Scotty562

iTrader: (2)

I want to ditch my head unit and wire my laptop straight to my amp. I've read some people have had problems with the monsoon amp and I just want to have this clarified so I know if I have to buy an amp or not.

I'll be using the stock speakers too if it matters.

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

Well, yes and no. You can connect it but it probably won't work very well. For one thing the Monsoon amp accepts only speaker level input and the headphone jack on your laptop doesn't put out a lot of power so you won't get much volume. For another, the amp takes four channels of input but your laptop only produces two channels of output.

Formula350

iTrader: (3)

Unless he gets a 5.1 sound card for his laptop. They have PCMCIA cards that do that.

VIP1

Check out this thread:
https://ls1tech.com/forums/wiring-stereo-electronics/583961-hu-less-setup-will-monsoon-amp-work.html

Scotty562

iTrader: (2)

Okay that definitely helps. Kind of embarrassed that I missed that post . I'm going to need a new amp and figure out how to wire it to keep the current ohms (search is broke at the moment) since my laptop sends a low level signal.

Where will I control the volume with a new amp? Will I basically set it pretty high and control it from the computer?

Scotty562

iTrader: (2)

Ok so I've been digging a bit and it seems like whenever anyone wants to upgrade their amp they run their own wiring. Isn't there a way to use the stock amps power ground speaker wire? A harness of some kind maybe? I'd like to simply replace the stock amp with an after market amp and probably wire up the remote turn on to the PC power switch.

Formula350

iTrader: (3)

You would most likely (99.5% sure) have to cut the plug off and wire it up yourself to utilize the stock wiring.

BJM

iTrader: (1)

There are a couple of challenges there. For one the stock power feed to the amp is not very big and is fed by more than one wire in the harness, you would have to splice them together to get the full capacity. If I recall correctly, its also powered off the radio circuit sharing the one 20 Amp fuse, not much power available. The speaker wires make a lot more sense to re-use and that is what I did here. By the way, I didn't touch the wiring at the amp at all, I made the connector myself from pieces I bought at WalMart. I looped the rear speaker leads coming from the head unit back into the wires heading to the speakers. I took the front speaker feeds from my 2 channel amp and ran the speaker outputs from the amp into the harness of the car also using the adapter I made up as shown in the link. I also ran RCAs from the head unit to the amp rather than use the existing harness speaker wires carrying high level signals since I had no high level input for my amp and I would have had to use a level converter for no good reason.

The factory harness has a "amp is here" wire. I think it tells the stock radio to turn its own amplifier down some. You can use it for whatever you want. On my last head unit I had separate amp and antenna power leads. I ran a turn-on wire all the way myself and used the "amp is here" wire to operate my antenna. At the radio I repinned the "amp is here" wire to match up to my head unit adapter plugs, power antenna wire. At the amp connector I use that lead to trigger the power antenna

You're going down the path that many before including myself have tried to upgrade only a bit at a time but at the end of the day:

• I replaced all stock speakers
• I pulled out the stock amp and use a 2 channel on the fronts.
• I put a sub in the trunk with a pretty big amp dedicated to it.
• I wired both amps from the battery directly to get a decent size power wire feeding the amps.
• I changed head units twice.

Not much left from the original stereo.

Scotty562

iTrader: (2)

Here's another idea I read about, let me know what you guys think. Could I take a small amp and use that like a pre-amp to the stock amp?

todddchi

iTrader: (3)

Yes you can but such small amps are hard to find, and also cost money. There is a bit of a "ground floor" to amp pricing so by the time you do it, it doesn't really make much sense. Better off just buying an aftermarket amp (used if money is the issue) and being done with it.

How bout just using a switchable FM modulator or line in (if your radio will take one) and running the laptop through that way.

Keep stock look, easy way out.

Scotty562

iTrader: (2)

Right now I have one of those adapters that makes an AUX for the stock head unit. The problem is it sometimes "forgets" it was set to aux when I turn the car off. So when I turn the car back on to get it back to aux mode I have to take my radio bezel off and reach in behind the head unit (I have it in there backwards) and do some un-natural reach and it's just no fun.

I don't mind spending money to fix the problem and if I had to chose between allot of wiring and a little less money or more money and less wiring I'll go with more money.

I'd really not like to touch the stock amp at all if possible. I'm not the best with car audio and the simpler the solution the better. But, I will do whatever it takes to not have to manually press that stupid button. Being able to teach the stock HU to remember what it was set to would be really nice.

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

Actually, there are devices designed for exactly that purpose. They're like a very small amp that plugs into a headphone jack to boost the output for other purposes. They are fairly common in the motorcycle world where you might want to use a small MP3 player connected to a bike's audio system. They are also fairly inexpensive. Unfortunately, I can't remember any brand names right now - I'm pretty sure one of them has "booster" in the name. Perhaps a Google search would come up with something.

They were mentioned in this forum a while back - I think it was VIP1 that knew the brand but I can't remember that for sure either (man, it sucks getting old).

Scotty562

iTrader: (2)

That looks very promising! I searched around with V1P1's name and I came up with this site.

http://www.fadingarrow.com/XMSatelliteRadio.htm

He uses one of those line drivers you mentioned.


http://store.xmfanstore.com/linedriver.html

"The LD-1 will boost the output from 0 to +18db with less than 0.005% distortion." Perfect.

That is exactly what I'm looking for. I'm assuming the stock amp has RCA inputs, but if for some reason it doesn't that'll cause yet another hurdle.

BJM

iTrader: (1)

Just to give tyou another hurdle, the stock amp does not have RCA inputs. The stock amp takes the stock radio speaker wires into it as a high level input.

Scotty562

iTrader: (2)

Okay... great. Can I take RCA cables and convert them into something the stock amp will accept?

Edit:
Any chance this would work? Linky

BJM

iTrader: (1)

I think your answer is right here



The Monsoon amp is a special purpose design amplifier for a specific OEM need. Its expecting quite a high input power level and does not have a very high gain setting because its taking stock head unit output and bumping it up. Its set up this way so that cars without the Monsoon don't need to be totally rewired. The Monsoon amp is also not very good overall and adding a whole bunch of active adapters will raise the noise floor a lot. The stock amp has pretty bad hiss already. I wouldn't want you polish that turd too much.

VIP1

Yes I used a Line Driver / Pre-Amp in my XM radio install, but for a different reason. I needed to bump up my XM Receiver's RCA output through the adapter cable because it was a bit low.

BTW, thats my site (see sig).

Scotty562

iTrader: (2)

Yep, right now I just need to find a way to convert RCA jacks into the speaker wire it'll accept. Thanks for the tip .

todddchi

iTrader: (3)

I think you are barking up the wrong tree with that line level booster. You need to understand the monsoon amp is needing somewhere in the range of 10-20 watts per channel input to put out full output.

You have no way to adjust the gain of the monsoon amp, so this is what you have to feed it to get it to drive properly.

That line level booster looks more like a tool to boost pre-amp RCA outputs from low level (like low quality 0.5v or whatever) to higher, in the range of 3-5v output levels.

I'm strongly recommending you just find a better solution to use your factory aux input. It will give you the best sound quality without spending unneeded money or hacking into all your wiring.

Scotty562

iTrader: (2)

Will this not work? I'm just looking for any solution.

I can control the line booster though correct? What about from my laptop?

Really I'm just trying to find any solution. If this won't work that's all I need to know. I would love for the solution I have to currently function properly but again, I don't know why it won't hold the correct setting.