alpine VS eclipse VS sony???need help?

[JLCivic 10+ year member]

my only local dealer will charge out the ass for an ecplise hu, thats why i was asking. maybe i could have one of you guys pick me one up, and ship out to me....????? lol

Is the local dealer charging over retail?

 

[6spdcoupe 5,000+ posts]

Is the local dealer charging over retail?

Im wondering the same thing....

 

[Stangspeed371 10+ year member]

Mine charges over retail...im still looking for another dealer...mine is asking $800 for the HU, without install...

 

[bjfish11 5,000+ posts]

all there stuff is marked up high. i dont know if its above retail or not, but its high.

 

[JLCivic 10+ year member]

Mine charges over retail...im still looking for another dealer...mine is asking $800 for the HU, without install...

Have you checked Eclipse's dealer locator on the website?

$800 is insane. The 8455 retails for $649.

 

[FOSGATE JOE 10+ year member]

Fosgate Joe:
I am going to say something that may ease your mind a little and get me flamed.

I HAD a Alpine 9815 but well I am not a stereo fanatic. I am old school and behind the technology so I sold it . WHY? I needed something easier to figure out and use so I could keep my eyes on the road....

Then, cause I always heard how great Eclipse is, I bought a 8454....mainly cause of 8 volt. nothing else really other than that and the "rep". Guess what ? I sold it. why? well , it wasnt that impressive with the crappy remote and the no face remove thing. Also a complicated deck and more than I was going to use. I also didnt want to spend $400 on a alarm system that might work or might not in keeping someone from stealing the deck. so , I sold it too.

Next was the Kenwood Excelon 889 2005 model. Very nice deck and loaded out. I knew it was going to be a complicated deck FOR ME to use but price was good and deck was loaded and had good reviews. ,,,WEll..... I am selling it too after less than 4 hrs use I have decided to sell it. Very nice deck if you know what the hell you are doing.....

What made me change again? well I bought my wife a new Sony Specialty Series 7715 . Model below yours I think but has black metal face with blue lights...I had the thing set in my wifes truck in less than 5 MINUTES and sounding better than my Kenwood...

That was all it took for me. 5 minutes and I had it sound ing great and I never opened the manual. EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED.

Now Sony has produced some crap over the years and I have never thought about it till I bought the wifes deck. It was pretty for her and she liked it. The specs on it arent bad at all. When I saw it in person it looked better than I thought it would.

Cost me less than $200 for it and I ordered myself one last night to replace the Kenwood.

Now before I get flamed.

My point that matters most is that all the expensive equipment in the world is useless to me if I cant operate it correctly. I dont know anyone that really knows about car audio so I really cant get help with the system. I do keep up with the stuff but never a practicing stereo fanatic or anything.

So I have taken a chance on the new SPECIALTY SERIES 7715 for the fact that it sounded great with little hassle even for a novice like me. I also bought the 3 yr warranty on it just to be safe.

For all you haters. just take a look at it in person. Its a nicely laid out deck and easy to use.

I wanted an older Alpine, Eclipse, or Sony ES before I started all this crap but it was hard for me to risk buying an old deck that already had thousands of hours time on it and might die the minute I got it.

For simple stereo user like me options are slim cause easy decks arent made or they are just crap. I didnt need crossovers and time alignment or time delay etc etc.

if it sounds good to you then that is the biggest factor in making you happy not everyones opinion.

you can go to any forum and get haters for various brands depending on the board.

sorry to go long but your situation reminded me of my choices.

good luck

Mike

I MUST SAY THIS. I am sure that all of the other deck I had would sound better than the Sony if I knew what I was doing and had the patience to keep trying to get it set up. BUT I didnt so they sounded bad to me. ...NOt there fault but mine.

Sony may be cheap to most people but they made a deck that was easy enough to figure out for a idiot like me. my wife is happy and I will soon be happy.

The Sony will be the cheapest part of my system if I ever get it put in.

thanks for your post MIKE AND THE GUYZ ON HERE TOO

 

[gentlejax 10+ year member]

I may be a minority but I am not the only one who prefers less options and more user friendly decks. call me lazy or stupid. I dont care. I am stupid for spending so much money on decks that I had to sell because I my lack of knowledge. at least I will not be driving down the road fiddling with a crossover or trying to work thru the menu on the super fancy deck

I will keep the Sony, its covered under warranty and move on. I can concentrate on putting my other components in my 300ZX.

Peace

Mike

 

[JLCivic 10+ year member]

I may be a minority but I am not the only one who prefers less options and more user friendly decks. call me lazy or stupid. I dont care. I am stupid for spending so much money on decks that I had to sell because I my lack of knowledge. at least I will not be driving down the road fiddling with a crossover or trying to work thru the menu on the super fancy deck
I will keep the Sony, its covered under warranty and move on. I can concentrate on putting my other components in my 300ZX.

Peace

Mike

I prefer fewer options and better internals. I had an Eclipse CD8053 which I loved, but in the civic I had, I wasn't using any time alignment or the xovers. The deck sounded so good flat(as every eclipse I have owned did), I didn't use the eq. I now have an RF 8250 and am very happy with it. IF I ever need more eqing, etc, I will just buy an eq.