im shopping for a new hu and i was wondering if the kenwood excelon x889 is as good as the tech specs say?also is there any disadvantages to having 5v preamps
If your amp can't handle the 5v outputs, you could have clipping issues, most of the time it won't be that big of a deal because it's only a 1v difference. You can get a dual-ganged potentiometer if you really need to turn the voltage down...otherwise I would avoid Kenwood. They never last for more than two years, if even that depending on use.