# Kenwood Excelon "4 volt" preouts?



## Fields92 (Jan 27, 2014)

I had an old Alpine CDA-9847 feeding an Alpine MRX-F65 4 channel amp. The Alpine HU had 2 volt preouts, and I had my gain for my front components set to about 1/3 of the way up (about where 3 volts would be) and it was plenty loud enough for me. 

I just upgraded to a Kenwood Excelon HU with 4 volt preouts. With it, I have to have my gain set to over half way (about where 1.5 volts would be) to get the same volume. 

With both units, I use the volume at 80% of max, and I have the internal amplifier off. 

Why am I having to increase the gain for Kenwood's "4 volt" preouts? Is there some setting I need to change to get the full 4 volts? Anyone else have this problem?


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## hpilot2004 (Dec 13, 2011)

Where is your volume at on the h/u when setting your gains for amplifier?


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## Fields92 (Jan 27, 2014)

For the Alpine HU I had it at 29 out of 36 I think.

For this Kenwood, I use 29 out of 35.


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## hpilot2004 (Dec 13, 2011)

I believe my h/u clips at 31 out of 35, so maybe try bumping your h/u volume up a bit and reset the gains.


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## Fields92 (Jan 27, 2014)

I can try turning the HU volume up 2 or 3, but it just doesn't seem right that Alpine's "2 volts" would be this much more powerful than Kenwood's "4 volts".


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## Kevin K (Feb 11, 2013)

4 volt max. I thought I would have an issue with the miniDSP... nope It seems the range up to max is not very linear.


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## Fields92 (Jan 27, 2014)

Well that's some BS. How can they get away with calling them "4 volt" preouts when they can't even do 2 volts rms?

Are Alpine & Pioneer's newer model HUs the same way?


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## Fields92 (Jan 27, 2014)

I could have sworn that I saw somewhere that it was CEA compliant. It turns out it isn't.

Now I'm wondering what other specs they've lied about.


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## 63flip (Oct 16, 2013)

I am currently running Excelon HU's in 2 of my vehicles. One is an x790 w/5v pre-outs the other an x581 w/4v pre-outs. Both of these are around 7 yrs old. When I installed them they replaced older Kenwood HU's that were both 2v. The first thing I had to do with both was turn my gain down by at least 50% on my amps. 
I know they claim 4v on the new models but maybe they're not the same quality.


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## minbari (Mar 3, 2011)

Fields92 said:


> Well that's some BS. How can they get away with calling them "4 volt" preouts when they can't even do 2 volts rms?
> 
> Are Alpine & Pioneer's newer model HUs the same way?


it depends on how they labeled it too. If the alpine says "2 volts rms" and the kenwood says "4volts max" then they are about the same thing.

4volts max would be 2.8v RMS and 2v rms would be 2.8 volt max. that 1 volt difference wouldnt be very audible.


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## New2SQ (Dec 9, 2013)

minbari said:


> it depends on how they labeled it too. If the alpine says "2 volts rms" and the kenwood says "4volts max" then they are about the same thing.
> 
> 4volts max would be 2.8v RMS and 2v rms would be 2.8 volt max. that 1 volt difference wouldnt be very audible.


Never knew that! Thanks for the heads up. I still like Kenwood's ease of use.


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## nineball76 (Mar 13, 2010)

Excelon makes 4 volts at full volume. It's a perfectly clean 4v. The way Excelon is designed it barely makes 1 volt at half volume. And then will add voltage very quickly the closer it gets to max. Mine only makes around 3v at 33/35. 

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## hpilot2004 (Dec 13, 2011)

nineball76 said:


> Excelon makes 4 volts at full volume. It's a perfectly clean 4v. The way Excelon is designed it barely makes 1 volt at half volume. And then will add voltage very quickly the closer it gets to max. Mine only makes around 3v at 33/35.
> 
> sent from Tapatalk, via Sony Z1 badassness!


Which model?


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## nineball76 (Mar 13, 2010)

I have the dnx9980hd but they all do that. 

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## hpilot2004 (Dec 13, 2011)

Maybe a dumb question, but always wondered why not use all of the decks available volume to get the full 4 volts from the deck, if it is clean?


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## nineball76 (Mar 13, 2010)

Good question. I wish they would have made it like that. Where 1/4 volume is 1v and so on. One of the things I don't like about excelon head units.


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## nineball76 (Mar 13, 2010)

Mine is actually 5v


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## Fields92 (Jan 27, 2014)

nineball76 said:


> Excelon makes 4 volts at full volume. It's a perfectly clean 4v. The way Excelon is designed it barely makes 1 volt at half volume. And then will add voltage very quickly the closer it gets to max. Mine only makes around 3v at 33/35.
> 
> sent from Tapatalk, via Sony Z1 badassness!


Interesting. . . I'll find the exact volume at which mine clips and reset the gains.

But I'm still skeptical that it's 4v preouts can be as powerful as my Alpine's 2v preouts.


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## nineball76 (Mar 13, 2010)

You can run your volume all the way up. It doesn't clip unless you boost your eq or sub settings. 

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## diamondjoequimby (Jun 30, 2009)

You wouldn't want a linear increase in output voltage. To make a noticeable volume difference at higher volumes you need quite a bit more power. You need that bigger jump in output signal to be fed to an amplifier when you are at say, 80%, of the volume scale.

Every headunit does this. Some are more dramatic than others.

The Kenwoods are clean all the way out as long as no loudness or eq boost is applied.


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## Thoraudio (Aug 9, 2005)

nineball76 said:


> Excelon makes 4 volts at full volume. It's a perfectly clean 4v. The way Excelon is designed it barely makes 1 volt at half volume. And then will add voltage very quickly the closer it gets to max. Mine only makes around 3v at 33/35.
> 
> sent from Tapatalk, via Sony Z1 badassness!


Most all headunits have log scale volume controls.


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## Fields92 (Jan 27, 2014)

I haven't had a chance to play with my HU any more yet (I'm living on a college campus and it's friggin cold outside). But I've done some digging around, and it looks like you guys are right about eXcelons doing a legit 4 volts at the right volume.

A lot of people are saying they don't clip at all at 35/35, and some say they do clip at 34. 

So has anyone put an oscope on an X697? Should I use 33 just to be sure or is 35 good as long as the eq is flat?


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## kyheng (Jan 31, 2007)

Check the spec of the both HUs and you will know, 4V at what ohm and 2V at what ohm do have a difference.


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## Fields92 (Jan 27, 2014)

Okay, Kenwood's site says 4.0V @ 600Ω.


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## Fields92 (Jan 27, 2014)

I just reset my gains for the volume at 35/35 and WOW did that make a huge difference!

I now have my gain for my mids at just above 4 volts (set with 1khz 0 db tone by ear), so I'm probably getting about 3.5-3.75 volts from the HU realistically, which is much nicer than the roughly 1.5 volts I was getting before. 

Before, I was using the volume at 28 and the sub at +15 (I'm used to Alpine HUs). The sub sounds so much cleaner now that I think I was probably clipping it before. . . oops.

Anyway, I now have the sub at 0 because I noticed an audible change in the pitch of the 50 hz tone with the sub at +3, at volume 35/35. Does that sound like about the right place for the sub preout to clip on these units? Or am I crazy?


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## nineball76 (Mar 13, 2010)

That's pretty close. I think mine is clean at +2 on the sub which is like 5.2v. And +3 is a very soft clip at 5.25-5.3v. 

Glad it worked out for ya. You'll probably enjoy most listening at 30-32. That's where I spend most of my time. The sound really comes alive there. 

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