Just picked up my new HU!

1996blackmax · December 2005

Just picked up my Eclipse CD8455. I paid for the install, that way I could get the 3 year warranty from Eclipse

. I will probably start really playing with it on Monday. So far I am likning it

. More infor to come a little later.

unrealii · December 2005

Congrats man. If you liked your 8454, you'll definitly like the 8455.

cam5860 · December 2005

Ive never been sold on eclipse headunits. A buddy of mine had a eclipse one time and it was always bad about skipping. They remind me a lot of sony headunits. If you get one small scratch on a cd they skip like hell.

MacLeod · December 2005

I didnt used to like them because I thought their old units were rather fugly. I really dig the new look they have now and wouldnt mind owning one.

audiobliss · December 2005

Congrats! That's an awesome HU! Though, I must ask why you got rid of your DEH-P860MP...

1996blackmax · December 2005

I liked my CD8454 (the 8455's predecessor), it had a couple things I did not like though. Eclipse fixed the bugs that the 8454 had with this unit, so I finally jumped in (the price I got convinced me

). The Pioneer 8600 is a nice unit, I just prefer Eclipse's upper end stuff.

neomagus00 · December 2005

you got rid of an 860? freeow...

1996blackmax · December 2005

Yes

. I prefer the Eclipse.

1996blackmax · December 2005

cam5860 wrote:

Ive never been sold on eclipse headunits. A buddy of mine had a eclipse one time and it was always bad about skipping. They remind me a lot of sony headunits. If you get one small scratch on a cd they skip like hell.

I think they make some of the best units on the market. My old Eclipse (CD8454) never skipped, and I would never compare them to anything from Sony. My Pioneer unit was very picky with scratched CD's, all of which played on my last Eclipse unit with no problem, as well as with these unit. The one CD I took to the shop to try out the 8455 played fine. It would just not sound good on my 8600 due to the scratches .

MacLeod · December 2005

Eclipse has a ton of repsect in the car audio community. Some love it or hate it attitudes but Ive not heard too many people consider them to be crap.

1996blackmax · December 2005

MacLeod wrote:

Eclipse has a ton of repsect in the car audio community. Some love it or hate it attitudes but Ive not heard too many people consider them to be crap.

Let alone compare them to Sony HU's :eek: .

cam5860 · December 2005

I just think eclipse is overated people pump them up so damn much. That kenwood 25th anniversary headunit will put that eclipse to shame.

MacLeod · December 2005

Well, I dont really have a problem with Sony stuff either. I had a Sony head unit for a while and it had cool features and worked well. It wasnt a top of the line model but it did perform well. Id have no problem owning another one.

1996blackmax · December 2005

cam5860 wrote:

I just think eclipse is overated people pump them up so damn much. That kenwood 25th anniversary headunit will put that eclipse to shame.

Enlighten us please

.

audiobliss · December 2005

I must admit that Kenwood HU is a fine unit (and one that I'd love to have), but I'd never put it up against an Eclipse.

PoweredByDodge · December 2005

kenferd's 25th gear is allright... grossly overpriced, but quite nice. buck for buck it's not going to put anything to shame except your checking account balance. but, judging strictly on what its supposed to be offering, it's a fantastic unit - as are all the speakers and even their subs (yes i said kenwood subs look good -- shock and awe, i know). the old kenferd "dB+" subs (i'm not sure what they were called, i think it was "Excelon dB+") were quite nice too, but since then I haven't seen one from them that I liked.

MacLeod · December 2005

I wish Denon still made automotive head units.

audiobliss · December 2005

^^ Me, too. I've yet to see one, though I've heard a lot about them.

cam5860 · December 2005

When you look at headunit's that are out right now. It's just hard to beat kenwood they have more features than any other headunit there is. They also offer sound quality features that other company's don't have like there offset dual differential. That stands for what they call digital to analog system. This is Dual D/A converters that are used and the digital processing is isolated and controlled separately for the front channels to improve channel seperation.

1996blackmax · December 2005

Lets not start talking about DAC's and such all over again

. So now that I have been enlightened, I will stick with my Eclipse

.

By the way there is one major thing I noticed with the Eclipse HU compared to the Pioneer HU. I was starting to think that there was something wrong with my speakers, reason I was kind of looking around. For some reason when the time alignment feature is engaged with the Pioneer my soundstage would get really narrow. I then disingaged it to check things out and things got better. The Eclipse HU maintains the wide stage with the singers voice in front of me, and all of the instruments all around. I am glad my old Polks are still sounding good, and that they are not at fault

. The Eclipse HU may not be pretty, or do a ton of things, but it sounds great. It also has extensive sound tuning capabilities more in depth than the Pioneer.

1996blackmax · December 2005

MacLeod wrote:

I wish Denon still made automotive head units.

They had some availabe a few years back, they were under the Rockford Fosgate name

. They were very plain looking, but had some nice guts

. I've seen some on Ebay before.

brettw22 · December 2005

I have yet to be able to find a picture of any Eclipse HU's on the net.......anyone have a link?

MacLeod · December 2005

brettw22 wrote:

I have yet to be able to find a picture of any Eclipse HU's on the net.......anyone have a link?

Eclipse website.

1996blackmax wrote:

The Eclipse HU maintains the wide stage with the singers voice in front of me, and all of the instruments all around

The stage should be centered in the middle of the car, not in front of you.

I used to think that too but as far as competition rules go the center image is supposed to be in the middle of the dash with the left and right as far to the sides as possible.

neomagus00 · December 2005

blackmax - the pioneer TA function also applies balance and EQ adjustments, it's not pure TA... bummer, eh? i once tried writing to their tech department, asking exactly what these adjustments were (so i could auto-TA and undo the adjustments i didn't want) but i never got a response...

