Please Help: High-End car audio


Firstly, I hope those word aren't an oxymoron. I've got all Focal drivers with a Soundstream amp. I bought an eclipse head unit and in-dash changer and hate the sound. Its not bad, but for as much as I spent, I'm not happy about it. It just sounds thin and unlifelike. The factory cd player through the spkr-line level adaptor didn't sound that much worse. If anyone has any experience with some head units in the car that really sound nice I'd be appreciative. The most I can do is exchange the Eclipse gear or try an sell it. Is Nakamichi about the only other one? And just how bad are the tuners at the expense of a good cd player. My home system is a fanfare tuner with all Van Alstine gear. I don't expect my car to sound that good, but at least musical. And I won't buy McIntosh, too expensive and ugly.
ezmeralda114405
Ez- If the 6.5s are low in the door and the tweets are up high near your ear, that could be a big part of the problem. You will loose most of the bottom. Vis-a-vis the head unit, I will say that I have had a Nak, Alpine, and Eclipse. The NAk was better than the Alpine, but both were casette only. The Eclipse is CD only, so hard to compare.
I have done some checking. Untill just a couple of years ago the Honda used a Alpine built head unit. It has a plug on the back that a special din (like?) cable can be atached that provides a preamp level out and it is BALLANCED. This might be the ticket to the sound you crave.

I also agree with Swampwalker about the position of the drivers
From Poster: The unit reads "Matsushita" on top. The guy at the Honda dealer mentioned alpine built them, I didn't know if Matsu owned Alpine, they do panasonic and technics. I'll look on the back again, but memory only recalls the antenna hookup and then the big pin connector/harness. But it didn't sound that bad of the spkr-line level adapt. Its a 97 Accord.
go to www.autophile.com. They have great variety of high end car audio equipment.
Marsh the link goes to a page that clames to hold the domain name...what is my problem