I was woundering if anyone know how I could use my bus aux in (there is both rca and the weird cable type input) to bring in my empeg sound. I have everything hooked up but the source button doesn't select the actual aux-in, just cd and radio.

Thanks,
-Greg

You'll probably have to buy or make something to connect to the Sony to fool it into thinking it has a supported aux device connected. They make these types of adapters for a lot of head units. I don't know a specific place to get what you need though. A local car audio shop would be a good bet, but you should be able to find something by searching the web. You can also do searches in here as well as the Neo Car Jukebox forum over at www.funmprplayers.com (I remember a lot of people looking for and fiding adapters for this purpose for all sorts of head units).

The other alternative is to connect in the other supported method: You connect the pre-outs of your Sony to the AUX input of the empeg. You then use the volume control on the empeg. I went the first route however. My Clarion just blindly switches to AUX - it's not a control-related input.

Bruno

I'm pretty sure this question is covered (in a somewhat generic form) in the "installation" section of the FAQ at www. riocar.org.

Yeah, i figured it needed something to trick it into thinking it was a cd changer or something, but i've looked everywhere and can't seem to find anyone who sells or tells how to make these.

I've also ran into another problem, when i have both the empeg and my cd deck running at the same time the batter icon shows on the empeg. I have 2 15" subs running 1200 watts.. When the empeg isnt on they run fine but when i turn the empeg on the empeg shows the battery icon and shuts off. Would anyone recommend a new battery or like a 1.5 farad capacitor? My car is getting kind of spend ; /

I could run my cd deck out of my empeg but im already using my sony cd deck that puts out 52w to each speaker then an amp which powers the sub.

-Greg

I have 2 15" subs running 1200 watts.. When the empeg isnt on they run fine but when i turn the empeg on the empeg shows the battery icon and shuts off. Would anyone recommend a new battery or like a 1.5 farad capacitor?

The problem is not your empeg. (By the time you finish reading this, you're going to wish it were the empeg!)

If you are running 1200 watts (just for your subs!) then you are pulling more power than your charging system (battery-regulator-alternator) can provide. A capacitor will do absolutely nothing for you in this situation. A new battery might help for a while (an hour or so) but that's not the answer.

When the battery icon comes on in the empeg, that means that the system voltage in your car is low -- somewhere around 11 volts if I recall correctly. There are two ways to fix this: generate more power, or use less power. Nothing else works.

My personal recommendation is to use less power -- get rid of that 1200 watt amp feeding the subs and replace it with a nice little Class-D 175 watt amp. It'll sound better, but of course it won't make 1200 watts worth of noise, which I am pretty sure is your primary goal here, so forget that option I guess.

To make more power, you need a bigger alternator. You'll be looking at $175--$450 for that, depending on just how big, how good, and how powerful an alternator you want. You're going to want something that will put out at least 200 amps to power the monster stereo system you are running.

It would be nice if you could just replace the battery or add a capacitor... but you're not going to get off that easy.

tanstaafl.

Everything runs fine though without the empeg running.. I power loss i very minimal. Im having a bunch of problems with my empeg. One is the power problem. The other is getting my cd deck to think there is a changer or somethign on there so it will open up the aux in. and the last is that my empeg (ever since i got it) randomly reads that there is no drive found... i think its because of the cable but im not sure..

Your missing drive problem is almost definitely the cable. If the player is under warranty, support can send you a new cable or take the player in for repair.

The power loss issue is either a wiring problem (perhaps a loose wire on the docking connector, that has been known to happen), or simply because the empeg is more sensitive to dips in power than your average CD deck. It is a computer with hard disks, after all.

The problem with the Aux-in on your CD player is of course not the empeg's fault, that's just Sony being tight-assed about the CD-changer interface. What you want to do is wire them the other way around if you can: Send the Sony into the empeg's aux-ins.

Question: How is the Amp Remote Control line connected? You have two of them at this point, the CD player and the empeg player. You're not connecting both of them together are you?

