everlast
10-15-2006, 12:41 AM
I've owned a few e30s and read a lot about upgrading to an aftermarket deck on this board, other boards and the bmwe34.net site.. and I've concluded that not all e34 stereos are the same.
Simply put, my factory amp does not use common ground inputs, it uses isolated inputs. Its the same situation as the problem that dude on bmwe34.net describes about having to fade to front / rear to get sound. Mine did that too. I had all sorts of trouble, finally trying a PAC and a SVEN4 OEM/line adapter. All failed.
Tonight, I tested the input wires (which struck me as odd as the amp has 4 negative input wires). As I suspected, none are common to each other nor are they grounded.
Next, I hooked up the factory deck with power, and used it to drive a speaker directly. Also worked fine.
So either my 'amp' is not an amp at all, simply a crossover, or my amp has isolated inputs. In either case, I've not seen this situation on the board anywhere.
My deck is now running great simply hooked up from speaker outputs, all eight wires.
Hope this helps someone else in the future.
Jay
PS. I have a JVC deck that has the color option to change the display to any color. I took the face apart and painting the surround and plastic SEM black. It looks pretty badass. :)
PSS. I was brave / foolish to try the deck hooked up this way. It worked, but could have smoked the deck. Your mileage may vary. Proceed with caution.
Simply put, my factory amp does not use common ground inputs, it uses isolated inputs. Its the same situation as the problem that dude on bmwe34.net describes about having to fade to front / rear to get sound. Mine did that too. I had all sorts of trouble, finally trying a PAC and a SVEN4 OEM/line adapter. All failed.
Tonight, I tested the input wires (which struck me as odd as the amp has 4 negative input wires). As I suspected, none are common to each other nor are they grounded.
Next, I hooked up the factory deck with power, and used it to drive a speaker directly. Also worked fine.
So either my 'amp' is not an amp at all, simply a crossover, or my amp has isolated inputs. In either case, I've not seen this situation on the board anywhere.
My deck is now running great simply hooked up from speaker outputs, all eight wires.
Hope this helps someone else in the future.
Jay
PS. I have a JVC deck that has the color option to change the display to any color. I took the face apart and painting the surround and plastic SEM black. It looks pretty badass. :)
PSS. I was brave / foolish to try the deck hooked up this way. It worked, but could have smoked the deck. Your mileage may vary. Proceed with caution.