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Old Nov 12, 2010 | 05:32 PM
  #1  
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Line Driver

Well a lad I go to school with has an 8 volt line driver hooked up with his amp (subwoofer). He says it makes it a lot louder and better. I'm just wondering how much of a difference a line driver really would make.
Old Nov 12, 2010 | 05:54 PM
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Is he trying to sell it to you?
Old Nov 12, 2010 | 06:14 PM
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Nope. Lol. Just wondering what they really do.
Old Nov 12, 2010 | 07:00 PM
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they lower the potential of noise entering the system... This is normaly a none issue but it is especially a none issue on subwoofers.

It does not maake a system louder.
Old Nov 13, 2010 | 06:30 AM
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I'd dissagree just a bit.. The rca's in our van are over 15 feet, we have a HU with 3- 2 volt outputs. If we run the preouts straight to the amps , we need to crank the gain and volume to max just to get a little boom.
Add a linedriver, and now we turn down both volume and gain because its WAY TOO MUCH..

So its doing more than lowering potential noise, it does make our system louder, kinda.
We CANNOT get our system as loud as it is, without a linedriver.
A better HU would do the same thing though.
Old Nov 13, 2010 | 08:31 AM
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I have 5V preouts
Old Nov 13, 2010 | 09:46 AM
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Originally Posted by Kyle_H
I have 5V preouts
Then a line driver should be a non-issue for you.

The whole point of a line driver is to raise RCA voltage levels....this was done back in the day when decks had 2V (or less) outputs and people were trying to drive multiple sub amps with a single pair of RCAs....by the time all those inputs got their signal there wasn't enough current flow from the deck outputs to maintain the power level and you had to crank the gains on the amps up to compensate, thus raising the noise floor in all of the amps. Not a huge issue for subs but it caused problems for any amps driving mids and highs. The line driver did the heavy lifting for the sub outs, lowering the drain on front and rear outs thus keeping the signal cleaner and voila cleaner sound.....

I was always hoping someone would build an "all-in-one" line driver, EQ and Xover....3 sets of inputs, 3 outs and all individually tweakable....a few of them, notably Audio Control got close but never put it all together.....

Ah, the good old days of analogue....

HTH
Old Nov 20, 2010 | 10:19 PM
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Originally Posted by Kyle_H
I have 5V preouts
5 volt pre outs is perfect

and your friend is a twit
Old Nov 20, 2010 | 11:17 PM
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Originally Posted by BC_Underground
5 volt pre outs is perfect

and your friend is a twit
Not a friend, guy I go to school with. He's got a 93 piece of crap civic with a 97 acura vtec swap and type r suspension and no muffler so he's the coolest guy at school and it's his dream car. lol
Old Nov 21, 2010 | 10:20 AM
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i was looking at the nakamichi mbvi which has 1v volt preouts, think ill get a line driver with this deck



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