beady wrote:
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. |
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Don't count on it... You might be relegated to calling Eclipse. I looked for a year for an 8051 manual, and never found one. They simply aren't available...
beady wrote:
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 |
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I think you do not understand gain at all. You are heading toward a blown woofer in short order. The .2V setting is the MINIMUM input the amplifier will accept for maximum output... Turn it THE OTHER WAY (toward the 6V end of things). This the equivalent of reducing the amplifier's sensitivity - it takes more from the volume control to get full output...
The headunit, while rated for 8V out, will only put out 8V when playing a CD with FULL LEVEL 0dB SINEWAVES recorded on it. Real life music? Never see that much output...
Step one: Turn the gain on the amp ALL THE WAY TO THE 6V end.
Step two: Turn the subwoofer volume control on the deck all the way down. (this is FLAT - no boost, NOT OFF. Trust me, I have the previous generation of the deck)
Step three: Play a fairly loud CD, one you know well, at a volume that is BARELY showing distortion on the main speakers. Remember this number, because this is as LOUD AS YOU WILL EVER TURN THE HEAD UP FROM NOW ON. Back the volume off one or two clicks.
Step four: Turn the amplifier gain control SLOWLY toward the .2V end. (Wait for it...) When you start to hear distortion coming from the woofer, STOP. Back it off a TINY bit ('till the distortion quits) and LEAVE IT ALONE FOREVER! from here on out, you can use the head unit's sub volume control to adjust output for low bass level recordings. JUDIDCIOUS use is what is called for here, otherwise you will simply be back to the same situation you are in right now.
While a newer 5 channel amp will definitely make everything sound better, suggest a 4x50 or 4x75 amp for all of the mains - no need to throw out a working amp, unless he LIKES spending more money than is necessary...
It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."