Rockford RFBLD (balanced line driver)

[raytard]

Product: RFBLD

http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/products/pr...S&p_status=

Manufactured by: Rockford Fosgate

Purchased/recieved from: Avenue Sound, LI NY

Let me just preface by saying that since I went to an amped setup, I've had some sort of engine noise. I've done all the normal steps like grounding rca's, giving the deck a secure ground, and even grounding the chassis of the h/u to the chassis of the amp. All have legitimately helped, but it has seemed that each time I upgrade, more noise comes with it. At this point, theres an HO alt, 4 amps, 4 batterys, and busbars. And after putting in a very top of the line AVIC-z110 the noise was literally overpowering until volume 20 of 40. And even up to 30 it was present.

So I decided to do some research and found this gem. They're kicking around online at under 60 bux at some places, and while it is a very good 22volt (yes 22 friggin volts for you guys that want to power tons of un-synced amps), the true beauty is in the fact that it can operate in both balanced and unbalanced modes, regardless of what the input is.

That means nothing to you yet, but it will in a second. Normally the outside of an RCA is a ground, and the inside is a modulated signal. What this little box does ontop of stepping up your voltage (allowing you to lower your gain which legitimately lowers noise, both engine and "hiss") is send an inverse audio signal along the outside of the rca as opposed to the normal ground. Any noise picked up in the interim is summed out at the amplifier.

I repeat, ANY NOISE PICKED UP IS SUMMED OUT. its gone. utterly, completely, honestly, 100% gone.

It comes with very simple instructions, and needs its own power/ground/remote. After tapping that all in, plugging in the molex (which was a nice touch, the 3 wires go into a molex with similar terminals to the RF amps, which then just plugs into the unit), and plugging in the RCA's, i turned my car on an heard my same annoying ear piercing noise. I flipped the "balanced/unbalanced" switch and it was cut more than in half. It was at this time I kicked myself for noticing I had pulled off the RCA ground. after being reattatched I heard something I hadnt heard in what seems like forever, silence. No whines, no hisses, no pops. I set my new favorite box to just clip when my volume was very high (it includes little lights showing you output/clipping), reset the gains on the amps, and set out on a nice 6 hour roadtrip back to school.

for those of you who never did it before, this is how to ground your rca's. This eliminates noise caused by the outer jacket of the rca output not being grounded suffeciently to the h/u. It seems really simple but for some reason they just cant do it. Especially pioneer....

attach some wire to a screw on the back of the unit that is obviously chassis. I used 16g speaker wire.

strip back about 1.5 in and wrap it all the way around the jacket, twist, plug in to keep secure, and then tape.

So with all this, what kind of difference does it actually make? The first thing I did was pop in Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon album. It starts out with silence,and picks up with a deep pseudo-hearbeat before picking up. This is my roadtrip album and i've heard it dozens of times before, but never with actual silence. It makes a huge difference for starters. As the song starts to build you can actually hear the recording noise. Like the slight bit of static from the origional recording. It appears just before the beat starts, and slightly gets louder as the beat intensifies until after a few seconds it is overpowered by music. I've NEVER heard that before in my car. It's something i've been told is there, something I've heard in SQ cars, but never in my own. As I got farther into it, I noticed the increased sense of clarity and imaging without a constant background whine and hiss. I also noticed that some things, like cyhmbals and the "change" noise in the track "Money" were considerably brighter and for lack of a better word, clearer. It feels like these higher notes kinda mushed in with the engine noise, and without it their brilliance really came out.

Even going to an ipod, the difference was night and day. Songs were louder and clearer thanks to the line driver aspect of it, and the lack of any hiss or whine on my side both exposed flaws in their recordings, and made them sound better than ever.

So for the overview, it gets rid of noise, is one of the highest voltage line drivers available, is more than affordable (available for <$60 online), and can act as a LOC with remote output and balanced or unblanaced RCA if you so wanted(awesome if you have a stock deck, or a cheaper deck without 3 sets of rca's, and still useful if you ever upgrade the deck, unlike most hi-to-lows). The only downside I can find is that it is only 2-channel

Ease of installation-9/10: clear instructions, only needs 3 wires and RCA's of course. Detatchable molex for power. Only way it could be higher is if it got itself in my dashboard by itself.

Price- 9/10: Its one of the more expensive LOC's, and kinda normal priced line driver, but it does so much its totally worth it.

Build Quality-10/10: Solid feel, nice lights, precise fits, high quality RCA's. Rockford knows how to build equipment.

Sound Quality-10/10: It made 10,000$ of equipment, including an $1800msrp h/u sound MUCH BETTER, for less than the cost of a good set of RCA's.

Overall-10/10, if you have engine noise, get this. If you have a ton of amps, get this. If you need an extra set of RCA's or have a stock deck, this is the best bet for your SQ dollar (i've used everything from cleansweeps to re-q5's to lc8's to generic dei loc's, and honestly this might just be the best value, and near the best performance). I don't come on here alot posting reviews of stuff I've used, but this is honestly something you should all know about.

[barros57]

isnt this 140$ not <60?

[raytard]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ROCKFORD-FOSGATE-RF-BL...919192003r23541

they can be found cheap, 130 is just retail

[meade916]

i have 2 of them bro i was gonna try them out - but i was waiting till i put my new deck in - so you like them that much??? i have an old Avic N1 deck and its not THAT bad but its not perfect either - i guess i better get these things installed!!

Did you mount them right up by the deck? My RF guy told me thats the best place for these.

GREAT review!!!

[Kasey]

Thanks for the review i didn't know if i should get one or not but now i do

But i have one question. what if i have a 3sixty do i put it in before of after

[zfrerichs]

dont 360s amp your preouts already?

[Kasey]

Ya but its only 5v (don't get me wrong 5v is 5v) and the BLD is 11 unbalanced and 22 balanced

[Nic]

great review.... i am also curious how do these get wired in if you have a 360.2?

[raytard]

iirc the 360 doesnt do the unbalanced output

so it would be hu>360.2>rfbld (to both up the voltage and make it unbalanced output from the 360's balanced)

and steve, yes i love this thing that much, its a seemingly silly somewhat inexpensive part that made a huge difference. its sitting in my dash basically touching my hu, connected together with a stinger stage 3 rca, the shortest I could find. the long run is monster wire rca with a monster split (one set of rca is split to give my amp front rear left right inputs because each set of speakers in my front doors is on its own channel)

its totally worth it if you have any whine or hiss. its one of those products that does exactly what its supposed to, and at a good price. And i know anyone who has screens and a dozen batteries and a half ton of power wire is going to have some sort of noise, no matter how careful the install was. Its an issue that just sort of exists, and this thing gets rid of it like a charm.

[TeamHT]

would it be safe to use the linedriver for the sole purpose of increasing subwoofer output?