QuestionI noticed that that particular alpine is a 2 volt player, what is the difference between 2 and 4 volts? if I want to keep the option of amping speakers do I need to get a 4 volt player?
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Followup To
Question -
Yes, I already have those parts and an old kenwood kdc-mpv619 cd player installed in my '96 toyota camry.
Im looking to upgrade for clarity and volume but I don't need it loud enough for everyone else to hear, i just need high quality sound in my car. I figured since my current cd player doesn't even have seperate subwoofer outputs I could definitly use a new cd player.
By bi-amping your reffering to one amp for the subs and one amp for the speakers? and passive crossover as builtin to a cd player and active as the crossover from an amp?
The place i've been working with has recommended cd players such as eclipse cd7000 or cd5000 because they have built in crossovers. what do you think about those models? are you saying that spending extra money on a cd player with crossover is a waste?
In short, I'm wondering what would be the best way to upgrade my system without spending more than 7 or 800 bucks.
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Followup To
Question -
I currently have two 12" infinity kappa series subs powered by an audison LRX 2.250, infinity 693.7i 6x9's and diamond D661a 6.5 components. I'm wondering what else I need to complete my setup. If I don't really care about the sound being extremely loud is a 4-channel amp nessecary or would a nice cd player with a built in crossover suffice? also what cd players would you recommend below the 800 dollar range?
Answer -
well it sounds like you have a great start. I'm not sure exactly what you are asking. You already have it all installed and want it better? in what way do you need it better? is your focus on volume or clarity? sounds like you are a clarity kinda guy.
As for the amp, I always recomend running components off an amp and not off the head unit. If you really want to do it up nice you can try Bi amping and actively crossing over the components. The main advantage of bi amping is to get the balance between tweeter and woofer nailed perfect. the crossover that they come with cant get it perfect by any stretch. Passive crossovers add distotion and suck up power. I'd be happy to help you upgrade from passive to active.
Im assuming the components are for the front (I hope!) 6x9s are pretty poor speakers so keep'm down so they dont ruin your front sound stage and they'll be fine.
as for recomending a cd player I need the year make and model to recomend one that would fit.
for a general recomendation I like alpine alot. I've installed many and all my customers are very happy. I used clarion in my cars simply becuase there was a feature I wanted with the clarion. They're ok.
I would definatly stay away from Blaupunkt. I've been through 3 of them and they've all been horrible.
kenwoods ok, sonys ok, I dont have any experience with pioneer but they do offer a good bang for the buck in the $150-200 range.
You dont need to spend anywhere near 800 to get a good deck
about 400 is all most people should spend.
assuming these fit..
this is a nice and very popular model:
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-ThPySPdrFsn/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?wm=fp&I=500CDA9857
If you really think you need to spend more money you can get this one, it adds dvd ability but your cds are going to sound exactly the same so unless you want dvd this is a waste:
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-ThPySPdrFsn/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=300&I=500DVA9861
Good luck and let me know how it comes out. if I didnt tell you what you were looking for please let me know.
Answer -
Active crossovers go between the cd player and the amplifier, they split the sound at line level not speaker level
Passive crossovers go between the amplifier and speakers, they split the sound at spaeker level.
I was refereing to the passive crossover on the diamond componenets. this unit can be removed and the 6.5" woofer of the diamonds can be conected directly to an amplifer and the tweeters from the diamonds can be directly connected to another amplifier. an active crossover would go ahead of these amps splitting the frequencies around 3000-4000hz and routing the appropriate freqs to each amp for each set of speakers. each amp would have its own gain control so you could dial in the balance between how loud the diamond tweeter is vs the 6.5" diamond woofer.
Subs are always actively crossed over. Sometimes this sounds far superior to the passive crossover.
Another thing that active crossover and bi-amp helps with is that most people put the tweeters down near the woofer but I prefer them up on the dash. this brings your sound stage up off the floor and keeps the sound from chaning whenever your leg gets in front of the tweeter. Without active crossovers, putting the tweeters up on the dash would make them much too loud since they'd be close to your ears. using the active crossover lets you turn them down to match the woofers.
As for the separate sub out its nice to have subwoofer level control right at the cd player. sometimes when you put the windows down the subs will sound too loud and having the sub outs on the cd player will allow you to turn the subs down a little for that. Most sub amps have a crossover built in so having that in your cd player isnt nessesary but again its a nice feature. I think the alpine for 350 I showed you would be good for you. Other than that you'll need to spend around 100 bucks in wire to hook it all up but I dont think you need anything else.
Let me know.
Answerthe difference between 2 volt and 4 volt is the the RCA jacks that go from the cd player put out a higher signal, up to 4 or 2 volts depending on what it says. Generally this is what this is for:
Most amplifiers have a "gain" knob on them, the gain knob amplifies the signal coming from the cd player before it goes into its final amplification for the speakers. it's kind of a preamp inside the amplifier. If your cd player puts out .5 volt max then your gain on your amp needs to be very high to boost it for the final amp, lets say +8
If you have 1 volt cd player the gain would be +4 for the same volume to come out of the speakers
If you have a 2 volt cd player the gain could be +2
and if you have a 4 volt the gain could be +1 or 0
I'm making these numbers up the final result means that the signal is stronger before the amplifier so the amplifier doesnt have to turn it up as much with its preamp.
The reason this is a benefit is becuase you get noise in the signal so if the signal is weak at the amplifier and is turned up, the noise is turned up with it. if the signal is strong when it reaches the amplifier and turned down, the noise is turned down with it.
It all comes down to higher voltage=cleaner signal. I have some very high end equipment that has 12 volt outs!!
If you are only adding an amplifier for the sub and not an amplifier for door speakers 2 vs 4 wont be noticable but if you plan on amplifying door speakers go with a 4V output.
