The shop I'm talking to is looking into the new Kenwood DNX 8120 due out soon instead of the AVIC D3. The 8120 looks pretty slick but I also think it has a lot of stuff I don't need, like the video inputs. I saw there is a 5120 coming out as well which might fit more into what I'm looking for. I did talk to them about trying the possibility of putting the RNS-E in and fabricating a new face plate to match my B5 dash but it sounds like it's going to be more trouble (and money) than its worth. and I'm still not 100% sure the RNS-E can control the ipod the way i want. Seems like people with RNS-E just use the SD cards.

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I had never seen a head unit rust from the inside out. This was over 10 years ago but that was more than enough to keep me from buying another Kenwood product.

If you're only interested in NAV and Ipod playback, its one of the better units out there.

actually the nav is probably the least important to me. I'm really focused on ipod, sirius and bluetooth. That was all the video inputs seem like such overkill for me.

Remember that the Sirius tuner, the ipod cable and the bluetooth adapter are all add-ons so that will add at least $300 to the price of all of these units.

I couldn't find any information on the Kenwood but my biased opinion would say to look at Eclipse and Pioneer before Kenwood.

they had some capable DSP units. That's really the only reason I'm planning to install Alpine is because of the DSP (PXA-H701). Otherwise I would have rather had the AVIC-D3 or an Eclipse.

The DCU-105 has nowhere near the capability of the PXA-H701. The only thing that really comes close to it on the market right now is the Rockford 3sixty.2 and maybe the PPI DCX-730 or the Audiocontrol DQX.

For my particular system I need the processing capabilities because I have no passive crossovers in my system. Everything is crossed over electronically and each speaker is connected to it's own dedicated amp channel.