Line Driver. Worth it?

[DarkScorpion 10+ year member]

In the case of db drag it may be benificial to be able to overdrive your inputs as much as possible...
For the price of a line driver I'd suggest trying one out and see if it improves your score...

If anything, he'd see an increase in score due to an increase in clipping since he'd probably put the line driver in and not adjust gains accordingly. I'm with audioholic - don't waste your money.

 

[Haunz 10+ year member]

If anything, he'd see an increase in score due to an increase in clipping

That would be the point of overdriving the inputs...

This is a question of pure amplifier output and SPL... not adjusting gains so the amp dosen't clip...

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

That would be the point of overdriving the inputs...

This is a question of pure amplifier output and SPL... not adjusting gains so the amp dosen't clip...

Most amplifiers will provide full clipping without the need for 8 volts of input signal, their gain adjusters go down to a fraction of a volt.

Hard clipping is a pretty dangerous way of squeaking a couple more tenths out of your system. Especially in a sustained burp like, iirc, dbdrag requires.

 

[Haunz 10+ year member]

Assuming a typical 2-8v gain structure, I would have to agree with gains maxed, 5v should more then overdrive the amp with a sine tone recorded at 0db...

There are a couple of other factors which could be considered, but I'm sure we can at least agree extra preamp voltage can't hurt his score.. and for the $50 it might cost for a line driver I'd be more then willing to try one out...

Also, if the OP wants to compete in bass race (with music).. the extra preamp voltage would certainly be of a huge advantage...

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

One thing is for certain, the day the OP wants to compete in bass race (with music).. the extra preamp voltage would certainly be of an advantage...

How so exactly? Im no bassracer so maybe Im missing something, but the facts just dont suggest there is anything to be gained from it.

 

[Haunz 10+ year member]

^ Fast reply..

obviously with a 0db sine tone there is only so much you can gain by overdriving the amp... but with music, there is a lot of headroom to compress...

If you could overdrive the inputs by about 100 fold you might even get as close as possible to a square wave... //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/naughty.gif.94359f346c0f1259df8038d60b41863e.gif

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

While running a pair of Sundown 3Kd's off a lower voltage pre out HU I was getting consitand .6 to .7 db gain from using the line driver. The amps were strapped to 2 ohms nominal *unsure of rise). Gain on amps were nearly maxed and were turned down most of the way with the line driver.

A single 3Kd run at .5 ohm had no measurable difference.

Bought the line driver fom sonicelectronics for 24$ ish (the PG one). A useful piece depending on the amp and HU IMO. For the price, buy it, test it, and if it doesn't do anything on the meter you're only out 24$. People blow a lot more money than that testing things to try to gain a couple tenths.

 

[rosshimself13 10+ year member]

honestly if your looking to play music i would look into the epicenter... mean little box surprized the shit outta me but then again there is only so much to be gained with it if you are listening to already bass heavy/enhanced music