an audio shop near me is still selling the eclipse cd8454 and cd8053 from last year's line. i'm pretty interested in the 8053 b/c of the 16V preamp voltage that is possible. does anyone know if that unit has a detachable face or any security features of that sort? also, does it have a swing face like alpine units? or is it just 1 position? also, i was reading about it online and it said that i would need eclipse commander advanced or something like that to be able to use MP3 discs...anyone know where to get that, how much it costs?? any input about those questions would be great. any other general input about the unit is great too. thanks in advance.
the Eclipse uses a security code to prevent theft. If someone steals it, they'll find very shortly that they have a useless stereo.
yes that year's model line requires the eclipse commander for MP3 decoding, and it's not cheap. you may be able to find one on ebay but not sure where to look for one new now.
thanks guys. that audio shop was saying $800 including the piece that makes it 16V. i was also wondering how i would hook my ipod to either of these units. any info on that and other input in general would be great. thanks again.
erik, sorry for not adding this to my last post. the rest of my system, if all goes well and as planned: mb quart premiums up front, probably just the mb quart discus as a rear fill. 12 inch RE SE sub. zapco ref500 for the sub and ref350 for the comps. after reading a little more i think i may be liking the 8454 more and more. from what i can tell (correct me if i'm wrong) it doesn't need any extra equipment for MP3's. the site that i was reading from says "there is an auxiliary input for listening to a portable audio device." would i be able to have my Ipod connected to that aux input? or no? the one thing i noticed is that site said that the 8454 does not have any antitheft features...is the site just wrong? or are there really none? thanks in advance again.
8454 is mp3 ready without additional equipment, you can connect the ipod but you will still have to control it from the ipod itself rather than the stereo
I would go with the 8454 it will be much cheaper and mp3 ready, and if you will be playing mp3s it doesnt really need to be 16v in my opinion the rest of your system sounds great those amps are amazing
as for security features like glass said the 8454 has a security code where you put in a cd and set that as the cd to unlock your car cd player
so if its stolen they will have to know the cd you used or get a dealer to reset it to activate it just make sure you use a cd that you can buy from a store otherwise if you lose the burned cd you wont be able to unlock it either
dont pay sticker for the 8454 either (since its a year old now) i wouldnt pay more than 500 for it new if i were you (i purchased mine off ebay for 340) not that its not worth sticker but its analagous to buying a car you wouldnt buy an 04 corvette now for the same price as the new and improved 400hp corvette, you would get a discount
Yeah i paid $500 for a Brand New One of ebay. Be very carefull though and ask them questions and make sure it still has the key cd or whatever and ask them if they registered the cd player with eclipse yet and such.. I bought mine from ebay user tristate audio and they actually have a store in neyjersey that is actually a eclipse dealer. If possible get a reciept from them. I got a reciept from mine and eclipse will give me a 3 year warranty if i get it installed at a eclipse dealer locally. Tristate audio had fast shipping and product was brand new. I dont know if they still have any left but search ebay and youll find some.
Yeah, get the 8053. The 8454 is a slow monster. Lots of options but it doesn't sound like you would be using it to its fullest. Just use the 8053, burn music onto discs, and don't use mp3. It doesn't work that great, especially if you got you songs from a file share program. There are always little pops and skips. If you want to play mp3s, use an mp3 player like an Ipod. Playing off a disc is always iffy. Go 8053 and don't get the eclipse commander nor the 16V thing. It's probably cheaper and I think you will be impressed anyway with the unit.
My biggest gripe with the 8454 is the animation. I HATE animation every time you push a button, but it's hard to avoid in any head unit nowadays. It is a little slow at times depending on what you're doing.
Yeah, I got an 8053 on eBay for $350 and am very pleased with it. I got it mainly because of the (coax) digital input that works quite well with my laptop's digital output, so I can simply pipe my music/tv shows/movies/etc from the laptop, and enjoy the same quality as if the material were coming directly from the CD part of the deck (because the signal is still digital). Also, the digital input supports 48KHz sample rates (common for computer-based S/PDIF outputs), so movies play fine as-is with no resampling anywhere.
If I had anything to complain about with the CD8053 it is that the unit makes a bit of extra noise if the display controller(?) (a small external box cabled to the main unit) or its cable runs near power or signal wires, so some planning about where to mount it and how to route your wires is needed to get the best out of the deck.
Overall I'm quite impressed. I know I'm not used to volume ranges being from 0-80. ;) I've got mine attached to a 2005 Infinity Reference 6-channel amplifier. Nothing terribly special (in fact, it pales pretty easily in comparison to most *good* amplifiers), but it costs 50% as much as what I really wanted, and sounds great, once I realized that there is no separate gain control (to adjust "gain", reduce the input sensitivity).