I thought that RCA jacks were lower input than the speaker output wires. I looked at a crossover i have and it has both speaker and RCA inputs, then output via RCA to the amp. Where you hook the speakers up, it says "low power input" and on the RCA it says "high power input" so by going with this thing, the speaker output wires put out less.

I have a 4 channel amp that requires 4 RCA plugs in. what will the converters do? amplify the signal? Can't I just solder some RCA plugs on the ends and plug them in?

Sorry for the stupid ?.

 

your confusing me too, but ill give it a shot.
The crossover or line level adapters are used to convert the speaker wires into a RCA signal. For instance if you want to hook a amp to a factory headunit cause it has no RCA outputs. The RCA outputs of your crossover go intot he RCA inputs of your amp. If i didnt say this correctly email me
~Tim

 

LLC's(line level convertors) have gain controls built into them so you can lower the signal coming out of the headunit. Because speaker levels are much higher than line level signals, the direct connection does not usually give satisfactory results. That's the reason for using a LLC for connecting speaker signals to line level inputs without signal level problems.
Speaker level signals are usually in 3..20V range (amplifiers up to 50W output power). The line level signals should be in 0.3..4V range to be suitable for amplifier's line level input. So attenuation of about 20 dB is needed to bring the signals to right level. So by soldering RCA's to the ends of your speaker level wires just don't cut the mustard.

 

I'd like to know what brand of x-over that is.

'bout 3 days ago, I helped a friend hook up a Jensen in his 96 Cavalier. It had both RCA and Speaker wire inputs.

It was like you said, the speaker wire inputs said "High Level Input" and the RCA said "Low Level Input".

We wer hookin' into the fctry CD plyr so we used the spkrs 4 a sgnal.

I hav to say dat Jensen's r weird.

It has the normal R+,R-,L+,L- stckrs on the high level input wires, so that's how we hookd it up. But it also has a single blk wire for factry systems that hav a "common ground" for the spkrs.

As far as I know, Delcos hav seperate grnds for the spkrs. So we hooked it up like that. Nothin' doin'. The only time the sub wood pound was if we had the bal. on the CD plyr set to one side or the other. We thought maybe we had one of the inputs hooked up rong, nope. Tried runnin' the sub off one chnl. from the amp in stereo, nope.

I tried everything, 'cept, using the common grnd. wire. I hooked both negs to that one blk wire on the amp, and BOOM, we had bass.

I ain't figured it out yet, but hell, it works now right?

AJ

 

The x-over I have is a Pyramid one given to me. I works great. Yeah, I thought that was backwards. SO I was on the right track thinking that speaker out was a higher level than line out. Okay.

I'll look into those converters. Is there a place that has them that's cheaper than $30/ea.? I need two since I have a 4 ch in/4ch out amp. Or one w/ 4 ch ... whichever ....

 

Just get one converter then split the signal coming off...it will only be 1 channel , but that shouldent matter if your running a sub.

 

It's because it's a pyramid. When you buy a $20 crossover, that's the sort of quality control you get. Wait until you see how much alternator whine you get when you install it into your system.

I've been there and done that, with a pyramid crossover no less. As soon as you stated your problem I knew you had a pyramid!

 

I know exactly what you mean about that alternator whine. I refuse to ever touch anything PYRAMID again... I did a buddy's wife a favor and hooked up some of that junk (she was cheap), and no matter what I did, I couldn't get rid of that whine- she blamed me, and gave me a bad rep!

 

Hey Jimbo! Yeah, I know pyramids suck. this one was free. I had it installed before in another car, never had any problems with it

<---- crosses fingers

 

You're lucky. When I had it in my car I had to use a ground loop isolator, which got rid of 90% of the whine, but it still drove me nuts. I was happy to get rid of it when I got better stuff that had built in crossovers. I gave it to a buddy (along with the ground loop isolator) and he's been using it for the last 5 or 6 years, and he's as happy as a clam with it.