Nope, the amp control wire is on my sony deck.
but now that I think about it, when I have my engine off right after its been running but leave the key in acc the empeg has show the batter icon as well even with my sony deck on a low volume. I'm thinking this maybe just a bad power connection somewhere, i may be wrong though.

I just brought my player inside and plugged it in to see if it would give me the no hd found, and whala it found the drive... I tried contacting empeg/rio today and they have a message saying they no longer have phone support but to email them. Thats kind of nuts. Anyone have a number I can get ahold of someone with?

I also found the ip-bus adapter.. $99... i wounder if someone has hacked one together. I tried searching for about 2 hours but havnt found anything. ; (

-Greg

Voltage is easy enough to measure with a multimeter, so you shouldn't have a problem checking various wires or right at the battery terminal for a dip.

If your wiring isn't at fault, and you are just sucking too much power from your charging system, then you should be able to run those 2 15's with a more efficient amplifier as suggested. Of course, if you didn't mind spending money, you'd replace those 15's as well with something smaller, which will be tighter and _can_ be just as loud.

I have found that one SONY adapter is model XA-107 - don't know if it will be the one for your head unit. Then there's also the XZ-300 which sounds pretty damn cool but is definitely overkill (it allows multiple RCA aux sources into Sony's unilink). It's available at Crutchfield.

Just search google.com for "sony aux adapter" and search the funmp3player forum I told you about for "sony aux" or "sony adapter"

Bruno

Yeah i found that model. Its $99. Kinda steep considering there are other ways of doing it that are like $30. I;ve been trying to find out if someone has made their own unilink but I havn't seen anything. I just with rio would have a phone support.

Oh yeah, if i hadn't mentioned it, thanks to everyone who is providing help ; )

-Greg

You know, the "no HD found" might actually be the EXACT same problem as the power loss and battery icon.

See, if there's not enough juice to spin up the drive, then it would give you that message.

The fact that the player boots fine under AC adapter power means that the problem is definitely external to the player: Either in the sled wiring or in the voltage the car is supplying to that wiring.

Maybe it's something as simple as a swapped ignition/constant wire? Or a blown fuse somewhere?

In any case, I'd say it's time to triple-check the wiring.

The hard drive problems first started happening in my home. before i even tried anything in the car.

Oh, it's probably the cable, then.

Has anyone tried a FM Modulator for sound input? This is about half the price of that stupid sony unilink adapter, but i have no idea how it would make the empeg sound.
Something like this:
http://www.crutchfield.com/cgi-bin/S-V2NXTmqyH5n/ProdView.asp?s=0&c=2&g=42500&I=020FM200S&o=&a=

The XA-107 is what you need; it allows daisy-chaining too, which means you can still use an existing CD/MD changer with the head unit as well as hooking the empeg up.

Hugo

It'll work, but won't do the empeg output justice; do you have an existing changer? If so, you can plug the bus connection from it into the head (to fool the head unit) but connect the audio from the empeg.

Hugo

Nope, I dont listen to cd's much so i didn't need a changer. I just like how it looks and the 52wx4 power it puts out to my speakers.
Now i just need to figure out why my car can't handle the empeg as far as power when my cd player is on. And get in touch with rio so i can get a new HD cable (hasnt been easy to do since they dont have the phone support ; ( )

-Greg

Sorry about the lack of phone support, but the support operation is minimal (basically, it's David). He's officially on holiday until the 2nd January anyway, but has been coming in and trying to make a dent on the email backlog.

One thing is that with the number of players sold recently, support will be more backlogged than usual as all the installation questions arrive at once!

We have spare HDD cables in stock (and more on order) so solving your problem shouldn't be hard.

Hugo

http://www.cus.org.uk/~cleggy/ has all the info on making your own Sony AUC enabler. You will need to be dandy with a PIC tho to get it to work.
The source is at sourcforge, but you'll be able to find it from that site.

Cheers

Dave

OK thanks!... now to figure out the power problem... and to find a fairly cheap va-107 (dont think i've seen one under $100) ; (

-Greg

have faith the support from empeg is the best i have seen from any company once they get over this sudden rush and crimbo everything should be back to normal

Yeah I saw that link on how to make one. I was hoping to find something that didn't need any programming. I used to do some pic programming but i dont have any tools whatsoever anymore, so by the time i get all the parts i'd be equal to the sony one.

