Ugh, back into the same dilemma as b4...

[6spdcoupe 5,000+ posts]

My roommate was an eskips dealer for several years in a shop up in MO somewhere. They dropped the whole line after many defective HUs, and eclipse refusing to honor their warranty. This is very common, but since eskips has a smaller market share (they sell a lot less HUs than alpine or pioneer), the stories don't seem to come up as often.
Most people are just thrilled with their stuff, but the company itself is very hard to deal with, and outright effed up when it comes to honoring their warranty on defective product.

Either he was quite the shitty dealer, or hes blowing smoke up your ***. Ive had nothing but excellent service from them. From my personal experience as well as many other local dealers and others I come across on various forums.

 

[JLCivic 10+ year member]

im not saying the DAC is the only factor in sq. how do you guys derive this from what i said? lol. yes, there may be other DACs that are better than a 24-bit, of course. but id rather have a 24 as compaired to a 1.

How did I derive that from what you said, because you seem to be automatically assuming 24 bit is better than 1 bit. Again, I have heard 1 bit eclipses sound better to my years than a 24 bit clarion that cost nearly twice as much.

Just listen with your ears and buy what sounds better to you.

 

[fatryan 5,000+ posts]

How did I derive that from what you said, because you seem to be automatically assuming 24 bit is better than 1 bit. Again, I have heard 1 bit eclipses sound better to my years than a 24 bit clarion that cost nearly twice as much.
Just listen with your ears and buy what sounds better to you.

you just explained how you derived that from what i said //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rolleyes.gif.c1fef805e9d1464d377451cd5bc18bfb.gif . when did i say 24 is necessarily better than 1bit? i didnt. i do however think that generally it is. but this is a retarded arguement anyways.
and as an update, i went to good vibes on saturday. they again said they couldnt give me a direct exchange. its bullshit. but anyways, they gave me the 5425 in the wall to use till mine gets back. the only thing that really made me not wanna do that is that its 5v preouts as opposed to 8, so my gains needed to be reset. i asked them to do it when i made them put the deck in my truck. they said they did, but i think they only touched the gains on my orion and prolly didnt even set them right. and i dont have my DMM or any tools here with me to do it. so i think im just gonna deal with it till i get my deck back. so much for needing a new deck (knock on wood). thanx for the suggestions all. chances are ill be needing them when my deck stops working again, lol.

 

[JLCivic 10+ year member]

you just explained how you derived that from what i said //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rolleyes.gif.c1fef805e9d1464d377451cd5bc18bfb.gif . when did i say 24 is necessarily better than 1bit? i didnt. i do however think that generally it is. but this is a retarded arguement anyways.
and as an update, i went to good vibes on saturday. they again said they couldnt give me a direct exchange. its bullshit. but anyways, they gave me the 5425 in the wall to use till mine gets back. the only thing that really made me not wanna do that is that its 5v preouts as opposed to 8, so my gains needed to be reset. i asked them to do it when i made them put the deck in my truck. they said they did, but i think they only touched the gains on my orion and prolly didnt even set them right. and i dont have my DMM or any tools here with me to do it. so i think im just gonna deal with it till i get my deck back. so much for needing a new deck (knock on wood). thanx for the suggestions all. chances are ill be needing them when my deck stops working again, lol.

You said, "but id rather have a 24 as compaired to a 1."

My point was(and is) that just because the dacs are a higher bit doesn't mean they are better(as my example indicates). You have to listen with your ears. Hell there are some who prefer the sound of the older eclipses(1 bit) to the newer 24 bit stuff anyway.

I doubt you will notice much difference between the 5 and 8V. Either should be an excellent sounding deck. Good luck getting everything taken care of regarding your deck.

