Looking for Eclipse CD8454 online manual

Took a ride with a friend last night. He has the CD8454 and some Bostons plus a Clarion APA2160 amp and one 12" sub firing to the rear in an SUV.  I didn't think he had an amp or sub at all from the way it sounded, and when it was turned up much at all the fronts became muddy from trying to play the lower frequencies. I'm not 100% sure, but I think the HU is running all the mids and the amp is only driving the sub. It was late so I didn't get to look at anything very well, but when I looked at the specs for the Eclipse HU online today I knew it should have sounded a lot better.  Unfortunately the manual for the deck was not in the box when we looked. He had some shop install it and they obviously didn't set the system up well at all, or dial it in to his setup and seem to have kept the manual.  I looked at the Eclpise site and Googled, but can't seem to find the manual for the CD8454 online, was really hoping someone could give some information on where to find it, or even email me a copy at: my91z @ hotmail . com

I'd also appreciate any other good links for setting up all the options on the HU, which seems like it has gobs of features.

Oh yeah, one more thing. The specs on the amplifier show it only wants a .2V input level, and the CD8454 specs that I found show it puts out 8V. Can you turn down the voltage level on the outputs of the CD8454 to .2V? I'm thinking that is at least part of his problem since you obviously can't turn the gain up on the amp at all without driving it to distortion with 8V comming in when it wants to see .2V........

I think I just need to convince him to at least get a 4 or 5 channel Alpine or something to drive everything; it would sound so much better that it will with what he's got.

Thanks for any help,

Mike

haemphyst,

Thanks for the reply. I understand the gain and the way it works; I've set up several systems over the years. What had me confused was the fact that the "specs" I found for the amp originally *only* said it had .2V inputs, not a range from .2-6V.  So I was thinking wow, 8V into a .2V input isn't going to work well as the HU wouldn't be able to be turned up much at all, even with the amp's gain at minimum.  After you posted I searched Google for images of the amp and found the input/output end of the amp, follow the link and click the second image at the right:

http://www.opony.com/caraudio.asp?producent=Clarion&model=APA2160&ID=208&action=show_details

You are correct that it goes up to 6V, and that is obviously where I will set it if it is not already.  I'm wondering it I shouldn't at least try to run the 8V pre-outs into the line-level inputs; wouldn't that be a farily close match at those voltage levels?

On my 300ZX I have my two 10's crossed over at 55 or 60Hz and my 6.5's play down to about the same point. It is obviously a much smaller vehicle than a full-size SUV. Would this point be about right for an SUV also? I don't want the midbass to come through the sub where your ears will be able to tell it's coming from behind you. I swear my 6.5's with 1.25" MDF baffles in my doors driven by an Apline MRV-T505 have almost as much bass as his single 12" driven with the amp above. And just listening to it quickly from behind last night, I could almost hear vocals and the like coming through it, so I'm almost certain it's crossed over much too high and either the gain is not set correctly on the amp, or the crossover points are set so funky the sub amp just isn't receiving much of a signal to amplify.

Thanks again,

Mike