Line Out Converter suitable for home audio use in Receiver?

[MDKaudiosonic]

I purchased a Yamaha MX-600U Powered amplifier to give my front speakers some more juice than what my Yamaha RX-V595a 5.1 receiver can dish out. I assumed without looking that my receiver had preout jacks to hook this amp up, but we all know what assuming gets.

My question is... Can I hook up a line out converter that is used in car audio setups to my front speaker outs on the receiver and plug the rca's from the LOC to the external amp. Will it be too much voltage into the amp and screw anything up?? Any danger in this at all? Any warnings or suggestions??

I don't want to lose my Dolby Digital decoding. Love it for my XBOX 360. I have pioneer center channel and pioneer surround speakers. The 70 watts that the receiver kicks out is ok and well for the center and surround speakers, but my fronts are DYING for more juice. The fronts are Old 90's MTX towers that have 2 12" subs in each tower with mids and horn tweets. They can handle 600 watts and 70 just ain't cuttin it. The MX-600 is rated at 135 wpc and I'm hoping this will make a significant change. I really want it for music more so than the 5.1. I realize the upgrade in power may unbalance things in the dolby digital world, but I'll make the sacrifice to have my good headbanger speakers reach further towards their potential. I'm also running a 15" fosgate floor firing subwoofer on a 250 watt mono sub amp that is home made. It is running off of the only preout on the receiver designated for the sub.

Final question is... Will I get decent enough results with an LOC to the MX-600 or am I better off dumping some $$ into a receiver that is equipped with pre outs for the front. If this is the case, are there any suggestions for a good clean receiver that has pre outs that is budget minded???

Thanks in advance for any and all advice given.

 

[Lordoftherings]

Hi MDK, and Welcome to Audioholics.

First, I will not mix home audio with car audio, it's simply bad advice, as they are two different things that get their power from two very different sources.

A receiver with preouts is your best bet. There are several to choose from. and at very decent prices. Just have a look at Audiogon, or Accessories 4 Less, for excellent deals in the $300 range, more or less.

Play safe & be wise,
Bob

 

[highfigh]

I purchased a Yamaha MX-600U Powered amplifier to give my front speakers some more juice than what my Yamaha RX-V595a 5.1 receiver can dish out. I assumed without looking that my receiver had preout jacks to hook this amp up, but we all know what assuming gets.

My question is... Can I hook up a line out converter that is used in car audio setups to my front speaker outs on the receiver and plug the rca's from the LOC to the external amp. Will it be too much voltage into the amp and screw anything up?? Any danger in this at all? Any warnings or suggestions??

I don't want to lose my Dolby Digital decoding. Love it for my XBOX 360. I have pioneer center channel and pioneer surround speakers. The 70 watts that the receiver kicks out is ok and well for the center and surround speakers, but my fronts are DYING for more juice. The fronts are Old 90's MTX towers that have 2 12" subs in each tower with mids and horn tweets. They can handle 600 watts and 70 just ain't cuttin it. The MX-600 is rated at 135 wpc and I'm hoping this will make a significant change. I really want it for music more so than the 5.1. I realize the upgrade in power may unbalance things in the dolby digital world, but I'll make the sacrifice to have my good headbanger speakers reach further towards their potential. I'm also running a 15" fosgate floor firing subwoofer on a 250 watt mono sub amp that is home made. It is running off of the only preout on the receiver designated for the sub.

Final question is... Will I get decent enough results with an LOC to the MX-600 or am I better off dumping some $$ into a receiver that is equipped with pre outs for the front. If this is the case, are there any suggestions for a good clean receiver that has pre outs that is budget minded???

Thanks in advance for any and all advice given.

Most car audio line out converters are made to accept about 15W input, not 50+W. Often, you'll let the smoke out of the wires or components when you connect one of these.

Second, going from 70WPC to 135WPC will be good for about a 2dB increase, although you may have more headroom. Level matching is absolutely critical when connecting any output to any input, so whatever the line out converter does, it may not be right when you attempt to use it with home audio.

