I love Eclipse but to be honest, you could just not like the way Eclipse sounds. but I do recommend letting them break in before you make your final decision. It took my Ti about 5months to break in with 750wrms.
As for the VC smell, could be glue or you could just be sending it too much power. The 7124 is the model being discussed correct? Cant remember the specs on it so I wont go too much into it.