Ive owned both an Alpine and an Eclipse, and had them both in my bonne. Though Alpine is more costly I was much happier with its performance and was easier to navigate the menu through my Alpine

uh oh... I just found the alpine on crutchfield for even cheaper than the eclipse. Now I am even more confused. I gotta be honest, I like the way the alpine looks better than the eclipse. I saw it in person. THAT **** ON THE ECLISPE IS SOOOOO BIG! It is literally like the old 1970 tv *****. Seriously! I honestly just can't figure out. Looks aside. Features aside, when its all stripped down, completely tweeked, which one will perform the best and create the best sound?

pretty positive it will be the alpine looking at the stats...im sure someone else will back that up

these are thew reasons i like the eclipse...
Eclipse Alpine
Preamp Voltage 5 volts 4 volts
Display Color Multi-color White
Key Button Color Green/Red Blue/Red, Red
EQ Bands 3 None

However, i agree completely.. Eclipse styling has been going WAY down hill for years...

some great deals can be had on ebay too...
http://cgi.ebay.com/Eclipse-CD7000-C...QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/Eclipse-CD8445-C...QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-2007-Eclipse...QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-ECLIPSE-CD40...QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-ECLIPSE-CD40...QQcmdZViewItem

the second one on the ebay list of the CD8445 looks really nice and also has 8 volt preouts, that is awesome. I would look toward getting that. you are going to get pretty looks from alpine most all of the time but eclipse has really awesome audio stuff. I really noticed a huge difference when switching to a headunit with higher preamps and it makes your sound system sound much better and also louder than before without sending a crappy signal which the amp tries to over process. It sounds like you want to go for sound. If you want better sound I would suggest eclipse over alpine. I really like alpine and they do look nice and do a really good job but for what you are asking I would choose eclipse for performance.

In my opinion alpine is the better head unit. I was told Alpine and Eclipse are essentially the same head unit. I was told this by an installer at a shop in Indiana where I used to live, the shop sold both Alpine and Eclipse. He said the internals are exactly the same on both heads. So in a manner of speaking you do pay for the Alpine name.

I agree also that Eclipse styling has went way down.

Both Heads are pretty well featured with good and bad in both.

The button colors to me are cosmetic, the 5 volt preamps however are very good for adding other components.

Time alignment is very important when you are setting up soundstage and imaging.
Roll through judging lanes without good soundstage( alignment, delay, and positioning).
and the judges will eat make quick work of you.

When I went through this I narrowed it down to a couple of different head units and made my decision from there.

The best advice I can give is look em over, find which one has the features you find most important and go with that one.

One other thing you can find good deals on ebay and other places but the service after the sale is what will make alot of difference.

I think bout everyone here can agree Crutchfield has the service market pretty well cornered.

Tim

i have the 8445 right now...

I went from a nakamichi to a 3000 series eclipse a few years ago, and the 3000 series sounded ALMOST as good as the nakamichi.. when i upgraded to the 8445, it made a tremendous difference in SQ and i loudness.. the sound was phenomenally clearer and louder and had more depth to it, thats what the higher voltage pre-outs give you.

wow you had a nakamichi? which one did you have? If you compare the eclipse 8445 to nakamichi haha yah i think we have a winner.

i had a cd40. Its about a 5yr old model now...

It is hard to compare the 8445 to the nak.... since i had the eclipse 3403 in between them..

I think that the 8445 sounds better than the nak did, mostly due to the 8v preouts on the eclipse. I also had different speakers at the time, so a side by side comparison is very difficult. I would like to go back to nak however, if for nothing else, but because of the very plain styling, i dont like my radios flashy, i like them to look natural in the car.

I think it is agreed that higher preamp voltage would benefit you most in your search for a better headunit for this situation. If you are running external amps and going all the way to get more sound, it is definitely worth it to get the headunit with higher preamp voltage aka eclipse.