I know that speaker placement can make a major difference in sound, but I'm not real keen on kickpanels. due to space and expense. I like having the tweeters in my dash, might consider getting tweeter pods in the future. I know that ideally you have the tweeters the same distance from your ears as the other parts of a component set like in coaxials, but I really like the higher soundstage I have now with the tweeters in the stock dash locations. My thought was that if I go to a configuration where the tweeter part of my component set is connected to one set of rca outs on my HU, the mid driver part on another set, and then the sub off the final set of rca outs, I would be able to use lots of the advanced features in my eclipse 8454 HU (time correction, EQ, PEQ, crossovers, etc). I believe this is called a "biamped" configuration. I am kind of hoping I can get good sound using the features of the HU available with moving to this configuration and this would only cost me one amp and some cable.
Any thoughts?

 

So you won't be using the crossover supplied with the components?

 

That would be the idea. Supposedly the crossover that comes with my component set (Focal Access 165A) is pretty nice and everything, but I was wondering if perhaps being able to set time correction and such on the HU would be an improvement over the way I currently have things set up.

 

setting a time delay correctly is not a easy thing to. If you don't put the right numbers in it will sound like crap. What measurements does the head unit require is it in inches or feet or milliseconds?

 

The eclipse 8454 HU comes with a mic and a mode where it will play pink sound and such. It writes the mic measurements on a mem stick and then you can upload the data into a little app that allows you to write a set of settings back onto the card.

 

oops

 

You tell' em brother, Unless you have a tuned ear, you can destroy your sound stage, then you get accustom too that sound, it hard to over come, and a natural sound won't sound correct.

You are better off experimenting with the phasing of the speakers than time delays. IMO. Bill

 

I understand time alignment can be tricky, and I've never done it before. But from my reading it seems that the whole point of the eclipse 8454 HU coming w/ a mic and test mode, as well as the whole e-iserv (http://www.eclipse-web.com/e-iserv/e-iserv.html) bit is to make it easy to optimize the sound to your car. Has anyone had any experience w/ e-iserv on eclipse HUs to tweak settings? I've been searching through other forums as well and haven't found any first-hand experience.

 

StackTrayce, where did u purchase that head unit?

 

Some guy was in a gas station with a delivery truck and he said they had some extra units and if he could get cash for it right away he'd sell it to me cheap...
Just kidding, I got it at AMS in Madison, WI and they installed everything I currently have. I think the eclipse warranty is only good if it is installed by an authorized dealer.