Hey guys, I had ordered an Alpine 9825 deck for my truck but they just contacted me today saying they are out of this deck. They offered me the slightly more expensive but MP3-capable 9847 deck for no additional cost, so I took the deal. The deck has the same features as the 9825 except that it has 2 volt pre-outs rather than 4 volt pre-outs. Is this going to be a problem if I hook up 1 sub (all I would run) later on, or will it sound fine? Thanks for your help guys.

 

In most cases, the higher the preout voltage the better. It just means the head unit sends more voltage to the amp therefore, you do not have to have the gains on your amp set as high to match. On most amps, you turn the gains higher for lower voltage head units to match the levels. I have an Eclipse AV8132 that has 8 volt preouts and the gains barely have to be turned up to reach a matching level. So, the 4 volt could actually help you later on.

 

Higher signal, lower relative noise.

 

These guys are correct, but I would also mention that if your HU has 4 volts preouts and your amp's gain does not adjust to handle that sensitivity, for example if it only adjusts to 2 volts, then all the added voltage will do is make that particular amp clip at a lower volume level. While the potential is there for better sound quality, etc., it is dependent on the rest of the system.

 

All of the answers are spot.


But to answer your question. If you just plan on running one sub down the road. I think the MP3 capability that you gained in the new HU out weights the pre-out voltage drop. 2 volts is still sufficient to give a listening system (rather than a competition system) the sound you are looking for.

-Will

 

Thanks for the replies. This system is nothing hardcore-just for listening. I won't be running more than 200 watts max on the sub.