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I want to get a high voltage output HU so i don't have to turn my amp gain up so damn high. This is the cheapest I have found that looks like a good deal:

Panasonic CQ-DF903U

It's got a 5v preamp output, so that should be a nice improvement over the current 2v output on my Pioneer. Reviews of it look good so far.

Anybody ever used this cd player or have any comments?

 
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The Panasonic HU my ex g/f had was crap....stopped working after 2 months, got replaced 3 times under warranty before she finally sold it and got an Alpine.

I forget the model, but it was like $220 at Tweeter about 2 years ago.....

 
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Here, the alpine has 4v preouts...there wont be a noticeable difference on gain settings between 5 and 4, and it's almost $100 less than the Panasonic.

http://www.ikesound.com/product-product_id/1300

This Pioneer is like $20 more than the Panasonic and has 6v preouts and an OEL display:

http://www.ikesound.com/product-product_id/1496

 
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hmm... and the Pioneer reads mp3 cd's

 
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or, you could always use your existing hu and buy a line driver

 
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true, but now i'm liking the sound of an mp3 player also : )

 
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Remember when companys rate power (just like amps) some will give PEAK voltage and some will give RMS voltage( to help fool consumers). 5 volts is the peak for the panasonic, But Alpine rates their rca voltage in RMS.

 
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but ive both tested and read tests from alpine decks... not ALL of them put it out their rated voltage... even the lower end nakamichi's are rated in peak...

my clarion puts out its rated power, i know that

i still vote for the line driver

 
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hey ludlam, how did you test the output?

i was at my local shop, and their diamond audio rep showed up, he was looking at the panasonic units the shop had and decided to test the 5v output. he had some sort of handheld device that showed output from rca as a sine graph i believe. when you get distortion out of the HU, the sine graph started to skew and look irregular, he said thats how you know its clipping. so he basically looked at the graph until it distorted, then he got out a volt meter, and measured the voltage output before clipping. does that sound right? he looked like he knew what he was doing, but the shop owner told me after the diamond rep left that he was known to BS a lot, so i didn't know for sure.

btw, they tested the output of panasonic 903, 3.3volts before clipping, they got 1.7volts out of the clarion 835mp (but it was defective, so i dunno the real output).

 
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eclipse has a 16 volt balanced output. i think 8 volt is the highest unblanced output.

 
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slick, the box he used with the sine graph is an oscilloscope.

 
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ok, but since i have a Pioneer HU now that has a 2v output, and the one i'm looking at is a Pioneer w/ 6v output, wouldn't the 6v one still be approximately 3x the output of what i have now, even if it is not technically 6v?

b/c in that case, it should still be a major improvement

 
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that pioneer only has 4 volt outputs... i dunno where you saw 6... the 1200 dollar pioneer unit doesnt even have 6 volt outputs, i think it only has 5 volts

 
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http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pe...006488,00.html

...straight f/ the pioneer website, but it could mean peak or something

but anyway, i'm looking more at these line drivers, b/c i've been reading some good things... (not to mention I know you know your **** and you said to get one). If I go this route, should I go w/ an expensive one w/ separate subwoofer outputs and whatnot? Or would I still get great performance f/ a cheaper one like this

 
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...or even this

 
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heres what it boils down to. the gain structure of the amp your using and the amount of clean signal you can put into it. when i worked at rockford, the amps were set up from .5v to 8V max. so if you had a .5v input signal and the gain all the way up, you would get advertised power. now if you have an 8 volt input and the gain all the way down you get the max power out of the amp. the 8 volt will sound better because of signal to noise ratio. the higher the voltage signal the the lower the noise floor.


slick: we did that same test with the 199 RF deck against an alpine @ 100 hz the advertised 2v output did .6. the rf did 2.3. with a load on the output the output of the deck dropped to .43 volts and the rf dropped to 2.2. now with my explanation above this is a big deal because even with the gain pegged, you wouldnt get the advertised power out of most amps with that alpine deck. now keep in mind this is at the $199 price point and im not bashing alpine..just stating what our test showed. the thing that caused the voltage to drop when connected to a piece of equipment is the output impedance of the deck. you want this number low so the voltage doesnt drop as you connect more items (more than one amp, processor, eq, ect...)

 
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thats interesting Alex053, i wonder how well the higher output alpine units do? or for that matter, higher end units like nak cd-400, or eclipse units.

thanks ludlam, i guess calling it the box thing that makes sine graphs isn't the name for it, lol.

i was wondering, lets say the RMS voltage of a 4v unit is 2.5v. so you set the gain on your amp, and the gain was set to match the 2.5v coming in. but the max voltage is 4v, so when you're playing music, the voltage spikes upto 4v, how does that affect the amps output? i mean, you set the voltage for 2.5v, but it jumps to 4v, wouldn't that confuse the amp? i dont get it, shouldn't the voltage be as consistant as possible>

 
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slick - noone really sets their gain with a scope anymore due to the dynamics of music and everything else... I set my gain with a dilated peoples song, other use sine waves, others use other things...

 
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My old Sony HU that I am selling has a 5.5Volt output. I am pretty sure that Sony and Eclipse make the highest volt outputs, I sure do miss the sub sound from my last HU...

 
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are we talking one of the old school sony ES units?

those are great great HU's.. why cant sony no longer make a respectable deck

 
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ya..older es decks were super nice.

c-90 anyone??

 
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My pioneer has 6V preouts (940MP model). Higher voltage really matters with amps for a cleaner signal.

 
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i ordered the Phoenix Gold line driver f/ SoundDomain.com for $90 shipped. It should be here by the end of the week... I'll let you know the result when I put it in.

 
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ok, well i have it in, and i've been playing with the settings on both it and my amp for only a little while now

thus far, i do find that the bass is a little louder, but the main advantage is that w/ the power i have now, i can have all my HU settings set to flat, and my music SQ is much better overall.

Plus, i can blare bass for almost an hour and the amp is barely even warm b/c the gain is only about half way up : )