Anybody have prices on Eclipse headunits? I used to have an Eclipse head unit a couple years ago until it got stolen out of my Bronco II, so then I bought a Blaupunkt, but I'm wanting to go back to Eclipse.. I've searched online, and found the head units, but no prices. Kinda scares me lol. Any help would be appreciated.. thanks.

 

When I bought an eclipse head unit years ago (and loved it as my HU - second only to my Clarion AutoPC) I know that they had a rigid policy of only selling through direct stores and wouldn't support Web-based retailers, etc. I think that this was because they would only sell through their distribution channels and np third party distributers to control where there products were sold and for how much. Kind of like some of the hair treatment manufacturers only being available at salons. I have seen some eclipse stuff on eBay. The CD8454 is out there now for $525 and the AVN2454 is out there for around $1700. I suspect that it will be harder to get a deal on these units the way that Eclipse controls the distribution.

As an aside, the Eclipse unit I had was awesome. Great sound and their speakers were good too. I forget the specific HU I had, but it had a security feature where you inserted a music CD of your choice and it remembered the CD, based on # of tracks, length of each track, etc. and it used that as a security key. Whenever power was removed and restored, you had 4 or 5 attempts to re-insert that same CD before the unit would function. After that, it locked up and had to go back to Eclipse to be reset and verify ownership. I believe that's the same ESN system that they still offer today.

 

I had that type thing on my Eclipse HU too, I think it was called ESN or something along that line. I had the key as Christina Aguilera lol, I didn't think if anybody stole it, then they'd put in that CD. But they have a tracker in them too, but I didn't have my serial number where they could track it, so I was pretty much screwed there. I looked at their website and saw the CD8454, and that's what I want, has that remote control and everything, and looks super slick. I would go for the AVN series stuff, but I don't need to spend that much money, because I don't need a screen. I think I might start saving up for the CD8454. Thanks Morcutt.

 

No problem. The CD8454 looks awesome and I bet it sounds great (I'm sure the sound hasn't gotten worse as new models come out and mine from several years ago was one of the best HUs I'd ever heard). I'm looking at a double-din unit for the truck - maybe one of the AVN units, but I'm waiting until I win lotto....

 

Well today I went to the local Eclipse dealer and took a look around, and of course the guy was there to answer anything I asked, and he gave me the user manual for the CD8454 and also Eclipse's little brochure. I decided today I'm going to save my money lol. It's about $500 for the 8454, and they're just awesome. 40 watts RMS per channel with 50 watt peak, but they don't recommend using the speaker output because they want you to use their 8V/16V 55ohm impedance outputs. The sound quality compared to all the other HU's they had up there was awesome.

 

What's up with that?

 

The pre-amp line outs..

 

Ahhhh. Ok. I thught Eclipse was doing something weird there for a moment.

 

I can't wait till I get enough money..

 

See that's the smart way of doing it. I can remember when I used to put $ thousands into car audio and $0 into the bank. Then, of course, I got married and that seemed to change the financial priority determination process...

Fortunately for my new truck, I kept a lot of the components I had from my 2001 Camaro. I can easily get the focal and eclipse speakers in the truck with some generic adapter plates that I just got. The RF 5 channel amp I had will fit somewhere I'm sure. The sub will need to be changed out - it was a 10" in a custom fit box for the Camaro rear fender wall in the hatch. I have the King Ranch with quad captain chairs, so I'm looking at the JL audio sub that goes inside the center consoles.

I haven't made up my mind about the head unit. The JL sub boxes are $400 to $500 I've heard and I already have a head unit - a Clarion AutoPC. Just not sure I want to use it again; I don't know if I have all of the software CDs to start it up again and I'd need to get a new map CD for this area in order for the GPS to work. It also isn't sold by clarion anymore, so I don't know what availability is on anything I may be missing. But it would save me the cost of a new head unit....

