eclipse HU

[jakesmoke]

i pretty much had my mind set on a new higher end clarion HU, but everyone goes on and on about eclipse on these forums.my question is, is there any reputable online eclipse dealers that i can check out? i live in small town U.S.A. and there is no dealers anywhere close. from what ive read, they're displays are pretty ugly but they're SQ is unmatched. thanks.

[JLCivic]

Eclipse has no online sales, sorry. Eclipse does make excellent head units. Have you called 800-55-eclipse? That number should put you in touch with the nearest dealer. There might be one closer than you think?

Good luck.

[smgreen20]

And lets not forget, clarion makes one of the best EVER HUs in the DRZ9255. Clarions SQ is at the top, as is Eclipse. Personaly (I've owned both brands the only Eclipse deck was the ECD-415 and all the rest where/are clarions) they're both on equall grounds w/SQ. IMHO, it'd come down to $$, looks, and features.

[JLCivic]

And lets not forget, clarion makes one of the best EVER HUs in the DRZ9255. Clarions SQ is at the top, as is Eclipse. Personaly (I've owned both brands the only Eclipse deck was the ECD-415 and all the rest where/are clarions) they're both on equall grounds w/SQ. IMHO, it'd come down to $$, looks, and features.

Other than the 9255, I wouldn't put Clarion on equal ground with Eclipse when it comes to SQ. Clarion decks sound "good" to my ears. Eclipse decks sound "great."

I ran a clarion 835mp for a few months a couple of summers ago. The amount of music that sounded great when I was running an Eclipse now sounded ok, but not great. We tweaked the deck as much as we could at the shop. One of the owners said, "you really just need to drop an eclipse back in the dash." We did that(it was an 8053), and instantly, the music just sounded better. It was much smoother. Before I hear the "yeah, well you put in a top of the line eclipse, ofcourse it will sound better." The deck was set flat. I did not use any of the eq/time alignment/xover features. It just sounded night and day better to everybody who heard it. I could now listen to all of the cds again without saying "this just does not sound right."

The 835 was a good deck. It was easy to use, the display could be seen in daylight, and it never skipped, but it just didn't sound nearly as good as the eclipse, at least in my setup.

At the shop, I have also heard an entry level Eclipse($229 at the time) sound better than a clarion costing nearly twice as much$400). Again, it was just a much more smooth sound to my ears(and to the ears of one of the owners).

[jakesmoke]

thanks for the suggestions.