Pre-out conversion on Subaru head unit??

[Messerschmitt]

Anyone add preamp outputs to a stock Subrau head unit yet? I have an 08 Outback and love the look of the head but HATE the compressed sound I get from the line level converter. I'll have this car for a while so it's worth doing some work to get better sound. Any advice on how to proceed?

[gtforme00]

I use a line-level converter and have excellent sound quality. What converter are you using? Mine is a very inexpensive unit that was available at wal-mart. It is transformer coupled and has 4 channel input/output.

Regards,
David

[Messerschmitt]

Mine is a cheap PAC brand converter, model SNI-35. It's a real dud. Sounds like about 30Db of dynamic compression. I'd also like to get around the built in volume dependant equalization that my head unit has, if possible

Sound quality issues could be related to my head unit though. I don't think the base model Subaru stuff is anything special. They have made it VERY hard to integrate an aftermrket head unit and make it look good, so I may have to deal with the stock unit.

Any suggestions would be great


Messerschmitt

[I Am An Idiot]

The SNI-35 is designed to go on the output of a factory amplifier. If you are connecting it to a deck, you really need an SNI-15. It sounds as though it is cutting your audio way down, because it is.

It has been a long time since I looked at a factory deck to get pre-out from one. In the past (the reason I haven't tried one in a long time) there was never any signal of a useable level.

[ppia600]

If the amp has high level input, use it instead of a converter. Otherwise, you can use a metra ALOC608, they're ok as long as you find one that was soldered well.