We all know the Alpine sounds awful. Super distortion. Well, it doesn't have to. There is some hope...
When I got my car (used) the sub wasn't working. In fact, I didn't even know it had one until I was looking around under there to wire a two way radio. Sure enough, a tiny sub amp. Hmmmmm
Since it didn't work, I stuck my nose up there as much as I could and got a whiff of fried electronics. When I pulled the little thing, sure enough it was cooked. A few components were fried and the PCB under them was toasted. Wonderful.
Get this, Tesla used high (as in speaker) level inputs to the amp! Oh, joy. I also saw that they blocked access to the level adjustment pot. Aha.
The BlauJunked unit wasn't available anymore, and I wasn't really wanting to replace it with the same unit anyway. I found a Fosgate that worked, the PBR300X1. It's a little smaller than the original, so I used some heavy duty double sided tape as a spacer to get it to stay in.
I wanted bad to run a line level input to the amp. I found the install manual for the Alpine, and sure enough it has a line level sub out connector. But, it takes a special connector that comes with the radio. I seriously doubt that it is there, so I made do with what I had. I didn't like the idea of taking the dash apart just to have to hack the radio connector to get an RCA on it, especially since I plan on replacing the radio at some time anyway.
So, I put the high level connectors on (ewwwwww) and got to setting up the system. The key to making that work is getting as much low frequency out of the main speakers as possible, leaving only enough to run the sub amp. I ended up with the gain on the sub amp almost all the way up. To get the low stuff out of the speakers I went in to the EQ in the Alpine and turned the low end down. Waaaay down. All the way down.
Most of the distortion is gone now. The radio sounds like a radio instead of a washing machine, and the sub actually bumps ok.
I think Tesla wouldn't set it that way because if someone inadvertently turned the bass back up in the EQ the amp (and maybe the sub speaker) would cook. One must wonder, why didn't they use the line level outputs???
Bill
When I got my car (used) the sub wasn't working. In fact, I didn't even know it had one until I was looking around under there to wire a two way radio. Sure enough, a tiny sub amp. Hmmmmm
Since it didn't work, I stuck my nose up there as much as I could and got a whiff of fried electronics. When I pulled the little thing, sure enough it was cooked. A few components were fried and the PCB under them was toasted. Wonderful.
Get this, Tesla used high (as in speaker) level inputs to the amp! Oh, joy. I also saw that they blocked access to the level adjustment pot. Aha.
The BlauJunked unit wasn't available anymore, and I wasn't really wanting to replace it with the same unit anyway. I found a Fosgate that worked, the PBR300X1. It's a little smaller than the original, so I used some heavy duty double sided tape as a spacer to get it to stay in.
I wanted bad to run a line level input to the amp. I found the install manual for the Alpine, and sure enough it has a line level sub out connector. But, it takes a special connector that comes with the radio. I seriously doubt that it is there, so I made do with what I had. I didn't like the idea of taking the dash apart just to have to hack the radio connector to get an RCA on it, especially since I plan on replacing the radio at some time anyway.
So, I put the high level connectors on (ewwwwww) and got to setting up the system. The key to making that work is getting as much low frequency out of the main speakers as possible, leaving only enough to run the sub amp. I ended up with the gain on the sub amp almost all the way up. To get the low stuff out of the speakers I went in to the EQ in the Alpine and turned the low end down. Waaaay down. All the way down.
Most of the distortion is gone now. The radio sounds like a radio instead of a washing machine, and the sub actually bumps ok.
I think Tesla wouldn't set it that way because if someone inadvertently turned the bass back up in the EQ the amp (and maybe the sub speaker) would cook. One must wonder, why didn't they use the line level outputs???
Bill