 

Let me ask you this.. how good is Focal compared to Eclipse (speakers) compared to JL and then compared to Memphis? I know I'm saving up for speakers first, I already have a few hundred dollars. I've found a local dealer for Memphis Audio and have heard good things. I've heard good things by JL, but personally I find them overrated, although I do like the W7 subs. But I'm looking for door speakers right now. I saw the Eclipse speakers up at Car Toys, and Focal up there too. But haven't heard much about them. I want something very high powered, with a very clean sound too.
So far I've put in $430 in speakers just trying out different things, and didn't really like them that much. I've put in Infinity's, Pioneers, Digital Audio, and stock came with it, so I heard those for a while, I still have the Infinity's in the front, but they blew about a month ago, so I don't even listen to my radio anymore because it makes me mad. I have Digital Audio's in the back, and I blew the tweeters in them. So all that figured in, I could've easily bought good quality stuff from the start.

 

I've never used Memphis to-date. For tweeters and midrange drivers - Focal leads the back in both quality and, likewise, price. Honesty, I've never, ever, heard speakers as nice as Focal. I equate the first time I heard Focal speaker to the first time that I heard Klipsch home speakers - you don't need a side-by-side comparison to know that they are incredible. Their drivers are used in home audio systems as well (you can buy their drivers off the Web for making your own home audio speakers and their are kits sold with them as well). The Eclipse tweeters and midranges are nothing to sneeze at either though. To me, side-by-side with leaders like MB Quart and Boston Acoustics, I can't hear a difference (assuming the same tweeter type), and they are cheaper than MB Quart. For a somewhat balanced system, I put Focals in the front of my vehicle and the Eclipse in the back. The Eclipse I used had a soft dome tweeter built into the pole on the midrange driver and the cross over (very nice 2nd order unit) was built onto the midrange frame's magnet structure. It made mounting and wiring a snap and, because the tweeter was soft dome and the Focal's was hard (titanium), I think it helped balance out the highs from being too soft or too hard.

The trick is that the Focal's were twice the price of the Eclpise when I bought them. I think that the Eclipse pair was around $300 and the Focals were over $600. If I was buying them over again and with my new truck in mind, I'd probably go Eclipse all the way around.

JL makes nice subs. That's what they are known for and they do it well. However, it is harder to hear sound quality difference in a sub. My amps are always Rockford Fosgate, so I typically use a Rockford sub. The RockFord Subs, especially Stage 2 and Stage 3m are really nice. However, so much depends on the box, driver size, available power, etc. It's amazing what a good box will do for a cheap sub....

I'll probably go with JL this time for my truck as they make a sub that slips into the center console between the bucket seats.

 

Oh yeah - another advantage to the Focals is that they handle a lot of power. It's impressive to be able to feed 100 watts RMS to a midrange and tweeter combo.

As for blowing the speakers, are you driving them from the head unit? I'm wondering if there is some serious clipping going on that is causing damage - particularly to the tweeters, or if the tweeters aren't being protected appropriately by the crossover. A separate, more powerful external amp may really help there. I hesitate to say that 'cause it started a long thread last time about what clipping is and low power vs. high power amps, etc. But at any rate, it just seems surprising to hear the other drivers failing like that. The Focals and Eclipse that I have now I had in my Camaro and I drove a lot of power into them. Their fine.

Take a listen to the Eclipse and I think that you'll really like what you hear. The Eclipse I have are the "86940 Point Source" and the Focals are the "6 K2". These are a few years old, so I think the closest Eclipse model to mine is the SA8364 and Focal replaced my series with the Focal 165 K2. The key difference between my front and back arrangement is that I use a component setup up front, so I can postition the tweeter to be in good alignment with my ears. In the back, I go for simplicity yet quality, so I use the all-in-one design.

 

I was running all my speakers off of HU power, and there probably was clipping going on, which personally I do think ruins speakers, but I don't want to get into that debate. When you bought your eclipse speakers, you said they were ~$300? They weren't component speakers though were they? I need to get more prices on these things lol. Anyways, with all that being said, I don't like my high frequencies very harsh, so I think I will go with the Eclipse speakers all the way around, except subs, and then I'll probably go with JL.

 

Good choice. The Eclipse I purchased weren't component speakers technically, since the tweeter was attached to the frame of the midrange unit. The crossover was also attached to the frame, which made mounting everything a snap.