Thanks for all the suggestions. I personally like the look of the double din and at least in my opinion it does the best job of simulating a factory look. If Toyota offered a factory unit I would have bought that. Soley a personal preference, nothing more. I have also been looking at the pioneer double din unit as well as the two eclipse units listed.
The tricky thing with nav, again at least for me, is that I have no way of really using it until it is installed. Function of the Nav trumps looks and features for what I want out of the unit. If the Eclipse model uses the same Nav software as the OEM Toyota unit (which I think it does as they are both made by the same company) then I'm pretty sure I'll be happy with it.
One of the problems with the odler eclipse hard drive unit is that the only way to get MP3's onto the unit is by playing the CD. (At least that is my understanding) Does anyone know if they changed this?
max oden,
Ideally I'm looking for a Nav System that offers 8 Track capability, if you find one let me know
The AVN5495 is memory stick ready, with a 30 g hard drive
FM/AM tuner Advanced 24-bit DAC High-performance DSP: 5-mode soundfield control 9-band EQ Listening position selector 5V preamp output CD Changer-ready (2 units) Memory Stick-ready Rear view camera-ready Video output for rear monitor E-LAN data link system MS ESN security
Though it is my understanding that the AVN7000 has a better NAV system but it is a single din.
"Correct spelling, indeed, is one of the arts that are far more esteemed by schoolma'ams than by practical men, neck-deep in the heat and agony of the world." - Henry Louis Mencken, The American Language
That pioneer does have the wow factor. I guess it like all technology as soon as you buy it is going to be out of date! I think interface / user friendliness is going to be a high priorty. but I say getting lost is half the fun.
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"Correct spelling, indeed, is one of the arts that are far more esteemed by schoolma'ams than by practical men, neck-deep in the heat and agony of the world." - Henry Louis Mencken, The American Language
Been browsing through for the past month or two but finally found a thread to contribute something useful to...
Sound Quality: Eclipse. Alpine is good, but Eclipse output sections are much better.
Nav Ease of Use: Alpine. It's the most intuitive nav system I've ever dealt. Unfortunately, to get nav with the IVA-W200, you have to buy the NVE-N872A. So it makes for a pretty expensive system.
Audio Ease of Use: Once you get screens in there, they can all be pretty convoluted.
Accuracy of Nav: They're all pretty close, but I'd probably give this one to Pioneer, since they use TeleAtlas. However, at the end of the day, it really comes down to how up-to-date your discs are.
Clean look... well they all look pretty much the same to me.
Rooster is right about speakers making the most difference in sound. A good set of speakers will out do any improvement any headunit could do for you. Personally, I'm not a fan of the Focal's, but they are extremely well built speakers. But I don't do bright, so Dynaudio's or Morel's would have to be my choice. But in Focal's defense, all the other guys on my car audio team (when I was doing sound quality competitions) were using Focal (and still are). Just not me.
And as far as Eclipse as a brand, they've been around for a VERY long time. The parent company is Fujitsu-Ten which is the biggest manufacturer of OEM car stereos in the world.
Been browsing through for the past month or two but finally found a thread to contribute something useful to...
Sound Quality: Eclipse. Alpine is good, but Eclipse output sections are much better.
Nav Ease of Use: Alpine. It's the most intuitive nav system I've ever dealt. Unfortunately, to get nav with the IVA-W200, you have to buy the NVE-N872A. So it makes for a pretty expensive system.
Audio Ease of Use: Once you get screens in there, they can all be pretty convoluted.
Accuracy of Nav: They're all pretty close, but I'd probably give this one to Pioneer, since they use TeleAtlas. However, at the end of the day, it really comes down to how up-to-date your discs are.
Clean look... well they all look pretty much the same to me.
Rooster is right about speakers making the most difference in sound. A good set of speakers will out do any improvement any headunit could do for you. Personally, I'm not a fan of the Focal's, but they are extremely well built speakers. But I don't do bright, so Dynaudio's or Morel's would have to be my choice. But in Focal's defense, all the other guys on my car audio team (when I was doing sound quality competitions) were using Focal (and still are). Just not me.
And as far as Eclipse as a brand, they've been around for a VERY long time. The parent company is Fujitsu-Ten which is the biggest manufacturer of OEM car stereos in the world.
Good info thanks and welcome
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"Correct spelling, indeed, is one of the arts that are far more esteemed by schoolma'ams than by practical men, neck-deep in the heat and agony of the world." - Henry Louis Mencken, The American Language
You want to install an Eclipse stereo in your vehicle, but you hate to give up the convenience of your factory steering wheel radio controls? No problem. PAC's SWI-ECL interface allows you to use the steering wheel controls in a wide variety of vehicles to command select Eclipse radios.
I have a single din pioneer in my F250. One cool thing about it, is that you can hook up a rear camera to it very easily and inexpensively. Its nice to see how screwed you really are from behind without getting out of your truck sometimes. Of course in most cases by that time your gonna need a strap anyway. PS Diesels RULE!
Advanced 24-bit 
DAC
5-mode soundfield control
Linear Mode
