New Kenwood DNX516DABS Sat Nav, Any Good?

Twoguns

Twoguns

Senior Member
T6 Guru
Just had a call from my conversion company telling me a slot has come up for next week due to somebody's van being delayed so I've jumped at the chance as it was booked for July due to their long waiting list.
My one concern with the build is the Sat Nav they have suggested, the new Kenwood DNX516DABS which I believe has only been out a couple of months if not weeks.
The research I've done doesn't show much up for this unit but the old one the DNX525DAB people don't seem too happy with. Apparently it was very slow and many had them replaced with Pioneer or other units.
Any feed back would be much appreciated.
 
IMG_1509.JPG IMG_1510.JPG We remove a lot of all the Kenwood units, from the 520, 521 and 525, we haven't had much dealing with the 516 as most are going for the factory nav unit,

All the above were slow, clunky user interfaces, terrible displays on the 521 and 525 and again these 2 sounded flat and gutless...

We much prefer the Pioneer AVIC F88dab for its intuitive interface, sound, speed and features, plus the interface is available for the parking sensor display and MFSW
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Absolut5 said:
View attachment 3779 View attachment 3778 We remove a lot of all the Kenwood units, from the 520, 521 and 525, we haven't had much dealing with the 516 as most are going for the factory nav unit,

All the above were slow, clunky user interfaces, terrible displays on the 521 and 525 and again these 2 sounded flat and gutless...

We much prefer the Pioneer AVIC F88dab for its intuitive interface, sound, speed and features, plus the interface is available for the parking sensor display and MFSW
Click to expand...
Thanks @Absolut5, does the Pioneer work with the factory rear camera?
 
I have the 525dab and at best it is ok, can't imagine the 516 being that much better to be honest. given the choice I would now go for the Pioneer or Alpine.
 
Absolut5 said:
If the vehicle has the Kenwood fitted from dealer with camera then yes, but if it has the camera which is used with Vw units then no
Click to expand...
I just had the standard basic unit fitted as I knew I was going to upgrade later. So if I was going to go for a Pioneer I'd have to have a new camera fitted too? Is that correct?
 
We had an older Kenwood one in our last California; it was pants.
Painfully slow to boot up, almost impossible to update, just poor.

Partly why we now have a Garmin Nuvi (superb nav, easy and free updates, etc) and the standard stereo that works instantly.
 
Polzeylad said:
We had an older Kenwood one in our last California; it was pants.
Painfully slow to boot up, almost impossible to update, just poor.

Partly why we now have a Garmin Nuvi (superb nav, easy and free updates, etc) and the standard stereo that works instantly.
Click to expand...
Looks like it's a universal hate for the Kenwood. It's not all about the Sat Nav part of the unit I'm interested in, it's all the other stuff like the multi media player, the Apple play type features and the sound quality are all important to me.
I think I'll tell them to just hook the amp and speakers up to the standard unit I have now unless they can fit the Pioneer unit mentioned earlier.
 
Installed 516 for my T6 yesterday and so far i love it. Especially Android Auto, nav directions to MFD, climate control display and great sound quality. Plus for me volume knob is must to have.

Startup speed isn't that great compared to Composition Media, but once booted up it's very snappy.
 
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RS83 said:
Installed 516 for my T6 yesterday and so far i love it. Especially Android Auto, nav directions to MFD, climate control display and great sound quality. Plus for me volume knob is must to have.

Startup speed isn't that great compared to Composition Media, but once booted up it's very snappy.
Click to expand...
@RS83 Thanks for the info mate. Have you had any experience with the previous 525 model to compare the both?
Have you got it connected to the parking sensors and rear camera?

Ref the start up time does anyone know if this is normal for aftermarket units to take longer to start up than factory units?
 
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With start up times the factory radio will use a basic os that starts up very quickly.

Aftermarket systems mostly use a windows os so it is to start up.
My old pioneer 9110bt in my t5 used windows xp. But you would only know if you tried to update the software.

Pretty sure my alpine x801d-u in windows based but a newer one.

It starts up in 10 secs.

It's superb.

Plus with the installation kit 801-t5 it's tilted towards you so no glare and it's a capacitive screen.

IMAG0375_zpstjcgvc99.jpg
 
Does the Alpine unit work with the mfd i.e. nav, radio and cd data?
I like the look of that and the fact the screen is less suscepatble to glare.
 
I've not noticed any glare on the factory fit, it looks like it will be a dog in sunshine but actually is fine, I have more problems with the set up in my Yeti.
 
Twoguns said:
@RS83 Thanks for the info mate. Have you had any experience with the previous 525 model to compare the both?
Have you got it connected to the parking sensors and rear camera?

Ref the start up time does anyone know if this is normal for aftermarket units to take longer to start up than factory units?
Click to expand...

Don't have parking sensors and my rear view camera is aftermarket and because of camera shutter that can't be connected to kenwood. But options for factory camera and parking sensors are there.

Sorry about dark pictures (it is dark in here)

Yc9mx7w.jpg

Does anyone know if that blue connector is for factory mic? And also where is reset button in this 516 (trying to change boot image)?

AyF2OkD.jpg

KTGstY8.png

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PUiNTmb.jpg
 
Alan Walsh said:
Does the Alpine unit work with the mfd i.e. nav, radio and cd data?
I like the look of that and the fact the screen is less suscepatble to glare.
Click to expand...

It's a mechless unit...ie no CD player unless you use an optional outboard one.

It fully works with the Mfd with the specific kit but does not display nav directions on mine but displays everything what like radio and songs. I suspect I need the Mfd coded to display the nav.

On my t5 I had real problems with glare in direct sunlight in the summer.


Dab still won't work. I think my unit might be faulty in the connector side.
 
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