that along with some others, you have tried to improve the finish with waxes and such. Has it worked? I noticed some pics a few pages ago where it looks like a wet sand had helped. Maybe I'm to **** about it but I gave up on mine and didn't even bother installing it. I know I'll have to take a loss but I'm trying to sell mine. Better off with somebody who can maybe work with the thing.

I really wanted to purchase the kenwood DNX8120 but have decided against it now. The corksport kit is crazy expensive and has those gaps and I just can't get past the color/ finish of the metra. I cant really see any future kits coming out for this car so I'll just stick with the bose system.

 

Just call a local bodyshop and get it painted.

It shouldn't cost all that much, especially if you do the prep work yourself.

 

I don't see how the finish of the kit has anything at all to do with what you put in it. Really once you have everything in you do not notice the bad finish at all. I'm sure those that actually have the kit can agree with me in spending $250 more for a headunit rather than spending $250 extra for a better finished kit like the Kanatech.
Really though.. if you wanted a fine finish just paint it. That's like $20 of paint max.