output voltage question

[mykwikcoupe]

What happens when you take a 4volt signal out from say an eclipse or sony deck and send it to a pheonix gold or other amp that has an input voltage of less than 4 volts? Does it blow the input or does it just make super clean sound? Anyone ever try?

[jonrichert]

amps don't have an input voltage like you're saying, it's just the signal taken from the headunit. a 4V pre-out does provide a much stronger and cleaner signal on any amplifier.

[mykwikcoupe]

if they dont have the input signal voltage limit than why is it listed under specifications. In my example the phoenix gold xs series has an input voltage limit of 11mv-3v. If I put the cdx-c90 with the xdp-210eq with an output of 4v to an input of 3volts max what happens?

[jonrichert]

are you sure it's not referring to the amp's input sensitivity?

[Klue]

sounds like input sens to me.

[mykwikcoupe]

thats what Im talking about. The rca input voltage signal. If a deck puts out 4 volts and the amp is only rated to 3volts what happens? Nothing, just a recommendation of caution?

[Klue]

its probably not a good idea, iam not sure what will happen but worst case you could damage something, best case it would only distort the sound quality.

[jonrichert]

you should be fine. the pre-outs will only reach their peak voltage at full volume, i've heard it's recommended to run a system with a slight gain overlap. this will cause minor clipping but will produce the best signal to noise ratio.

[POS carb]

it'll distort
the purpose of high voltage is to have a higher signal/noise ratio. you don't NEED voltage that high, invest in some good RCAs you should have no noise. if the amp is rated at 3 volts then it technically means you have reached the peak and anything beyond that would be clipped but usually there is some headroom in the dynamic range, especially on high-end components

until you put like 8 volts i doubt you'll fry anything