Thursday, May 31, 2007 - 08:32 pm, by: Brendan Harsh(Smoov_jz)
Hey Guy's, I've got an Alpine 9855r Head unit that's about to take over music duties from the Old Factory CD/Tape/Radio.(Non TV) Does anyone know if the Factory unit has an amp? I'm Going to Run JL splits in the rear off an amp but want to run the factory front splits off the Alpine deck, Will the Alpine Deck have enough power to run them (50w max per channel), or will I need another amp?
Phil Stuart Tinkerer NSW Soarer 1x TT JZZ30, 1 x RAV4 and a pork chop
Wednesday, June 06, 2007 - 06:01 pm, by: Phil Stuart(Ericdog)
Brendan,
I am in the process of doing the same thing. I have removed the old factory cd/tape/radio unit, and have been looking for the speaker connections on the sockets that plugged into the back of it.
Unfortunately, I cant seem to find points on those plugs that look like they go to a low impedance device such as a speaker (especially not 4 of them!!). As I am an electronics tech with 20 years experience, I do know what Im looking for.
Being suspicious that the factory unit didnt have a power amp inside it, I pulled it apart. I couldnt find much that looked like a power amp inside the factory cd/tape/radio. The only device(s) on heatsinks are voltage regulators. I suspect that there may be a separate power amp somewhere hidden in the car.
I ran out of light today to be able to check anymore, so, if I get time, I will continue looking tomorrow...
I'm surprised that someone else that knows more about the factory cd/tape/radio unit hasn't posted here with advice.
If you're ok waiting a couple of days (I go into hospital friday, with prep for it tomorrow afternoon), I will have the answers over the weekend...
Wednesday, June 06, 2007 - 08:26 pm, by: Jonah Richards(Swervedriver)
Guys try the search option..... for an age there has been a wealth of info on all this stuff, you just gotta look.
You will probably find the amp in the boot under a flap on the right (as you didnt mention year or type of system (Sub or no) its hard to give direct advice.
The fact is that these systems are up to 16 years old, back when head units produced less than a what of power. If you install a new head chances are youve already got 45-50 watts of output so dont bother with the original amps.
If you peel back the carpet from the outer side of your foot well, you will find a large connector which holds your front speaker wires as well as a dozen others. Lift out the panel that holds your power window switch etc and you can see the front speakers and the colour of the wires connected, note the colour and find these wires in the connector, cut them from the connector and join them to the head unit (or NEW amp if you need big volume).
The rear speakers are easy to access so you can run fresh wires to them.
Again if you have an original Sub, dont bother with the AMP as youll run into more complicated problems.
Again the reason nobody answered is because we are not your personal researchers and the info is already there and in much greater detail than ive offered.
Feeling generous, Jonah
Phil Stuart Tinkerer NSW Soarer 1x TT JZZ30, 1 x RAV4 and a pork chop
Wednesday, June 06, 2007 - 10:07 pm, by: Phil Stuart(Ericdog)
Hi Jonah,
Actually, after answering brendan, I did exactly that - a search, and found a heap of info in it.. Some useful (in as much as it did explain that there were external amps on the cd/tape/radio units)... Mind you, Jonah, your explanation was very simple and informative, as opposed to "fathoming" through pages and pages of sometimes "not really" relevant material...
Thanks for the help..
I guess I would have found this on my car when I went searching in the car (yet another good search)...
Thanks for the pointers on where the wires are. This is the info that isnt so easy to find by doing a search here, and, being that there are many threads if you search for "factory cd amplifier) or something like that, knowledge from someone that knows is surely appreciated (by me anyway).
By the way, mine is a 91 model..
It was an interesting find, as my previous soarer (92 model) didnt have the woofer and the factory external amplifiers.
So, things I didnt actually find were:
Is there just one 4 channel factory amp, or a pair of 2 channel ones (one for front, one for rear).
It looks like mine has a factory "woofer" in the parcel shelf. I take it that these being, 16 years old, they are not much good ?
From what I see so far, I'm best off just doing away with the factory amps and woofer (especially if their output is only a couple of watts)..
I'll investigate more when I pull my car apart over the weekend.
Initially, I was just trying to offer Brendan some help based on what I had found out myself..
Friday, June 08, 2007 - 06:51 pm, by: Piers McDonald(Drp)
Just do a search, you'lll find all the info you need, especially look for anything written by Mark Paddick (sadly no longer with us). It's not complicated to do and the original speakers and amps do sound pretty damn good, even if they aren't super powerful. At least they do in my 95.
The only slight complication is the need to send a balanced signal to the sub amp. But a $15 DI from Jaycar will solve that problem.
You don't have to do this with later models however. At least not with my 95. Mine just used a straight stereo signal that was split in the amps to send to the sub.
