Line Drivers.....

[maylar 10+ year member]

They make a world of difference. Your amps run cooler and get more power at a lower gain. I would stick with audiocontrol products if you are going with a crossover or line driver. I forgot to mention it cleans up the signal as well.

Wrong, and wrong.

 

[Why So Cereal? 5,000+ posts]

yea i guess i did. but just from reading and searching alot of ppl say they are pointless. but that was my theory tho. putting those in order they did made since to me even tho ppls say other wise. **raising pre-outs = decrease in amp gain making amp work less to make power = a tad better voltage(due to amp not working as hard)**is this theory even remotely correct?

I think of it the same way as HU outputs. All they determine is where you set your gain. Different pre out voltages help prevent noise IIRC.

So, unless you're splitting a low ouput signal to a ton of Amps (in which case you'll never reach rms before clipping) you don't need higher voltages. They likely won't help U get louder or help your amps run cooler even with a lower gain setting. Gain is not volume control. If you want your amps to run cooler, given u have proper electrical, turn the volume down. Of course that's pretty useless for competition but u get the point.

 

[maylar 10+ year member]

but i figure adding a line drive to bring the pre-out up alittle would let me come down on the gain and the amp wouldnt work as hard to make power, which would also in theory make my voltage drop a tab better. would that be correct theory

Nope. That's a car audio fallacy / myth. How hard the amp works and how hot it gets depends on the power level, not the gain knob position. The amp could care less if the gain is 10% or 90% to get to that power level.

Line drivers have low output impedance and high signal voltage which makes them less susceptable to picking up noise. In a real SQ install they can be a benefit if used correctly. But for typical installs if your amp can get to full power on whatever the preout voltage is you won't notice any improvement.

 

[BassAddictJ 5,000+ posts]

2volts is fine for almost all new amps a line driver will only help if your running lots of amps

yes and no.....my avic n5 has something along the lines of 2v or less preamp output. My old xx-cyclops did fine at like 2/3rds gain, my audiopipe ap3k needed the gain even lower, yet my ax3200de needs the gain maxed to achieve the desired output....all in direct swap outs. Even with gain adjustments some amps are just more sensitive than others. I plan on getting a line driver for my substage with this ax amp. To be honest with you Audiocontrol is nice but not worth the premium price. I picked up a used Cache line driver w/ a clipping indicator. As long as you can see that you're not clipping you should be fine with anything.

the flip side is now with the increased input signal, you would have to have to be more aware of where you amp level is at (assuming you use the remote like me) to avoid clipping. Alot easier to red line you amp if you've got a solid 8v signal going to it.

so most of the time no, you don't need a line driver...unless you have alot of background noise or get lucky enough to have an amp that won't do the trick with maxed gain on a low signal.