bad pre-amps, now what?

[aktalon]

A while back I bought a nice Clarion double din CD player over ebay. Well after many hassles, I have found out that the preamp outputs are bad. Assuming that the jerk on ebay won't give me my money back, my only options are to get a new deck, or use the speaker level inputs on the amp. The amp is only powering a component set in the front, and 6x9s in the back. My car has a full turbo back 2.5 exhaust and fuel pump, so it definatly has some noise. Will I notice the loss of sound quality? I don't need like competition sound or anything. Should I just say hell with it, and get a new deck? Or should I use the speaker level inputs? Any advice is appreciated.

Travis

[91TalonAWD]

I had the same experience with eBay. A while back I bought a Alpine deck, 7840 rotary volume, remote, basically top of the line. I received it and it was in good condition so I just threw it in my room. Later on I went to install it and nothing happened. I took it in to the authorized Alpine electronics dealer and they quoted me $230 to fix it. I've had other Alpine stuff repaired there and they only have charged me $75, so it was definately messed up. Did you ever take it in to see how much to get it fixed? You can even contact Clarion, they usually have good rates direcly from the factory. Is your double din tape and CD with the controller-type control on the bottom left? If it is I've had the same one and it's worth getting fixed. I wouldn't get a new deck, that deck is pretty expensive. Most manufacturers charge a flat labor rate plus parts. Give them a call and let us know how it goes.

[91TSIAWD_Mark]

If your amp has a built-in crossover, it should be ok to use speaker level. There will be a slight loss in quality, but you might not be able to notice it.

If you want to use a external X-over, your screwed cause active ones need RCA ins.

[sab4you]

you can buy line level adapters that change it to RCA.

There are good ones that keep the level from getting too high, or their are cheap ones, that pritty much change from wire to rca.

They are definately not the best thing to do, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Check out a car stereo store and tell them what you need.