High Pre-Amp Voltage H/U

[qat 10+ year member]

Anyone have any recommendations on some h/u's with a decent pre-amp voltage?

As of right now, i'm running a Sony CDX-GT930UI, with a 4v pre-amp voltage. It's a nice receiver and all, but, i'm trying to beef up my sound system a little bit. I just recently burnt up the voice coil in my AudioQue HDC-315 (copper coil), so it's going to cost me the money to recone it. I am however adding 2 more of those same subs to my set up, and don't want to be constantly clipping it. Enough background, i've learned my mistake.

What i'm looking to find is a headunit with 8v+ preamp voltage. If I can get one with DVD playing capabilities (or, if you can talk me out of it) with similar voltages, that's what i'm interested in if it's ~$600. Otherwise, a standard CD/USB (iPod)/radio tuner works just fine.

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[ThatChevyGuy 5,000+ posts]

Just because your input voltage is higher, has nothing to do with clipping your signal.

Read the gain setting tutorial, and set your gains correctly next time.

 

[KyleBechtold 5,000+ posts]

for the dvd capabilities.. unless you are a parent.. you won't use it.. i thought i would and it would be soo cool.. i don't.. i have a touchscreen cd player.. thats that..

 

[qat 10+ year member]

Just because your input voltage is higher, has nothing to do with clipping your signal.
Read the gain setting tutorial, and set your gains correctly next time.

I was trying to not get too in depth about the explanation.

In order to achieve the same volume, I cranked up the gains, unknowing of what the impact was. I'd like to turn down the gains and still be able to crank the volume.

Respectively, you ignored my original question while still finding a way to criticize.

for the dvd capabilities.. unless you are a parent.. you won't use it.. i thought i would and it would be soo cool.. i don't.. i have a touchscreen cd player.. thats that..

Fortunately, I do have a 3 year old daughter. If I can't get it in my head unit, i'll be purchasing a standalone that I can mount and play all in one unit, but it would be beneficial to have TVs in the head rests, right?

 

[jaredspl 10+ year member]

clarion drx785usb

 

[AlterEgo99 5,000+ posts]

Respectively, you ignored my original question while still finding a way to criticize.

You must be new here...get used to it...it's how we operate...but you will get the answers you seek, so, get off your //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/highhorse.gif.6bbb570c3f53dc0dcce8a2b8ad05cf11.gif and grow a thick skin, quickly! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wow.gif.23d729408e9177caa2a0ed6a2ba6588e.gif

Taken from http://www.bcae1.com/:

Amplifier Gain Controls:

Contrary to popular belief, an amplifiers' gain control does not determine the maximum power that an amplifier can produce. As long as the preamp/drive signal has sufficient level, the amplifier will produce its maximum power output level. The gain controls are used to match the amplifer's gain to the gain of the other amplifiers in the system (in the case of a multi-amp system). The gain controls also allow you to match the amplifier(s) to the head unit. Not all head units have the same maximum preamp output voltage. Some head units are capable of producing 9 vrms out while others are only capable of 1.5 vrms out.

Please note that a head unit will reach its maximum output level (clipping) well before the volume control reaches the upper end of its range (usually at a point of 85-90% of its maximum range).

Note (rant):

There have been many people who have said that the gain controls were not volume controls and they are right, to a point. Some amplifiers' gain controls are used precisely like a volume control (one end of the potentiometer connected to ground, the other end connected to the pre-amp signal and the wiper connected to the amplifier's front end). This configuration will allow you to reduce the output to nothing at the minimum gain position. These are not very common but they HAVE been used on some amplifiers. I know because I took the cover off of a few amps to see why they had absolutely no output (Doh!). Others are connected similarly but there is a small amount of resistance between ground and the formerly grounded terminal of the potentiometer. This small resistance prevents the gain control from reducing the output to zero output. These are very common on amplifiers made in Korea and China. There are other amps that use the potentiometer to pull the signal toward ground. The pot is the lower half of a voltage divider and may use only 2 legs of the potentiometer. This type of gain control was used on at least one brand of Japanese manufactured amplifier. You can also put the potentiometer in the feedback loop to control the overall gain of the amplifier. The point to all of this is... There are many ways to use a potentiometer to control the output of the amplifier. Some are used precisely as volume controls and others are not. You cannot make a blanket statement such as 'gain controls are not volume controls'.