 

[fatryan 5,000+ posts]

im back. yeah, i think this is the 4th 8445 that ive been through now. and every time i get a replacement, they claim its "brand new", even though when i bring it in to get replaced they say "we cant get you a new one cause eclipse doesnt make them anymore". well ive come to the absolute conclusion that my new replacements have NOT been new. cause they have the same problems if not more every time i get one back. this is a ****ing joke. im completely done with eclipse forever. i dont care if they have an amazing rep and every1 in the world has never had my problems, im not dealing with this shit again.

ok, so what deck should i get now? i really really wanted that pioneer bluetooth deck until about 5 minutes ago when i found out its not compatible with my motorola e815. its prolly a great deck, but i wanna see what else is out now. anything new out i might like since i last posted? i have been out of car audio almost completely since i left for school, so i dunno what the hells going on anymore. any other not so new, but still good suggestions?

 

[canadian_mofo 10+ year member]

I Just bought the the new kenwood excelleron x890 for 260 off ebay ill let you know how that sounds when i get it next week.

 

[fatryan 5,000+ posts]

I Just bought the the new kenwood excelleron x890 for 260 off ebay ill let you know how that sounds when i get it next week.

wow, that thing sounds nice. this 1 also has bluetooth. any1 know how i can find out if my moto e815 will work with this deck? and whats the deal with the USB? i went to kenwoods site and looked on ebay and they really dont give you too much info. anybody know more about this 1? or the x990?

 

[6spdcoupe 5,000+ posts]

im back. yeah, i think this is the 4th 8445 that ive been through now. and every time i get a replacement, they claim its "brand new", even though when i bring it in to get replaced they say "we cant get you a new one cause eclipse doesnt make them anymore". well ive come to the absolute conclusion that my new replacements have NOT been new. cause they have the same problems if not more every time i get one back. this is a ****ing joke. im completely done with eclipse forever. i dont care if they have an amazing rep and every1 in the world has never had my problems, im not dealing with this shit again.
ok, so what deck should i get now? i really really wanted that pioneer bluetooth deck until about 5 minutes ago when i found out its not compatible with my motorola e815. its prolly a great deck, but i wanna see what else is out now. anything new out i might like since i last posted? i have been out of car audio almost completely since i left for school, so i dunno what the hells going on anymore. any other not so new, but still good suggestions?

Are you sure it Eclipse that keeps giving you the same unit back and not the dealer? I havent had to send back any 54/55s yet, but in the past anything that I got back was either repaired or replaced promptly without the issues arising again.

 

[fatryan 5,000+ posts]

Are you sure it Eclipse that keeps giving you the same unit back and not the dealer? I havent had to send back any 54/55s yet, but in the past anything that I got back was either repaired or replaced promptly without the issues arising again.

well they dont have any 8445's left, and each time its been gone for weeks, so chances are that they did send it out. to where? i dunno. i would hope eclipse, but who knows. its quite possible that it is the dealer since nobody else has had my problems. but either way, im gettin my friggin money back from these jerkoffs and never buying from them again. and i would prolly just buy a 8445 somewhere else, but theyre not made anymore, and i heard bad things about the new line. but who knows, well see. i just wanna get some opinions on what are the nice decks out now. when i get my money back, ill have ~$450 to spend on a deck.

 

[6spdcoupe 5,000+ posts]

well they dont have any 8445's left, and each time its been gone for weeks, so chances are that they did send it out. to where? i dunno. i would hope eclipse, but who knows. its quite possible that it is the dealer since nobody else has had my problems. but either way, im gettin my friggin money back from these jerkoffs and never buying from them again. and i would prolly just buy a 8445 somewhere else, but theyre not made anymore, and i heard bad things about the new line. but who knows, well see. i just wanna get some opinions on what are the nice decks out now. when i get my money back, ill have ~$450 to spend on a deck.

I hear ya and can definately appreciate your frustration.

What bad things have you heard on the new ones?

