[RANT]

OK so I walk into the shop last Saturday to have a look at the new Eclipse headunits on the market. I had a play with the CD5000, their current SQ flagship unit.

I was far from impressed...

I navigated the thing inside out, because once you know an Elipse HU you can work all of them. I have a CD-8454 which has 14 times the level of tuneability, and its a 2004 model! Some things the CD5000 cant do:

- proper 0.1ms time alignment steps. In fact you cant manually adjust TA at all, just use presets
- PEQ extends to 7 bands but is limited to one channel (8454 has independant PEQ for both front and rear speakers)
- stripped down crossover settings. You either cant adjust the slope or I hadnt figured out how

Not to mention it looks like a meal my dog would regurgitate and the fascia buttons have a very flimsey feel to them.

Is this a sign of the times or are manufacturers in general shying away from dedicated SQ audio only headunits. Alpine are still in the game but have yet to build a better unit than the discontinued 7998R phantomface.

I hope they keep making parts for my unit because I'll probably never replace it. Unless someone dumps me a $2k wad for a Clarion HX-D2.

i thought the CD7000 was eclipse's premier single-DIN HU?

From memory I think the only thing a CD7000 has over a 5000 is the pseudo GPS navigation display....

Nah I'm pretty sure the CD7000 is a lot more capable then the CD5000.

yeah i belive the 7000 has better TA etc.
it has lower pre-out voltage at 5v but that shouldnt matter to much, the p9 was only 2v.

My HU (Clarion DRX6495) is ancient now, but Marc and Rob have both commented on it being a great unit - I've also noticed the physical quality of the new units seems very 'cheap' in comparison to the older ones. And the menus in some of the new units seem unnecessarily complicated - you have to go through three menus just to get to simple functions. I think the older ones were more intuitive in how they worked. Or we might just be showing our age...

I just quickly checked the website cause I'm at work, but there does appear to be quite a few differences between the 5000 and the 7000. My understanding is that the 7000 has at least everything the model it replaced had.

Luke

The Alpine CDA-7949E was the best SQ deck I've ever owned... Wish I still had it.
But the PXA-H701, teamed up with just about any head unit, far out-performs it (and most) for tunability.

at least the new eclipse have detchable face

i had a play with a 5000 in damos car, looks nice but id rather his old 7998 (however the face motor for the alpine was very noisey)

the CD5000 should not be compared to the 8454,

the CD7000 is the 2006 equivalent to the 8454,

EG top models for the last few years.

2001 - 8051 8/16V out Old style output and functions.
2002 - 8061 8/16V out Old style output and functions.
2003 - 8053 8/16V out 10 band PEQ, Full TA, Full Active X/Over
2004 - 8454 8V out 10 band PEQ, Full TA, Full Active X/Over
2005 - 8455 8V out 10 band PEQ, Full TA, Full Active X/Over
2006 - CD7000 5V out 11 band PEQ, Full TA, Full Active X/Over

Out of all of them the 8053 was the best head unit, it was even better than the old 8061 IMO.
If you needed MP3 then the 8454 was a better option.

I've had nothing but trouble trying to replace my 8053 when it broke, eventually after buying a few diff decks and not being happy, I replaced it with another 8053, but then alas recently it was stolen

so I tried to replace it with a 8061+pxa = sucked ass.
so I've ended up with a Alpine 9965+pxa and finally I found a combo thats actually better than my old 8053 in every way (except disk read/loading speed)

Juls

Cheers for clearing that up

I didnt think Eclipse had taken that further a step back

Click to view attachment

Hollywood - I have a 7949 I'll sell ya!

Hhhhmmmm..... Wouldn't match my current system, but I may be interested.
How I miss that destinctive chime on the press of every button...
Maybe we can chat at Stothers?

Sure

Yep, noticed this too. ESPECIALLY with the new pioneer units. That joystick feels like its going to snap after about 100 uses.

Alpines units took a step back in solid "feel" too.
Its one reason i got a 9835 over a 9855.

*cuddles my drx9255*

man they dont build em like they used to.

d

X2

Of the current breed the HXD2 is still king as far as I'm concerned - unless you like to use an iPod then it sucks ass, but we're talking about SQ so...

I'm using a Pioneer DEH-P80RS right now and it is bloody good considering it costs $899 and is excellent for iPod navigation, has 2/3-way crossover and PEQ, but the TA is fiddly to use. The Alpine CDA-9855R is still the best sub-$1000 source I've come across but I haven't yet tried the new Eclipse unit.

Still, the HXD2 sounds sublime in comparison to anything else - you'll NEVER regret the investment and you'll likely never need to upgrade. I was even considering using the HXD2 and using the DEH-P80RS just for iPod and Bluetooth fed into the HXD2's auxliliary inputs...

Even up against the P90 and F#1 combos??? And SQ wise, have you compared it to the MX406+MDA5000? I only ask because I was intending one of these for my next update....

uh oh. at the risk of opening the worm tin from f#1 owners, i don't feel the f#1 could hope to hold a candle to the hxd2 in outright fidelity, nor the p90 combo. those two units are, however, vastly more flexible with a much more serious amount of dsp onboard and, in the case of the alpine, decoding for multichannel audio, if thats your thing... (in a car??? why???)

also, i blind abx tested the 9255 against the hxd2 last week! i didn't feel the difference in sound was that big, which was surprising and dissapointing for me (cos i want a d2!). i couldn't justify the upgrade and as i'll be using external processing and xover, the extra onboard features (t/a xover etc) were somewhat superflous to me.

i've never heard a mda5000 but the mx406 is internally based largely on the drx-9255. mac may (let me stress 'may' again) have tweaked a component here and there and they've modified the connection options to be more useful and less cumbersome, but the design, layout and overall engineering is pure clarion!! still a mac tho and that makes me hard

*hugs my 9255 again*



d

Awwww...really??Did u test them in a same system or diff system and diff car?If its in the same system n car then I'm amazed with the 9255 I'm using one but me havent compared it with HX-D2..I really really want to try the time allignment in my system actually, but havent got a chance

yeah it was in the same car. set all controls to flat/neutral, 96khz sampling on the d2 and just used 1pr of outs to drive 240mk2 dyns fullrange. i did this in my driveway at night so it was a nice controlled environment. although, technically speaking, it wasn't a true-to-the-definition blind abx cos it wasn't blind (i had to unplug one to plug the other in), but i set the levels with a little spl meter i've got hanging around.

subjectively there was more detail retrieval (esp with female vocals - holly cole sounded more... erm... feminine/less thick/more delicate with the d2) and dynamics were more impressive (this awesome recording i have of holst's planet suite) but for the majority of listening (jungle through rock and some kruder+dorfmeister-ish stuff) i felt they were perhaps within 5%.

i reckon it would be a pretty special recording that would allow you to -really- hear the difference between the two. both decks will make a mockery of a bad recording (of which there are sooo many!) i wanted to like the hxd2 heaps and i would've bought that very unit if it had been a significant increase in performance! (although i might still buy it if i can't find a replacement pg xover for my system!!!! grrrr)

d