Macintosh Balanced outputs - How was it confirmed?

[Ric]

Any chance you can do the CRO check? I know it's a massive ask but if you still have the unit out on the bench . . .. .

I never had it on the bench, this was all done in the car, simply by unplugging the DIN cable from the power amp.

I do have a Mac head unit sitting out of a car, but I had great trouble finding thr right connectors to go into the back of it, so have held off doing any experiments on that one.
(All the Subaru wreckers I spoke to said they hadn't wrecked any '06 or newer Libertys yet.
I may just have to jerry rig up my own connectors.

[Ric]

Cool, when i have some time i might try and wire up a rca to one of the speaker outputs and send it to an amp and see if the voltage is high enough for the amp to receive.
...

Which "speaker outputs?"
The signals on the DIN plug are "line outputs". Do NOT connect the to an unbalanced input of anything which is connected to the same ground as the McIntosh, or you will damage the head unit.

The "speaker outputs" form the power amp are high level, so you couldn't connect them to another amp's "line-level" inputs, only to a device specifically designed to take high level signals.
(The speaker outputs from the power amp are also "balanced", i.e. neither side is connected to ground, both sides are swinging.)

[cpitts]

Any chance you can do the CRO check? I know it's a massive ask but if you still have the unit out on the bench . . .. .

I never had it on the bench <snip>

I do have a Mac head unit sitting out of a car, but I had great trouble finding thr right connectors to go into the back of it, so have held off doing any experiments on that one. <snip>

The back of the McIntosh HU has a standard Clarion input connector that you can buy from Autobarn (or similar) as a breakout connector for either std WRX OEM HU loom adapter or Clarion adapter (AERPro loom adapter). All the connectors are listed on the box. And the loom adapter is ~$15.

EDIT: The loom adapter has all the usual power (+12V & ACC), mute, etc. Wouldn't surprise me if you could also hook up speakers level outs as well.

[Ric]

The back of the McIntosh HU has a standard Clarion input connector that you can buy from Autobarn (or similar) as a breakout connector for either std WRX OEM HU loom adapter or Clarion adapter (AERPro loom adapter). All the connectors are listed on the box. And the loom adapter is ~$15.

Is that an adaptor that lets you plug another unit into the Subaru's loom?
I found plenty of those, but what I need is the exact opposite, i.e. something that would plug into the back of the head unit and let you run it standalone (or in another car)

EDIT: The loom adapter has all the usual power (+12V & ACC), mute, etc. Wouldn't surprise me if you could also hook up speakers level outs as well.

There is no speaker wiring going to behind the head unit in McIntosh equipped cars.
As far as I know, there is no output on the pins on the back of the head unit used for speaker output on non McIntosh head units, but that is one thing I want to confirm by running the unit out of the car.

[cpitts]

The back of the McIntosh HU has a standard Clarion input connector that you can buy from Autobarn (or similar) as a breakout connector for either std WRX OEM HU loom adapter or Clarion adapter (AERPro loom adapter). All the connectors are listed on the box. And the loom adapter is ~$15.

Is that an adaptor that lets you plug another unit into the Subaru's loom?
I found plenty of those, but what I need is the exact opposite, i.e. something that would plug into the back of the head unit and let you run it standalone (or in another car)

Yep, there's a piggy back one from the back of the HU to the loom. Any Clarion -> car vendor would work, just cut off the car loom and and go crazy.

EDIT: The loom adapter has all the usual power (+12V & ACC), mute, etc. Wouldn't surprise me if you could also hook up speakers level outs as well.

There is no speaker wiring going to behind the head unit in McIntosh equipped cars.
As far as I know, there is no output on the pins on the back of the head unit used for speaker output on non McIntosh head units, but that is one thing I want to confirm by running the unit out of the car.

Ye, aware there's no speakers connected to the HU directly, just saying that the OEM Clarion plug allows for 4 speakers off it.

[Onion]

Ok, so off the back of all this I have a question - How would I go about connecting an aftermarket headunit to the factory McIntosh amps?

I'd need to convert the unbalanced signal from the HU to a balanced signal to feed the amps, yeah? Or does it not matter at this end and I can get away with just connecting the preout's + and - to the factory amp's + and - ins?

[cpitts]

Ok, so off the back of all this I have a question - How would I go about connecting an aftermarket headunit to the factory McIntosh amps?

I'd need to convert the unbalanced signal from the HU to a balanced signal to feed the amps, yeah? Or does it not matter at this end and I can get away with just connecting the preout's + and - to the factory amp's + and - ins?

The amp will expect balanced.
The McIntosh HU provides balanced.
If you replace the HU, you need to convert it's unbalanced line level outputs to balanced (not real easy, but there's most likely adapters).

It does matter that you plug the right signals together. Read the link above about the diff b/n bal and unbal.

[Onion]

Fair enough.

Is there a readily available balun that will do the job here, or is it going to need a custom made jobbie?

Ugh, it's starting to sound like it's going to be easier to just run another amp at this rate. Does anyone have power handling/impedance specs for the stock speaker setup?

[cpitts]

To go from balanced to unbalance, you could simply put a big cap in the -ve line and that will stop all AC going through it. You could also use a diode to stop voltage.

The other way is a bit harder as you need to create a mirror of the signal at the balanced end, so there's need for an op amp to create the signal. :/

[Onion]

Unfortunately it's the other way i'm trying to go - unbalanced output from a new headunit to balanced input of the existing amp.

Edit: assuming this is the same for the my04 system as the my06 one talked about above..