Thread: Dumb question about amplifiers

Originally Posted by DavC

Why don't you run the HU through the PC (link it to a line-in on the sound card) if you are not using its internal amp.

If he has no amp, then the headunit must be doing it. The RCA jacks, though, could go into the computer assuming he wanted them available for mp3 players and other line level audio sources. Whether or not noise is introduced, I dunno.

Originally Posted by hd1080

Thanks for the input guys; this has been helpful. Unfortunately my car stereo does not have an AUX input. :-/

Is it a stock HU ?

You can get an adapter for a lot of different stock HUs that pretend to be a cd changer. This would allow you to use your HU as an amp and retain fade/balance control.

Check Crutchfield.

It is a stock HU and this does seem like the ideal solution. There is such an adapter at Crutchfield, but it seems to suggest that you need an AUX button on the radio. I'll look into this some more though.

Oh man, these boxes look pricey... Is there a way to hack the wiring to send a signal straight to the HU?

(I've got a 1997 Saturn SL2, by the way)

Originally Posted by hd1080

Mainly because it's just not as much fun. I want the challenge of building my own. Plus, with a car PC I can customize the interface, and there's room for expandability, like ODB-II if I ever go that route.

In that case, you might want to consider something like a Dell Axim 51 which can be had for about $300 on sale (check slickdeals.net)

-g.

I don't quite see how that dell can amplify my signal...

Anyway, here's my idea, and I don't know how well this works out electronically so I'll run it by you guys. If I knew how to do a wiring diagram I would. Sorry. I'm going to use an old HU with an aux input as the amp for my PC. Where this gets power, I'm not sure... Can I run it in series off the power of the main HU I have installed? Or is there a better way?

Also, I want to be able to use both head units and have them both attached to the four speakers. Is it possible to use, say banana plug connectors (this is just the easiest way for me to describe what I want to do) in all the sources? So for the front left speaker, I would have the speaker accepting an input from the old HU, which accepts a signal from the main HU. I hope this makes sense. So the old HU (the one in the middle) would have a banana plug with both a male and female connector on it. Is this feasible? Is there an easier way to wire this without spending money on costly banana plug connectors?

Your best bet is a new HU with an AUX input. The 2 HUs thing isn't gonna work very well if at all. It's gonna be cheaper to just do it right the first time than to redo it afterward.