Head Unit Comparison

C-Man

Hey guys,
I currently have the Pioneer Deh-P8400 head unit. I love this unit but everyone I know is buying it and I'm the type of guy who likes to have things my friends don't... long story. Anywho I think I'm gonna give the 8400 to my girlfriend and buy a new one. I'm looking at the Alpine CDA-7995, I don't have a lot of personal experience with the newer Alpine decks and I'm just wondering if they are similarly equipped to the 8400. Which would all of you prefer? Any info would be great. Thanks

Chris

sntnsupermen131

im not sure about the exact model...but how much are you willing to spend?
-Cody

C-Man

Well this model is on sale in Crutchfield for 299. I did a comparison on Crutchfield.com and they are almost identical in features... the only real difference is that the 8400 has a 3 band EQ and the 7995 doesn't.
I'd rather not spend over $300 online/Ebay.

sntnsupermen131

check out www.onlinecarstereo.com
www.carmedia1.com
www.electronicscity.com
they usually have the cheapest prices
i know onlinecarstereo carries warranty
not sure about the other 2
i dont have time right now or else id look up some models for you myself
alpine and pioneer are both good brands...i have a pioneer...i love it
some ppl swear by alpine
eclipse makes very good head units
so does nakamichi(spelling?), theyre not as "snazzy" as the pioneers/alpines...but hey, it might keep it from getting stolen too...
-Cody

C-Man

Yeah I've got the 8400 now, and I love it, but my girlfriend has been begging me to give it to her, and if I could save some money on this Alpine and get roughly the same features/sound quality out of it, then I would go ahead and buy it.

MTXMAN

Personally i'd take an eclipse over the alpine... the Eclipse CD8443 is supposed to have incredible sound quality and if you want to spend a little more you can add the "commander advance" to your system... voice controlled car... sweet... talk about having something that none of your friends will have ;D

check it out at
http://www.eclipse-web.com/

Good huntin

C-Man

I know less about the Eclipse than either of the other two, and the website kinda leaves it up in the air. Are there a lot of controls on the Eclipse to fine tune my sound? I like to have that instead of just Bass, Treble, fade and balance.

sntnsupermen131

again, not sure about the individual unit, but eclipse units are BAD ****
my brother has an old model one in his truck
and its nice
they have GREAT sound quality
better than that of alpine and pioneer
well...their higher end units are
but they are really sweet decks
but again i love pioneer...i have the 940MP and its sweet too
i stil dont know how to use all the options though...which is good and bad
nice to know i can...but a lot of ppl dont have time to mess with it
one day ill get the book in sit in the truck for a couple of hours and get everything adjusted
lol
-Cody

MTXMAN

Dude i'd go with the eclipse that i mentioned. I'm working on a Very high SQ system and i'm either getting the deck i mentioned previously or the next one up. the controlls are more extensive than the 8400 if i remember correctly and while it may have less options than the pioneer 9400 i know many people who say that the eclipse gets better sound. that and it's got non clipping 8v outputs... can we say power??? btw if you have amps make sure that they can handle an 8v input before you get the deck outherwise you'll fry the amps bad very bad

C-Man

Do you happen to know where I could get an Eclipse deck online? I believe there is one shop here in town that deals in them, but I don't want to pay retail as I'd imagine the 8443 or 8503 are expensive units.

seachange44

From what dealers have told me, Eclipse does not sell online whatsoever. It is against their company policy to sell online. Other companies, like Nakamichi, have similar policies, but can be found online. If you find an Eclipse deck, it will certainly not have the warranty from the company. So just be careful.

Systems

that is probably true...as I don't recall any website selling eclipse online
-Cody

C-Man

Yeah I found that the retail is over $500 on that deck and I really don't wanna spend that. So it looks like it will be back between the Alpine and the Pioneer I already have. Tough call... should I be a stingy **** and just keep my Pioneer or give it to my gf and buy the Alpine... decisions decisions... lol

MTXMAN

dude try and talk them down i have a shop in fortwayne that'll sell me that deck for 429+tax. if it's a small shop and they're charging retail they're being dumbasses, that's why so many small shops go under when all they have is high priced high end equip.

