Head unit output too low.
 

I just installed aftermarket subs I taped into the wires before the amp and now the output is not high enough to make my subs bump. Is there any thing I could get to boost the signal coming form the head unit to the aftermarket amp.

http://www.mobileaudiocontrol.com/de...d=5249&l1=5249

Try this link and check out the Epicenter or the Matrix. I've been looking at the Matrix for a complete system upgrade. Others here have done the same. Just be sure if you install this product that you don't boost your signal too high otherwise your amp won't be able to handle the signal. If you plan future upgrades, you may want to consider the Matrix right from the start. You can find both products for the same price on-line. Good luck.

Why not save your money since its only the sub. And get a low to high converter like the soundgate LOCPREA I had one in my tsx before i sold it. Or just go after the amp at the sub and get a hi to low. I still have the locprea if your interested. Just pm me.

I installed the matrix for my complete system upgrade. It handles all five channels and the sub too. Works great. Gives the sub a lot of signal.

If you're doing just the sub there are cheaper ways to go. But, like SPIN said, if you're going to do some future upgrades then get the matrix

thanks for you help. i am going to buy a Line Output Converter form

http://www.hifisoundconnection.com/S...id/0/SFV/30046

I just noticed the same thing. Just got a gm-d9500f and I can barely hear it when connected after the head unit. But after the amp it comes alive. I just didn't want to connect there because I thought the head would put out cleaner sound. But the amp doesn't like it. And the amp is suppose to be compatible with speaker level or low level. Totally surprised here

Do you have the input switch set right? It should be set to "low" or "rca" or however that particular amp is labeled.

Actually this amp had automatic sensing on the rca jacks. So they give you a short cable that is bare on one end and has the RCA on the other. The gain however says 6.5 to .2 volts.. so less gain is needed when you have 6.5v than if you had low level inputs. Less gain is on the left side of the dial as usual and it says 6.5 also on the left. Why it couldn't find the input or determine, I don't know. Maybe because I as splitting the single sub output into two inputs on the amp ? Don't know but I could barely hear the output. So I moved the input of the amp to the rear sub.. for speake4 level input and it came alive. I have more volume than what I know what to do with. At least its loud on the floor in mg apt. Garage floor. I was testing it like this first before I installed it to see if it would work. But speaker leevel is not my first choice.but it seems to be working that way. I may change it up.later with a mono amp on the sub, then I may not have to.split the head lead. Overall I don't know what my next purchase will be because this amp is supposed to be OEM compatible. I like this d class amp and its cheap but the inputs have thier own brain and I can't tell what's happening. If I use this 4channel amp on the rest.of the system then I may have to get some audio control or converter for all 4 inputs. Yuk. But hate buying more components. I just need to try again later with a mono amp because I wouldn't have to split the hi leads in order to use both channels.. even though I am bridged right now. Tmi? Haha

Btw my box with 2 jl w3 subs weighs about 75 lbs. It's really too heavy. My car drops at least half an inch . Maybe a little more. Yuk.it would be fine if the front was lower too and if I didn't lose a second through the quarter mile !

Do you plan to amp your component speakers later on? You can get a good 5 channel with mono sub output and 4 channels for the fronts. I'm running the JL HD900/5 for my two subs and the tweeters and center channel. For a normal system you can have one very efficient powerful amp that runs everything and can be mounted under the seat.

The HD amps are tiny so they will go under the seats and take up zero room. They run cool, make more than rated power, sound very,very good, especially considering the almost non existent noise floor. They're also a class D so very power efficient.

The XD line are also very good and about half the price and a little smaller.

I would take a little time and plan out exactly what you want because it will save you money in the long run. I changed my setup a bunch of times because I kept changing my mind along the way. I ended up going for efficiency; all class D power and with the pair of 15" subs infinite baffle, they rarely require more than 100w out of the sub channel.

Try infinite baffle. You retain all of your trunk space and my pair of 15s along with the baffle they're mounted to weigh around 40lbs. IB subs don't need a box obviously and they don't need a huge motor so you end up with subs like mine that weigh 17lbs each. The 12" versions are only 15lbs.

You also more than double the power efficiency and sound quality is better than any boxed setup I've heard. You get it all from the super low stuff the the tight hard hitting stuff. It really is the best of all worlds.

Hd900-5 is 700 bud. And how do you mount a 12 or a 15 inch sub with those cross braces? And the seat has to.lay flush against the back deck to secure it down with the screws. Did you take the back cover off your seat?

