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I am currently gathering pieces for my stereo upgrade and have a question for you more experienced people. I was considering using a Kicker Dual Zone remote control for my in boat and tower amps. However looking at the amps I notice JL has a telephone jack type connection to control the level from each amp. The amps are a M2250 and a MHD-750/1. This telephone jack connection would be cleaner than the Kicker. Is there any advantage using the Kicker versus the JL factory route? ON teh MHD it says level control and on teh older M2250 it says bass level control. I assume these are the same thing?
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The Kicker ZXM-RLC is also a 9V line level. The ZXM will also work regardless of what amps are used as its controlling the source signal level. On some amps, the Bass level control is just that, bass level and only works when the amp is in low-pass. -
These are two very different functions.Originally posted by treiter View Post
On the HD/MHD or XD/M amplifiers the port provides a linear level control.
On the G/M2250 amplifier the port is the gain for a bass boost which is equalization centered at a predetermined frequency.
With this mix of amplifiers the Kicker dual zone control looks like an easy solution. Or, you can skip the ports and do the same with two JL Audio line driver/controllers picking up the additional drive voltage.
DavidEarmark Marine
https://earmark-car-audio.myshopify.comComment
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Thanks for the explanation. Kicker controller it will be!
Picked up some 4 ga for my new amp yesterday. Holy Crap is copper getting expensive!Comment
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The reason the control uses a phone cable is that it electronically controls the level inside of the amp, not by sending the audio signal to a controller via long cables. The first way makes it very easy to avoid noise problems and the latter just about guarantees noise problems will exist.Originally posted by treiter View Post
Copper is a commodity and demand is high. Not as high as in during/before 2008, but it's still very high. Also, a lot of these metals are leaving this country because foreign buyers will pay high prices. People who want a World Market need to be careful about what they wish for.Comment
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Good points. I just needed something to complain about!Comment
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Copper is cheap? Really? If it's so cheap, why has the price of Coax and Cat5e/6 more than doubled since 2007? Also, look at warehouse stock levels- that, coupled with demand.....Originally posted by Cloaked View PostComment
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I was thinking the same thing. About installing a level controller. I have 2 JL amps. a 600.4 and a 900.5 and both have the telephone wire port. Does this mean I have to get 2 controllers and can I run them in series?sigpicWhen I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things.
1 Corinthians Chapter 13 - 11Comment
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They may have something that acts as a "splitter", but there's no guarantee that the level of the two amps will vary proportionately. How often would you need to change the relative levels, anyway? If it's set up properly, you should be able to use the head units' volume control most of the time, with only minor tweaking when you want balanced sound at low SPL, if you originally balanced everything at high SPL, or vice versa. If anything, if would be helpful if they had an In/Out/Through configuration, but that would require more parts and circuitry.Originally posted by Traxx822 View PostComment
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You are right Jim, I guess I just want too much control. I had it tuned by JL and it does work with the head unit. Its just sometimes you wanna push it a little. I read this thread and started thinking what better way than a switch controller than getting under the observer seat and doing it manually. I didn't think about whether it would do them equally.sigpicWhen I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things.
1 Corinthians Chapter 13 - 11Comment
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The "level" controls aren't there so you can get more, they exist so you can get the most clean output form any head unit and the correct name for them is 'Input Sensitivity' controls. An amp needs a certain voltage to develop any power output and if the incoming signal voltage is too high, it starts to distort and eventually, "clips" the signal. When this happens, speakers die, it sounds bad and the amp can overheat. Speakers are designed for clean signal and don't live ling when it's heavily distorted.Originally posted by Traxx822 View Post
If the system has been set up correctly, your amp(s)/speaker(s) should be able to give you more than you need- it should always have some headroom, just like an engine. In this case, you could use a control for just the sub amp and have all the balance control-ability you could ever need. Having two controls almost guarantees that at some point, it will be so screwed up that it sounds like crap.
A correctly set up system shouldn't be able to distort at all unless the source material's level is exceptionally high and that can depend on the recorded levels. For this reason, the system needs to be set up for the average recorded level, but the material that was recorded at a very low level will always sound like it's lacking. The only way to get around this is by using some kind of dynamic range compression/reduction and that removes dynamics from the music. If the only time music plays loud is when the engine is running, this isn't a bad thing and I think the manufacturers should think about adding this to their head units or amps. However, there's still a good amount of disagreement among people who listen, manufacturer and set up these systems, as to "how much is the right amount?".
Here's a tutorial with JL Audio's instructions for setting the levels-
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You are right in what I'm looking for. It's not louder with engine on or off. And I don't seem to have any distortion except when I'm using my phone as the music player and I'm charging the phone at the same time. Then and only then I will get a whine that goes along with rpm. And is gone when engine is off.
I have way a little headroom for what my speakers will accept. So I can turn it up all the way without worry. And still no distortion.
My concern was with possibly being able to turn down the tower speakers. And leave the rest at normal volume. Right now I have to flip a switch on the amp to do that.
Sent from my HTC VLE_U using Tapatalk 2sigpicWhen I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things.
1 Corinthians Chapter 13 - 11Comment
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In that case, maybe you could add a control for the tower speaker channels and mark it where it sounds best when the whole system is playing, so you can have some repeatability.Originally posted by Traxx822 View Post
Does your head unit have BlueTooth? You could stream to it from your phone without whine because there wouldn't be an electrical connection, although I would use headphones or ear buds with the phone while it's charging, without the rest of the system to verify this. If you hear the whine through the ear buds/phones, you'll need a better (meaning, filtered) power source, or add a filter to the power to the charger.Comment
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Thanks for the tips. I'll go through all of this soon. A filter on my cigarette lighter would probably fix it. I'm not 100% sure if my head unit has Bluetooth. For the price I paid it should.Originally posted by JimN View Post
good way to route around it. Don't you loose quality over bluetooth?
Sent from my HTC VLE_U using Tapatalk 2sigpicWhen I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things.
1 Corinthians Chapter 13 - 11Comment
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