PoweredByDodge

Alpine CDA-9815

end of story.

u want the best deck around that's in a halfway reasonable price range -- that's it.

425 retail.

325 ebay.

C-Man

OK PBD, you say the 9815 is the best around for that price. It looks like I'm gonna be purchasing the Eclipse 8443... how do you compare the 9815 and the 8443? I've heard a lot of good things from Cody and MTX on the Eclipse and would like your opinion too if you don't mind.

What am I saying... of course you don't mind! lol

C-Man

Hey MTX... If it's possible could I get the name of that shop? I might try to use that as some leverage. My shop will match any price I bring to them from another dealer. I'd appreciate it.

PoweredByDodge

cman -- i've got no idea dude -- i never owned or played with an eclipse deck - closest i got was looking at one in a store a year or two ago ... the couple i've seen in other people's vehicles (few and far between since most people are cheap / poor / ghetto, and eclipse is not cheap, nor is it for the ghetto types) didnt impress me any.

if cody says its good, its probably good, he's fairly picky.

for me however, any deck without a level adjustable BBE processor is worthless (unless i bought an outboard 12 band EQ or something like that)... hence why id stick to the pioneer high end stuff and the alpine, as they ahve those features.

the only exception would be kenwood, as i've been able to "dick around" with their sys-eq settings well enough to make me happy... but if i really hadda put a deck in my truck today - it'd be the 9815 or the pio that cody has.

sntnsupermen131

the 9815 is a very good model
im not really sure about any of the individual units from eclipse...but i know eclipse is a damn good brand
i would go with the 9815 considering your price range
and the eclipse has 8volt pre outs
while that is awesome...if your amp isnt meant to handle it...bad things happen
you wont go wrong with either head unit
if you want the eclipse though...YOU MUST CALL AND CHECK IF YOUR AMPS CAN HANDLE IT
-Cody

C-Man

Oh believe me, that was the first call I made. I'm not about to fry my amps for a head unit that probably won't improve my sound all that much if at all. I'm going to see if there is a way I can mess around with an Eclipse at my dealer tomorrow. Last time I checked they didn't even put them in the wall. Where I live there is not a high demand for them (everyone here is into Alpine, Kenwood and Pioneer). I'll let you know what I decide to do.
Thanks for everything guys.

sntnsupermen131

thats the way it is everywhere...eclipse imho is one of the higher grade models over pioneer and alpine etc...the only reason i got my pioneer over an eclipse was b/c it suited my needs better, had more options to get my sound right
i wish it didnt come with an internal amp, but you cant have it all i guess
-Cody

C-Man

Well I got the 8443... Nice unit. I think I've got a loose connection somewhere. At low volumes it sounds like you're listening to a record... also when volume is at zero you can still hear the beat of the song coming from my sub. But I will say, I haven't adjusted anything on the EQ yet and when you turn the volume up it sounds very good already. My highs the way it sits right now sound better than with the Pioneer, but I seem to have lost a little bass... I'm gonna fix the connection and probably swap my old **** RCA's out tomorrow. Let you know how it works out.

Chris

MTXMAN

new high quality RCA's can make all the difference in the world if your old ones are low end

C-Man

I was thinking the same thing. My sub RCA seem a little bit low end to me.. but my other RCA's are Stinger Pro. I was just thinking that they are probably a few years old and they might not be able to handle the 8 volt pre outs. But do you think swapping RCA's could get rid of the turn on thump?

MTXMAN

you mean that little rumble when the system comes on and when you change tracks??? most systems that i've done have had that so i'm not realy sure if it's something that you even can get rid of... I'd be glad for advice on this too

C-Man

On this one it only does it when switching sources. And every once in a while it does it so loud my whole car shakes and it scares the **** out of me. My local shop told me to adjust the gains on the amp since it's 8 volts instead of 4. I don't know if that would get rid of that problem but hopefully it will. He's sure it will get rid of the bass when the volume is down.

