Nowadays, checking off an option box at the dealer or buying a spiffy detachable handheld unit is the most popular way to get a navigation system in a vehicle. While we’ve found most factory-installed nav systems work fairly well, they usually come with premium price tags and an inability to support a variety of new-age media. Low- to moderately priced detachable systems are a good option if you want bare-bones directions, but are limited otherwise.
So what’s a directionally challenged audio/video aficionado to do these days?
The solution, according to audio brand Eclipse, is what it calls AVN. It’s essentially the one-stop shop for audio, visual, and navigation systems and, luckily for us, we got our hands on its latest AVN726E model (MSRP $1299.99) showcased in one of company’s custom-built CES show cars, a 2009 Toyota Sequoia. It’s been appropriately designated the Audio Assault Vehicle and, if you haven’t already surmised, it also boasts a complete Eclipse-branded audio system.
Back in 2004, Eclipse was the first to introduce an AVN system to world markets and five years later it’s still at it, claiming its newest model is the best of the best. So to see if it does, in fact, live up to that bold claim, we took the Audio Assault Vehicle into the real-world highways and byways of Southern California.
At heart, we’re die-hard car guys here at MT and before we even touched the AVN726E, we had to check out the brand-spanking-new Sequoia. Eclipse took the already huge, brutish SUV and lowered its ride height, threw on a set of 22-inch Momo wheels, added a Corsa exhaust and a K&N air induction system and tacked on a heap of sponsor decals and other goodies. The additions make it a bona-fide magnet for onlookers, and it’s also no doubt one of the loudest vehicles they’ve ever come across when the volume knob is turned way up.
Space is one thing the Sequoia is good at providing, so Eclipse’s builders went all out in creating their rolling audio display, installing no fewer than 11 speakers powered by four XA4200 four-channel amps. Two amps mounted on each side of the massive central tunnel house all the system’s intricate wiring and circuitry. Set in place of the stock third row of seats is a trio of 10-inch subwoofers waiting to bump bass to inconceivable levels. Three ZA1200 mono subwoofer amps surge power to each.
...
>>next page