My Alpine 9827 got stolen so I'm in the market for a new head unit. I don't know whether to just buy the Alpine 9827 again or get an Eclipse 3414.

I know both of these brands have awesome sound quality and I dare say that the Eclipse has an edge because I think it sounds cleaner. I could never get the sound just right on the 9827. I tried playing with MX, changing center frequencies and levels for bass and treble, but it was always either too much bass and not enough treble, or not enough bass to "punch" through with the right amount of treble. I guess I like my music "bright."

I don't run any amps or subwoofers. It's an absolutely bone-stock Accord except for the head unit and tinted windows. Therefore, I don't care about pre-outs, sub-outs, etc. Just give me great sound quality that I can turn up once in a while and MP3 capability, and I'm happy.

Here are my questions:
1. Do you think that Eclipse's ESN is an effective theft DETERRENT? In other words, does a thief see that it's an Eclipse and move on?
2. How many thieves do you really think recognize Eclipse and know about ESN?
3. Is there a known way to defeat ESN?
4. I noticed that the Eclipse does not have a MOSFET amp. Without an amp, do you think that the Eclipse will play loud enough (at least comparable to the Alpine 9827, which I found to crank pretty well)?
5. I have read that Eclipse only replaces your unit if you don't make a claim with your car insurance company, leaving you SOL if you have broken windows, other items stolen, etc. Is this true?

Gracias.
Salamat.
Thank you.
Merci.
Arigato.

 

upgrade your alarm before putting a new hu in... If they can steal it they will steal it.. im sure you have heard of people getting just the face to there hu stolen,

 

The eclipse units will sound more natural, they make really nice units.
Alpine is very overrated, I've owned them before.
Alpine just uses teh same design year after year, same ole ****, they just add new bells and whisltes.
Kind of why they gave up on BBE after so many years of use, then they went with DHE and now Medai Xpander, then the bass engine ****.
All gimmics.
Same old regulated 1 bit d/a, which there really is nothing special about.
Same old **** over and over again.

 

Good advice. I've been looking into that and I'm still shopping and checking out the archived posts. I think if I had an alarm, my hu wouldn´t have gotten stolen to start with!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Spider Man &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The eclipse units will sound more natural, they make really nice units.
Alpine is very overrated, I've owned them before.
Alpine just uses teh same design year after year, same ole ****, they just add new bells and whisltes.
Kind of why they gave up on BBE after so many years of use, then they went with DHE and now Medai Xpander, then the bass engine ****.
All gimmics.
Same old regulated 1 bit d/a, which there really is nothing special about.
Same old **** over and over again.</TD></TR></TABLE>

If I had to define the brands with one word each, Eclipse="clean" and Alpine="powerful".

Does anyone run stock power in their Eclipse and find it lacking? Anyone out there with an Eclipse 3414 and have any pros/cons they wanna share?

 

I don't use deck power, cause no deck power cuts, it.
You're actually better off getting a little dinky amp then relying on deck power.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Spider Man &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I don't use deck power, cause no deck power cuts, it.
You're actually better off getting a little dinky amp then relying on deck power.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I thought that the Alpine 9827 I had pushed pretty hard for my comfort level. I mean, we're not talking heart-stopping dB's, but enough for my purposes. Thanks for the suggestion, but an amp just means something else that can get stolen, if you know what I mean.

I've been a victim of theft way too god damn much to invest in those types of things anymore. After my GS-R got stolen, I told myself keep it simple, keep it stock. Cut the potential losses.

 

Here is a 3rd option for you then.
Pioneer.

 

i personally have a 9827, ive had just about every major name hu ever heard of i am a big clarity junkie so to speak i really enjoy music and nothing is better than a clean loud system. my 9827 is by far the best sounding and performing hu i have ever had or heard. i only have an amp for my sub and none for highs. it puts out more clean sound than i can handle for very long. although i would say its very close when it comes to eclipse or alpine. i play my music very loud for very long periods of time the alpine is the only unit ive ever had that dosent start clipping and cutting out after a while of high volume

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by agrn93ls &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i personally have a 9827, ive had just about every major name hu ever heard of i am a big clarity junkie so to speak i really enjoy music and nothing is better than a clean loud system. my 9827 is by far the best sounding and performing hu i have ever had or heard. i only have an amp for my sub and none for highs. it puts out more clean sound than i can handle for very long. although i would say its very close when it comes to eclipse or alpine. i play my music very loud for very long periods of time the alpine is the only unit ive ever had that dosent start clipping and cutting out after a while of high volume</TD></TR></TABLE>
If you want a clean loud system, you should get an amp.
As for clarity, the poster of this thread is right, ecllipse decks are very natural and clean sounding. If you want to speak of clean, I can name many units, alpine 7990, 7878, Sony Cdx-C90, Denon, Nakamichi cd-700, I can go on.