djweaver

Settings are at the bottom for those that don't want to read the story.

I've had the Eclipse CD8053 head unit for a couple of years and was never really wowed with the way it sounded in the S2000. It was good but it's not like it brought tears to my eyes or anything. I knew it was a great HU and had the potential to be a spectacularly good sounding unit with the right tuning. It's just I had no clue on how to do this. I was too full of pride to ask for help and after fiddling with this for 2 years with only marginal success I finally bite the bullet and got professional help.

I searched out a sound judge for SLAP Show auto competitions with a reputation for having an incredible ear. He also runs a car audio school that trains in both installation and tuning.

Yesterday I hired him for 5 hours to tune my car. It now sounds incredible. It's everything I thought it could be. He was so impressed with the outcome he asked me if I would enter it in the next SLAP competition.

Anyway, I suspect those of you that own this 8053 (flitcroft?), if your like me, have probably not ventured much into the parametric equalizer mode (aka PRO mode) as it is very easy to make this HU sound like doggie-do if you don't know what you are doing. Screwing with the time delay too much can almost make it sound mono without any sound stage.

Well it cost me some bucks but the results left me breathless. We worked with the time delay function for 2-3 hours to get a broad (window-to-window) and elevated ( mirror) sound stage perfectly situated. We then used a pink noise generator for about 1 1/2 hours to figure out where all the frequency response problems were in the interior and adjusted the Parametric EQ (PEQ) and "Q" settings to compensate for it. Then finally we spent time top-up & top-down figuring out the fine adjustments that would work in both.

Below are the settings we came up with. It's my gift to the long suffering members of the "8053 Club" so you can also reap the benefits of this incredible HU.

ECLIPSE CD8053 SETTINGS Using the "PRO" Parametric Equalizer:
PEQ:
250 +1 Wide
315 +1 Wide
2K +4 Wide
4K -2 Narrow
16K +5 Wide

Time Delay:
Hi-L -1.2 ms
Hi-R 0 ms
Mid-L -1.2 ms
Mid-R 0 ms
Low-L .5 ms
Low-R .5ms

Cross Over:
Low Pass 63Hz 24dB/Oct
M-HPF 63Hz 6dB/Oct

PS - if you like the result make sure you save these setting on one of the buttons before you ever start tweeking from this starting point.

MR_ASDF

each car settings will be different as components in the audio chain might not be the same as you, also the speaker placement might be different as well.

glad to hear you are happy with your setup.

SLAP is sometimes easy to win when you have professional help. most competitors are amateurs. depending on your class, sometimes you might run into long time pro competitiors.

Last i heard, SLAP was giving out $50 gift certificates for 1st place winners.

Who tuned your car by the way?

silviaks

Yea...eclipse makes one of the BEST out there! I've had my old deck for like 5 years+ still sound amazing and very strong. Their new line gives 8v pre-out where no other manufacturer makes!!!

Bass

Doug what was the overall cost?? i might still do this with my beater as soon as i get everything in

djweaver

Kevan Budrow's firm is "7th Row Center".

He needs electrical for the pink noise generator and other equipment and a battery charger to keep the car battery from dying.

He brings his own library of reference CDs.

I asked him if he was interested in coming to a club event to tune. He was as long as there was advanced notice and its wasn't on a competition day.

When he pulled out Grace Jones' "Slave to the Rhythm" I thought I would hurl
but it's one of the best reference recording I've ever heard and will definitely point out any weaknesses in the system.
Here's a sample mp3 track at 128kB, wish it was a higher bit rate.
Grace Jones - "Slave to the Rythm"

I am now looking for the first 2 Focal reference CD's they use to sell on their web site but don't anymore. If anyone has them and wants a good home for them, I'm buying.

djweaver

Yep, the CD8053 actually has 8v unbalanced and 16 v balanced. It's no longer made unfortunately but can be found at 1/2 the price it was last year. They changed the asthetics on the new HU to give it more bling and I think they dropped balanced out capabilities.

Here's the CD8053

Eclipse CD8053

versus

The new
Eclipse CD8455

flitcroft

Thanks for posting these!! I know there are at least two others here with this gem of a HU. What equipment are you running? I'll try your settings as a starting point but if I've got MB Quart QSD 216s which sound like nothing else and they need some adjustments to sound right.

The new deck is not really comparable to ours. It's a replacement to the MY04 model that had most of the useful stuff but added a memory stick slot (configure all settings from your PC, play a few MP3s) and 50 watts x 4 MOSFET power. AFAIK, there's no audiophile unpowered deck for sale right now

PJK3

dj -- mind doing one more thing to help us out?

can you post your system specs (specifically your brand/model of speakers and their locations?)

also, can you post what the limits are on your settings? especially the PEQ settings. i see that you're +5 wide @ 16k -- but +5 out of ...?


looking at your numbers, i was tinkering w/ the new 9833, and i'm coming out w/ some very similiar figures... i'd like to try some of the PEQ settings you've posted, but want to know how our speakers compare before i just jump in...

(edit: nm, i see the type of speakers in your sig... i'm assuming they are in stock locations?)

djweaver

RE: PEQ settings -
let me check and get back to you. I'll take some pics of the settings so that they are a bit easier to understand and in context.

RE: Stock Locations -
Yep, they are in the stock locations for MY'03 so I believe tweets are higher in the door then some previous years. So time delay settings may effect your sound stage results on earlier models with lower placement. But these settings can be a starting point.

RE: Ambient Noise Adjustments -
Seems with top down and Comptech exhaust running I need to adjust the overall treble setting +1 or +2 (depending on the disk) and the bass +4 or +5 on top of the above settings to compensate for surrounding noise.

FYI (which you probably already assumed) ... these settings are for great CD sound and not radio or MP3. That's a whole different animal I have yet to work through with Keven.

RE: Speakers & Cross-Overs-
just in case the signature does not pop for someone looking for the model, the speakers are Focal Utopia 165W (2-ways). They are not bi-amped. Almost forgot, when installed 2 years ago we dialed down the cross-overs to -2 for treble because the Focal titanium tweets were reputed to be notoriously bright at the base settings.

If the above is way more then you wanted to know, ignore and start with the above and tune to individual taste.

MR_ASDF

i have no. 4, no.5, and the new no.6 beryllium.