Car and home audio will interface just fine as long as the input sensitivity is adjustable. The fact that one uses a DC power source means nothing. The amplifier and all of the circuits in receivers, power amps and processors use DC, too. The car audio pieces would need to be connected to a good DC power supply or a car battery (sealed- vented batteries used inside it asking fro trouble). If you want to get some real bang for the buck and need EQ, sub and high pass output, look on ebay or Craig's List for an Audio Control EQX processor. I have seen two in the last week, selling for about $60 with a list price of over $300. It's made for car audio but is clean enough for home.

 

[MDKaudiosonic]

Thank you for your information. I have decided to just upgrade receiver. Going from the RX v595 to a nice used RX v659BL... anyone know something about this receiver? Will I see some nice gains going from 70wpc to 100wpc? I believe I may add 2 more speakers to see this 7.1 deal thru too. Also, what is meant by headroom? I've had to send back my MX-600 power amp because it was not functioning correctly, so that is now out of the question. I hope an upgrade in receiver power will quench me for now until I can purchase a nice and powerful amp. any suggestions... Thanks all?? I am in love with this site, I've already wasted about 2.5 hours just reading forums and learning.

 

[markw]

Will I see some nice gains going from 70wpc to 100wpc?

No. For a minimal increase in peak headroom you need to at least double the power.

"Headroom" means that while your normal listening level might not change, you have a bit more power available for those fleeting milliseconds where more power is demanded for a peak in the sound, say a cymbal crash and the like.

As you go up the line in receivers you increase the features more than the power. In your case, you gained preamp outputs and prbbably more features you may or may not need or use.

 

[lsiberian]

Thank you for your information. I have decided to just upgrade receiver. Going from the RX v595 to a nice used RX v659BL... anyone know something about this receiver? Will I see some nice gains going from 70wpc to 100wpc? I believe I may add 2 more speakers to see this 7.1 deal thru too. Also, what is meant by headroom? I've had to send back my MX-600 power amp because it was not functioning correctly, so that is now out of the question. I hope an upgrade in receiver power will quench me for now until I can purchase a nice and powerful amp. any suggestions... Thanks all?? I am in love with this site, I've already wasted about 2.5 hours just reading forums and learning.

70 wpc is more than sufficient for most home systems. Not many home audio speakers can take a lot more power than that. Don't chase power.

I suggest you start by working on your room's acoustics first. Then look at speaker upgrades. Few movies are 7.1 and the gains aren't huge.

 

[highfigh]

Thank you for your information. I have decided to just upgrade receiver. Going from the RX v595 to a nice used RX v659BL... anyone know something about this receiver? Will I see some nice gains going from 70wpc to 100wpc? I believe I may add 2 more speakers to see this 7.1 deal thru too. Also, what is meant by headroom? I've had to send back my MX-600 power amp because it was not functioning correctly, so that is now out of the question. I hope an upgrade in receiver power will quench me for now until I can purchase a nice and powerful amp. any suggestions... Thanks all?? I am in love with this site, I've already wasted about 2.5 hours just reading forums and learning.

You won't notice a perceptible increase in volume going from 70W to 100W but you will have a bit more headroom, which is just what it sounds like- think of jumping on a bed in a room with an 8' ceiling and then moving the bed to a room with a 10' ceiling, You can jump a bit higher, right? You jumping on the bed is equivalent to the power output and the ceiling is like the power supply/output transistor's limit on total output power. Once you run out of headroom, it doesn't increase.

Speakers have a spec called sensitivity, which is the measured output of a 2.83V pink noise signal, at a distance of 1 meter. Some will put out more than others and in most rooms, 89dB is a decent number to shoot for, but a lot of really good speakers are in the 86dB range. If you want to listen at extremely high volume, you can but it will take high sensitivity speakers, more power or both. High volume levels will also cause the sound to suffer in most rooms because they don't have the acoustical characteristics to allow this and good sound. This will also lead to more permanent hearing loss, which we all have. Unless someone has never been exposed to high volume sounds, they have permanent damage, period.

Few things are worse than having a system that needs to be cranked in order to sound good. A good system includes the room, not just the equipment.