replacing the amp

[cpitts]

"14 speaker mac" does to me suggest 07 or later (prior to this they were 13 speaker).

As I suggested in an earlier reply, the balanced out is a pain as is the lack of break out cable. Of course it is not impossible (as I currently run the standard mac/clarion head unit with after market amps/speakers). I did not do the install myself but the person who did also had the skills to transform the back of the mac to give me the necessary rca outs to run to a line converter to give the amps the unbalanced signal. So it can be done, just not easily.

Line level outs sound like they've daisy chained off the oem amp, which is fine, but i'd rather avoid line conversions, too much noise and clipping potential. Each to their own tho and I'm real glad that your setup is 100% what you're looking for, that's the most important thing!

I've been chasing amps that do balanced inputs and there are a few, but my next exercise is to break out the McIntosh/Clarion DIN cable to RCA plugs. Got the time to chase, so will try to see what can be done. (y)

[tmacca]

"14 speaker mac" does to me suggest 07 or later (prior to this they were 13 speaker).

As I suggested in an earlier reply, the balanced out is a pain as is the lack of break out cable. Of course it is not impossible (as I currently run the standard mac/clarion head unit with after market amps/speakers). I did not do the install myself but the person who did also had the skills to transform the back of the mac to give me the necessary rca outs to run to a line converter to give the amps the unbalanced signal. So it can be done, just not easily.

Line level outs sound like they've daisy chained off the oem amp, which is fine, but i'd rather avoid line conversions, too much noise and clipping potential. Each to their own tho and I'm real glad that your setup is 100% what you're looking for, that's the most important thing!

I've been chasing amps that do balanced inputs and there are a few, but my next exercise is to break out the McIntosh/Clarion DIN cable to RCA plugs. Got the time to chase, so will try to see what can be done. (y)

No, the mac amp is sitting in a box in my garage! I'll have a talk to my man and get the technical details of exactly what he did. Won't be for a few weeks but I'll let you know what he did.

[cpitts]

No, the mac amp is sitting in a box in my garage! I'll have a talk to my man and get the technical details of exactly what he did. Won't be for a few weeks but I'll let you know what he did.

If they were broken out to RCA level first then THAT would be of interest, definitely! Time is not critical on this one.

[tmacca]

No, the mac amp is sitting in a box in my garage! I'll have a talk to my man and get the technical details of exactly what he did. Won't be for a few weeks but I'll let you know what he did.

If they were broken out to RCA level first then THAT would be of interest, definitely! Time is not critical on this one.

Sorry it has taken me a while to get back to this. Spent a couple of hours with my audio man this morning (Bluetooth phone carkits can be a pain!) and he took everything out to show me what he did. Probably not the miracle answer you hoped for but it is another way of doing things.

The short version, he has made a custom “loom” (for the want of a better term) out the back of the Mac. It is ended with rca plugs, but being balanced each “pair” is in fact a single positive/negative cable. So I end up with what looks like 6 pairs of rca cables running down to where my amps are, under my seats.

They are still balanced because they are less susceptible to noise over that distance.

They then go into an Eclipse Balance Line Adaptor – Eclipse designed this to work with their 8053 Headunit that also ran balanced outputs (it used to be their top line HU a couple of years ago). This then gives me the unbalanced signal that I need and it is right next to the amps.

He suggests the clean, high voltage output I’m getting to the balance line adaptor (and it’s output is also clean) is the way to go (seeing that I don’t want to change the headunit and my high priority is a “factory look” installation).

Hope this adds to your knowledge bank in your audio endeavors!

[cpitts]

Hey tmacca, that's a great bit of info! Thanks greatly.

Don't s'pose you've got a link (or product model number) to the item. The Eclipse website doesn't seem to provide the best detail on this stuff.

Found this which gives some good results too!

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/member-product-reviews/6397-eclipse-balanced-line-adaptor-bla.html

Couple of questions:
- How have you found the audio quality improvement?
- Approx, how much was the Balanced Line Adapter?


EDIT: Why not go with a JL 300/4 II or HD600/4 ?? Upon further looking, both these amps are superbly regarded and have full balanced input support? Negates the need for the BLA but you still need the outputs off the HU :/

[tmacca]

Hey tmacca, that's a great bit of info! Thanks greatly.

Don't s'pose you've got a link (or product model number) to the item. The Eclipse website doesn't seem to provide the best detail on this stuff.

Found this which gives some good results too!

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/member-product-reviews/6397-eclipse-balanced-line-adaptor-bla.html

Couple of questions:
- How have you found the audio quality improvement?
- Approx, how much was the Balanced Line Adapter?


EDIT: Why not go with a JL 300/4 II or HD600/4 ?? Upon further looking, both these amps are superbly regarded and have full balanced input support? Negates the need for the BLA but you still need the outputs off the HU :/

Link - sorry can't help there. The Eclipse web site is one of the least helpful I've seen.

Product Number - now this is a long shot but it may be 37601 (this maybe completely wrong, sorry if it wastes your time!).

Price - again, without digging out receipts, I vaguely remember that it was not an expensive little box!

Audio quality - seeing the headunit is the only original item in the system I can't say how much the BLA has contributed to the final sound, but there is no evidence that it has added any noise nor coloured the signal at all. What seems to impress people (that is people whose musical opinion I value) when they hear it is the clarity and complete lack of noise (the only noise ever comes from the original source - ie tape hiss in older analogue recordings). If I can organise myself to get to a Sydney meeting I will get the opinion of a few others on the forum and let you know their thoughts. I'm not going to suggest it is perfect (but I think it has a great, detailed overall sound) but using the mac headunit was a self-imposed limitation (and factory speaker positions) that I am happy to live with!

Why not use JL - purely practical! 85% of the gear in my car now came out of my previous ride (which had the 13 speaker mac). The JL you mentioned wasn't available in 2006 (when I owned the 3.0RB with 13 speakers...). Because it worked so well in the 3.0RB I didn't want to go to any additional expense when I (we) already had all the knowledge, speakers, amps, etc. from the previous install. The JL 600/4 certainly gets great reviews, although I have never heard one. But as you say, still got to get the signal out of the mac.

Hope this helps!

[cpitts]

Thanks for the post back Tony. Makes perfect sense. Don't worry about chasing receipts, etc. I thought it was a just installed from new system. I fully understand the carrying gear from prv car approach. Been there and am still doing that (where possible).

It great to hear that your noise floor is almost zero, that suggests that the only hiss I'm hearing now is from the McIntosh amp, more-so than the head unit, which is what I was hoping.

Again, appreciate your feedback. There seems to be limited number of people that have gone to the trouble of breaking out the factory HU, opting for a full re-impl and ultimately losing the factory HU look/feel.

Guess I'm back to breaking out the DIN cable and getting me a JL amp now. Helps clarify that at least.