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Silver03Se wrote:maybe somebody in the daily industry can back me up or correct me on this, but if you buy new amp(s) you'll need to pay attention to the voltage input 2-3-5. i went with a friend to buy a h/u and asked for some 5v preouts. was informed the new amps are coming out accepting low voltage inputs. just a thought if youre buying new and im hoping somebody can add to,verify, or correct me.

An amplifier amplifies output voltage (your preouts) for more power so the higher your preouts you start with, the less work your amp has to do. That's why high quality RCA cables also help lessen the load, less voltage drop. So even if the amp you look at has a lower voltage threshold I highly doubt they will make them so they can't accept higher powered ones. In fact if you do end up with a low voltage output HU I would recommend using a line driver to lessen the load on the amps.

If you have a head unit that puts out a higher voltage, you can just keep your gain at a lower setting. Lower gain, lower noise floor, better sound. You'd get less hissing and noise at higher volumes.

rmac694203 wrote:If you have a head unit that puts out a higher voltage, you can just keep your gain at a lower setting. Lower gain, lower noise floor, better sound. You'd get less hissing and noise at higher volumes.

QFT

Yup that's basically it in a nutshell, it will sound better and your amp won't work as hard (cooler & less heat distortion)

98Park wrote:

rmac694203 wrote:If you have a head unit that puts out a higher voltage, you can just keep your gain at a lower setting. Lower gain, lower noise floor, better sound. You'd get less hissing and noise at higher volumes.

QFT

Yup that's basically it in a nutshell, it will sound better and your amp won't work as hard (cooler & less heat distortion)

Heat differences ate negligable with different gain settings, as it's all in the "pre-amp" section of the unit. The major hear source is the actual switching/amplifier section.

But as mentioned, less gain needed on the amp = better noise floor, and a cleaner final output.

Funny that we're talking about a cleaner sound in a topic where we're trying to stuff as many subs in the trunk as possible, which is quite the opposite of clean sound.

98Park wrote:An amplifier amplifies output voltage (your preouts) for more power so the higher your preouts you start with, the less work your amp has to do. That's why high quality RCA cables also help lessen the load, less voltage drop. So even if the amp you look at has a lower voltage threshold I highly doubt they will make them so they can't accept higher powered ones. In fact if you do end up with a low voltage output HU I would recommend using a line driver to lessen the load on the amps.

Voltage amplification is technologically trivial, the real power gain delivered from an audio power amplifier is in its ability source current into the load, necessarily driven by a higher voltage. Car amps achieve a higher voltage than the car battery + alternator by using a switching power supply. The fast switching transistors (typically MOSFET devices) will produce heat regardless of whether you're playing your car stereo loud or soft and regardless of whether you give the amp a high (typically 4 volt) or low (typically 0.5 - 1 volt) input source. The output transistors sourcing the current to the speakers will produce lots of heat, also regardless of whether the input signal is high or low. Indeed, all you'll gain from a head unit high out is a lower noise floor by using less compensating voltage gain in the preamp circuit of the amp, but heat-saving isn't the benefit here. Preamp circuits don't run hot, period.

But seriously, can we hear back from Sepenator to find out if he's doing anything with this? This thread is starting to get stale. Sepenator are you out there? Can you give us an update?