how much better will sound be with 5V preamps compared to 2V?

[frankiebones 10+ year member]

i have an alpine 9856 with a poor excuse for an equalizer so im thinking of going higher end (prob. pioneer 7800) for my new headunit. i know i will have much more control over the sound, but how much will the upgrade make the sound quality better (2V v. 5V preamps, and whatever else the alpine doesnt have)

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[Cris 10+ year member]

no sq change. Higher voltage just means you'll have to turn your gain down... and possibly avoid noise. That's.. pretty much it.

this might be my faulty memory, but my jvc head unit (1 pre-amp output, 2v) with its output split into 3 outputs by rca splitters going to 2 amps produced an astonishingly clear & good sound. I could turn it up extremely loud and it would be clear as day. I loved it. Even though my system now is (in theory) 10x better, I almost miss my old system.

 

[xpl0it 10+ year member]

SQ will stay the same. Again, you can turn the gains down (easier on amp, less heat) and you can turn off bass boost which is always good because bass boost sucks. So actually, it could change the range your sub (bass boost is normally at 40hz), so when I got my line driver, my system was much flatter and sounded much louder/better in my opinion.

 

[HincklNutt 10+ year member]

weird that you say this, because i was about to order a 9856 last week, and ended up buying the DEH-P780MP instead. much better unit overall.

 

[yacob.naif 10+ year member]

Depend's on the quality of your amplifier's preamps. Most quality amplifiers use really descrete preamplifcation systems to bring preamp level up to line level, but if you're using a cheap amplifier, the sound quality may be a LOT different depending on how much amplification the preamp needs to provide.

Also keep in mind you can use an external pre-amp, called a line-driver, to boost the rca level to line level, as well, if you feel your amplifier's preamp is poor, so i wouldn't sweat the rca voltage too much when choosing a deck.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

SQ will stay the same. Again, you can turn the gains down (easier on amp, less heat) and you can turn off bass boost which is always good because bass boost sucks. So actually, it could change the range your sub (bass boost is normally at 40hz), so when I got my line driver, my system was much flatter and sounded much louder/better in my opinion.

Assuming that your amp can produce full power with the lower voltage inputs, there will be no difference between the output of the amp with a 1V input or 5V input. The amp doesn't work any harder with the gain set correctly for a 2V input or a 4V input, it still puts out the same power. It won't run any cooler with the higher input voltage. The one benefit other than getting the signal farther above the noise floor of the cable is that you might get a larger dynamic range with the higher voltage, but that depends on the HU and the amp rather than simply the signal voltage. With the gains correctly set, you shouldn't need bass boost. If you thought that you needed it before the increase in line level voltage and don't think you need it after, you had something mistuned before.

 

[Hoodlum007 10+ year member]

i used to have an old poineer HU with 2 volt out and my system sounded pretty good but once i put in my premier 860mp with the 5 volt out i would say it sounded about 25 percent louder and much cleaner too

 

[xpl0it 10+ year member]

^^^ yep. I run 7.5v rms to my 1501d, never gets warm anymore and gains are well below 25%. Gains used to be 95% and just over 50% bass boost (ew)

 

[wilzyx 5,000+ posts]

the only change in sq would be if your amp is clipping now and with the new higher voltage preouts got rid of the clipping.

 

[dleccord 5,000+ posts]

so basically it doesnt run "cooler" ; its gonna put out to whatever the gains at 2v/5, correct? and still be hot/warm/cool??