help me setup this DR system .. pics and lots of questions

[nadir 10+ year member]

A couple weeks ago, i posted whether I should salvage the audio setup in my 89 celica before we donated it and many of you convinced me ...

so I spent time today neatly removing everything. This setup came w/ the car when my cousin gave it to me many years ago.

The amount of work that went into designing this setup was amazing ... everything was so neat.

I need some feedback on some of the equipment I pulled out.

I have 2 505DR amps and 1 510DR amp. The DR510 says 2x100w RMS and the 505DR amps say 2x50w RMS. Now .. I don't know how to calculate the wattage this system is pulling ... can somoene shed some light on that??

There's also a cross-over connected to this setup as well (DX-28).

I had 2 kicker C10a subs in the back ... I've heard the old kickers were really good quality and was wondering if this specific model fit that category.

Also, the component speakers in there were called:

TC 105

Tieftoner / Woofer

HECO AUTO HIFI

4 Ohm

Each speaker also had a tweater w/ it ...

there's also a center channer speaker embedded on the front center of the dash but I don't need that.

I also noticed 2 DR devices under the seats ... they were called "line balance driver" ... what's this for?

One more thing .. what's this? I found it spliced into one of the speaker wires.

So yeah, I'm planning to transfer this setup into my maxima. I currently have 2 speakers on the back deck and 2 in the front door w/ 2 tweaters in the front doors as well... it's a BOSE setup. I'm currently running a DEH-550MP (Premier) deck and it has preamps for front / back / subs.

I have two options now ... just get rid of the current bose setup and install regular speakers which is powered by the headunit and make use of the bigger DR amp and the 2 kicker subs.

OR, I can transfer over everything. I think the front two speakers will fit, but the back 2 are smaller so I'll probably have to get new component speakers for the rear.

Any suggestions or direction would GREATLY be appreciated. I'm going to read up on component speakers and whatnot ... wiring this up is not a prob, just need to understand how everything works since there's this cross over and 2 line balance drivers in the mix.

Thanks

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[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

I have 2 505DR amps and 1 510DR amp. The DR510 says 2x100w RMS and the 505DR amps say 2x50w RMS. Now .. I don't know how to calculate the wattage this system is pulling ... can somoene shed some light on that??

Excellent, excellent, excellent amplifiers.

Those 505's will actually put out right around 78w per channel rather than the rated 50w. The 510DR I've never seen a true bench test on....but if you guesstimate that it's likewise underrated by ~50%, then it should be able to do about 150w per channel. So, all together you have a potential of about 900w of power output there. Most amplifiers of the same type (class A/B) are in the 60% efficiency range.......which would mean on a 13.8V electrical system you'd be looking at around 92A of potential current draw for those 4 amplifiers.

That's just an estimation.....but likely not too far off. However, how much current is actually drawn while playing music will vary greatly and is rather unpredictable. Variables such as volume level, type of music, gain structure and other settings, etc etc will all affect the current draw.

There's also a cross-over connected to this setup as well (DX-28).

One of the best analog crossovers made. Very nice piece of equipment.

I guess how it was used in your particular setup will depend on how everything was wired up. Are there any passive crossovers? If not, then it sounds like you were running a totally active system. If there were passives, then it was used simply to split the signal between the speakers and the subwoofers (since the amps don't have any built in crossovers).

I had 2 kicker C10a subs in the back ... I've heard the old kickers were really good quality and was wondering if this specific model fit that category.

The old Kicker Competition subwoofers were decent subwoofers. The older round Solobaric's are the often talked about Kicker's though.

If you are happy with their sound (assuming you've heard them), then keep them. But if the budget allows, you may want to consider updating/upgrading them.

Also, the component speakers in there were called:
TC 105

Tieftoner / Woofer

HECO AUTO HIFI

4 Ohm

Never in my life heard of them. Appear to be an overseas brand. How do they sound? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/tongue.gif.6130eb82179565f6db8d26d6001dcd24.gif

I also noticed 2 DR devices under the seats ... they were called "line balance driver" ... what's this for?

I'd need pics of them and a description of how they were wired up in your system to tell you specifically how they are being used in your stereo.......

But, the Coustic DR line had two balanced line adaptors; a balanced line transmitter and a balanced line receiver (don't remember the model #'s off hand).

The Coustic DR amps were able to accept a balanced input audio signal. So, in a system where the HU did not have balanced RCA outputs, but you wanted to utilize the balanced input feature (probably your system), you could put the balanced line transmitter in the front of the vehicle and run "regular" unbalaced RCA into the transmitter from the headunit, and it would then output a balanced signal for input into the amplifier. This is how I suspect they were used in your system.....but a I can't say for sure without knowing more info. But, you could also use the balanced line transmitter and receiver together if you wanted to run a balanced signal through the vehicle, but neither the HU nor the amplifiers were capable of supporting a balanced signal (the balanced line receiver converts that balanced signal back into an unbalanced signal for input into components not able to directly accept a balanced input). It would have been rather pointless to use the balanced line receiver in your system, given both your crossover and amplifiers accept balanced inputs.....but, you never know I guess.

By the way.....a balanced signal basically allows your system to not induce any noise into the signal during the signal transfer process.

One more thing .. what's this? I found it spliced into one of the speaker wires.

Well, from the pic it looks like a pair of potentiometers or "L-pads", which are used to attenuate the signal going to the speakers for more accurate level adjusting of the individual speakers.

I have two options now ... just get rid of the current bose setup and install regular speakers which is powered by the headunit and make use of the bigger DR amp and the 2 kicker subs.
OR, I can transfer over everything. I think the front two speakers will fit, but the back 2 are smaller so I'll probably have to get new component speakers for the rear.

Option two. Especially since you are 3/4 of the way there. The only things I'd consider are possibly upgrading the subwoofers and possibly the speakers, depending on how you think they sound.

And skip putting speakers in the rear. Unless you are doing 5.1 surround sound, they aren't necessary.

wiring this up is not a prob, just need to understand how everything works since there's this cross over and 2 line balance drivers in the mix.

Well, the above either answered your questions or totally confused you.......hopefully the former rather than the latter //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[bigbangtheory 5,000+ posts]

Looks like some nice stuff. I have to be honest and say I never heard of any of that stuff minus the subs. I would look into some different subs, but those old round solos were good if I am not mistaken.

Also squeak is da man!