Less gain = better signal to noise ratio. I always found the sound quality was much better at lower or no gain, especially with Class D amps. It's always better to buy a bigger amp, and keep gains at their minimum, other than buying a smaller amp and jacking up the gains to get it louder.

 

The advantage of higher deck out put voltage, theoretically, is a better signal to noise ratio.
But there is no sense having a high output deck if your amps can't take high input.... Eclipse has gone to overkill, so that people who think they know a little bit, like "higher output must be better", buy them. Then there stuck buying an ecplise amp. All marketing BS!! People go to university to learn how to market junk to us stupid people.

If your amp can't take high input, then you'll never be able to turn the volume control up.

and for the guy with the alpine 9856, Maximum Pre-Output Voltage 2 V/10 k ohms

 

Well, anything above 4-5 volts, I believe is overkill, but 8v deck won't hurt your amps, which take 2v max. No worries. It's all in the install and operation. Just keep your gains all the way down, and like I said earlier, if you need it to be louder, look into getting more amp power, or more efficient speakers.

Plus, theoretically 8v deck will produce it's voltage at full volume. People normally adjust their system to work at full potential at 70-75% volume. So, it seems that you will not be sending more than 5-6v to your amps anyways.

 

Why would they be stuck buying an Ecplise amp? Any amp would work fine. Yes, the max "unclipped" output would be achieved at a lower volume setting...but nothing is wrong with that.

 

keep in mind that you double your signal voltage every 6dbs.

So, on the eclipse deck that has 8V out, you'll have your 8V at 80, but at 74 (which is still higher than what I have mine set at as max), you'll get only 4V.

That is, unless there's something I haven't figured out right. Anyone who knows better, feel free to correct me.

 

yes and higher clipping on the amps input.. I hope this is not why u wasted ur money on an 8 volt deck

once your input is clipped your output will be also...garbage in garbage out

 

Well, I hope this thread clears some muddy waters. You can pretty much make everything work. If you set it up right, you will go deaf before hearing any distortion, or clipping.

 

ahhhh... if you have an 8V deck and an amplifier that can accept 2V max input with the deck at full volume you will be overdriving your amplifier by 12db even with the gain set at minimum.... and that will result in the amplifier clipping...

you can keep the volume down but if you are using deck power for other speakers this is a problem...... your only real solution in that case is to add a non-inductive resistor to the RCA cable or even better a pot so you can tweak everything.......

 

dont bother were both wasting our fingertips trying to educate those that know better