I meant to type bud not bud haha. I'm on my new htc rezound

Here's a view from the front:

http://inlinethumb29.webshots.com/46...600x600Q85.jpg

After the cloth was installed to completely hide the subs:

http://inlinethumb50.webshots.com/48...600x600Q85.jpg

Here's the baffle:

http://inlinethumb53.webshots.com/45...600x600Q85.jpg

http://inlinethumb16.webshots.com/47...600x600Q85.jpg

From the trunk with crap everywhere and taken apart. Carpet was just mocked up and the processor and wiring are out of sight and hidden. Subs are invisible as well.

http://inlinethumb38.webshots.com/47...600x600Q85.jpg

The baffle attaches to the car with metal "L" brackets.

Power requirements are cut in half on average but up to 10x less on the really low stuff over a sealed box. On a measured 90w, this setup will practically shake the car apart and drown out the mids and highs. I'm not advocating stupid levels of bass, just the efficiency of this design. You will never have to worry about power compression or reaching the thermal limits of the coil. I figured with your background you could appreciate efficiency.

Yeah, the HD series are pretty expensive. You can get the 900/5 for about $600 shipped if you shop around. You can get the same amount of power for about half that price with other brands. The reason I spend the extra for this one is it combined every quality I needed in one amp. As for sq, you would be hard pressed to hear a difference between a $700 amp and a $200 amp. It's the features that get you.

Here's the little 600/4 that runs my midbass and mids. 150wx4:

http://inlinethumb60.webshots.com/46...600x600Q85.jpg

I run two of the HD amps, one under each seat for the entire 7 speakers plus 2 subs.

Another great amp if you're looking for watts per dollar value is the Rockford Fosgate amps. They have some very powerful amps that are cheap, class D, and pretty small. I had one for a while and loved it, the only reason I switched was living in an apartment I wanted to get the amps out of the trunk and under the seats to make stealing them a little harder.

Good luck with everything, don't let it become an obsession like I did. A year ago I made fun of people like me lol.

Bux.. not bud. This auto correct.. 1 last question. Did you go straight into the amps from the HU? Or is there a converter or massager of some kind? As far a power, I know its over rated.. and as far as efficiency.. depends on how you define it.. such as save power and space and prolly a few bux on thickness of power cable...or is efficiency saving money? And still have a good sounding system? But I'm not against your method, I do like the speaker setup, but I have about 200$ invested right now. Yes it weighs a.lot but I can fix that later when I get time. Im still up working on it now trying to finish before thanksgiving. And I still ain't finished working on those inputs. I'll prolly get it working later. I just gotta get it in because its been three yrs and still no stereo until now and its almost time to drive home for tday. Work too much. But I wish I had more time to figure out why the amp wouldn't play properly when connected at the HU. Oh well. That's going to be later.

I hear you about too much work.

If you're only installing a sub, the easiest way is to use the stock sub wiring at the stock sub, and send it straight to the amp if it has high level inputs. You retain factory control of the sub level this way.

If you do the mids and highs later on with a 4 channel amp, there are two ways of doing it. Pre-factory amp or post-factory amp.

If you tap into the signal after the factory amp you will have a little hiss. It has a fairly high noise floor, not a whole lot you can do about it. The signal is not flat coming out of the amp either so you will have to deal with that with EQ or by just living with it.

If you grab the signal right out of the head unit, before the stock amp, it's a flat signal and there will be no hiss. Being that it's a low level signal you have to be extra careful with your connections and to keep it away from your power wires and such or you can get ignition noise but when done correctly, it's dead silent. It's not enough voltage for some amps and in that case you would get a line driver to boost voltage and it will split the signal between your amps if needed as well.

Depending on how serious you end up getting, you might even get a processor that includes time alignment and more eq options.

As for efficiency, I'm talking about power efficiency. Db per watt. The high cost sucks but it's a one time thing. If we were talking cost per watt I would be on the losing end.

That's what I was trying to do with this amp I have. That is, connect it to the hu. But it didnt work. Maybe because I was splitting the single sub out to 2 inputs.. not sure. But the next way to test would be to run the amp in a 4 channel config and wire each of the 4 speakers to it and try to get it to recognize. That way no splitting. And single this four channel.will.work on the high input method, I may get pioneers mono amp. Which is also d class. And its on Amazon for about 100$. But I gotta test it first without splitting any outputs to 2 inputs. Btw, the splitter they gave me was not really a splitter. It was just 4 wires and 2 RCA plugs. I just twisted all 4 together , observing polarity of course, and plugged in 2 RCA's into the amp. But next time I won't do that bec!use.I think with.a.mono amp I can have only 1 input to the amp.and it will work. I think :). Ok going to bed. Thanks for the input

