Controlling sub volume via the fader

I am going to be redoing the my sound system when I get a new car. I see that Rockford Fosgate and others have remote gain controls for their amps. I was thinking about controlling the sub volume in this fashion:

• Have all four stereo channels fed by the Empeg's front outputs
• Plug the Empeg's rear outs into the sub amp
• Control the sub volume by adjusting the fader (ie. Fader towards the front would result in low bass, fader towards the rear would result in more bass)
  

This solution seems possible to me. Thanks to v2.00, getting to the fader control is easy as pressing the knob a couple times. Aside from losing the ability to fade the front and read speakers, is there any reason I should not consider this? And, will this work? Thanks.

Works great for me. As long as you are set with your front/rear balance I don't think there is any downside to this approach. I use the pads on my amp to preset the front/rear balance and the fader on my headunit for a subwoofer adjustment. The empeg feeds the aux in of the headunit. Same idea, slightly different implementation.

Lynn

Not a bad set up, other than one aspect :

Hijack may ???? in the future give time alignment on all four channels. In this case, you would lose the benefit by driving the subs alone through the rear channel. In this scenario I am pretty sure you would achieve better sound staging by running your rears off the rear output and driving the subs from the rear channel pass through. Time alignement on the sub doesnt make much difference to my ears ( I drive my empeg through a Pioneer DEQ9200 which provides 6 channel time alignment).

I run it like this now (fader controls subwoofer), and I'm perfectly happy with it.

You have to carefully adjust your amp gains until your front/rear fading is where you like it, but once you've done that, you're golden.

Note that I've had a FAQ Entry on this topic for a while now. Illustrations and everything.

Hijack may ???? in the future give time alignment on all four channels.

No, it will not. And cannot. This has been discussed before. The limitation is within the hardware DSP, and cannot be solved in software.

Holy Crap! Tony, I am sorry for missing such an entry. I have to keep reminding myself that the Empeg FAQ is more than just that. It is also a complete car stereo installation FAQ.

Crutchfield should be packaging your FAQ with every car stereo they sell.

Aw, thanks.

Your idea sounds good.

Last summer when I did my sound in my car, I decided on a slight variation and am quite pleased with it. I ran the front outputs to my amp, and the rear outputs also run to the bass channel on my amp, and I wired in a fader knob between the rear out on the empeg and the input on the amp. The knob acts as a passive attenuator to adjust the bass, and it works quite nicely. It required some adjustments on the amp, but works perfectly. I positioned the bass knob in my central concole, close to my hand.

I'm probably getting a new car soon, however, and might consider your solution, as it requires less wiring and drilling of parts and taking things apart to install the knob.

I use the setup you just mentioned already and I love it, Im actually running all four door speakers off of two channels for a lower ohm load and more power, and then my subs off of the rear channels. It works well if you dont ever fade your door speakers. I do have a remote gain control on my subs and love that, because I listen to everytype of music and bass can vary so much.

I am assuming that you have 2 amps...
In light of that, you might be beter to do this :

All 4 outs respectively to your 4 channel amp, pass through that amp to the sub amp,
use the (rockford sub amp) bass control to adjust gain on subs.
If you can't do this, (pass through), then stick with what you've described.
run the front out on empeg to all 4 speakers and rear to the subs.
that way there you dont have to send bass to rear speakers

What about an active crossover, like the sony XEC505 ?
It has a four channel input (front L/R and rear L/R) and a six channel output (Front, Rear and Sub). You can change front, rear and sub -levels individually.
Does a great job in my car!

I have a different setup, but also have a remote gain control for my sub channels of that amp. All I can say is that using the rear channels will work, I've done it before. But after having that little knob to easily change the sub gain, I'll never go back.

There may be a variety of controllers out there that can mimic this for other amps without such a feature.

I highly recommend it myself, especially with an empeg on shuffle, sometimes three or four songs in a row need to be adjsuted. "New Order - up, ooh, KMFDM, back down a notch.".

The whole point is to be able to change the sub volume independently of the other speakers while driving. I was wondering whether I could do it without buying an amp with remote gain control.

If I get an amp with remote gain control I will probably use it. It all depends on whether I am feeling cheap or saucy that day.

I do have two amps, and would have done this setup is able, But I am using a two channel amp to push my mids and highs, for the main reason until I upgrade my speakers again, I have no reason to get a better amp, which Im only using because I had to have an empeg and it has no internal amp. But thanks for the suggestion anyway.

I am using the new fosgate bd1500 and it works great i ran the remote gain that it gomes with to the fornt of my dash and im always adjusting for better bass.Comes in really handy,somtimes you can pick them up on ubid for pretty cheap.

How do you like that BD1500, I looked into them but I couldnt use one because of the way my subs are set up so I went to an 800.2 instead, and I love it, It pushes about 300 watts to each of my 10s at the ohm load I'm using.

I love it some one in the forum said that fosgate is a lower quailty amp but mine sure pounds very clearly,I also have thought I hade the 800.a2 going to my highs,thats what I thought I purchased.then I pulled my rear seat out and looked at my amps and it was a 750s fosgate 2channel.The sterio shop said it took the place of the 800.2 fosgates new line.