Clarion GR10BT sub out RCA connectors

[stevenk2]

What are the sub out RCA connectors for on the Clarion GR10BT on my AR195? Can you connect a sub directly to one or both of those, or are they pre-amp connections meant for running into an amplifier?

Granted, I imagine the best solution is to run a sub off of a dedicated amp, but I'm just looking to do something temporary for this season until I can save up for a total system upgrade.

 

[stevenk2]

Just for grins, I did some playing around this evening with the stereo, a sub I had sitting around and a voltmeter - no luck getting anything to work. The RCA connectors each have a positive and negative lead, so presumably you could run a sub off of each plug, but when I tried plugging an RCA plug with some bare leads on the other end wired to the positive and negative terminals of my sub, I got nothing. I played around with the settings on the head unit some, you can turn the subwoofer off and on via the menu, and when the sub is turned on, the display shows 'SUBWOOFER ON'. You can also adjust the bandpass filter between 80, 120 and 160 Hz as well as the gain between 0 and 20. When I wasn't having any luck getting sound out of the sub, I pulled the leads off and attached my voltmeter to them, got a big fat 0 on the display no matter which settings I chose on the head unit. I also tried the voltmeter probes directly on/in the RCA jacks coming off the head unit, still nothing. I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong here, but I would think that even if these were preamp outputs, I would still see something on my voltmeter.

Anybody have any thoughts on what I'm doing wrong here? Or have I maybe got a faulty head unit? I may try getting on Crutchfield chat tomorrow and see if they have any ideas as well..

 

[Dixie Highway]

RCA outputs on the stereo are non-amplified signal connections, meaning they output a very low (1.5-2) voltage output with just milliamperes of current. These signals are to be fed into an amplifier, which will then “amplify” that signal in order to power a speaker or subwoofer. Your head unit is likely just fine.

 

[stevenk2]

I kinda figured as much...….sounds like I need either a dedicated amp for the sub or a multi-channel amp with a sub input. I guess I was kinda hoping with the options on the head unit like they were that those outputs were powered, though even if they were, I wasn't really expecting to be overwhelmed with the performance.

 

[BrandonG]

Yes the RCA's are meant to be fed into an amplifier. That head unit doesn't even put out enough power to feed the 4 speakers the boat comes with I don't think.