Car audio: A workaround for no preouts on your head unit?

[KingNothing]

I was talking to this guy in one of my classes about speakers he had put in his car, and he mentioned he still had the stock head unit. So I asked if it had preouts, and he said no but it didn't matter because you could get an adapter to put between the wiring harness and the head-unit and it worked the same.

Is he right and if so, can someone explain what he's talking about? I kinda like my stock head unit and don't really want to replace it, but this sounds like one of those "if it were so easy everyone would do that" kind of things.

 

[ObiDon]

There's something called a line-level adapter that you can connect your head-units speaker-level outputs to. On the other side it will have RCA outputs. It should be pretty easy to find one just about anywhere. It would probably be between $10-$20 for one that does two channels.

It's a pretty simple setup. Mostly the hardcore people would have anything against using them due to possible sound degradation although I doubt it's more than you would get when using one of those RF-CD changers.

 

[klah]

Are you talking about installing an Amp or just replacing the speakers?

 

[NutBucket]

There would probably be significantly less loss through a line-level converter then an RF modulator. RF modulators suck.

 

[Spoooon]

You can get amps with speaker level inputs also. Basically, you plug the speaker wire from the head unit to the amp, and the speakers get hooked up to the amp.

 

[KingNothing]

Originally posted by: klah
Are you talking about installing an Amp or just replacing the speakers?

I'm not sure what his setup is. My car currently has two Infinity Kappa 4" speakers and two Infinity Reference 6.5" speakers. They're being powered from a Kenwood 600W 4-channel amp. The installers used the line-level inputs on the amp to hook up the speakers.

So am I not going to gain anything with this line-level adapter thing?

 

[Evadman]

Line level adapters suck. I have use them. They are horrable compaired to an RCA out.

Btu if you have to do it, you have to do it.

 

[KingNothing]

Originally posted by: Evadman
Line level adapters suck. I have use them. They are horrable compaired to an RCA out.

Btu if you have to do it, you have to do it.

I don't have to as the speakers are connected to the amp's line-level inputs. I was just wondering if there was a cheap way to get cleaner sound.

 

[Doodoo]

Yeah its the line level convertor as someone else mentioned. You can get em at any audio store...maybe even Walmart....they call it a PAC sometimes. The sound quality is horrible compared to RCA's though.