Thanks though.

Mmm, but your outlay to get that project done (pic, pic programmer, hours of time) is likely to be higher than $99...

Hugo

Now i just need to figure out why my car can't handle the empeg as far as power when my cd player is on.

Where are you getting the power for the two head units? If you are using the factory wiring you may be exceeding what you can pull through crappy 22 guage (or whatever) wiring. You may want to try running power to both units straight from the battery (through an appropriate fuse of course). Likewise, check your grounds and make sure they are solid and to the frame.

-Mike

I just like how it looks and the 52wx4 power it puts out to my speakers.

So you've got 1200 watts worth of subwoofer amplification, but you're running the head-unit's speaker outputs?

Im getting the power from the factory wire. The amp on the otherhand is getting power from a 4g wire ran from the battery. I would run a wire directly from the battery but getting through the firewall is close to impossible as everything is sealed off and the engine is right up to the firewall. (Mitsubishi eclipse, 1992)

-Greg

Yeah the 52w really push for some reason. I forget to mention that its not a full 1200w. Its an 800w amp bridge to 2ohm mono to bring it to 1200w. Its made by Crunch, which proboly rates it way higher then it can put out. My subs hold 600 each, but then again thats full, rms is 400 think.

I would run a wire directly from the battery but getting through the firewall is close to impossible

May be worth running a temporary wire through the door or from you amp's power wire to test. Anyway, that is what I would try before dumping money into a new alternator, etc.

-Mike

Even though he's on holiday he has cleared most of the email from the Christmas period. He also cleared the voicemail yesterday (15 hang-ups and 2 messages!).

Our support operation may be small but I'd still take it over that of 99% of our competitors.

Rob

Our support operation may be small but I'd still take it over that of 99% of our competitors.

Easy to say. You guys don't have any competition. :) Not in our eyes anyway. But I'd give your support job (including all your staff) high marks compared to any company in any industry.

Bruno

I got everything as far as power fix. I just ran a 18g wire from my amp to my empegs power wire, and left my sony to be on the cars power. That fixed it, no more batter icon.

Now my only problem is finding that sony va-107. I can't seem to find ANY place thats sells them and has them in stock. I called sony and they said that they don't make it but they have one line it for $300. WAAAY to much to pay for that.

-Greg

I just recieved the ipbus sux in (XA-300) from sony. I just realized that I hate sony now and that their a pile ; / I got everything connected now only to find out that the cheap rca's they gave me picks up my engine noise. More $$$ to spend on sheilded ones. Plus the stupid adapter makes a clicking noise when you select from the aux in back to the radio/cd. You'd think for $100 they would have made it more quality.

Now for my question. I ran a wire to the end of my amp wire to see if it was battey/alternators fault for not supplying my empeg with enough power alone with my sony. I found out its just the 12v wire running in my dash. Now i need to figure out where to attach the 12v, i would leave it on the end of the amp wire but everytime there is bass the text on my empeg shuttters (no, not the visual where its suppost to do that). I would run it to my battery but that is just a HUGE pain. The local installer here said to run it to my fuse box but thats not easily accessable either (the fuses are but not the wires going to it). Any suggestions?

-Greg

I got everything connected now only to find out that the cheap rca's they gave me picks up my engine noise.

It's unlikely related to the RCA cables. It's more likely a ground loop and not specifically the fault of the Sony unit.

Every time you add another "doodad" to your car stereo system, the chance for ground loops increases. Read the information in the FAQ regarding ground loops.

Hmm.. well the sony plays fine when its playing cd's and the radio.. no humming (even with the empeg on) but once i press the source button to input the empegs audio i get a humming... i have it grounded at the same place as the sony cd deck. Thats why im guessing that its the RCA cables being that they seem to be really cheap ones with no sheilding.

