HOW TO: Get sound from PC to Car Stereo / Amp - Page 6

miztahsparklez · 02-20-2005, 05:28 PM

uh, no.. how would yoru speakers be powered?

jbraddoc · 02-21-2005, 03:07 PM

Through the amp.. I thought that would be self explanatory... :-\

Arathranar · 02-21-2005, 03:26 PM

Only if you have an external amp. I don't for example, so your approach doesn't work for me.

miztahsparklez · 02-21-2005, 03:38 PM

what would be the point of hooking your pc to the speaker wires? that wont do anything. you will be lucky if you get any sound at all. first of all, speakers need quite a bit of power. on top of that the ohm load probably wouldnt be very good for your soundcard.

jbraddoc · 02-21-2005, 10:56 PM

Okay let me clarify this... You listen to FM radio all the time, and cannot find a good USB FM radio antenna, so You want to hook the car's original HU to your computer, so you can still have sounds from your computer, for mp3's and what not, and when you are not listening to those, you listen to the stock radio. Okay, that Or, say you have a navigation system with voice guidance, and you want it to 'lower' the volume on the stock system. You take the outputs from the stock HU (the ones to FR FL RR RL speakers, and hook those onto a headphone jack, and plug that into line in, and take the line out, and hook it to an amp, then to the factory wires, so that the FR, FL, RR, RL speakers get powered, and then you can have both worlds..

Vchat20 · 02-22-2005, 12:04 AM

i should also add that depending on your vehicle, it may have an amp that is seperate from the radio. if this is the case, you can easily find a wiring harness online which will allow you to directly wire the amp into your pc or any other aux device.

kamikaze2112 · 02-22-2005, 06:43 PM

I don't know if this will work or not (won't for laptop ppl, but will for the ATX/mini-itx crew), but most TV tuner cards have FM radio tuners....

for example:

http://search.ebay.com/pci-radio-tun...dsreturnedZ300

Like i said. May work for some. don't know what the SQ is like, but definately a solution.

Vchat20 · 02-22-2005, 07:51 PM

i think what the main issue in this thread though is getting the sound to the speakers in the car. pc fm tuners have been around for quite some time.

sxotty · 02-23-2005, 04:17 PM

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...

Tangerine_Man · 02-23-2005, 04:27 PM

i cant answer your question but in high school i did the same thing except i am so old that we did not know what cds were at that time well they just came out anyway 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

ppgt94 · 02-23-2005, 10:33 PM

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.

buddylee7 · 03-07-2005, 09:42 AM

Does anyone have a solution to incorporate steering wheel controls to control the volume and etc?

ltrain1007 · 03-07-2005, 10:32 AM

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/search.php?

"I-Bus"

bcw55 · 03-10-2005, 02:32 PM

I have the following:

Eclipse 54400 head unit - no aux input.
Eclipse Model 3640 4/3/2 Channel Power Amplifier
Dell MP3 player

After contacting my local Eclipse dealer, they confirmed that there is no aux input on the head unit. They mentioned RF modulators, doing something custom, etc. I've heard RF modulators and they really do compromise the sound in my opinion. Anything custom would cost me a bundle.

I thought that since I have the external amplifier, I could likely buy or build an RCA selector switch that would allow me to toggle between the head unit and the MP3 player.

I've attached a diagram of what I think I need.

I've seen some existing switches/selectors available, but almost all are designed for video - red, white and yellow RCA.

The head unit has four RCA outputs, the amp has four RCA inputs. The MP3 player has a single headphone (mini 1/8") out with which I can use an RCA Y adapter.

It seems, to build something, I would need a small box with four inputs for the head unit, and two inputs for the MP3 player, and then four outputs to the amp - with a switch to select which input source to direct to the amp.

Can someone help provide a novice with information about the appropriate parts and the wiring info I would need to build such a thing? While I don't have any real experience with this sort of project, it seems like it should be simple enough.

Or if this set-up is available for purchase somewhere (again, I can't seem to find much other than video switches) I'd appreciate a tip.
Thanks.

chrislloyd · 03-11-2005, 03:45 PM

i have been looking through this thread and am confused on something. everyone is talking about 5.1 and such.... but noone mentions anything about time alignment. the whole idea with 5.1 is that you get sound from all these differnet speakers to your ears at certain times. well in a car.. you sit to the left of a center speaker. you practically sit ontop of the left speaker.

for those of you going straight from a 5.1 card to an amp... how are you dealing with time alignment? does the hardware app/firmware support this? is there external software that does it??

i just ordered my carpc... and am still wrestling with the idea of keeping my head unit (time alingment built in) or going straight from the carpc.

thanks