Going HUless, should I use a preamp?

[Aberration]

OK the plan is to use a carputer with with the screen taking over where the HU is. just for ease I'm going without a HU. I have a couple questions for SQ and such.
General info, going to use a set of components in the front and a sub in the trunk, with an amp for each under the seats.
ok on with the questions

not going to run 5.1 or anything so..
1) Any outs from a sound card I should be looking for, 2 channel, 6channel ect?
2) How should I run that to 2 amps? split the signal with RCA's or use a preamp?

I really don't feel like putting another hole somewhere and I do care about sq but I'm not a huge audiophile or anything. Tried to get this on mp3car but its seems like theres too many opinions to sort through

thanks for any advice

 

[got wake?]

forgive my ignorance with computer sound cards, but do they make ones with dedicated sub output that is controlled from the computer? that would be the best route, so the controls are all at your fingertips.

 

[Poseur]

Personally, I would go the 6channel output method. Surround sound is right there and easy to do and with computer-capable stuff, evne if you just throw some 4" coaxials back there for when you want surround, (eg sacd's and DVDaudio) It's a HUGE gain and if you setup for it at the start really shouldn't cost much more.

OH, and BTW 6ch is 5.1 left and right front are paired, left and right rear are paired, and center/sub are paired. Also, it's pretty easy to run your computer 4.1 (nocenter channel)

Thatsaid, I doubt you'll need a preamp. Kinda of depends on what kind of output you get. If you use a soundcard or onboard audio, etc. I for one would use a soundcard if you want to focus on soundquality.

Personally I'm running digital out to my HU because my I've got a nice HU with good DAC's and mostly, my deck's got the capability for digital in.

 

[Aberration]

Yeah the output is what some claim the preamp is good for, plus the ease of running to 2 amps. Though I would rather not use one. Because of onboard sound is that why some hate the little VIA EPIA's?

 

[chuyler1]

Buy a card with an optical output ($???).
Buy a Zapco DAII-SL ($989) to convert the digital signal to analog SymbiLink.
Buy a Zapco SLX-4 crossover ($399) to split the signal any way you want.
Buy a Zapco 4CH SymbiLink receiver ($119) to convert the signal to RCA.
That will give you T-H-E best audio signal for your amplifers that money can buy.

Oh, wait. You said you weren't an audiophile.

Almost every soundcard on the market has multiple outputs. s***, my ancient SoundBlaster 16 had front and rear outputs. You might need some sort of line driver to boost the signal though. I haven't worked with Carputers yet so that is just a guess. I doubt your average sound card puts out 4v rms.

 

[Breeegz]

After doing a little of my own searching, I couldn't find stats on the line voltage, but I think Chuyler may be right since every soundcard I looked at didn't use RCA outputs, they use headphone jacks. So you can use one of these and get by

...or you can use a preamp/line driver like Chuyler was suggesting. I think it comes down to how much you spend on your soundcard. If you spend $20 on a 5.1 card, then maybe you should get something for your audio signals. If you spend $100 then you might be able to get by without..

be sure to take pics of the 'puter, cause I'm tempted to dive into it...

 

[bazooka joe]

Buy a card with an optical output ($???).
Buy a Zapco DAII-SL ($989) to convert the digital signal to analog SymbiLink.
Buy a Zapco SLX-4 crossover ($399) to split the signal any way you want.
Buy a Zapco 4CH SymbiLink receiver ($119) to convert the signal to RCA.
That will give you T-H-E best audio signal for your amplifers that money can buy.

Oh, wait. You said you weren't an audiophile.

Almost every soundcard on the market has multiple outputs. s***, my ancient SoundBlaster 16 had front and rear outputs. You might need some sort of line driver to boost the signal though. I haven't worked with Carputers yet so that is just a guess. I doubt your average sound card puts out 4v rms.

i was just scrolling down waiting to see your response post!!(thumb)

 

[Poseur]

A simple mini to rca jack would work, you can always get amps that allow for a signal pass. use the stereo outputs twice, or there's a couple attempts at digital 5.1 amps potentially available, I know pg had one somewere in the books, and I think Audison was doing one as well. course those could get spendy.

I'm not alltaht familiar with the tinymobos, I'm running fullatx, but I'd also like to pointout that while I've been very fortunate, and have had almost zero crashes, computers (and it seems especially thsoe vias) are not DAILYDRIVER reliable. If you don't want to have to be caught humming your way to work on and off, I strongly recommend some form of an actual HU. even if you just hide it in the glovebox or something.

 

[Aberration]

When I'm reading it looks like a lot of people are just usig the 1/8 head phone jack, I would prob be tempted to try something like that first but my issue is how would you split that signal for 2 amps. Having said that I guess the cheap way would be to use the front outputs of a sound card to 1 amp then the rear outputs to the sub amp.

