Quote: Originally Posted by sxotty
Ok don't assail me please, but I have a quick question.
When I was in highschool I took an amp I got and a portable CD player. I connected the CD player to the amp as youguys suggested here and it was super quiet no matter what.
Do computers output a stronger signal or something? If not isn't a car computer really quiet as well? I ask b/c I am trying to get up to date so that I can build myself a car computer. I want to replace my headunit in a subaru WRX...
There are many variables and one of many things could have gone wrong. Are you sure the amp you were using (or the connections you used) accepted low-level inputs or line-level speaker input. If you pluged a low-level output signal (like CD walkmans) into inputs for line/speaker level you'll get a very low volume output.
How did you plug the portable CD player into the amp? Did take the headphone outputs and use a 1/8" miniplug to RCA adapter or cable and to go into the RCA inputs of the amp? Was the volume on the CD player turned up? If so it should have worked alright. This is of coarse assuming everthing was in working order and it wasn't just a whimpy amp and/or speakers.
Most consumer sound cards output low-level signal. This is usually enough for an decent power amp to take and output sound as good or better than a headunit playing a CD.
Quote: Originally Posted by Tangerine_Man
all i had was a cassette walkman ran it through a alpine amp to alpine speakers and it played better than some of my friends high dollar head units
You'll find that almost always a seperate external amplifier is going to sound better than any head unit amp.