i agree toast, i LOVE eclipse decks this is my 3rd one, and ive run pio, ken, sony, jvc, alpine, and well a kenwood Excelon 7" motorized touch screen LCD eclipse blows them allllll away in SQ, and i have my ipod hooked up to my eclipse, and a sirius tuner box and an XM radio lol

I have always liked Pioneer HU'*, but I have never directly compared to Eclipse for SQ. Alpine has always semed overpriced IMO.

Perhaps Clarion has gotten better, and I know I have been told before thay are good SQ HUs, but they hold up like crap. I had sooo much trouble with the face on mine; repaired twice and still had trouble. I know a couple others that had similar problems with Clarions. But this was a couple years ago.

Personally, the radios in my car have to be a blend of form and function and the Eclipse radios, while being nice products have NEVER appealed to me asthetically. And for my needs/taste being on the higher-end of the spectrum when you start getting into external processing and remote amplifier control, I prefer Alpine. And besides, if you look at the top winning cars in SQ, the vast majority run either Alpine F1 Status or the Pioneer P9 combo. Its Coke and Pepsi, McDonalds and Burger King...different stroke for different folks.

chinski, yes, i know of many reliability issues with clarion in the past, i cannot say myself if the quality has improved at all, but for functionality, price and SQ they are a great value assuming they hold up.

I have Pioneer TS-G1341R 5 1/4 2 ways in the front and Pioneer TS-A6961R 6x9" 3Way in the rear. Do you think my speakers may hinder the sound quailty of a good headunit?

I have very similar speakers, and I like the sound from my Eclipse CD3403, but I havent compared it much to other "better" systems. But I like it, and I dont hear any complaints from the folks that ride with me.

I get quite a bit of bass from my 6x9s with the bass on the HU turned up. On certain songs I have to turn it down because it gets a little nasty. Theres a pretty nice bass sound inside the car, with my speakers its just barely on the edge of "feeling it" you can feel some bass on the back of your seats when youre sitting in them, and down in your chest a little, and my mirrors dance around a little bit, but its nothing spectacular bass-wise. But im happy with the mix I have.

I played with a $200 pioneer that was supposedly running their new and improved iPod hookup. The more i tried to set up the controls, the less it worked intuitively. Took it back for the Alpine with a cheaper and simpler (just a cable into the HU) iPod connection that works quicker, and is easier to use. I've also used RF, and Pioneer in previous installs/cars as well..

i have always found pioneers to lack in SQ, and be mostly focused on being flashy and "cool" looking, and they never appealed to me at all. i also find their controls to very difficult to maneuver and not very intuitive

Yeah, I couldn't care less about the screen savers, (wtf dolphin?). I do like the rest of the styling of the Pioneers though. The Alpines always looked "older" in style to me, and its not a bash, its just my preference. Although I do now think the Alpine would match my Jeep better...

I have no experience with I-Pod controls, my MP3 player is a Creative so I will have to use a regular line input and control the player itself instead of via the HU.

I did borrow a friends old Eclipse one time and I have to say it did sound good. It always seemed like for the same ammount of money the Alpine\Eclipse had less features vs Pioneer. I suppose the trade-off is the bit of SQ. I never really notice a real lack of SQ with the Pioneer though. But I do not compete and my ears are not the best for tones.

I guess it really depends on what you want. I'd say if you like a couple extra features and dont mind the average SQ I would pick a Pioneer over a Sony, JVC, or Kenwood. If you want the SQ and could care less about the extras then get an Eclipse.
It has been 2 years since I have been in the HU market and really looked hard at things, so I may be way off base with the features/price thing.

I have an alpine cda 9856, it does everything I need and more. Its only 200 new so look it up