I'm trying to find a receiver for my suburban that I like.. it's proving much more difficult than I thought it would be. I've finally narrowed it down to Alpine's CDE-103BT. It has all the features I want, but it has 2v preamp outs vs 4v. How big of a deal is this?

The system I'm shooting for right now is this receiver, a 4ch amp with 4 6 3/4" speakers, and possibly an amp/sub later if the 4 speakers isn't enough sound.

 

wouldnt worry about it

 

Unless you are building a very high end and properly done system(high end I mean sound, does not have to be really expensive, just done right which few know how to do, sadly)
the voltage out will not matter a great deal. The main improvement is higher dynamic range, better S/N ratio, etc......very much lost on nearly all installs done and you have to play good source material to hear it, not many do.

 

Thanks guys

 

Just to add a little more info;

Oscilloscope! Buy one (Tenma's are cheap on Ebay) and learn how to set all your gains from the head unit volume on back to the amps using sine waves.
The adjustments are endless and very fascinating! Like RAAMaudio said, it doesn't have to be expensive to get fantastic sound. You just have to get EVERYTHING working/clipping in sinc.

 

If no scope the best way to do things, even with one really, is this.

Set the amp gains all the way down, any processor in line do the same. Turn the HU gain up to around 90-95% for more dynamic range, higher signal to noise ratio, etc....(unless it distorts before that level, some may)

Turn all HU processing to the flat position(middle, not up or down or all the way down, depending on it will boost and cut or just boost)

Then go to the next level in the system, processors, etc......while playing a well known tract(sometimes we need to use a few different ones to get this right)

The better the quality of the recording and the kind of music you play, they way you play it, is best to get the setup as close as you can.

Listen to the mids only, turn up the gain as far as it will go without clipping, you will hear it much easier if they are the only ones playing. (or as loud as you will ever play the system if you prefer)

Also best to have the mids crossover point as low as possible, the lower the better and just raise it if they cannot reproduce well at the highest listen level you will use.

Once set turn them off, do the tweets(or disconnect the mids, etc)

Then do the same and subs only.

Next balance them out, the ones playing the lowest level will be the set point for the others, match the gains to play the level you want them to play at with each other, by turning down the louder ones, not by turning up the quieter ones.

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End result, sending the highest level out from the HU which is optimal for all systems, amps, etc, set to never clip or if you push the tuning a bit soft clip which is not to hard on speakers.

Highest dynamic range and S/N.

This should help, I did this, then used my RTA to take a look, tweaked the best I could after no sleep for 2 nights straight, really not fine tuned at all and beat a prior world champ for the second time, my backyard no shop, 50 hours a week Navy job, new build against his new build(huge shop, Football and Baseball Pro customers, etc.....) he put together to get even for beating him 2 months earlier.

Hope this helps
Rick

 

RTA? WTF!?
I do my readings on graft paper and a digital SPL meter.

Darn kids are so lazy these days.

 

I found the RTA was a good ball park tool to get you, into the ball park, quickly. Great for finding dropouts which are much harder to hear and tune than peaks, once that was done it would go back into the closest and sit for ever so I sold it, just not enough use and after time I really did not need it. Fine tuning by ear is absolutely the only way to get this right, trust me, Eric Stevens at ID has tuned, by a huge margin, many of the world championship cars. He would use the RTA, same as the one I had, to get to the basic level fast then fine tune by ear.

After both times I beat the world champion he retuned my RTA and not so great ear tune and absolutely blew away what I had done.

I am pretty decent at it now but it takes me so long I never really get it all the way there and make a change, sell the vehicle, lose the tune because a battery dies and I forgot to save it, again, etc.......

At first I would spend hours and hours, many sessions, getting the ultimate curve on the RTA and it just never sounded that great, once Eric tuned it by ear the curve would be all radical, not a curve at all, and sound incredible

Rick

 

Yes! Yes! That's what my graft paper looks like!

You see, you take the readings and plot them. If that doesn't sound right, you look at the graph and adjust "FOR YOU" or the judge you know is going to be at the event.

 

That works though I never adjusted for the judge, with Erics great help I won every comp I was in just the way he set it up. Then again, take a look at what I was running and the truck is a very easy one to get right, imaging was incredible, dynamic range with a 20 volt balanced output from a dual 20 bit ladder DAC ($2,500 DAC way back when), 18 volts through the EQ and crossover, 100 watts per tweeter, 200 per mid, 300 per midbass which there were 2 per side for 600 watts of kick drum heaven and 1kw per sub.

I just wish the truck had been fully tuned when it was reviewed for the magazine, deadline and no time to get it to Erik.....and they still loved it but had no idea of just how much better it really was.

Yes, those are Rainbow References in a $10k truck

http://www.raamaudio.com/index.php?o...&id=2&Itemid=5

Now it just has an old 8443 Eclipse, Arc 5 channel(high end line) amp, Seas full size 1" aluminum domes and RS180 midbases, Arc 10, etc and I could still beat most anybody in a local or regional comp. I wanted to build a low budget setup to see just what I could do with it, still better that anything I have acheived in my Vette, two other cars, two other trucks I have built since then, no matter the cost, that truck just works!

Have a great weekend