New contender for single din carplay

Last time I used it I never turned on Google maps and it didn’t ever mess up. Not sure what’s going on.

 

Interesting. Alpine CDE-HD149BT head unit. And sure enough... "Designed by Alpine Japan. Made in Japan". The Alpine "Head Unit Power Pack KTP-445U" amp is made in China.

Sounded absolutely terrible. But in all fairness, I now know that was because the previous owner didn't know what he was doing and wired the speakers out of phase.

 

Nothing beats PHYSICAL buttons, especially for Volume.
I wouldn't buy a unit without it (Volume knob)

 

Brilliant! Only a few f-bombs to squeeze it in place. I don't want to pull out the console again, so I pre-wired for cameras and stored the long leads behind the passenger footwell for when I have the patience to run them through firewalls. Great upgrade! Much appreciate all of the great information throughout this thread.
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To be fair my only complaint is the unit doesn't sound good with the speakers I have in my car, I found out that my car was already upgraded to the speakers below:
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_091ES16X3E/Focal-ES-165-KX3E.html

The shop recommended an AMP, but they were recommending these huge amps and suggesting to put it in the frunk which I am absolutely not a fan of. Is there a way to get a very small amp that can give me better sound overall that can somehow be tucked under the cover on the passenger or driver side behind the seats so that the car remains looking stock? What unit do you all recommend?

Thank you

 

If you are looking for what I consider the best solution, talk to Mike (Scuderia Audio) @SoftwareDrone. He offers a tiny set of amps which fit in your existing amp carrier (if you have the hi-fi version) and they plug in to the OEM connectors.

 

I run a Audison Sr4.300 in mine.
This runs the front Hertz woofers and tweeters on front channels and the rear channels run two JL Audio 6.5" subwoofer boxes behind each seat.
The amp is very small and only slightly larger than my hand!! It's has all the crossover functions you need and plenty of power.
Mine is fitted down by the battery.

 

I've finally been able to use the Power Acoustic CP-71W out in the wild, so here's my brief review.

Pros:
1. It works. Just works. No software issues or hiccups.
2. The screen* is large enough to glance at to read (*see Cons)
3. Remote control is actually handy. I didn't think it would be, but it is for basic functionality while driving
4. Sound quality is actually very good with the Boston Acoustics 6½" coaxes I have in the doors. Loud enough without distortion to overcome engine and road noise. Not audiophile, but it's $140.

Cons:
1. The screen is almost unreadable with polarized sunglasses, which is very annoying. With non-polarized sunglasses or regular glasses or no glasses, the screen is fine.
2. In bright daylight or with the top off, screen brightness needs to be maxed out.

I guess is going with low-end screen technology is how Power Acoustic was able to get the price point down to $140.

Would I recommend or buy again, knowing what I know now? Yes. Absolutely. At $140, you can't go wrong. But I would like a MUCH better screen for V2.0

 

Hello All,
I just noticed my doors speakers are not working, Tewtters and all other speakers are working fine. I have the Boss system connection was done with the RCA connecters from Amazon.
I'm I missing something ?

Any help will be appreciated.
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First try taking all of your RCA’s out and then find one that works and try it in all four places and make sure your radio balance and fader are both on zero.

 

I Had the 2 doors speakers tested and they are burnt ?? although the used to work with the Backer unit.

 

Since I jumped on the bandwagon for the Power Acoustic, I feel like I need to say I pulled it out and replaced it with a Kenwood Excelon kdc-x705 with 5 volt pre-amp outputs and tons of DSP configuration. The Power Acoustic was like listening to an old FM radio compared to the Kenwood.

No more speaker hiss from the dirty RCA outputs and so much more clarity from my full Scuderia Audio setup (Amps, Sub, Components). And it was only $60 more.

The Power Acoustic was exciting initially, but for me has proven to be a dud. I used one of @Djack005's phone mounts to solve the Waze problem!

 

Funny with my OEM bose HiFi, the Power Acoustic doesn't sound so bad. Has anyone tried the PA with the Scuderia Audio amp and speakers?

 

I may be sounding a little dramatic, but it is significantly better with the Kenwood. It could be that using the built-in amp is cleaner than the RCA outputs.

