Another new Alpine interface

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Kapt

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Me too. At least everything is working as expected now. The system sounds phenomenal even though it's missing one amp that I had to send in for some repairs.

Do you think that could be causing the problem? I bought a new Kicker four channel one time and it wouldn't turn off, thus draining my battery. Returned it for another new one and it worked fine
 

Kapt

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Incidentally, I have my shopping cart ready on Amazon. Just waiting to get the nerve up to spend another $600 on stuff I don't really need :D
 

TomT

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Do you think that could be causing the problem? I bought a new Kicker four channel one time and it wouldn't turn off, thus draining my battery. Returned it for another new one and it worked fine

Oh no, that amp was immediately pulled the first time it was fired up. It had major noise issues and shut itself down in a matter of seconds.

We definitely traced the issue to the remote turn on/off trigger wire from the PAC being constantly powered on. That meant that as soon as it was plugged in everything was continuously powered up.

You might want to wait on the PAC piece until I hear back from my installer.
 

Kapt

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Sounds like a plan. I could always leave my LOC back there to turn the amps on and off if need be. Rather do it right though
 

salazarn54

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I'm at a complete crossroad right now. I had all my speakers replaced with hertz speaker and I'm running a jl audio 900/5 to these speakers also using a audison bitone and I have to admit. My truck sounds horrible. Tons of distortion if I turn it up past 20 on the volume. I'm wondering if they just aren't tuning the bitone properly. But at this point I'm willing to replace the bitone with this product to see if it sounds any better.


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TomT

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I'm at a complete crossroad right now. I had all my speakers replaced with hertz speaker and I'm running a jl audio 900/5 to these speakers also using a audison bitone and I have to admit. My truck sounds horrible. Tons of distortion if I turn it up past 20 on the volume. I'm wondering if they just aren't tuning the bitone properly. But at this point I'm willing to replace the bitone with this product to see if it sounds any better.


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I've been running almost the same system for over a year. Hertz Hi-Energy 3 ways, coaxials, and a sub with a Bit One. My amps were different (Sinfoni and Zapco) but it was essentially the same system. It sounded really good.

Do you have the Alpine system or the standard one?

Edit to add: This would not replace the Bit. This would go in between the factory head unit and the Bit.
 
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salazarn54

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I've been running almost the same system for over a year. Hertz Hi-Energy 3 ways, coaxials, and a sub with a Bit One. My amps were different (Sinfoni and Zapco) but it was essentially the same system. It sounded really good.



Do you have the Alpine system or the standard one?



My truck came with the alpine system. This is what really bothers me. I know I have quality equipment and it just doesn't sound as good as I expected. And I don't understand why. The amps and processor are the same ones I had in my charger. And it sounded amazing. But in my ram it's been a complete disappointment. And I can't understand why.


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TomT

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My truck came with the alpine system. This is what really bothers me. I know I have quality equipment and it just doesn't sound as good as I expected. And I don't understand why. The amps and processor are the same ones I had in my charger. And it sounded amazing. But in my ram it's been a complete disappointment. And I can't understand why.

The most likely issue is that the Bit is not getting a good signal from the Alpine amp. On mine we went around and around until I read about adding resistors to each wire just before the Bit. The Alpine amp likes to see resistance before it will put out a good signal. How did they tap into the factory system to pull the signal that feeds into the Bit?

There is also a possibility that the Bit is bad (I had mine replaced once) but that seems unlikely since you had it in a previous car.

Where are you located and what shop installed your system? This unit (with the Toslink upgrade) would allow you to pull a digital signal before the Alpine amp and take it completely out of the audio chain.
 

salazarn54

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The most likely issue is that the Bit is not getting a good signal from the Alpine amp. On mine we went around and around until I read about adding resistors to each wire just before the Bit. The Alpine amp likes to see resistance before it will put out a good signal. How did they tap into the factory system to pull the signal that feeds into the Bit?



There is also a possibility that the Bit is bad (I had mine replaced once) but that seems unlikely since you had it in a previous car.



Where are you located and what shop installed your system? This unit (with the Toslink upgrade) would allow you to pull a digital signal before the Alpine amp and take it completely out of the audio chain.



It's interesting you say that considering I used this bit before I don't think it's bad. So I did some research and also read about adding resistors. This was the first I heard of that. So I went to my local car toys where a fellow car club memeber works and asked to speak to one of his techs. And he pretty much said the same thing. Said he had the same issue on a previous ram he had done. And he recommended using this product. It was made to specifically to solve the problem I have. Have you seen this or heard of this? What are your thoughts. b48bfb27a671c7cef678b39f6a2743ee.jpg


I live in Houston Texas and my install was done by stereo efx. They've done 4 previous cars for me. So I really do trust there work. They just seem to be having a hard time with my truck. (FYI it's a 2017) I really hope your right about the whole resistor thing.

Here's the funny thing the subs sound amazing. It's just the high that sound crappy. b65d895faba451a913164e62fb67d13f.jpg

This is my sub setup


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TomT

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I haven't seen that piece before but it sounds like a more fully thought out version of what we did. I basically ran over to a local electronics store and bought 8 (I think) resistors. I'd have to go look to remember what size.

I was exactly where you are, extremely disappointed with the whole thing. I even considered swapping in the non-Alpine head unit just to make it all work. Once the resistors went in all that changed.

Except for the remote power wire issue (which you can get around by using an accessory power source instead) the PAC unit would remove the need for the resistors completely. I won't know until probably next week if my issue was just a bad unit or a design flaw.

If your shop will solder in resistors for free/cheap, the materials cost would probably be less than $50. Maybe a lot less depending on where you find them.
 

salazarn54

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I haven't seen that piece before but it sounds like a more fully thought out version of what we did. I basically ran over to a local electronics store and bought 8 (I think) resistors. I'd have to go look to remember what size.

I was exactly where you are, extremely disappointed with the whole thing. I even considered swapping in the non-Alpine head unit just to make it all work. Once the resistors went in all that changed.

Except for the remote power wire issue (which you can get around by using an accessory power source instead) the PAC unit would remove the need for the resistors completely. I won't know until probably next week if my issue was just a bad unit or a design flaw.

If your shop will solder in resistors for free/cheap, the materials cost would probably be less than $50. Maybe a lot less depending on where you find them.



I gotta be honest this is a bit of a relief. I really appreciate your input. Obviously the bit is a higher quality product so I would rather stick with it. I think I'm going to pull
The trigger on these audiocontrol resistors and have them install and hope this will make a difference. Thank you again for your input and I will keep you posted.


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Definitely let us know how it goes. Just wanted to make sure you understand that the PAC unit does not replace the Bit. It basically replaces the cables going from the factory Alpine amp to the Bit.
 

Kapt

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Did you figure out your issues with the battery yet?
 

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Did you figure out your issues with the battery yet?

Still waiting on the replacement unit from PAC. In the meantime we tapped into the cigarette lighter power to use as a remote turn on. PAC said they haven't heard of a unit with this constant power issue so we'll see if the replacement resolves it.

Should hopefully be done some time next week.
 

Kapt

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Oh, cool. Good to know they hadn't heard of the issue before. However, I guess if it's working OK tapped into the lighter it's not that big of a deal. Trip to Tahoe Tuesday for the wife's birthday. After that I'll see what my wallet says about finally making my order
 
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