After going back and forth between a head unit or the Clarion EQ, I decided to just go ahead and replace the HU. So last night, I installed the Kenwood eXcelon KDC-x395 and took the boat out on the water today for a full day of testing.

With the old head unit, an eXcelon KDC-x692, I recently started having horrific whining noise even with the volume on zero and the engine off. And it was audible in all three zones so it was coming through all three sets of RCA's. I was also getting horrible alternator noise thru the speakers when the engine was running. Also, my remotes were working sporadically at best - for example, if I pushed the volume up button 15 times, it might respond once.

Well, I am happy to say that the new head unit took care of all my troubles. No more noise, either with the engine on or off, and both my remotes work perfectly again! I even replaced one of the remotes this summer thinking it was faulty but it turned out to be the head unit.

I really like this new HU - it can control your iPod/Iphone or you can control it thru the iPod. And I can now pause or skip to the next song on the iPhone thru the remote! Before, all I could do was control volume and mute.

Worked great all day - I am a happy camper! So if you are experiencing some of the symptoms I described above and you've checked all your wiring and it's all good, then it could very well be your head unit.

Al