 

[mikegett 10+ year member]

Did you check the serial numbers of the HU's? This should tell you if the same deck is being returned to you. If you speculate the dealer is not being honest, then check there receipts. They will have the serial number posted for the waranty. Most likely you have one of two issues. Either the same deck is being returned without a sufficient fix or your car is causing the issues. If the decks serial numbers are different, then you may wish to have your electrical system looked at. Just like a computer, many newer decks must have a constant 12 volts supplied to opperate. Even my older Eclipse 54430 (a 2000 model) had issues when my altenator was failing. Correction. my altenator had a poor ground causing intermittant problems. I never saw my lights dim. The first issues were with my HU and my transmission. The electronic transmission wasn't always shifting correctly and the HU sounded weak with malfunctioning display. The cd player would become erratic at best with cd's. Primarily burned ones. This went on for a week till I discovered the poor ground terminal from the altenator to the chasis. Good luck and try to stay patient. Mike Gettinger

 

[6spdcoupe 5,000+ posts]

When your unit was returned was it wrapped in plastic with a error form tapped to it? Also compare serial #s to your original box. Unless you sent it in with it. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

 

[fatryan 5,000+ posts]

I hear ya and can definately appreciate your frustration.
What bad things have you heard on the new ones?

heard SQ and overall quality really declined...i dunno if its true but i heard it quite a few times

 

[fatryan 5,000+ posts]

Did you check the serial numbers of the HU's? This should tell you if the same deck is being returned to you. If you speculate the dealer is not being honest, then check there receipts. They will have the serial number posted for the waranty. Most likely you have one of two issues. Either the same deck is being returned without a sufficient fix or your car is causing the issues. If the decks serial numbers are different, then you may wish to have your electrical system looked at. Just like a computer, many newer decks must have a constant 12 volts supplied to opperate. Even my older Eclipse 54430 (a 2000 model) had issues when my altenator was failing. Correction. my altenator had a poor ground causing intermittant problems. I never saw my lights dim. The first issues were with my HU and my transmission. The electronic transmission wasn't always shifting correctly and the HU sounded weak with malfunctioning display. The cd player would become erratic at best with cd's. Primarily burned ones. This went on for a week till I discovered the poor ground terminal from the altenator to the chasis. Good luck and try to stay patient. Mike Gettinger

never checked the serials numbers...i shoulda done that b4. well i know its not my car thats the problem. first, ive had like 4 or 5 other decks in it which worked flawlessly. its not my install cause i had the shop install the replacements the last 3 times. and lastly, its clearly the HU itself cause it plays regular cd's perfectly but takes a shit on mp3 cds. theres something really ****ed up with the mp3 part of it. and the volume knob is ****ed up, but thats another story. i am running about 2500w cont, i have a 260 EA alt, big3 in 0awg, and a YT under the hood. ive never had any charging/connection problems...bass isnt lacking, so i cant see how it could be that either. no matter the problem, ive had it with this, im just getting my money back. im done trying to figure out whats wrong and trying to get it fixed. im getting my moeny back, going somewhere else, and buying a different HU. i just need some suggestions and opinions on HUs around $450 or so. mp3 is really important. i dont know what technology is out now, but it seems mp3 cds are always gonna be a pain in the ***, so any type of USB, ipod, ext mp3 player hookup is prefered. ive had a 9855, and hated it, so thats out of the Q...and it also kinda detered me from newer alpine. i was thinkin about that older alpine with the bigger face that comes out of the unit (cant remember the model #), its supposed to be an excellent unit. but when i did some research on it i found that the motorized part of the faceplate can have some issues. and since its no longer produced, it may not be worth risking something like that...

 

[forbidden 10+ year member]

I think that you are hearing little white lies about the new head units. 99% of companies upgrade cosmetics or feature content from year to year. Eclipse has not changed their laser transport, pickup, preamp, amp, tuner, case for over 5 years now for most of the items I just listed. It sucks that you had a bad 8445, but don't shrug the balance of the line off based on one bad apple that always seemed to come your way. To me this sounds more like a dealer issue rather than a Eclipse issue. For me as a dealer, 3 times with a problem = replacement for the customer, no questions asked. I have had about 5 bad 8445 units in the last year, all different problems for all different people. So far the new models are every bit as good as the old, no complaints from me here.