i brought up line drivers because you were talking about what to do in "theory" and in those situations, a line driver is probably the best way to go.
<< We're not talking sound comp, we don't need 8v line driver. But if you can get 4v compared to 2v for $50 more than why not? Compared to a high end unit, how much more will that $300 HU distort? >>
If you look at the top end excelons, they are 8v preout; no need for line driver anytime soon. I remember my good ol' 911 having 8v preouts.
<< Yet at the same time I've never seen a HU that has 4V FR outputs and a 2V sub output. Either all 3 are 2V or all 3 are 4V. >>
if you read into detail on most headunits, they will say the sub out is 2V. companies usualy say they have 4v preouts if their STEREO preouts are 4v.
<< On a further note I thought that line drivers make your system sound better because you can set your amp gains down and not push them so hard, thus getting cleaner sound. But with 2V outputs from the HU wouldn't you have the gains on the amp set higher than if you had 4V outputs? >>
line drivers offer a broader input range than can normaly be had from a headunit. yes, you would have to set the gain's higher for a 2v source, but in his case, it wouldn't make much of a difference as his particular set of speakers aren't exactly the most sensitive. if you want to understand gain better, think of it this way: imagine the rca input being your video card output to your monitor. now if it was 2v, then it would only fill half of your screen (assuming the amp hits saturation at 4v) whereas if you had 4v you would fill the whole screen. the gain can be the "size" setting on your monitor, stretching it out to fill the whole screen. and if you have CLEAN 2v sources, then raising the gain doesn't hurt much. Cheap 4v preouts may even be worse, and if like someone mentioned above, pioneer headunit preouts burn out under normal use, that could be a sign that maybe they shouldn't be trying to push the weak source to 4v. i would choose a rock solid clear 2v source over a shady barely making it 4v source any day. If you hadn't learned in car audio, numbers aren't always what they seem ^_^. take amps for example, i would rather get an xtant 4x50 amp than a jenson 4x200 amp any day to power my speakers.
<< We're not talking sound comp, we don't need 8v line driver. But if you can get 4v compared to 2v for $50 more than why not? Compared to a high end unit, how much more will that $300 HU distort? >>
If you look at the top end excelons, they are 8v preout; no need for line driver anytime soon. I remember my good ol' 911 having 8v preouts.
<< Yet at the same time I've never seen a HU that has 4V FR outputs and a 2V sub output. Either all 3 are 2V or all 3 are 4V. >>
if you read into detail on most headunits, they will say the sub out is 2V. companies usualy say they have 4v preouts if their STEREO preouts are 4v.
<< On a further note I thought that line drivers make your system sound better because you can set your amp gains down and not push them so hard, thus getting cleaner sound. But with 2V outputs from the HU wouldn't you have the gains on the amp set higher than if you had 4V outputs? >>
line drivers offer a broader input range than can normaly be had from a headunit. yes, you would have to set the gain's higher for a 2v source, but in his case, it wouldn't make much of a difference as his particular set of speakers aren't exactly the most sensitive. if you want to understand gain better, think of it this way: imagine the rca input being your video card output to your monitor. now if it was 2v, then it would only fill half of your screen (assuming the amp hits saturation at 4v) whereas if you had 4v you would fill the whole screen. the gain can be the "size" setting on your monitor, stretching it out to fill the whole screen. and if you have CLEAN 2v sources, then raising the gain doesn't hurt much. Cheap 4v preouts may even be worse, and if like someone mentioned above, pioneer headunit preouts burn out under normal use, that could be a sign that maybe they shouldn't be trying to push the weak source to 4v. i would choose a rock solid clear 2v source over a shady barely making it 4v source any day. If you hadn't learned in car audio, numbers aren't always what they seem ^_^. take amps for example, i would rather get an xtant 4x50 amp than a jenson 4x200 amp any day to power my speakers.
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