Thread: Amp question

Those are "high inputs" they use speaker wire from your headunit to provide signal for the amp. You should use the RCA's if your headunit (carpc WILL) have RCA pre-amp outs.

haha, okay
High imputs, known as speaker elevel inputs, are using the speaker wire from the head unit. Low level is RCA, which uses the preamp RCA outputs from yoru headunit. You want to use RCA wiht your carputer though. definitely. What you do is you take a 1/8 stereo (3.5mm) to RCA adapter ($6 at Radio Shack) and go straight from your mac mini to the amp (easy way) or use an eq (hard way and obviously not the way you're going to do it).

And they're not pointless if you're using your stock HU and upgrading your amp, a HU without preamp outputs, or you're using multiple amps from your HU (one for speaker, one for subs). They're practical depending on your use. It gives you options.

Speaker-level input
Number and type of speaker-level inputs. Speaker inputs let you connect an amp to a receiver that lacks RCA preamp outputs.
from http://www.crutchfieldadvisor.com/IS..._glossary.html

For a carputer though, they're pointless.

And any idiot can install an amp IMO. Wring the mac mini in your car is harder than wiring a car stereo. The hardest part was finding a way through the engine firewall to get to the battery. If you are afriad or need guidance, make firends with a guy who does stereos and he'll walk you through it.

what eq is this? IMO, an eq is perfect (duh)for flattenign out your car's sound and making it sound great, but most poeple are satisfied without it (if you want to go cheap). What you may want to consider, esp if you're upgrading your speakers and adding subs, is a crossover, which splits the signal to each compenent as it can handle it. They're also cake to set up (plug in, know what range your outputs need, and tweak till you like it). Make sure its an ACTIVE crossover. They're more expensive, but they basically only send the signal you want to the amps to amplify it, unlik ea PASSIVE crossover, wich takes your amplified signal and filters out what it doesn't like and wasting the rest. Your mac mini should have an eq on it anyways.

I was pretty satsified with an crossover's functionality of splitting my signal and doing it well, but i realized two things: 1, if i'm doing a stereo (this is my first stereo that i'm building where the components are all my choice and i'm paying for it), i'm going to do it right, will all the neccessary parts. 2, i'm building this for sound quality, not just to have sound, so i should flatten out my car as much as i can to reach my goal correctly. not blast my music to make up for my inadequatices. Its yoru choice. THis is my project and that's what i wanted to do, so now i have both.-

I don't know too much about memphis. Your'e not a serious audiophile, neither am i...yet , but try to get 7 bands. However, after reading thse specs (that's why it took a while to answer, it had to load all of adobe pro 6) i'd say no. When looking at stereo stuff, there's a few things to consider. 3 importnat things are the signal to niose ratio (SNR), the total harmonic distortion (THD) and the frequency response. This model has some pretty crappy specs compared to some of the eqs i was looking at before i settled in on two models that i wanted. If you click on the specificatiosn sheet in the link, you'll see your eq50 vs their parametric model. If you want a lesson in reading it, i have a few links for you, but for now, be satisfied in knowing that the clarion eqs744, which is about the same price(on ebay, new), but has even better specs than the parametric model of memphis, though is the easy and graphical like the eq50. It also gives you everything you wanted. I knw because that was the first eq i thought about getting. why is another story .

Ofcourse, that's my opinion. You can play with it and it can sound just fine to you. That's the thing about sound: its in the ear of the beholder.