Originally posted by TheAlmightyMe:
If you want strong bass, go for Alpine. If you want clarity through out the entire range, and strong reliability, go Eclipse. My Eclipse HU has been through 2 cars, and have NEVER had a problem. Great sound and great quality. Only dealt with their customer service once, the manual had a couple blank pages. Got a new manual overnighted. I didn't have an issue with their service, but I may just be the fluke.
No, if you want strong bass, get a decent subwoofer and amplifier, or perhaps a decent set of speakers with good low end capability. The HU really makes no big difference here, they pretty much all have some sort of bass boosting feature.
If you want clarity across the range, pretty much all HUs in the same price range will sound nearly identical. Thier purpose is to play the information on the CD as it is on the CD.
Alpine's bass engine is basically a 1 band parametric EQ. HUs like thier 7998 have a 5 band parametric EQ. Does it improve the bass? No. It allows you to compensate for peaks and valleys in your system's performance. So that said, Eclipse woud be just as good for bass.
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