I finally got it in but the trunk sounds like all those other cars. These tl's have a terrible design for custom stereo's. The bass comes through good. And really too much if the arm rest is open but not really enough with it closed. At least and not have more sound on the outside than the inside. Has anyone ever tried to isolate rattles in the trunk? I assume its on acurazine somewhere

I think my worst vibration is coming from my box itself. At least I hope its not the speaker. Anyway, if It's the box then may build my own out of low density fiber board or do the infinite baffle and just hang a black piece of material to hide it. Or use that fake carpet at the auto store and tuck it under the IB board to make it taunt. And maybe try using the woofer as a port.hole so the entire trunk becomes a box. I bet I can mount some 8" round PVC in the hole to create the port.. or even just leave the hole as is. Hope I didn't distort this thread too much. It looks old anyway. Haha. I should start my own I guess.

Update: I noticed a vibration sound coming from one speaker so I disconnected it and sure enough one of the woofers was bad. Not sure when or how it happened.

So, since I never liked the heavy weight of the dual 12 speaker box, and I only had 1 woofer now anyway, I decided to buy another box. I got a "ProBox" and I put both coils on the speaker in parallel rathe rthan series. (the W3 has dual voice coils). So now only half my amp is in use. (Its a Pioneer GM 9500 / 4 ch.) And now I am getting a very low throaty bass and hearing frequencies and sounds I never hear before. And I am doing it with 1 woofer! The box is lighter and I am minus 1 woofer. So total weight is less and the sound is MUCH better. I am getting deep low frequencies at even a Low Volume. I may need to check the gain, but I never set any gains above 3/4 of max. So, I dont think I am too high on the gain. Whats even better, is that my vibrations noises are fewer. I think the lower frequency is not resonating on the rear deck as much as when I had 2 woofers , with both coils on each speaker in series. The pitch was higher with them in series. I think it was because each woofer had an 8 ohm impediance. Now, the woofer responds so much better. So I got a triple hit with this new box and "bad speaker". kinda interesting.

Another cool thing is that now I can power 2 after market speakers with the other 2 channels. I use the factory amp on the other speakers. But the factory amp does not like the aftermarket speakers because it does not have enough power and most aftermarket speakers are 4ohms whereas the stocks are 2 ohm. And I have 4 ohm after markets. So, anyway, thats pretty cool.

If I want to spend more money, I can get a mono only amp for the sub and use the 4 channel for the others, but presently it doesnt sound bad the way it is even with the other 2 channels of the amp not in use. Btw, I bridged 2 of the channels for the single sub. The other 2 are free.

So I'm trying to think if I lost anything.. Its all gain.. Except the money for the pro box.. which is plastic or rubber coated and it doesnt get trash all in it like carpet covering. So I'm happy with the way it sounds for how much $ I ave in it.
Btw, the Pioneer GM9500 is a powerful amp and a smaller foot print that the JL amp. My only beef with it, I wish it would detect the headunit output. So far, I am picking off the sub output at the rear of the car. Which is after the factory amp. But trust me, it has low frequencies. I knew that factory amp was passing low frequencies because at times I could hear it from the lower powered factory sub and factory amp.

So did you go from sealed to ported? You can easily get the same output from 1 ported sub vs 2 sealed subs.

no. both boxes were ported. The new box is a little larger than 1 side of the old box, but I wouldnt think that would give me so much lower tones at lower volumes. I think the majority of the better sound is coming from switching the voils coils from series to parallel. In series, the 2 voice coils were 8 ohms per speaker. And in parallel the speaker is now 2 ohms. Thats 4 times less impedance than series. I think in series they weren't as responsive. The amp says it can take a 2 ohm to 8ohm, but the sound difference is huge.

What is the tuning frequency of both boxes? This determines the response of the system. The size of the box along with tuning determine the SPL.

The voice coil configuration only determines how much power the sub sees. So you might be getting double the power to the sub now which would almost account for the output. But the tuning frequency plays a HUGE role in the system response, not the impedance.

are your voice coils in series or parallel? Actually a better question would be, how many ohms does each side of your amp see?

The reason I specify that is because you may have the voice coils in series but since you have 2 speakers, your speaker themselves may be in parallel. So, it all adds up a certain way.

So again, how many ohms does your amp see on each side or each bridged side?


ie. 2 4ohm coils in series = 8 ohm. Then 2 8ohm speakers in parallel = 4 ohm.

going to bed. peace

My subs are single 4 ohm and the amp sees 2 ohms on the single sub channel. Im not sure what you were talking about but the load the amp sees is all that counts. Series/parallel wiring when using two dvc subs is commonplace to get the desired impedance.

