eCar™

OK, this maybe should have gone in the newbie section. I've got some pretty stupid questions I guess. I have never been much with audio, and thought I had it figured out but now I am going to change my plans. I have decided to ditch the car radio and run everything including FM from the PC (when I get it done).

I was originally planning on running line out from PC to aux in on a head unit. But I decided to ditch it for more dash space. I need to add a FM tuner car to the PC and it can do anything a HU could.

So, without the head unit, what do I need to power my car speakers? I'll obviosly need some kind of amp. Do I need 2 amps (one for front, one for rear)? Do I need a pre-amp also? How do I control fade? Do I just control volume thru windows?

I'd like a knob on the dash for volume, maybe the Griffen Powermate would be good.

spectrrr

same thing i'm planning on doing....

got a few options...you can use a griffen powermate knob, and that will take care of you volume control, however personally i just dont trust windows with something like that...so I will prolly run mine through an external EQ as well mounted somewhere up front.

each speaker takes one channel. so if you got 4 speakers, you need 4 channels. you can get two 2 channel amps, or you can get one 2/3/4 multi channel amp. not being an expert on car audio myself, I cant say whats better.

your also going to need a GOOD sound card. not the built in junk. grab yourself a Soundblaster MP3+ for $40. its USB and has RCA outputs...should do everything you want. i'm not sure if it does front/back stero out tho.....

Hcomplyr

nope the MP3+ is just stereo just split the signal between front and back, you should be fine just get a good amp and try and get one with a remote gain so you can control it from up front