There seems to be fairly strong advice being offered to go for an amp to plug your empeg into, rather than a head unit with Aux-In. Is the difference really that significant if you get a quality head unit?

I ask because there seem to be a couple of major advantages to the 2nd head unit route. The main one is that this will give you radio, both FM and AM or even DAB, _now_. The less important one is that it would seem that you cannot route your mobile phone through your stereo speakers if you use an amp. Personally, I think the advantages in sound quality when talking on the phone and tidiness (no extra speaker in the passenger foot well) are well worth having.

I am looking at either a Nakamichi standard head unit, or a Pioneer DAB system to plug the empeg into. Will the sound quality suffer significantly relative to using an amp?

Of course, the big disadvantage with a second head unit is that I will probably have to slice up the fascia in my brand new Legacy Outback, in order to fit it in. But then the £137 cost of a replacement fascia seems insignificant relative to the cost of the sound system.

And one other thought, will I be able to rig the mobile phone mute to both head units if I do it this way?

Cheers,

Bruno
bruno@prior.ftech.co.uk

Right now I am using an amplifier. However, in the past I have used the power from a head unit to run my front and back speakers. As others have already said, you really should also put in a subwoofer, which will require an external amplifier. If you go this route, I would also recommend some passive filters (inductors) on the front and back speakers to reduce the low frequency content to them. Obviously, these recommendations change depending on the volume you listen at and if you must have audiophile quality sound.
Also, I have never owned one but I have always been impressed with the Nakamichi head units.

Good Luck,

Alex

The only concern you are going to have is with power. You know the distortion that you get when you turn the volume way up? That's most likely from the internal amp in your headunit clipping (assuming you have a new car, with half decent stock speakers as most are). It is because the speakers aren't getting enough power. A stock headunit is probably putting out about 5W, while that Nak would put out about 12W at a reasonable THD. Don't listen to their wattage ratings on any headunit as it is usually at about a 0.8%THD@rms on a headunit as opposed to about 0.02%THD@rms on an amp. They crank them up until the distortion is much higher (40X in this case) to get a more impressive wattage number. Most people skip by this fact. The difference between 5W and 12W will be noticeable and probably enough to satisfy most listeners. But, if you install power hungry speakers or like it really loud you will need to go with an external amp. Good luck.

Mike Cousins
#14979 on the waiting list

I also wanted to add something about the phone mute. Just mute the head unit that the empeg runs in to and there is no reason to mute the empeg. I hope I understand the question correctly!

Alex Lear

> I also wanted to add something about the phone mute. Just mute the head unit that the empeg runs in to and there is no reason to mute the empeg.

Yes, this would be good enough, but it's not perfect. From what I understand, the Empeg will have the ability to pause as well as / instead of muting on the phone mute. I would much rather pause, because it's pointless the tracks continuing to play in silence while you talk on the phone, and irritating to get back to where you were before the call (not a big deal, I know, but I'm talking about perfection now). Obviously, I can't do the alternative and just hook the phone mute to the Empeg, because this won't work if I'm listening to the radio. So the question remains, is it possible to hook them both up to the hands-free set?

Cheers,

Bruno
bruno@prior.ftech.co.uk

Ya its easy, I assume its high impedance so theres little current draw and also assume the empeg and other head unit need the same signal (high or low). Worst case you just have some kind of buffer and/or inverter. If you need help doing it, just let me know.

Alex Lear