Hello Everyone,
Heard this was place to come to for Pioneer NAV advise. Can anyone give me pros and cons with Pioneer vs Eclipse? Don't know which to go with. The guys at Circuit City seem to prefer Eclipse over Pioneer. I like the 7" screen on the Z1. Eclipse seems to be more expensize than Pioneer vs features.
Any and all advise welcome.
Thanks,
Bob
I don't have an eclipse, but I think the main pluses with the Z1 is the hard drive, bluetooth ability, bigger screen.
Try reading this:
http://www.avic411.com/forum/viewtopic. ... ht=eclipse
I was thinking of the 6600 or the Z1, and I'm glad I chose the Z1, I like mine.
Probably the most comparable Eclipse is the AVN7000. It has the 7" screen and a harddrive but its smaller (20gigs). I looked at the video of the eclipse in a store side by side with the Pioneer and i thought the Eclipse had a better picture but then again it wasnt fair as the employee ran the video stretched to letterbox on the avic z1 and the Eclipse was in normal aspect ratio. With that said the Pioneer is cheaper and has a very similar way of navigating. The biggest difference of the two is the Eclipse (AVN 7000) will fold down and into the dash so it will probably be less eye catching to a theif. I like the fact that the Z1 is just a screen and looks much cleaner but then i would think that would make it appealing to a theif.
I too am in the same boat as you and am still trying to decide. I like both of their features. Definatly a good question.
Major
Ease of use I'd go with pioneer. Sound quality, I'd go with eclipse. Other than that I'd personal preference. Play with the 2 and see which one you like better. FYI of course the cc guys are going to like the eclipse better. There's more margin on it (read profit).
Having not played with the Eclipse unit, although I've always been a big Eclipse fan, I'm very happy with the Nav portion of the Z1. As far as the audio side of it, I'm having a really hard time with the kinda cheesy EQ pioneer gives us to tweak it. After 6 months, and very high quality components, I still can't get it to sound quite "right".
Thanks to everyone on there input.
I have also heard that the sound quality is better on an Eclipse. I'm not much of an audiophile so I guess the sound quality is not a high priority for me personally. Ease of use, picture quality, realiability and performance. And obviuosly price vs. features. I've read some issues about startup times of around a minute or two. Is this normal? How does eclipse compare to startup?
Thanks again!
I'm not an audiophile, but I think the z1 sounds just fine!
I dont think the Eclipse can use bluetooth and it does not have nav traffic. You can only use sirius sat service.No XM. It does have a 30 gig drive. (AVN5495) and it is HD radio ready. My avic setup in my nova is one of the best sounding stereo I have ever heard, but I am using external amps on all my speakers which are Infinity components and jl 12w6 sub.
for those former eclipse lovers sorry to burst a bubble, but being an installer who hs had the misfortune of having to install eclipse units I can tell you pioneer has them beat hands down. Eclipse had their spotlight a year or so ago but quality of build and sound quality went out the window long ago and they still seem to think they are ahead of the game.. someone needs to wake them up. The only thing Eclipse has going for them is the ESN security tho it doesnt do you much good if the unit has found a way out of your posession.. other than the satisfaction noone else can use it either.
Agreed on eclipse going downhill. Seem to have problems far more often than Pioneer right now. Shame because they used to sound great. Funny part is, they still have a very loyal following that refuses to believe there is anything better out there, even though their nav quality has been passed over by nearly everyone, and very hi-volt preouts aren't nearly as important as they market them to be. And we think our ipod interface is bad, at least we have one 