Upgrade HU

heathstimpson · April 5, 2004, 20:53

Its getting near that time that I need to seriously look at a new HU. I have the sub and driver on the way so it needs to be compatible with this, have good power output and preferably play MP3 and have red/orange illumination. Anyone got the Pioneer DEH-P7600MP or Alpine CDA-9830R s:?: :?: s:?: Also the best smallish amp for the sub. All suggestions welcome. s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

GSB · April 6, 2004, 09:38

The alpine you mention is basically the same as mine, it has all the control functions you need for your sub and amps built in, plus the a decent 50wx4 output. (although if you are only going to use an amp for the sub, you may be better off upgrading to one of Alpines 60w x4 models.)

The pioneer has all the same features, but personally I'd lean further towards teh Alpine. Far more respectable in my book, if only because Pioneer, like Sony, tend to pander to the desires of the Max power crowd, including dancing dolphins and formula one car animations, along with buttons to add more bass. To me, the time taken to add silly gimmicks to appeal to clueless nova driving oiks would have been better used in engineering accurate sound reproduction... But hey, thats just my opinion. Also, I think the Pioneer's button's are crap s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

As for amps, read here:
m http://www.mr2roc.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2585 m
for a discussion of what size you can reasonably expect to fit without loosing any storage space. My amp is basically as big as you can go, although it has now become the floor of the storage bin.

If I was buying a 2 channel amp to bridge and run my sub, I'd probably plump for one of the little Blaupunkt amps in the thread above. Its small enough to fit under the storage compartment without the cutting that had to be done to fit my amp, and more than man enough for the job.

heathstimpson · April 6, 2004, 19:07

Cheers Grant s:)

s:)

heathstimpson · May 18, 2004, 10:02

After much research and desperation to get moving on this upgrade I am settling on the Alpine CDA-9835R. The best price I can find is around £420 + delivery. Its amazing how much cheaper these are in the sates (£210 + delivery) but I assume their frquencies differ. I also need an amp for the underdash sub but have seen many places selling off the Alpine MRH-T305 2/1 channel unit. Cannot find any info on these; any good for the job Buster s:?: :?: s:?: Or any amp suggestions s:?: :?: s:?:

GSB · May 18, 2004, 12:43

That amp should be okay for running the ud sub. Are you intending to run the door speakers from your HU?

heathstimpson · May 18, 2004, 13:43

Quote from: "GSB"That amp should be okay for running the ud sub. Are you intending to run the door speakers from your HU?

It's probably best I suppose to run the speakers from the amp as well. A 2/1 amp would be ok but I'm assuming there could be issues with frequency seperation s:?: :?: s:?:

GSB · May 18, 2004, 14:25

A 2/1 amp like the one you have in mind will run either 2 speakers in stereo, OR 1 speaker in mono. Not both. You'll need a 4 channel amp that can have 2 of its channels bridged to run the sub, and the other 2 to run a door speaker apiece.

heathstimpson · May 19, 2004, 07:00

Quote from: "GSB"A 2/1 amp like the one you have in mind will run either 2 speakers in stereo, OR 1 speaker in mono. Not both. You'll need a 4 channel amp that can have 2 of its channels bridged to run the sub, and the other 2 to run a door speaker apiece.

Got it; cheers s:wink: :wink: s:wink: What do I need to look for so that the single amp will allow the frequencies to the doors and the sub to be split s:?: :?: s:?:

GSB · May 19, 2004, 08:01

Quote from: "heathstimpson"Got it; cheers s:wink: :wink: s:wink: What do I need to look for so that the single amp will allow the frequencies to the doors and the sub to be split s:?: :?: s:?:

Nearly all amps come with that feature built in, but its nicer not to have to climb in the boot every time you change cd's and want to change levels. Thankfully the Alpine Head unit features a subwoofer level control, and crossovers to split the signals.

Anonymous · May 19, 2004, 13:17

Make sure that the amp when briged into Mono for the sub has the correct impredence for the Sub. i.e. 4 ohm sub 4 ohm output.

All you will need to do from the h/u end is run 2 sets of RCA's and, the 1st being for front speakers and the 2nd for the sub which connects to the sub out and into channel 3-4 of the amp.