i have also heard that the time alignment caters to the drivers seat more than anything else. I know that it matters mostly to me how it sounds but I don't want it to sound worse to my passengers. Plus I will be doing more of SPL than SQ competing so I don't think it will help in that aspect. I JUST WISH IT WASN'T SO UGLY!!! I agree with you toastedoats. I don't need all of that flash from my head unit. I am now leaning more towards the Eclipse. I also heard that alpine has a 500mv impedence on that 4 volt preout and Eclipse only has 50mv

I have a Alpine from my Sebring that will be installed in the Bonne soon. I say go with Alpine for sure! Here'* my radio

sorry for the misinformation above, my Nakamichi deck i had was a cd45z
i couldnt remember at the time if it was a 40 or 45...

back to scheduled programming

It depends on what brand you buy if it caters to the driver, of coarse the more expensive ones are going to tune all the speakers so the sound is better for whole car staging

This will help put more voltage through the rcas which will increase the signal to the amplifiers and also at higher voltages there is less interference since the voltage overrides most if not all of electrical noises. This should help you in feeding a good signal to your amplifiers for good SQ and good quality at SPL levels. If you have bad quality when running SPL you can run into clipping and end up hurting speakers.

It is actually better to have a lower impedance and higher voltage because you tend to get more noise through the rcas with higher impedance. (its also a good idea to run good rcas that are shielded and have good connectors)

I really want to help you out and in everything you say makes me think you will be best off with the eclipse.

If it is not the right design for you there are other eclipse headunits that are even better for your situation, but I can understand if you favor the alpine looks versus the eclipse CD3100. I am definitely not an alpine hater but for your application it would be best to go with the eclipse. I hope I have helped give you some good information to make your decision.

i would try finding an older model eclipse in NOS condition... its easy to find them and you can get a good deal on them as i showed before on ebay, and even some other vendors.

like THIS ONE!!!!! what a great deal on a SUPER headunit! and it has 8V preouts!!!!!!!!!! i would buy this right now if i was shopping for a headunit
http://www.woofersetc.com/index.cfm?...roduct_ID=4953

If you are going to go with the eclipse definately try to find one of the older models.

Aside from the ESN (eclipse security network), some of the older models had touch screen. I know the models from like the early to mid 90'* had it.

I'm not hatin eclipse by any means the Alpine just suited my needs more.



Happy huntin'

Tim

Plurr what I meant was that I don't think time alignment will help me in any way with my SPL. and as far as the preout impedence I meant that it gave more points to the eclipse for having the lowest impedence. but it seems that we both agree on that anyway. As far as the older models, I am terrified of relying on ESN security. Sure it will keep them from being able to use my head unit but they wont figure that out until they steal it and I doubt that they will return it to me afterwards. Oh and by the way, I have to park my car outside and not in a garage. I am getting my alarm in two weeks with the 2 way paging system but I wanted a detachable face as a second line of defense on the nights when I have drank so much that I don't hear my alarm pager going off. ESN is the only thing that has ever kept me from buying an eclipse.

oh and by the way, here are my RCA'* just so you guys know what type of quality they are.
http://www.cardomain.com/item/STISHX417
my two channel has the same series

I would say it'* a close call, does the eclipse allow you to shut off the decks amp if you are running audio from just an external amp, I know the alpines allow you too. I have the CDA-9851 IMO I think it looks good in the car

umm... if your running off a low level output, you arent running off the decks amp, the deck amp is for the speaker out, your just using the preamp to get the line out to a usable level, or to a better level (4,5,8v etc), so i dont see teh benefit or need to manually shut off the internal amp