Eclipse, Simplified Navigation
January 2005
When it comes to high-end car stereo head units, Eclipse is at the top. The company definitely wanted to show off its technological prowess with the multi-talented AVN2454 dashboard-mounted navigation system.
The AVN2454 plays CDs, CD-ROM, CD-RW, MP3, DVD, DVD-R and most importantly, integrates DVD navigation, without the need of storing a bulky black box in the trunk—a common drawback of in car navigation systems and high-end head units. The unit's face is dominated by a 6.5-inch TFT touch-panel display. This design allows for a simplified button layout that borders the display rather than stack layer upon layer of miniscule buttons, which can obfuscate a driver traveling at 70 mph. Rather than making the installer's life miserable (and charging the end user more money), all of the guts of the 2454 are stashed into one tidy package, alleviating the spaghetti pile of wires typical of complex installations.
The one caveat is that you need a double-DIN-sized dashboard
cavity to properly fit the AVN2454. I installed the AVN2454 into a Mazda Miata that has a Double-DIN dashboard cavity that easily accommodated it. The Miata was loaded with a pair of Infinity Kappa Perfect component sets and an Infinity 102a amplifier. Since there is only the one head unit that needs to be wired into the car and no other boxes, the installation was very smooth.
When you fire up the unit for the first time, you need to enter the Map Disc DVD so the unit can load the navigation software. From then on out, you will have to swap out the navigation disc for a DVD video disc if you wish to change software—you can't watch DVDs and use the navigation feature at the same time. Of course, you shouldn't be watching movies in the front seat while driving anyway. Also there is a separate drive bay for CDs.
All of the data for the United States is contained in one DVD and includes logos for certain gas stations and other attractions. It can calculate a route for almost anywhere in the country in under five seconds. That exactly how long it took to plot a course from my house in Long Island, New York to Eclipse's headquarters in Torrance, California. The turn-by-turn calculations took about an additional 30 seconds to load up on the navigation screen.
The AVN2454 has a few surprising quirks that hopefully will be addressed in later iterations of this unit. There's only one set of AM presets and one set of FM presets; the AVN2454 only holds six total presets. That can be very annoying for those of us used to the typical 12 FM presets found on most head units. I also hope that future versions of this unit will have a satellite radio capability. Additionally, the volume rocker switches are on the right side of the unit, showing that the unit was designed initially for the left-side-of-the-road Japanese market.
The radio tuner is among the best in the aftermarket and can pull in weak stations without trouble. The audio output coming from the speaker-level outputs is strong and is also powerful compared with other aftermarket offerings. The only thing I was a little surprised by was the relatively low voltage coming out of the RCA outputs. I had to substantially turn up the gain on the Infinity 102a amplifier installed in the Miata. To audiophiles, this can mean additional background hiss courtesy of a higher noise floor. Luckily the Infinity amp is a quiet amp; even so, more background hiss was present in comparison to other aftermarket head units that I have tested in this car. Of course, with the engine running it was very hard to discern the difference.
The AVN2454 has one of the most easy-to-use graphic equalizers to hit the streets. The nine-band unit can be adjusted by simply pressing the frequency you want to tweak on the screen. You can literally tailor the sound for individual songs, easily. There are also DSP listening environment adjustments that allow the user to listen in a concert hall, cathedral, club or theater modes. Personally, this isn't my thing, but you may get a kick out of these effects.
Overall, the AVN2454 is a triumph that contains a feature-packed punch in one small box. Are there a few quirks with this unit? Yes, but they are easily reconciled. The bottom line is that you're not going to find all of these features in single box that any other company puts out.
So, if you are lucky enough to have a vehicle with space for double-DIN head unit (found in many popular Japanese and German vehicles), then the AVN2454 is definitely the multimedia control center for you. It has just about everything but the kitchen sink in one unit with no subchassis. -Brett Solomon
The AVN2454 plays CDs, CD-ROM, CD-RW, MP3, DVD, DVD-R and most importantly, integrates DVD navigation, without the need of storing a bulky black box in the trunk—a common drawback of in car navigation systems and high-end head units. The unit's face is dominated by a 6.5-inch TFT touch-panel display. This design allows for a simplified button layout that borders the display rather than stack layer upon layer of miniscule buttons, which can obfuscate a driver traveling at 70 mph. Rather than making the installer's life miserable (and charging the end user more money), all of the guts of the 2454 are stashed into one tidy package, alleviating the spaghetti pile of wires typical of complex installations.
The one caveat is that you need a double-DIN-sized dashboard
cavity to properly fit the AVN2454. I installed the AVN2454 into a Mazda Miata that has a Double-DIN dashboard cavity that easily accommodated it. The Miata was loaded with a pair of Infinity Kappa Perfect component sets and an Infinity 102a amplifier. Since there is only the one head unit that needs to be wired into the car and no other boxes, the installation was very smooth.
When you fire up the unit for the first time, you need to enter the Map Disc DVD so the unit can load the navigation software. From then on out, you will have to swap out the navigation disc for a DVD video disc if you wish to change software—you can't watch DVDs and use the navigation feature at the same time. Of course, you shouldn't be watching movies in the front seat while driving anyway. Also there is a separate drive bay for CDs.
All of the data for the United States is contained in one DVD and includes logos for certain gas stations and other attractions. It can calculate a route for almost anywhere in the country in under five seconds. That exactly how long it took to plot a course from my house in Long Island, New York to Eclipse's headquarters in Torrance, California. The turn-by-turn calculations took about an additional 30 seconds to load up on the navigation screen.
The AVN2454 has a few surprising quirks that hopefully will be addressed in later iterations of this unit. There's only one set of AM presets and one set of FM presets; the AVN2454 only holds six total presets. That can be very annoying for those of us used to the typical 12 FM presets found on most head units. I also hope that future versions of this unit will have a satellite radio capability. Additionally, the volume rocker switches are on the right side of the unit, showing that the unit was designed initially for the left-side-of-the-road Japanese market.
The radio tuner is among the best in the aftermarket and can pull in weak stations without trouble. The audio output coming from the speaker-level outputs is strong and is also powerful compared with other aftermarket offerings. The only thing I was a little surprised by was the relatively low voltage coming out of the RCA outputs. I had to substantially turn up the gain on the Infinity 102a amplifier installed in the Miata. To audiophiles, this can mean additional background hiss courtesy of a higher noise floor. Luckily the Infinity amp is a quiet amp; even so, more background hiss was present in comparison to other aftermarket head units that I have tested in this car. Of course, with the engine running it was very hard to discern the difference.
The AVN2454 has one of the most easy-to-use graphic equalizers to hit the streets. The nine-band unit can be adjusted by simply pressing the frequency you want to tweak on the screen. You can literally tailor the sound for individual songs, easily. There are also DSP listening environment adjustments that allow the user to listen in a concert hall, cathedral, club or theater modes. Personally, this isn't my thing, but you may get a kick out of these effects.
Overall, the AVN2454 is a triumph that contains a feature-packed punch in one small box. Are there a few quirks with this unit? Yes, but they are easily reconciled. The bottom line is that you're not going to find all of these features in single box that any other company puts out.
So, if you are lucky enough to have a vehicle with space for double-DIN head unit (found in many popular Japanese and German vehicles), then the AVN2454 is definitely the multimedia control center for you. It has just about everything but the kitchen sink in one unit with no subchassis. -Brett Solomon