Shielding in car audio interconnect helps to pick up EMI. Be careful what interconnect you use. There is such a thing as crappy simple cable that is more susceptible to noise than others, but you may also be running it too close to your amp's power wire (though, really, the car's entire body is a ground that could also be a source of noise to your wire. :) I'm actually running cat5e UTP as interconnect. One run is good for two stereo pairs.

Do you get any noise on any other components? Where did you ground the empeg? If you thought the +12 wire in your dash was bad, you should really think about grounding the empeg (and your head unit) directly to the chasis as well. Bad grounds are a common (very common) source of noise in car audio. If you're grounding to the chasis, use an existing bolt if possible. Do not expect a good ground through the actual bolt. You should sand/gring the paint on the chasis where the bolt attached and make sure your ground connection touches bare metal. The bolt is just there to hold it in place (same goes for the ground connection for your amp(s) in the rear - but in that case you should have a dedicaed bolt, right through the floor of the vehicle).

It shouldn't be a big deal to run a new +12v 18ga into the car from the battery. Find where your current amp line comes in and put the new 18ga wire through the same grommet. Look under your dash so you know wher the wire will come through and then use something like a wire coat hanger.

Off the fuse panel you might have to unmount the panel so you can access the wiring on the back. Wire it into something suitable of course (ie. not protected by a fuse rated too low, provides constant 12v, etc.) Depending on your panel selection, it might be a better idea to go to the battery.

You're likely only having a problem with the stock wiring because of the drain your Sony HU's amp puts on that line. The same type of thing you see when you're using a line from your amp wiring and you get a good bass hit (though the fact this is hapening in this instance actually surprises me). You may end up with the same problem even when going directly to the battery if your amps are sucking too much juice on those hits. If that's the case then you'll want to go with a cap wired in parallel at your amplifiers.

Bruno

Ahh I finaly got around to a local car shop here (Audio Playground) and had them run my 4GA amp wire through the firewall since it was going around the door and for some reason bothered me. I also had them run a new line for my empegs power to my fuse box and check my power. I was hoping that I wouldn't have to get a Capacitor/New Alternator and I got lucky, the battery checks out fine even while running my 1200w amp with my 15in subs on them on full volume. The only thing I still have trouble with is the engine noise when I use the empeg, when using the radio its fine. I had the technician try different grounding spots on the chasis and I think he made it worse. Ohh well I guess he had no experience with it as he had never seen anything like it so I told him I'd have to look at it later, didn't want him to try anything and break it.

On the way home I stopped at RadioShack on a desperate measure to fix the problem. I bought a GroupLoop Isolator which I had used before on my homebrew mp3player to eliminate engine noise just to try and see if I could get rid of any of the noise. Besides, RadioShack has a great return policy just incase the $15 part didn't workt. Well this happened to be the perfect solution. After Plugging it into the rca from my empeg and then into my sony aux adaper (using female to female adapters) the noise is almost completly gone. You can still hear it faintly but im not even sure if its that or just the loudness of my engine. ; )

So just in case anyone else has a problem with noise, stop by radioshack and try it out, you can always return it. Its just a black cylinder with rca's on the end of each side.

-Greg

Too many adapters... :)

How long is the interconnect from your empeg to your Sony? Mine's only about 4" (ya, inches) long. Do you hear the noise on all your speakers, in-car-only or sub-only? I find it strange that the ones off your Sony head have noise. I would definitely use a shorter/better cable between the empeg and Sony. And again, try a different ground spot for the Sony and the Empeg (ground them to the SAME spot). Normally people will pick up noise in a run of cable that goes from the front to the back of the car.

Bruno

The RCA's that the sony adapter came with are 2 meters ( way too long for me but im really low on $). I was thinking this would pick up noise but if I turn my sony deck to full (in the aux in mode) and dont have the empeg in there is no engine noise. Once I put the empeg in the noise comes on, you can't tell too much when a song is playing, but when its on pause my car sounds like a jet engine. I would think that if its the wires doing it, it would pick up the noise with the empeg out of my dash as well when i have it in aux in mode.

-Greg

Forgot to mention that the noise is only in my car speakers. And also just to stress that there is no engine noise when using a cd or the radio from my sony deck, so its just comming from the aux-in/empeg part.

-Greg