 

Did you open up your superamp and adjust the input setting to RCA low? The PA was a nice upgrade to a Boss unit in my old suv. Then I got around to installing the PA in the F430 using it with the super amp. The PA did not sound quite right and the volume needed to be much higher than in the suv (like maxed out/distortion range high). Once I opened up the super amp and adjust the the input switches inside on the amp the PA is sounding great.
The kenwood you mention has the higher volt RCA output which is supplying the super amp closer to active high input setting.


Mosconi Pico spec per mfg page:
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(Let me caveat this by saying I am a bit of a car audio nerd... but definitely not an audiophile or expert.)

My understanding is that switch is for changing between speaker level (high) and pre-amp out (low) inputs. Digging around, it looks like high level is for upwards of 20v vs low level being in the 1-5volt range. Since I have always been running pre-amp outs, I kept it at the low setting per the docs for the Pico amp. I do set the LP/HP filters for the sub vs front components.

My biggest complaint with the AP was the low-level hum that was always present in the speakers when the unit was on, even when the volume was down. It really hurt the fidelity being in the background of music or even worse with podcasts. The only way I could reduce this was by lowering the levels on the Pico amps, but this required running the AP at a higher volume - adding distortion. That is where the 5v pre-amp signal on the Kenwood really helped - a higher pre-amp voltage means better noise rejection. I have experienced this in other car audio setups as well. The AP has a 2v preamp output.

If I am not thinking about this correctly, maybe Mike can chime in? @SoftwareDrone

 

@ditpixs if you took apart the SA & pressed the buttons on the interior 2x amps then you are all good. Initially I was flipping the SA exterior switch but was not getting the results I had hoped. It is almost like the PA outputs are not being detected "Auto Sense" by the Pico (inside the SA) as low level input, thus requiring the manual toggle.

I got a hum on the OEM Becker with the super amp. Mike explained that was due to utilizing the high level input of the Picos (without altering the gain). When I swapped over to the PA using low level RCA there is zero hum.

I had trouble finding RCA cables that would fit the super amp tray + bolt back up and settled on 4x of these.

 

Ah! That makes sense @Sj_engr. I had forgotten about the external switches. Agreed it is a challenge finding decent cables that fit... I think I used something very similar to those.

 

I'm so glad you guys mentioned the buttons on the inside of the 2 SuperAmps--this just solved my low volume issue. Much appreciated.
Question: I have the SuperAmp and HIFI option, but cannot get sound from the 2 subwoofer speakers behind the seats. I upgraded them with the Scuderia Audio kit and know they worked with the Becker 6112. I have the wiring harness with the RCA plugs but am not using them. I'm using RCA cables direct from the PA unit to the SA for the front speakers. Which wires connect to the subs and how do I connect them from the head-unit to the SA? From the PA, I tried RL & RF out to the SA and also Sub1 & Sub 2 from the PA to the SA. Neither worked. Seems like it should be simple, but what am I missing?

 

Hi Bryan,

You should be able to connect the RCAs from the PA sub outputs to the SuperAmp. Be sure the switches are in the correct place. Also, you may need to turn on the subwoofer setting in the PA sound settings. It looks like it is on pg 14 of the manual.

This is a drawing from memory of how I recall mine is connected.

Hope this helps... happy to find a time to chat on the phone if you don't get it working. Just DM me.

Aaron
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Most modern head units have three sets of RCA outputs: Front, Rear and Sub. Use the Front and Sub connections and run two sets of RCAs into the Super Amp. Make sure you set the left slide switch to "Line" and the right slide switch to "Line (Sub)". Feel free to call me anytime, we'll work the problem together.

EDIT: Right after I hit the "Reply" button, @ditpixs note popped up right above mine! Much appreciated.

 

Awesome. Thanks guys. Never thought to check the PA sub out. I’ll give it a try.

 

Never thought about clicking an on/off witch in the PA menu could solve a subwoofer problem, but it sure has. Thanks all for such a wonderful group.
Since there are so many settings and adjustments, anyone want to share their preferred EQ & other settings?

 

Glad it also helped you. For sure I had much better results with manually changing the setting inside the SA.