Hi, I changing my old Alpine head unit (with 2 pre-outs which run my front speakers and sub through my amp) to a new 9850Ri which unfortunately only has 1 pre-out. I have all the cables already in place and don't fancy taking out the seats to re-do them. My question is what is the best way of connecting up the head unit and amp using only 1 pre-out (which I guess will have to be for the sub), could I connect the front speaker wires from the head unit to the cables that run to the amp (with a bit of soldering) or does that not work. Sorry not the most technical of people. Cheers
IF your amp has speaker level inputs (should be marked as so, DONT connect speaker wires to RCA plugs) you could connect the speaker wires, and thereby keep the fader adjustment. Obviously connecting Y splitters will mean that the amp doesnt know front from rear. Just pointing out an alternative (bearing in mind the if) - depends if it matters to you what the headunit sees as front speakers and rear speakers.
Hi, So what would happen if we connected front and sub-woofer using pre-outs (RCA splitters) and rear speakers through normal wires. I've got decent speakers in the front (250+) so previously I had pre-outs to sub-woofer and pre-out to front speakers then just normal wires to the rear. The question is what is the difference between using a pre-out and normal wires, does it mean that only pre-outs can go through the amp and the normal wires have to go direct from the head unit (missing out the amp)? Thanks
If you only ever had a front channel + sub channel previously, then the method i suggested is fine. Just buy some RCA splitters and feed the single channel from the stereo into 2 channels on the amp. Dont complicate things taking outputs from the speaker wires as your amp most likely wont have this feature, the sound quality also wont be as good.
Also what you can do is get a line level converter. What this does is connect to you speaker wires, the wires then run threw the converter and then out the other side comes RCA cables. If you do use the splitters they will work but you will loose your abilty to fade properly from one side to the other or from front to back depending on how your alpine is set up. I hope that helps!? Any questions e-mail me airjordan29@adelphia.net
Thanks for the info. Does anyone know where I could get a couple of these line level converters in the UK
But he only ever used the front channel before. So splitting the front channel output from the headunit to a front speaker channel and sub channel isnt an issue. If you have some 6x9s in the rear or something powered by the headunit you can balance the sound out quite easily and get a proper front/rear fade. You havent mentioned rear speakers at all though.
Sorry didn't make it clear. I had 2 pre-outs from the stereo running my sub and my front speakers. The rear 6x9's were run just off the head unit. If I used RCA splitters to split the line from the pre-out to go to the sub and front would the balance still work ok? I suppose I could use these line level converter things to put the rear speakers through the amp as well, couldn't I? Is it better not to bother and just use the splitters or go the whole hog and use the single pre-out for the sub and use line level converters for both the front and rear? This is quality, just when I think I understand what I'm going to do it all becomes as clear as mud again. Thanks guys
Ok, someone has recommend this, Run the rear and sub off the single pre-out using RCA splitters and then either a) run the front speakers off the head unit or b) use a line level converter to run the front speakers through the amp. Considering I've got an Alpine 9850Ri will that be powerful enough to run decent front speakers on it's own or is the line level converter the way to go (esp as they're quite cheap) Any ideas?
I'd guess that using a line level converter into the amp would sound better, because its using an external amp and they are nearly always better than head unit ones. The question is how much impact the converter has on quality. I'd guess that difference isnt as much as the difference between external amp and headunit, if indeed you can tell any difference at all. If I were you, I'd try both, by the sounds of it it you already have the required cabling except for the line converter, so it wouldnt involve a lot of effort? Have a listen, if you cant tell the difference, sell the line converters on ebay?
Yes, as you can use the level controls on the amp to balance the sound. IMO this is the option with the least hassle, as you already have all the wiring in place for it. You want the best quality of sound to come from the front of the car, as thats where your ears point.
Your right your ears are in the front but the ultimate goal is to have all the sound sound like it's coming from the center of the car (center imageing) and not to have one end of the car over power the other you want everything to blend in so you get the illusion of all the sound coming from the center of the car. Again splitting is yes I agree the easiest route but just like anything else the more you break something down or split it (sound, power, etc..) the less quality you get. It's not huge but it's there.
Haven't heard from you in awhile and deleted your last e-mail by accident but I wanted to know how you were making out. LMK