Amp the stock speakers and add some deadener to the door speakers. Best thing you can do for very little money sunce you already have an amp with speaker level inputs. The stock amp also outs out a processed signal tuned for the driver position and crosses over the signal at 80hz which will allow you to get some better volume. The processing optimizes the signal to sound good in the TL. Trust me.

The stock system is "processed" to protect the stock speakers, not for good sound. Stop spreading rumors. There is no ta, the system is not tuned for the driver position. No factory stereo would tune for one seat.

All I know is that I've never had bass this low from any system I've ever had. So the factory system is definately passing low frequencies. I know a box can provide a tone but the kind of response I am getting is due to changing the load the amp see's, by reducing the impedance from 8 to 2 ohms.

Yes it is. You think they brought in Elliot Scheiner to set crossovers at 80hz? Processing is what he did. You have no idea what you are talking about. You believe too much bullshit by others that did not know what they were talking about from your early days of learning. Now your going to start putting words in my mouth and claiming I am delusional.

You are wrong and this is pretty annoying.

Steve! You are wrong! Shiner was brought in for marketing purposes. There is no TA and the processing is indeed to protect the low quality drivers. Perhaps you need to add armor all to the door panels to improve the response. I thought we were beyond this nonsense.

Two dumbass trolls in one thread, great. One thinks the stock system has ta and a square of deadener and armor all on the dash makes it the best system ever. The other thinks that changing the impedance the amp sees changes the response, not the different enclosure with the differnent tuning frequency with double the power.:whyme: I wish the mods could ban people based on stupidity.

Where do these people come from?:yuck:

I've been saving it but I'm going to have to dig up the old thread that shows the system has no TA and that it cuts bass as you turn the volume knob up to protect the stock speakers. It also has the actual high and low pass frequencies for each set of speakers. It's too bad valuable space on this board has to be wasted with the nonsense from these two trolls.

I might post a link to this on DIYMA so they can have a laugh.

Lol.. What I have foreseen has come to pass. I was joking mostly about the Armour All though I thought the sound did change because that particular reflective surface changed. Not a big difference but something... better or worse? Probably negligable to most people. Understand I have a dry sense of humour.

I just brought my car to an audio shop and had their best sound quality guy demo my car from the drivers seat. He agreed there is processing applied to that position and recommended I stay with my current setup until one of the drivers fails then add new components. I suggested adding a processor for the new components but he recommended seeing how they sound on the stock processing first. It is not just me. I am a very competent individual. Academics and govrrnments take my advice.

The problem is you're arrogant. You think you're much smarter than you are so you don't listen to people that have surpassed your level of knowledge 10x over many years ago. People with actual experience which you do not have.

I've been around the block but I'm always listening to others and trying to learn something new. You should try it.

I don't care what you do for a living, when it comes to car audio, you're in the bottom 5% and that's being generous considering you learn at a much slower rate than most. You attempt to say the car has processing when I've seen it actually measured. I know for a fact, beyond a doubt there is no TA going on. The only "processing" it has is crossovers and speaker protection at high volumes.

You're most likely lying about anyone sitting in your car and saying it has processing and most shops don't know the first thing about processing. My shop told my IB won't work and Interfire is better than Dynaudio. I don't put a whole lot of weight in most local shops.

So now you're getting components? I thought it can't possibly sound better? Let me guess, you install components and go oh my gosh, it sounds even better. Then you will find something else to talk shit about and claim it doesn't work until you try it and at that point it will be the best thing ever. You know you're not supposed to drink the Armor All.

I do not lie, first of all. Again you are putting words in my mouth. Why can you not speak maturely and respectfully? Is it solely because I do not have an infinite baffle setup? You seem to gather your self esteem through recognition of your setup. How vain, among other things which I am restraining myself from mentioning.

Do you really think you know Acura better than Me ?
 

If you'd like the truth, send me a text, Rather than embrass you in pubic, and be out right rude to you. I can give you a history lesson. Lets start with I've worked at AHM for more than 25 years, and I know the chief designer for the car I drive. And if your driving the same car Matt has, your Mistaken...PERIOD

PM sent but why not post publically. If I am wrong I will not be embarassed. Ven if I am, so what? It has happened before and I can deal with it. Contrary to what you might think I value truth above almost anything and certainly my pride.

Ihatecars has lots of issues.
nevertheless,
I bet my system sounds better than his with less than 1/2 as much speaker. That's what really pissed him off the most. He hates to be wrong and can't accept that he doesn't know everything and he bashes people as hard as he can In an effort to make himself appear correct.

The only issue is people posting false and completely erroneous information for others to potentially misunderstand and assume as correct. IHC has helped many people on a wide variety of issues many of which are complex. I dont think you should post accusations without any back up, especially that have no value to this thread. I looks like you may have issues as well.