Good sounding head unit / NAV for car?

Whatever head unit you decide on, plug it into a pair of Milbert tube amps/crossovers.
https://milbert.com/
May as well upgrade the speakers/cable while you're at it. Separate battery setup is worth considering also.

If you haven't heard a setup, it's like experiencing a nice home setup for the first time. Imagine a good pair of headphones you can drive.

When the novelty wears off, you can always roll in some NOS bottles too.
The man cave isn't the only place for audio madness.

I actually had a system in my car where I employed an Audioquest dragonfly and connected my iphone to it. It soon became apparent, that any playlist or song change, etc. required me to take my eyes off the road and it was pretty problematic.

So I found a Bluetooth remote that would control my phone. But the whole thing was clumsy feeling in comparison to just using steering wheel control buttons.  

I am looking into the Kenwood and Pioneer NAV systems.  I am not planning on playing anything more than redbook or streaming Tidal.  

I have some portable daps that I can connect to phone, etc but I would like something all integrated instead of having to plug several things in at once, etc.  I don't like the sound of the factory system but one big benefit is that it is all integrated together and I don't have to fumble around with anything.  

" Since I am willing to spend, I'd rather get something newer, is easy to setup, and has all the features.  Are there any NAV or non-NAV units available that have more than decent quality of sound - something that stands out? "

When I was younger, I did quite a bit of work with car audio. A car is not a good environment for high end sound. Anything over Redbook is overkill, but its understandable that you want good sound. One solution would be to use your smartphone as a transport, and connect it to a AQ Dragonfly. Then you just plugin to an aux input on the head unit. I understand this isn't the right setup for everyone, but it may work for you. Its very low cost and if the transport in your current radio goes, it can be a good temp solution.

I have a Kenwood Excelon DVD/Garmin NAV unit that I've had for a couple of years now. I do like the sound a lot and am able to play up to 24/192 FLAC files as well. The 13 band EQ also allowed me to tame a big 60Hz hump in my bass. I'd highly recommend it.