 

[AlterEgo99 5,000+ posts]

Respectively, you ignored my original question while still finding a way to criticize.

And I think you wanted to say "Respectfully", not "Respectively". //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif But, we don't really use big words like that anyways. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crazy.gif.c13912c32de98515d3142759a824dae7.gif

 

[Zellner 10+ year member]

Anyone have any recommendations on some h/u's with a decent pre-amp voltage?
As of right now, i'm running a Sony CDX-GT930UI, with a 4v pre-amp voltage. It's a nice receiver and all, but, i'm trying to beef up my sound system a little bit. I just recently burnt up the voice coil in my AudioQue HDC-315 (copper coil), so it's going to cost me the money to recone it. I am however adding 2 more of those same subs to my set up, and don't want to be constantly clipping it. Enough background, i've learned my mistake.

What i'm looking to find is a headunit with 8v+ preamp voltage. If I can get one with DVD playing capabilities (or, if you can talk me out of it) with similar voltages, that's what i'm interested in if it's ~$600. Otherwise, a standard CD/USB (iPod)/radio tuner works just fine.

ECLIPSE HU's are 8v preout

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

I was trying to not get too in depth about the explanation.
In order to achieve the same volume, I cranked up the gains, unknowing of what the impact was. I'd like to turn down the gains and still be able to crank the volume.

Respectively, you ignored my original question while still finding a way to criticize.

The very purpose of the gain control is to allow you to achieve full output with different input voltages. The fact that it was "high" is not necessary a bad thing, as long as it's properly set for the input voltage it's receiving. Having a higher voltage preamp output isn't going to give your amp more output, and having the gain down lower because of a higher input voltage does not mean you are at less risk of clipping your amplifier.

If your subs were indeed damaged from clipping, the problem was that the gain was set improperly regardless of where "properly" happens to fall within the range of the gain control. You can just as easily set the gain incorrectly with a higher voltage input signal as you can with a lower input voltage signal.

And before you criticize people for not understanding your question, perhaps you should take some time to properly analyze and understand your problem. We understand your question; You don't understand your problem.

 

[Sarthos 10+ year member]

I'm not sure if there are any DVD players with 8 volt outputs. DVD players **** for sound reproduction anyway, get a CD player. Eclipse is decent for 8v outputs, I think some older Alpines had 8v outputs, some older Planet Audio units also had 8v outputs

 

[eharri3 10+ year member]

If you want louder with the same clarity you should be looking for power and/or stronger subs, not more head unit voltage. All the extra voltage means is you get the exact same clean volume as before but with a different setting on the gain dial. The maximum possible distortion output of your system will not increase, it will simply occur at a point where the amplifier doesn't have to multiply the head unit's signal as many times as it did with the 4 volt head unit. If it wasn't enough for you before, it still won't be now. Despite your statement 'enough background, I've learned my mistake', you evidently haven't. If you had to crank something too much to get enough loudness to make you happy before, you'll still have to do it with your 8 volt head unit. And by the way, 4 volts is pretty darn good, what plenty of people run really good SPL and SQL systems with, and people used to accomplish the same things with half that. Your main benefits will probably be less system noise if you have any now and cooler running amps. The noise reduction will be noticable in mid/high frequencies but you probably won't be able to tell from the subs.

That being the case if you just want to do what you want to do because you want to, as someone else said there's Eclipse HUs with 8 volt outputs that are VERY nice. Buy it and chime in again and tell us how much louder and cleaner it makes your subs sound.

 

[AlterEgo99 5,000+ posts]

The very purpose of the gain control is to allow you to achieve full output with different input voltages. The fact that it was "high" is not necessary a bad thing, as long as it's properly set for the input voltage it's receiving. Having a higher voltage preamp output isn't going to give your amp more output, and having the gain down lower because of a higher input voltage does not mean you are at less risk of clipping your amplifier.
If your subs were indeed damaged from clipping, the problem was that the gain was set improperly regardless of where "properly" happens to fall within the range of the gain control. You can just as easily set the gain incorrectly with a higher voltage input signal as you can with a lower input voltage signal.

And before you criticize people for not understanding your question, perhaps you should take some time to properly analyze and understand your problem. We understand your question; You don't understand your problem.

Well said...well said...especially that last bit. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/clap.gif.178cba2c538c68e720c727fcb024b19c.gif

 

[corrie32 10+ year member]

i like the knowledge in this room!!!! school him!!!!