As far as pics go it will take till its not freezing outside before I even consider working on it. But as far as the plan goes I'm going to use an old AMD 1.2 in a new motherboard for the USB 2.0, then either a combination of on aboard video and sound depending on space and quality. I'm going to mount it hanging from the back deck in the trunk to save space. From there I want to run a USB 2 to the front of the car into the glove box where I'm going to put a non powerd usb/12-in-1 card reader, I'll plug an external HD into it there in the glove box having other ports open for the quick flashdrive plug in and be able to pop in my SD card from my camera so I can pull them up on the 7" touchscreen

well thats the plan now anyway but theres lots of time for it to change
just thinking of setting up the computer and making the custom box now

But you are prob right about using a HU I'll prob think about making a little box for my Pioneer and put that in the glove box or something, hmm maybe I'll put the hd in the passenger door pocket then...

 

[FrigginGLI]

The new Audigy Platium sound card puts out around 4volts.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102190

 

[LinuxRacr]

Subs...I'm about to get a 5-Channel amp to power my music from my carputer. Here is some more food for thought:

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=59659&highlight=rs232

It works for all of the different sirius connect units!

 

[chuyler1]

I'm telling you... optical out is the way to go!!! That Audigy has it. So what other equipment out there in the car audio arena has optical digital inputs that could be used in a carputer setup?

If I could get the digital signal off a CPU I'd just load up fully uncompressed CDs onto some huge ass hard drives.

 

[got wake?]

how are you planning to control the volume with an optical source?


edit: just read that the zapco SLB-U will control the volume as long as you get the VFM cable.

 

[chuyler1]

Yeah, the DAII-SL would be the first unit in the chain and you would have volume control if you used a SLB-U or any one of their EQ units. They sell racks that you can put everything in...but if they were in the dash I'm not sure where I'd put the screen.

but who needs volume control? Just turn it up and leave it there!

 

[Breeegz]

Just get the "Media Center" remote... volume/track/DVD control...

Def bust out the WAV format on a terrabyte drive... lol

 

[Poseur]

heck with wav, cars LOVE DVD-A...

Umm the PG amp I once heared existed had its own remote with a full selection of options.

 

[Breeegz]

When I'm reading it looks like a lot of people are just usig the 1/8 head phone jack, I would prob be tempted to try something like that first but my issue is how would you split that signal for 2 amps. Having said that I guess the cheap way would be to use the front outputs of a sound card to 1 amp then the rear outputs to the sub amp.

As far as pics go it will take till its not freezing outside before I even consider working on it. But as far as the plan goes I'm going to use an old AMD 1.2 in a new motherboard for the USB 2.0, then either a combination of on aboard video and sound depending on space and quality. I'm going to mount it hanging from the back deck in the trunk to save space. From there I want to run a USB 2 to the front of the car into the glove box where I'm going to put a non powerd usb/12-in-1 card reader, I'll plug an external HD into it there in the glove box having other ports open for the quick flashdrive plug in and be able to pop in my SD card from my camera so I can pull them up on the 7" touchscreen

well thats the plan now anyway but theres lots of time for it to change
just thinking of setting up the computer and making the custom box now

But you are prob right about using a HU I'll prob think about making a little box for my Pioneer and put that in the glove box or something, hmm maybe I'll put the hd in the passenger door pocket then...

One thing you might consider, how about wireless Broadband? With a subscription to Clearwire, you'd have internet wherever you went!! course a wi-fi card is cheaper and free access to the internet, then you could run Bluetooth and a BT phone and have wireless dialup in between hotspots.

What is you philosophy on what a carputer should have? The possibilities are almost endless... how would you decide what to cut out?

 

[Aberration]

I know what you mean about having a million options for a set up. You could even put a mod. chip in an xbox and get full computer functionality, including internet, internal HD's and not to mention being able to rip any xbox game to play on it, not bad considering I did this in my apt for less than $150. But for me I really just want the ability to have all my music and such at my fingertips in my car. Many people will then say I should just use an MP3 player but the novelty of having a computer in my car with a touch screen is just too strong to ignore. I will probably go with a wifi card just so I can log in if I wanted too. Other than that I will most definitely plug in a Bluetooth adaptor so I can run a keyboard and more importantly synch up my cell phone, palm to the computer. What really has drawn me to this option is really the flexibility in that if I want something later on it doesn't take anything to change. In looking around at what others have done I have really been inspired and I can't help myself.

 

[chuyler1]

MP3s are so piss-poor quality. I do most of my listening in the car and I want it to sound like I'm in the recording studio (since it is also the only place I can listen at loud volumes without disturbing people).

Therefore MP3's simply don't cut it. If I build a carputer, sure I'll have some on there, but the bulk of my music will be in loss-less form even if that means ripping full CDs to the drive. Take a 60gb drive and dedicate 10gb for random stuff including the OS. With 50gb I can store about 75-80 650mb CDs. That's about 50% of my music collection I could have in my car at any given time. That's much better than the 20 or so CDs I lug around and shuffle between now.

 

[Aberration]

Yeah for sound quality I'm prob going to just take it as it comes, but with external HD on sale now for less than 100 for 160 gigs I'll have a lot of room to figure things out.