2 or 4 volt preamp on Head Unit

[kevinsean23 10+ year member]

Ok i know this may sound funny and stupid so i'm just gonna go ahead and laugh at my self now sohahahahahahhha oh u so silly

but i was wondering if it matters if u get a head unit that has 2 volts preamp over a 4 volt head unit and what does it effect exactly

im looking because my only one yr old sanfrancisco blaupunkt hu is going haywire already like to volume jumping from say 20 to 40 when i try to turn down and say invalid card and putting on mute or going to the next song or another station for no reason bah and hu's with 2 volt preamp r usually cheaper

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[Matador 10+ year member]

4 v better. sound more cleaner. the higher the output the cleaner the sound is.

 

[Jnoble 10+ year member]

Yeah no road noise with a 4v preout plus you don't need to turn the gain up as much on the amp.

 

[denim 5,000+ posts]

lol more cleaner

 

[maylar 10+ year member]

Realize that with 2 volts spec, you'll only have about 1/2 volt with the HU at 3/4 volume. While that works fine for most installs, it causes you to crank the amp gain up quite a bit and that can cause some hiss on quiet passages.

Also realize that the overall quality of 4 v HU's is typically better than the lower models with only 2V. I won't own another 2V HU.

 

[JLCivic 10+ year member]

Yeah no road noise with a 4v preout plus you don't need to turn the gain up as much on the amp.

No road noise? No pre outs are going to affect road noise.

 

[Jnoble 10+ year member]

No road noise? No pre outs are going to affect road noise.

well when i dumped my 2v preout Kenwood and bought a 4v preout alpine I lost 100% roadnoise. Maybe the wires where just loose inside the kenwood. i thought it was because of the higher voltage.

 

[JLCivic 10+ year member]

well when i dumped my 2v preout Kenwood and bought a 4v preout alpine I lost 100% roadnoise. Maybe the wires where just loose inside the kenwood. i thought it was because of the higher voltage.

Roadnoise refers to things like windnoise, tire noise, etc, not alternator whine, engine whine, etc. With higher pre out voltage, you can turn your gains down which could reduce noise coming through your system. Roadnoise isn't what comes through your system though. I assume you mean alternator whine, engine noise, "hissing" etc when you say "roadnoise"

 

[Jnoble 10+ year member]

oh well then i meant engine whine, alternator whine, etc.