can you hook mp3 player to rca inputs of equilizer?

[jwarren808 10+ year member]

car is a 90 honda crx si, i have'nt had a radio for 2 yrs since it was stolen, i can't afford to buy a new one, my friend said it might be possible to us my old 7-band clarion equilizer to connect an mp3 player into the rca inputs of it and listen to music through the speakers in my doors, having a connecter that is 2 rca's on one end as a "Y", and an 1/8" jack on the other end to fit in an mp3 player or i-phone, i wanted to get opinions on if theres a way to do this ?, or get other ideas on what i can do.

not sure if the equilizer has any type of wattage inside it to be able to power the speakers in the doors ?, it did'nt list any in the specs in the manual, do you have to have some type of watts to be able to hear sound out of the speakers in the doors ?

i have an older alpine head unit tape deck / reciever that has 10 x 4 continous watts and 40 x 4 maximum watts, which works good except tape player, and i was wondering if i can install that so it can power the speakers from the watts it has built in ?, along with using the equilizer in conjunction with it to hook the mp3 player to the rca inputs of the eq and be able to play music from the mp3 player out through the speakers?

the head unit has two rca outs coming from back & harness clip w/ colored wires to go to front/rear speakers, and it has a wire leading to the eq with small white harness clip that connects into the eq, so they are connected together, cause thats how i had them when i was using them.

the equilizer has 2 rca ins, rca outs for fronts & rears & subwoofer.

i was just seeing if i could get a confirmation on if theres a way to do that or not ?, and if so, to give a little details on how to go about doing it and hooking it up ?

on the other hand, i could just buy a used cheap head unit with an aux input on craigslist or ebay and put that in, but i dont care about the cd part or radio, all i care about is having an aux in, and if i am able to do that using stuff i already have then that would be better since its free.

any help would be appreciated, thanks

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[naughtyca 10+ year member]

it will not hurt if you try

 

[jwarren808 10+ year member]

i just wanted to see opinions or what people thought, i am not that experienced with installing head units or eq's, but its something i can do if i wanted to, as long as i make sure i am doing it right, and read stuff off the internet, mostly, the part i did'nt get is how the sound from the mp3 player going into the inputs of the eq gets to the speakers ?,

i mean the eq has rca outputs, which to me seem like would be meant to lead to an amp or something?, and then back to the speakers ?, and i don't have an amp, or does the sound going into the input of the eq go into the head unit through the wire thats connected at the back from the eq harness clip to the head unit harness clip ? or would i use the 2 rca outs at back of head unit in any way ? a friend just mentioned this idea to me but i just did'nt get the details on how it would be connected exactly?

 

[naughtyca 10+ year member]

some people run with just the eq

 

[tommydh 10+ year member]

you shouldnt have an issue I do the same on my mixer for live sound. Just make sure its a full signal input on eq

 

[jwarren808 10+ year member]

i actually copied this same post and posted it to the12volt.com forum also, so i could get double the feedback, and someone replied saying i would need an amp in order to be able to do what i wanted hooking mp3 player into inputs of equilizer, but i mentioned to him i had an alpine head unit that has watts built in and if i could use that to power the speakers along with having mp3 plugged into input of eq ?, maybe someone can confirm it and look at what he said here, at the link to the post :

can you hook mp3 player to inputs of eq?

just want to know if it can work doing this? cause then i can make use of stuff i have without spending any money, but if won't work or need an amp, then i probly be better off buying cheap used head unit with an aux input off craigslist or ebay, for the same or less than it would be to get an amp. and thanks for any help

 

[bunnerrabbit 10+ year member]

To work the EQ is going to need to have some amplification to work. It might have that built in but doubtful. The tape deck is going to need to have a input for it to work. You could look for a old adapter to put into the tape deck them plug MP3 to it.

 

[jwarren808 10+ year member]

well, thanks for the replies and for explaining it all and letting me know what works and what won't work,

after looking around ebay and amazon and reading reviews, i have found a head unit that would be just what i'm looking for, and new for only $30 !!, which i can afford, its a Pyle PLR16MUA, it does'nt have a cd player, but it has an aux input, plays mp3, has am/fm reciever, and usb/sd card slots, bss/trble eq, and 40 x 4 watts, and looks nice too.

does'nt have detachable faceplate, but i could just make some black plastic thing to cover the front of it so looks like i don't have a stereo so they don't break my window again and steal it like last time, but if they do at least its only a $30 radio so not a big loss, and i can get new window for $60, but hopefully does'nt happen again.

and i'll get rid of that old eq and tape deck by selling on ebay for cheap since i won't have any use for them