Flite

No really, I know nothing about car stereo installation. I've never messed with it before. I do know that the factory stereo in my Tundra sucks butthole though.

I've started piecing together a few parts, but a lot of stuff I'm still researching before I buy. I bought Infinity Kappa 60.9cs components for the front doors, and am about to purchase 50.9cs' for the rears. That's all I've bought so far because I can't decide on anything else.

I want to keep the factory head unit, so I'm looking for some sort of signal cleaner. I thought JL Audio clean sweep was the item to have, but then I see this Peripheral PCH8 thing that looks like as good or better product for less money. However, now I hear that this product called a Peripheral SVEN4 may be a good option, and it's only like $40 vs $150-$200 for the other 2. Are the other two overkill? I don't have the factory amplified JBL stereo.

Anybody hear know anything about this stuff?

ILLEGAL

I have never used a cleaner before. I would however reccomend getting a new head unit. With the options available now on the newer radios with tuneing, it is better to start off with a good radio...then move on to speakers. Those infinitys are very large too (but very good). I hope they fit ok...prob will, but def not on a honda They need power, so at least give it twice what it's going to get from the stocker radio, and put in an aftermarket one. You get what you pay for when it comes to a head unit.

Corey

Chris, why do you want to keep the factory head unit (other than the fact that most aftermarket head units look terrible)? What about a DD Navigation unit that looks stock-ish?

JDM74

Do the door chimes and turn signal indicator sounds come through the stereo speakers? I assume you have steering wheel controls correct? Keeping all these features can sometimes be expensive, a pain, or just plain not possible.

Flite

I won't get rid of the factory head unit. I like the way it's integrated, I like the way it looks, and I like way everything interfaces through it. I'm not willing to get rid of the factory look.

Running a signal processor like a JL Audio Clean sweep should give a similar signal to the amp that a high quality aftermarket head unit would. I have no plans on running the quality speakers off the factory head unit as is. With a clean signal, I will run a quality 4 or 5 channel amp. Probably 5 seeing as I will end up running a subwoofer and I'd like to keep from running multiple amps. I'll be looking for an amp in the 75-100 x4 range + subwoofer. My goal right now is to determine the best signal processor option. From there I'll move on to amp and install.

chowe

(1) PXE-H660
http://www.alpine-usa.com/product/view/pxe-h660/

(1) Alpine PDX.5
http://www.alpine-usa.com/product/view/pdx-5/

Your Speakers (Infinity)

Add a Sub
http://mobile.jlaudio.com/products_s...6&model_id=684

= Done

elambz

I've seen some Tundras and Tacomas come in with aftermarket units and it just doesn't look as good as the factory unit. Good idea keeping the factory head unit.

Fabrik8

That's not really possible. The factory head unit has fairly high distortion and not the greatest (or particularly linear) bandwidth. That's just par for the course for integrated amplifiers though. Anyway, the PCH8 (and devices like that) are just line output converters with a few other tricks, like analog EQs. The problem is that they don't have any way to reconstruct a distorted signal. RCA outputs don't run through a crappy speaker amplifier, so the distortion is much lower. Once the signal is distorted through the speaker amplifier, that's it. There are ways to get around this with DSP (digital signal processing) hardware, but that's far above and beyond the cost and sophistication of what we're talking about here..

So although you can make the signal from the stock radio sound better with a PCH8 than it would with a standard line output converter, you're still starting with much higher distortion than you would with RCA outputs. The one saving grace is that a line output converter is higher impedance than a speaker, so the amplifier load is lower and the speaker amplifier doesn't distort as much (as it would while driving a speaker).

You might also check to see if there are any interfaces available for your car that piggyback off of the stock CD changer interface. A lot of CD changer interfaces have analog signals on them that are similar/identical to low-level RCA connections.


Edit: I'll retract my previous statement.. One of the JL Clean Sweep units (CL441-DSP) actually might do what I'm talking about. It's ~$300.. It looks pretty cool, I don't really see anything other than frequency response correction though, so I'm unsure if it will actually take care of any speaker amplifier-based distortion, so by "cleaner" it just means "flatter response". Probably works great for what you need it for though, and I can't imagine any better way to go for the money.

The other Clean Sweep products don't have any DSP capability and are just analog line output converters, like the PCH8..

95sw21

you will need to amp the kappa's. I believe they only come 2ohm load (whenever I bought them they never had the option for 4) and that impedance will burn up your stock deck

Flite

Yes, the JL product I'm looking at is the CL441dsp, and based on the research I'm doing now, looks like the option I'll be going with. If you shop around, they can be had for around $200.

If my train of thought is correct, I'll be buying that and a quality amp next, and then wiring it up. The speakers and both regular and reverse wiring harnesses for the factory head unit should be here next week. I'll order the clean sweep and amp shortly after that.

I have no plans on running a high power handling speaker on the stock deck. They'll be run off an amp.