Headunit preout Voltage

[zerocover]

Alright someone has to expalain this to me. Im confused.

MOst amps take voltages from 100mv-8v from the headunit. NOw the amp always outputs the same maximum lets say 400watts. So if the preout is 8v shouldnt the amp put out twice as much as if it were 4v? OR does the voltage not matter and its just the wattage in the preout thats important to the amp.

I ask this becuase I have a crossover for the sub and teh left channel is dead. Im gonna order a new one, but that takes time to get here, and I want bass now. If I split the right channel output I would get 4volts and 4volts out putted to the amp although the current would be reduced by half to each channel. This would make the power half. Does this mean I would have half the power going to each channel or would it just be normal.

[Kevin]

The pre-amp voltage coming from your head unit is just that. It's strictly the signal that your head unit is sending through your rca cables to your amplifiers. The higher the voltage, the cleaner the information that your amplifier receives... which inturn the amplifier amplifies. Whether your head unit puts out 4 volt or 8 volt pre-amp currents only dictates the voltage of the signal. So to your amplifier, a 4/8 volt pre-out only determines the sound it amplifies. The amplifier will still put out 400 watts regardless of the pre-out voltage coming from the head unit. What does make a difference is signal loss. Because an 8 volt signal will carry cleaner through a set of rca's than a 4 volt signal, the 8 volt signal inherently carries a stronger, cleaner signal. There is less of a chance for signal interferrence (which is somewhat debateable as it's not that simple).

If you take one 'pre-out' rca lead and split the signal down with a splitter to emulate 2 right channel feeds, yes, your signal will degrade and your amplifier will be dealing with more signal noise. However, I wouldn't worry about this at all. I ran a 4 channel amp off of a single pair of rca cables and I was quite happy with the sound. Surely there is more ambient "White Noise" when you do such things, but I wouldn't worry about it.

I hope I've understood what you're asking as it's worded kind of weird.
Kevin

[zerocover]

Thats pretty much it.
So the amp doesnt care what the voltage is it will always out put the same power at the same gain.

And splitting the output into two will have virtually no negitive effects life halfing the volume.

[Kevin]

Thats pretty much it.
So the amp doesnt care what the voltage is it will always out put the same power at the same gain.

And splitting the output into two will have virtually no negitive effects life halfing the volume.

Not to my experience, I don't see how getting half volume could be the net affect of splitting your RCA lines. And even so, it'd have to be so minute, it wouldn't matter. And furthermore, whats the harm in upping the gains just one more notch if you think your volume is lower than it used to be?