Hey all,.. im new to the board, and eclipses for that matter so..

Yeah, I've got a 98 mitsu Eclipse GS..came with the infinity CD/Sound system.

I had an unfortunate accident with the CD deck, and it had to be replaced by an aftermarket deck..a Kenwood deck to be more precise.

Ever since then, it seems the sound hasn't quite been the same. This new deck is 50x4 watts..im assuming thats 200 watts? someone als told me that the stock infinity amp is only 180 watts? is this true as well? if so..would my deck be damaging or doing anything wrong to my amp? cos...what happens is..i'll be listening to a CD..everything is good. until i turn up the volume to say, 23 or 24..which is a bit louder. everything sounds nice and crisp until a few minutes later when the sound seriously distorts, loses volume and just plain out goes chaotic..i then proceed to open up the deck, and take out the CD, which by then is always so hot, i cannot hold it at all, as it honestly feels like its going to melt. Whats the deal? if i keep the volume under 19 or so, the volume stays rather crisp and clean, and fine..anything above makes it go nuts...whats the deal? do i need a more powerful amp? is my deck malfunctioning? do my speakers just not cut it anymore? Any help would be appreciated as this problem has baffled me for a month now

~Jim

When you had your aftermarket head unit installed, was the factory amp by-passed? If not that's the problem, if it was by-passed then let me know and we'll try some other things.

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as far as i know, i dont think that the aftermarket radio should be used with the stock amp and if it is then that is your problem. also it was recomended to me when i changed out my stock radio that i replace the speakers from the infinity ones because they are a bit different than regular speakers and were designed to be used only with the rest of the infinity system.

-Jason

97 Talon ESi-T (forever in progress...)


95 GS (Gone)
16.74@83.18mph
119.8 whp - 113.3 lbs/ft


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Hey Hey..

Thanks for answering my post you guys..

As far as them bypassing my amp..im not sure..i remember them saying something about eclipses not always hooking up right, and sometimes having to be bypassed. Is there anyway i can check? Also, are the stock infinity speakers and amp all that great anyways? I mean, if i went out and bought a decent aftermarket amp, and decent speakers, would i be going under the level of quality the infinity components offer? or would i be doing myself a favor?


Thanks!

Jim

they probably bypassed the amp, find the amp and just follow the cables.. they probably bypassed it b.c most stock amps need special connectors to work right.. i'm working on installing an alpine amp that comes stock from a viper into my eclipse and i've had to do a lot of different things to make my own plug to make the amp hook up to my cd player.. also, when it says that the cd player is 50 x 4.. that's peak power, so you're probably only getting 10-15 watts per channel rms.. i think the stock infinity amp from the eclipse is 180 or whatever it is rms.. a good installer will be able to hook all of your parts up the right way and you won't have any problems.. they will also usually set up your head unit's settings so everything sounds all that much better.. if you went to a best buy / circuit city type of place, that was probably your first problem.. they aren't that great.. try to ask around for good installers around your area...good luck..

If your running everything off of the HU then when you get on it for extended periods of time at close to max volume it more than likely will start to get hot as hell, just because they are rated at high power ratings doesn't mean they will play at them for long. Your best bet is to get an amp and run that to your speakers. The HU has enough things to do besides powering your speakers to, did you ever wonder why the lights on it kinda dim on it when you have it up loud? Not sure which model you have, but if you get and amp and have an Excelon HU then once you hook the amp off, turn it to "All Off" and then go into the menu settings and you can disable the onboard amp to keep it from sucking power and keep things a bit cooler. Some factory systems run at weird Ohm loads sometimes and that might be what's screwing with your stuff to. Best bet is to ditch that factory speakers and at least get some good components to replace them with and that should clean up your sound a bit also.

I am one of those installers you're talking about. We do bypass the system amp in these cars with infinity systems. It won't make any sound at all if you don't (usually the case). There are a couple of things you need to be aware of.

Number 1. Amp bypass (duh)

Number 2. Eclipse does NOT have a ground wire in the harness behind the radio. Factory radio is grounded through the antenna and this will cause problems with a higher powered after market radio. You have to extend the ground wire out to a good contact body ground.

Number 3. Replace your speakers. The infinity system runs an off ohm set-up. Meaning it's not 4ohms at each speaker like your head-unit is attempting to run. This will make it sound not so good.

Number 4. Screw your head-unit amp and get a 4channel for your mids and highs. Head-unit amps suck for good quality. I have an Alpine head unit with 3 outputs...and I use them all. You should do the same. Get an Alpine 4 channel amp. They have a good power rating and have extrememly good quality. Go with the V12 series...not the V-Power series. V-Power is the low end models.

Hope this helps