Hi hope you can help I have an old school Soundstream Picasso Amp '98, Kef Kar 160s and a Soundstream Reference 10" sub. I now want to use this in my AC cobra kit and want to use my Ipod which is packed full of WAV files as the source. The ipod can feed out to RCAs and the Soundstream Amp can accept balanced inputs as well as RCAs, I would prefer to use the balanced inputs as I am sure the old car will be full of noise. All I want on the dashboard is a volume control, so it does not muck up the look. What I am therefore after is a volume control and a way of converting RCA to balanced input. I have been looking at zapco products (VFM symbilink etc, which have the external volume control - would these work with the soundstreams balanced input? Thanks for your help
soundstream's old balanced signal path was proprietary and only soundstream components can use it, so that's a no-go. what you'll need to find is a pre-amp like an old Orion 300PSW that is half DIN and can mount under dash on a bracket. that will give you volume, fader, balance, and a few EQ dials with RCA input and outputs.
It's that or try to find a CD changer that has a remote controller for hidden applications with a tuner module and AUX inputs. someone probably does make one.. somewhere
Thanks for your input, after a bit of searching how about an Audiocontrol Hpx. Having sub control and crossover settings in the one unit would be ideal. Although this route would not utilise the balanced inputs - would this really make that much of a difference??
in a car, no. balanced inputs are only really used for long distances in home studio applications for noise rejection. not that vital in a car where your longest run is maybe 15 feet