I don't know, when I turn it on and switch sources it does the thump, which it never did with my Pioneer, and sometimes my front speakers crackle a little. I think the hiss from the front speakers is probably because the RCA's aren't the greatest and probably can't handle the 8 volts. I just really don't know about the turn on "boom"

MTXMAN

ya got me i have no clue... Maybe PBD will have some ideas...

C-Man

Well just an update. I turned the gains WAY down today and it seems to have gotten rid of the problem. Sounds awesome so far. The gains on my front amp are less than a quarter of the way up... actually about an eighth of the way up... and my sub amp is between a quarter and a third. Hits harder than the Pioneer. I think I could have turned the gain up a little higher but I couldn't see my knobs anymore... lol. Plus I still have the sub setting in the deck only about half way up.
My highs sound a little dull right now, but I haven't even had the opportunity to adjust any of the EQ's built into the deck yet. I messed with them a little yesterday and they brightened the highs up, but I turned them off today to adjust the amp. So far so good. Seems to have fixe the problem.

sntnsupermen131

glad you like it
ive had my pioneer about 5 months and i still havent had time to adjust everything
ive adjusted a little...but thats about it
and i dont have my subs working now anyways
i got my amps in today though!
im going to hook up one today if i have time and all goes well
ill hook up the other when i get my other capacitor which should be in a couple days hopefully
-Cody

C-Man

Sweet... If I'm not mistaken you got two of the 550s'? I'm looking for an amp for my girlfriend to run my two IDQ 10's and I'm thinking about one of those.

PoweredByDodge

two idq 10's ... that's what i SHOULDA got my gf. stupid me. by the time i got done w/ the dx10's i was up to like 200 bucks --- prolly coulda got idq 10's for that on sale if i really hounded the right people.

but i like the dx's - so i should stop bitching -- dx's are built "tougher" too and the way she beats on stuff that's important. (throwing things around in trunk and such).

... I would try to get like 350 watts available to each woofer -- you may not use all of it, but they should take well over their rms, and they should also have a nice dynamic ability (to take slight peaks that normally would not fall within the woofer's call of duty and would also require an amp that had some good headroom).

Long story short I'd be looking at a 700 watt 2 channel -- even the old RF Punch 700S -- i was lookin at that one a while ago - somebody had it for 200 bucks and i was gonna jump on it but it wont fit in her trunk on the amp rack i built for the 302 and 204.

... now -- as far as the thump and ****... deal with it. everything thumps --- its ambient **** in the line/amp circuit caused by the switching source removing the source input to the amp (or reapplying it) which basically causes a short "lack of ground" and then a short "burning off any capacitance in the line (line being the actual line or the amp's circuit)" thing which you've noticed is amped up by the gain.

keep hte gain reasonable and it wont hit you so hard.

if its thumping that loud - the gain is probably way too high.. and as u said - it got less annoying when u lowered it.

as far as your sub out on the deck -- you should dial that all the wya up... put the gain on your sub amp at like zero and dial the output on the head up to full... set the volume for tuning then adjust the gain on the amp.

reason being - why "waste" the effort of the amp? and besides -- tell me which -- which is clearer ??? a 4x6 photo that is blown up to poster size.... or a 12 x 18 that is blown up to poster size -- the 12 x 18 -- since there is less expanding to do and thus less distortion.

so the less amplifying you make your amp do the better.

not that a 4 v out is bad -- hell thats what most of us have -- but an 8 v is pimp -- use it -- dont waste it.

if you can't put the sub dial up to full because the amp is pumpin out too much juice (even w/ the gain at zero) - then zero the gain and dial down the sub dial on the head unit its "tuned" where u like it.

as far as getting rid of thump though -- i've found only one way... toggle switches on the remote lines (also helps why trying to tune one amp at a time - have a separate toggle for each amp's remmy lead)... when u switch sources, dial down the volume to like something reasonable, flip the toggle off -- switch -- when the source kicks in - toggle on and you'll see no thump -- same goes for turning the head on and off (turnin car on and off).