Sunday, June 10, 2007 - 03:42 pm, by: Brendan Harsh(Smoov_jz)
Cheers for the replies fellas. Haven't had power till this morning, thanks to the Floods in my area(Newcastle). My car is a 98 2.5GT-T factory manual, so it doesn't apear to have much in the way of luxury options. From what I gather, it only has the tape/cd/radio head unit running to 4 speakers (no Sub, or Stacker). The reason I posted this question, was to see if someone was undergoing the same process, as the only info I was able to dig up at the time was based around either a system using a stacker, sub or EMV screen. Not meaning to be ignorant but I was't sure if my system could be disimilar to a limited or earlier year model, as I know there were a couple of minor changes over the years even from 97-98. Thanks for the info guys, I'll take another look through some past threads for some more info. Got to check on the car this arvo, make sure it hasn't been floating around the yard , so I'll see what I can find.
Phil Stuart Tinkerer NSW Soarer 1x TT JZZ30, 1 x RAV4 and a pork chop
Tuesday, June 12, 2007 - 08:25 pm, by: Phil Stuart(Ericdog)
A little more info from my investigation.
In my car (91 TT), there is a 4 channel amplifier in the boot, basically if you lift up the boot floor to get to the spare wheel, you will see it in a well on the drivers side. The amp has 2 connectors plugged into it. One (with the majority of larger wires) has the amp outputs that go to the 4 speakers. They are coloured exactly the same as in a unit without the separate amp. The other connector goes back to the cd/tape/tuner unit in the dash and has quite smaller sized wires in it. It carries the line level audio from the cd/tape/tuner to the amp plus power and control signals for the amp.
If your car has a parcel mounted (sub) woofer, the little amplifier for the woofer is mounted up under the parcel shelf next to the woofer.
If you are fitting a standard powered cd/tuner to these cars, a little thought will be needed, as the front speaker wiring goes to the boot, as does the rear speaker wiring, so the rear speakers need to be routed through to the front for connection to the new cd/tuner.
As I have to go through the process of doing it, if you are interested, I could take photos and then write (and post) a tutorial here on how to do the needed changes if it would be of use.
Brian Timms TryHard New South Wales TT Soarer Goodness.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007 - 08:42 am, by: Brian Timms(Turbo_brian)
Guys,
As Johan has mentioned, the amp is located in the boot, under the flap on the right hand side (mounted underneath the stacker (if a stacker is fitted).
This amp is a remarkable piece of work, when you think (as Johan said) back in 1991, performance stereo systems where pumping a whopping 25watts from the headunit amp, and now-days they do up to 55watts, and back then a performance amplifier system was pushing anything up to maybe 100watts rms, and these days you can get anything up to 5,000watts rms.
The bog-stock Soarer 4 channel amp is actually a great little amp if you can wire the mongrel in properly, it's a 4 channel amp, delivering about 45watts rms to each channel (equal to one of today's headunits), but the quality is remarkable, and comparable to a medium to high quality amp of today's standards (without the power output of course).
I was using a 300watt BOSS 4 channel amp, and blew a channel on it when I was in Coffs habour, so I ended up wiring into the stocko amp for a few weeks until I could buy another aftermarket amp, and the sound was sensational, far better quality than the BOSS could produce, no clipping, and I could get better volume as well.
Mind you, I had to change a lot of settings on the headunit to filter the sound properly (A Pioneer DEH 8540mp competition series head unit), but the sound was good.
On Soarers that are equiped, there is also a mini-amp for powering the subwoofer as well, but something to remember with this little amp is that it feeds out at 2 ohms, not 4 ohms, so if your looking at swapping subwoofers, you either have to find a 2 ohm sub, or change amplifiers to a 4 ohm amplifier, but for a stock stereo system, the Soarers where well and truly up there with any of the luxury cars of their time in regards to quality sound systems, and some people even believe they are better quality than today's aftermarket systems, and I tend to agree (they just cant deleiver the volume that I want, thus I changed).
Also, for the O/P, the Soarer came stock running 4" splits in the front, and 4" single cone's in the rear, BUT if your looking to upgrade to 6.5" speakers in the rear, they come with 6.5" holes pre-cut, and use converters to fit the 4" speakers into, but swapping out is a pain, you need to remove the rear seat, the parcel tray, and then the converter inserts, then install the speakers and fit everything back together, but with a few hours spare, this is a great project
Wednesday, June 13, 2007 - 09:15 pm, by: Brendan Harsh(Smoov_jz)
Hey Phil,
I'd be interested in seeing some pictures of your progress.
Today. Got the interior stripped out and in the process of fitting up the new head-unit.
I don't think that I have an external amp, as I have searched the car over, from front to back, leaving no panel unturned.
I also specifically checked the panel (in-wich Johan mentioned) on the driver's side in the boot and found nothing but a couple of wires for the rear tail lights.
Previous
, so I'll see what I can find.
