2volt / 4volts

[Go-N-Def]

Id like to know if I go from a 4 volt h/u to 2 volt would i be losing lots of power.

[EBW]

Are you running a processor? What amp brand/model is it feeding?

Edited August 23, 2011 by EBW

[BJD3]

Id like to know if I go from a 4 volt h/u to 2 volt would i be losing lots of power.

From what I'm given to understand, all a higher preout voltage will do for you is lower the noise floor since the amplifier doesn't have to be as sensitive. Higher voltage head units give a stronger signal out.

As far as losing power, no. That's why you have a gain knob. So you can set the amplifier to match the deck.

EDIT:That said, preout voltage isn't the only metric you should judge a deck by. That would be like saying "I'll buy this subwoofer because the magnet is bigger."

Edited August 23, 2011 by BJD3

[Kranny]

lower preout voltage will require you to turn the gain up some more to compensate for the lost 2v. as for losing power, you shouldnt lose any at all.

[Kranny]

Are you running a processor? What amp brand/model is it feeding?

i fail to see why this matters?

[Go-N-Def]

Are you running a processor? What amp brand/model is it feeding?

i fail to see why this matters?

No processor

[Quiet]

Id like to know if I go from a 4 volt h/u to 2 volt would i be losing lots of power.

From what I'm given to understand, all a higher preout voltage will do for you is lower the noise floor since the amplifier doesn't have to be as sensitive. Higher voltage head units give a stronger signal out.

As far as losing power, no. That's why you have a gain knob. So you can set the amplifier to match the deck.

lower preout voltage will require you to turn the gain up some more to compensate for the lost 2v. as for losing power, you shouldnt lose any at all.

/thread

[BJD3]

You've closed the thread but I'm going to reopen it. lol

There is a school of thought that says putting a line driver behind a low power deck will rectify all the problems a low power head unit creates.

I would think that being that the line driver would still have to have that high noise floor then would boost that, you would still have all the noise you were trying to fight. If anything, running it through another device would give noise another chance to rear its ugly head. Correct?

Also, I've confused myself. I know what I want to say, but don't know the correct terminology. Would the noise floor be lowered or raised?

Edited August 23, 2011 by BJD3

[Kranny]

You've closed the thread but I'm going to reopen it. lol

There is a school of thought that says putting a line driver behind a low power deck will rectify all the problems a low power head unit creates.

I would think that being that the line driver would still have to have that high noise floor then would boost that, you would still have all the noise you were trying to fight. If anything, running it through another device would give noise another chance to rear its ugly head. Correct?

Also, I've confused myself. I know what I want to say, but don't know the correct terminology. Would the noise floor be lowered or raised?

i completely understand what you're saying. im going to throw out completely random numbers to try to put this into a real world example.

lets say you have a headunit with 2v preouts. .5v of that is pure noise. adding a voltage booster to boost the voltage to 4v, would essentially also double the noise, so the noise is now occupying 1v of those 4v.

unless im completely missing something (if i am, please correct me), like if some boosters have the ability to completely eliminate the noise, you're correct.

[dereileak]

lets say you have a 1500 watt amp rms, and you have an input voltage of 2v thats is usable when its cranked, so not the amp has to bring that voltage up to 54.77 volts to have it output 1500 watts to a 2 ohm load, now that basically put it to having to increase the voltage ~27x the original input, now if you have a 4 volt preout into the same thing you will be only amplifying ~13.5x the original signal voltage, so in theory having a higher preout voltage would considerable lower the amount of noise an amp will let into the output signal, the higher the voltage going into an amp, as long as the amp supports it and its a clean signal that doesnt already have noise going into it, the better, you can think of an amp as just a voltage increase in all reality. Now if your running 7-9v's like I may be doing then your amp will increasing it about 7x, but that all depends on if my line driver in my 30 band eq will output a clean signal at those levels

Also another thing, if you put a line driver after a headunit, and there is already noise in the line, you would be amplifying any noise with it, same as the amp, the amp would amplify any noise in the line the same amount, so if you have 2v preouts, and there is noise, you would be amplifying that noise by 27x, that would be noticeable, now that all comes into your decks output clarity and any signal leakage from the RCA's, thats why higher preout voltage is wanted, because the amp will introduce less noise with the gain not having to be set so high, and the already small amount of noise in the signal will not be amplified as much, as every signal will have a very small amount of noise, sometimes not even hear-able, but still

Edited September 3, 2011 by dereileak