Blue collar audio upgrade

[Fast50dad]

We had the JL tower speakers mounted (with their own volume control), added a second amp, upped the 10" sub to a 12", an extra battery, an isolater, and some LEDs. Tried it in the garage, the drivers remote doesn't work (taking it in on Saturday to have it fixed). We have the Clarion system.

When I plugged the auxillary cord into my iPad, the volume was very low and bass was non-existent. The iPad's volume was all the way up. Is this something that I just need to deal with? Is it better to use my cigarette lighter option to run it, or an iPod? Both are in my wife's Suburban and don't have them to test. But when we played a Kid Rock cd, it sounded great.

Any tips or past experiences would be appreciated.

2003 ProStar 209

[93ProStar205]

Clarion decks have an input sensitivity selection on the aux rca's. Make sure it's set to "high" in the options menu on the deck. Process varies a bit from unit to unit, but it's in the manual.

[Fast50dad]

Originally Posted by 93ProStar205

Clarion decks have an input sensitivity selection on the aux rca's. Make sure it's set to "high" in the options menu on the deck. Process varies a bit from unit to unit, but it's in the manual.

Thanks for the reply, I'll give it a shot!

[ricford]

Just my opinion, but I've never heard a Kid Rock CD that sounded good.

[Brian B]

Originally Posted by ricford

Just my opinion, but I've never heard a Kid Rock CD that sounded good.

[Tomi]

I've been wondering why do you guys install head units at all? I use Spotify on my mobile and all my music is in mp3's. So easy to just plug the mobile or tablet directly to the amp and play.

[Jeff d]

Originally Posted by Tomi

I've been wondering why do you guys install head units at all? I use Spotify on my mobile and all my music is in mp3's. So easy to just plug the mobile or tablet directly to the amp and play.

One to have a radio tuner to use when I want it or would rather not fool with my phone. Also, the output voltage on a phone or mp3 player when applied to the extremely high impedence RCA inputs of an automotive amp is really suboptimal compared to an EQ or head unit. At a minimum you should have a suitable preamp between your mp3 player and amp.

Also, my head unit has a better digital to audio converter than the built in iPhone one. When you connect to it via USB it offloads the mp3 decoding to the HU. It sounds noticeably better than through the headphone jack.

[JimN]

Originally Posted by Fast50dad

We had the JL tower speakers mounted (with their own volume control), added a second amp, upped the 10" sub to a 12", an extra battery, an isolater, and some LEDs. Tried it in the garage, the drivers remote doesn't work (taking it in on Saturday to have it fixed). We have the Clarion system.

When I plugged the auxillary cord into my iPad, the volume was very low and bass was non-existent. The iPad's volume was all the way up. Is this something that I just need to deal with? Is it better to use my cigarette lighter option to run it, or an iPod? Both are in my wife's Suburban and don't have them to test. But when we played a Kid Rock cd, it sounded great.

Any tips or past experiences would be appreciated.

2003 ProStar 209

Also, if you go into the iPad settings for Music, you can set/change the max output level, they have EQ settings, etc. If you are using low bit-rate MP3 files, that's a major problem because they're lacking a lot of data. If you're using the headphone jack, that's one reason the level is low- the output from i-devices is better from the connector on the bottom and if the head unit takes this signal, the head unit will be what controls the i-device, show the meta-data, cover art, etc. The sound is better, too.

[Fast50dad]

Appreciate the responses gang. I know the headphone jack comes off the back of the head unit. Is it worth it to spend the $ on a preamp and headphone to "bottom of iPad" converter jack (if they make them)?

[JimN]

Originally Posted by Fast50dad

Appreciate the responses gang. I know the headphone jack comes off the back of the head unit. Is it worth it to spend the $ on a preamp and headphone to "bottom of iPad" converter jack (if they make them)?

Where are you located?

If you want to use iPod/iPhone as your main source and radio as a secondary with the possibility of a wired remote, look at the Fusion Electronics MS-IP600. It was designed specifically for marine, not like a car stereo with epoxy on the circuit boards and a couple of rubber seals. It has a door that opens for inserting the iPhone/iPod and that has a rubber O-ring to seal water out.

I just installed an MS-IP700 yesterday and, while it's really made for luxury cruisers/yachts, it sounded really good, as the internal slot for iPod/iPhone, can use a wired remote, has 4 zones of outputs and control for each, stereo out + subwoofer out for each zone and if you really want control, it can connect to a router and that allows control with an iPhone/iPad.

The IP700 also has a slot next to the iPod/iPhone slot so a thumb drive can be plugged it.