Line driver/preamp?? - DIYMA Car Audio Forum

21 Hours Ago	? #1
? DIYMA freshman Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: San Francisco Posts: 70	From people's experiences, does a line driver make that big of a difference?? My current HU puts out 4V I think, and just for kicks, I swapped in an old HU I had laying around, which has 8V pre-outs, and it made a noticeable difference. I don't mess around with car audio much anymore, but wow. In the home audio world, I'm of the camp that preamps just add coloration to the music, and should be as passive and transparent as possible (unless you need something), but for the car, it might be different??
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10 Hours Ago	? #12
? SQ learner Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Mesa AZ Age: 39 Posts: 904	Quote: no, but i considered that. I have the gains about half. I've turned them up higher with my "old" HU, and just get more noise, so I don't think that was the major factor. Agreed. Simpler is better. Everything was better. Stage was higher (I felt like i was sitting lower in my car), vocals much better (more for male, but female too), and a bit more detail. Sure, I didn't have the old HU dialed in, but all i did was switch it out. I'm beginning to realize it's just the intrinsic difference of head units. I was comparing a Pioneer 80prs to and Eclipse 7200mkii. Eclipse >> Pioneer, which surprised me a bit is all. HU output voltage makes a HUGE difference in relation to gains and output. The gains are for MATCHING and not for sheer vloumn. They are used for matching the in coming signal strength to the amps input stage. When you swapped out the 80prs for the Eclipse you almost doubled your input signal to the amp. This means that even though you did not physically change the gain setting, with the extra voltage it acted like you turned up the gains to a lower sensitivity setting. That is why it was louder right off the bat.
	DEH 80prs - Zapco DC200.2 - SB Acoustics sb26stcn-c000-4 tweeters - pillars - Zapco DC350.2 - HAT L3 - pillars - Zapco DC750.2 - HAT L8 - doors - Zapco DC500.1 - 1 Polk MM840dvc* - ported *Future upgrade to Morel or Scan 10" sub.
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2 Hours Ago	? #13
? DIYMA freshman Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: San Francisco Posts: 70	Quote: HU output voltage makes a HUGE difference in relation to gains and output. The gains are for MATCHING and not for sheer vloumn. They are used for matching the in coming signal strength to the amps input stage. When you swapped out the 80prs for the Eclipse you almost doubled your input signal to the amp. This means that even though you did not physically change the gain setting, with the extra voltage it acted like you turned up the gains to a lower sensitivity setting. That is why it was louder right off the bat. Ya that was kind of the reason I posted this in the first place. The amp gains were matched to the Pioneer. But when I hooked up the Eclipse, it wasn't just pure volume that I noticed. I mean, I did have to turn the volume down, but even at lower volumes (which made it about equivalent to the Pioneer) the improvements mentioned were noted. I guess I'm considering: do I keep the 80prs and add a line driver, put in the Eclipse, or just do nothing (keep 80prs). Btw I noticed your HU is the Pioneer. How extensively have u tuned, and what exact tunes did u do? I tried the auto, and it sucked. So far I've only done some minor TA, and minor L/R independ EQ. The x-over points are all the same. I'm also wondering if I can get Eclipse type sound with more tuning. But the 7200 had no tuning, and everything turned off (loudness, circle sound, etc). X-over points were the same.
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Source: http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/technical-advanced-car-audio-discussion/142254-line-driver-preamp.html

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