1996blackmax · December 2005

I remember you telling me about this before. Even with auto EQ, and balance, you would think that the stage would not change. It just seemed kind of tiny to me with it engaged. I actually did the manual setting with the same effect.

1996blackmax · December 2005

MacLeod wrote:

The stage should be centered in the middle of the car, not in front of you.

I used to think that too but as far as competition rules go the center image is supposed to be in the middle of the dash with the left and right as far to the sides as possible.

I have heard this, and I actually read a magazine article several years back where someone had asked how he could do this. I think it may have been Richard Clark who answered the question, but can't really remember as it was a while ago. The thing that stuck with me was him mentioning something along the lines that when you listen to your home audio, do you position yourself so that the stage is off-centered. He said that if the image was in the middle of the car, then the stage would not be centered in front of you. Basically you sit in the sweet spot at home, you would not all the way to one side.

I have sat in the middle of the car, well not sat but put my head there. It's is actually funny to see people's faces when they see me do this

. I do this to get a sense of what the stage is supposed to sound like in my car. When I do this my head and ears are equidistant from both the left and right speakers. This gives me that sweet spot, where the lead singer appears to be in the middle and instruments and other sounds around. This is what I try to recreate with the time alignment feature. Right now, as before I have the singer in front of me (similar to when I slid to the middle of the car), instruments and sounds around, and I still have what appears to be instruments hanging out of my front side windows This is kind of weird as you know there is no speaker out there, kind of reminds me when I pull into my garage and pull up to a hanging tennis ball (shows me how far I can go forward), it seems that I can actually grab the ball because it appears to be in front of me inside the car

.

I am not sure, but I thought from reading and reading over the years that what judges look for was that illusive wide soundstage in front of the driver. Was not, or is not this the reason why people go through so much trouble and sometimes great cost to fabricate custom installation areas for their speakers up front? I just read a magazine article in which one guy actually moved his seats further back so he could be as equidistant from the front speakers as possible. The cool thing about this is that when you do this without time alingment it also creats a much better image for the passanger. I have thought about doing this, but my wife could care less. See says she just likes the music. Heck at first she did not even want the Alpine HU I put in her car, not she likes it though

.

Bottom line is to do what sounds good to you, not a judge. I have seen you mention something about the other levels of competition would require you to build custom enclosure or kick panels, when this is done, you would get sound similar to when you do the T.A. thing. People call T.A. cheating and so you don't do it. Some other people T.A. the speakers to one another (midbass, midrange, and tweeters), and not to say side bias. I prefer to do the T.A. thing becuase I do not want to commit to a big project on the front of my car, specially when my wife does not care how it sounds, only that in sounds

. Man I can't believe I am still writing

. So next time Mac just slide to the center of your truck, and listen to those sweert SR's, then slide back to your seat. That is the sound that T.A. helps re-create.

MacLeod · December 2005

You want the most realistic soundstage and that would be: left

center

right.

Having it centered in front of you would be:
left---center

right.

Which looks more realistic?

Youre right tho that your ears are the only ones that matter so if you like your stage to be coming from underneath the back seat, well then thats the right way to do it.

However, from a competitive perspective centering the stage in front of you isnt not what youre after. My stage is currently centered in front of me and slightly to the right and I lose points for it each time. The one thing that saves me is my left and right are spot on and extend beyond the boundries of the truck. Dont ask me how I did that, it was an accident!

exalted512 · December 2005

the kenwood 25th anniversary hu is very, very, very nice. I almost considered getting it--but i have a great radio already and i have more important things to be saving for...like amps. It would never put the eclipse 8455 to shame, but they are on a pretty equal playing ground, along with the premier 860(960 is a POS)

Eclipse has some of the best crossover networks around. Very extensive for a radio. Better than that of Pioneer and Kenwood. The reason I stick to Pioneer is because its cheaper, I like the looks better, sound quality is the same, and its much easier to use(IMO). If I wasnt planning on getting an aftermarket crossover network, and i wasnt working at a shop that sales pioneer and kenwood, i would get an eclipse.

brett--eclipse doesnt authorize online purchases as far as i know. The only website that might carry them (and be authorized) is www.speedsound.com

-Cody

1996blackmax · December 2005

MacLeod wrote:

You want the most realistic soundstage and that would be: left
center
right.

Having it centered in front of you would be:
left---center
right.

Which looks more realistic?

Youre right tho that your ears are the only ones that matter so if you like your stage to be coming from underneath the back seat, well then thats the right way to do it.

However, from a competitive perspective centering the stage in front of you isnt not what youre after. My stage is currently centered in front of me and slightly to the right and I lose points for it each time. The one thing that saves me is my left and right are spot on and extend beyond the boundries of the truck. Dont ask me how I did that, it was an accident!

You are not understanding

. It is not left----center

right. It is more like left

center

right. I do not like my stage coming from behind my seat. I have dropped good hard earned money not to have my system souding at least decent. Do the test, slide in the middle of you truck, that is what time alignment helps to recreate. When you are sitting in the middle is the sound left----center

right?

exalted512 · December 2005

i think you guys are saying the same thing...

you want the center of the sound stage in the center of the car, not in the center of the drivers seat. I know thats what mac is trying to say.

forgot one thing, eclipse had some problems in 01-02, maybe thats when cam's friend got his?
-Cody

cam5860 · December 2005

You have to get the time alignment centered from where your sitting at which is the driver side. Your not going to be sitting in the middle so there's no need to try to center it from sitting in the middle. You have to make it sound as if you were sitting in the middle though. That's what makes it a pain in the **** to get it right.

Just picked up my new HU!

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