Dear lowyat.net,

I'm going to upgrade my stock factory fitted audio tomorrow and had been offered a good deal today by a shop recommended by a friend.

Cut the story short, I'm quite well verse with eclipse hu as I did some extensive research about it so the shop offered me a few models and I'm kinda confused which one should I buy. They are :

Eclipse CD2000 - One of the low range model, cheap and has good features.
Eclipse CD3100 - Mid range model, motorized panel, kinda odd styling and has good features
Eclipse CD5435 - Old model but the highest spec in mid range model and has better features than CD3100 except it doesn't have motorized panel and look better than CD3100.

Okay, enough with eclipse, is there any Alpine equivalent model that match the Eclipse ? I just want to know before I decide since I'm going to invest a hefty sum of money on it. The budget is below RM1k.

I'm probably using Boston Acoustics as my front components and run it directly from the hu without amp.

I will close this thread once I decided

Thanks.

it depends on ur budget

My budget is not more than RM1k since this shop is introduced by a friend, I could get a better deal than outside.

eclipse 5100 should be abit more than 1k only. Much better than the 2100 or 3100

errm..but some say the new eclipse line is not that good eh..i oso dunno, just hear ppl say oni,.

What about Alpine ? Is there any serious contender ? I don't much about Alpine since their model number is quite confusing.

im not very familar with alpine though.. hehehe. Using pioneer myself. depends on ur taste also. Generally

eclipse: bright sounding
pioneer: abit mellow sounding
alpine: in between

ah~ I see. I heard that too.

The only reason I don't like about eclipse is their display, a bit ahbengish I would say.

Alpine has nicer display but their specs differ a lot according to the range hence the price differ a lot too.

yeap.. eclipse need to do up their interface, but if ur looking for bang for buck HU, eclipse i will vote. even 2100 comes with 3 rca preout already. Cant really find alpine with such specs unless ur looking at higher models

Yeah right, but I'm not installing any amp yet. If the budget allows probably the next upgrade is 2-3 years from now. As long as i'm satisfied with the result it's okay. I'm very frugal with my spending and I'm not really a hardcore audiophile like my friend who spent almost RM13k on his ice .

dun say things so early... once kena u wun even think twice to spend speaking from experience here.

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Added on January 12, 2008, 8:38 pmthe best is u go ur frens place, test out alpine or eclipse thats within ur budget... see which 1 u like most. tats always the best advice when it comes to ICE

Okay then. It's too early to tell.

I guess I'm gonna test each of them and decide for the last time. Thanks for your advice

I'm gonna let this thread open until tomorrow morning.

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Added on January 13, 2008, 7:05 pmBought the Eclipse CD5435.

Thank you all.