car audio question...

[-stew-]

How crazy does this sound: runing a cable from the headphone jack of my iPod to the RCA input on an amp? I still have the stock radio in my mustang and would like to keep it, or replace it with a delete plate, but I wanna have a radio in the car still. Why/do I need a radio to act as a "middle man" between the ipod and the amp? I understand the power out put is low coming out of the ipod, will that cause issues?

[Yooformula]

what would you use for the remote turn on for the amp? I dont think the earphone output is enough to use as an amp input. How would you go about using the fader or front/rear inputs? stock amp or aftermarket? maybe using an active eq might give the signal a boost then if you had to "rig" it, you could use a y splitter to give you the frnt/rear inputs.

[-stew-]

Yoo, you raise a lot of good questions. I could use a swiched power source for turning the amp on. I use the headphone jack to use my iPod with the stereo in my garage, and my house with no ill effects. The amp I have is a four channel, so I could use the amp settings to adjust the f/r fade. Its been a looooong time since I fucked with a car stereo...

[BoosTT]

It's going to sound like ass. Amps do exactly that. You are amplifying noise, hiss, distortion also. But, it's on a dB scale, so noise is amplifying very easily.

1st amp (ipod) ~5mW (7dB) goes into seccond real amp ~50W/channel (47dB). This is a 40dB difference! That is litterally like 1,000 times louder aka 1,000 times more noise. I could actully calculate it, but theres no point. Way too much attenuation!

I would suspect headunits have some sort of pre-amp configuration.

[88Nightmare]

why would you want to take the radio out all together anyway? weight reduction? A head unit weighs all of a couple of pounds if that. Get a cheap aftermarket head unit with an rca input and run your ipod off of that.

[-stew-]

I wanna keep the look of a stock radio or a factory delete plate. Maybe I'll pick up a cheap deck with an iPod input and mount it in the spare tire well with the amp and just run the cable up to the center counsel. My goal is to keep a stock look to the interior.

[88Nightmare]

you can get an fm modulator to hook your ipod up that way, but it doesnt sound as good.

[-stew-]

^^^ that's what I use in my pick up. Sound is ok. I have 6x9s (in boxes) for the back and components for the door/ dash speakers. Maybe I'll just bite the bullet and buy a deck. Just seems like a waste since I'll have the ipod playin 99% of the time.

[Yooformula]

find a cheap deck that has an ipod input or an audio rca input. My Alpine has an rca input that I plug my mp3 player and it sounds fine but I wouldnt mess with plugging it in directly to an amp.

[PureSound15]

96% of decks are going to have the audio in - Im sure, by now, you might even be able to find one of the first pioneer units that controlled and charged the ipod, too.

Running it to the amp will work - but you're going to be relying on the source voltage signal from the Ipod (I have no idea what that is).

I'd do a deck.

[-stew-]

I put this post on another forum and it was suggested I use a line driver to up the signal voltage. Any one have any thoughts?

[BoosTT]

Yeah, that makes sence, but it's not worth the effort. Just buy a cheep used deck of ebay.

[-stew-]

Yeah, that makes sence, but it's not worth the effort. Just buy a cheep used deck of ebay.

Why isn't it worth the effort? I'm trying to keep my interior as stock as possible. After market radios stick out like a sore thumb. Stock radio looks like it belongs there. It was designed by the same guy that designed the rest of the interior. Also, the foxbody mustang has one of the worst radio locations possible, directly in front of the shifter.

[88Nightmare]

I had no issue with an aftermarket radio in my fox. It also had a remote so I didn't have to curve my hand around the shifter to operate it. It's not like its a collectors car, its a foxbody.

[theavenger333]

line out converter from the stock stereo, and one of those direct splicers to the antenna for the ipod?

[-stew-]

^^^ What? I don't wanna use any of the oem radio stuff. I already have 6x9s, door/dash components, and an amp. I'm trying to upgrade to some thing with some volume, and sound quality. For now I'm content listening to my Genisis tape.

[theavenger333]

I still have the stock radio in my mustang and would like to keep it

????? no, aparantly you DONT want to upgrade

[-stew-]

^^^ I'd like to keep the stock radio there just to fill the hole and a clock. I would use the iPod for tunes and FM radio.