jazzymt

Glad to hear the happy trail of customers continues. Thx for the reviews & continued orders guys.

Got a question for ya if you can help.

 

I have had the Jazzy board installed for about a year and a half. Yesterday I had the left chl od my stereo cutting out on CD's and my Sirius. The AM/FM is fine.

 

Do you think it could be the ribbon cable or could it be the CD player itself.

 

Just trying to get ideas before I yank my stereo out.

 

Thanks....

It's just an audio connection - has nothing to do with the ribbon cable or radio. Either the audio cable is a little loose at either end or the jack on the aux-in board itself is a little loose. Usually just reinserting the cable, jiggling it or turning it is enough to get it to work again - mine actually did it a couple weeks last summer & then it went away on its own & never came back.

 

If you can't get it to work after reinserting the cables & such, I can replace the jack on the board...or if you're handy with a soldering iron & would rather do it yourself, I can send you a new audio jack - just let me know.

Would you happen to have a PDF of the walkthrough you sent with the unit?

The installation instructions are available at the beginning of this thread & on my website: http://www.jazzyengineering.com/Installation_Manual_1-2.pdf

Uh - I assume by "above" you're referring to Legacy777? The problem he was having was that his CD volume was being adversely affected by the board - which is not normal.

 

It is common however for an iPod & Sirius especially (I dunno why, but Sirius units seem to be on the average the worst) to have slightly lower voltage signals than the internal line levels for the CD player. I would expect the signal from HK D&P to be the best out of the three, but it's possible (depending on your encodings) to still be low.

 

8-10 notches higher sounds less than ideal, but given the sources, essentially normal. I'd say my XM unit has an average output requiring only about 3-4 notches higher, but it is adjustable, so when set to 8/10 (instead of the default 5/10) it's essentially even. If it requires 20-30 notches higher to get the equivalent volume output, you're either using a headphone output, or something isn't connected correctly.

 

If your output is normally low (headphone jack of mp3 player or some sat radios), I'd recommend trying something like a Boostaroo.

Yea, I'm stumped. It sounds like the audio amp inside the radio isn't working for some reason, but I dunno why that would be. I've never heard of that happening before.

 

If you can't get it to work & your dealer won't replace it under warranty, let me know - I've got a couple extras I could sell ya - or you could get one of those mp3 units on ebay.

Ok, question. I just did the install of the plug and play. Now, I'm not getting any sound out of my speakers. I can tune the radio and play CD's, but I get no sound whatsoever:confused:. I quadruple checked my connections, and everything looks good. But it seems like nothing is being sent to the speakers. Does anyone have any advice? Thanks

Wayne

Uhhh....

 

...two stupid questions - check the volume? & check the radio harness?

 

The aux-in board shouldn't be able to even affect the radio functions. Even if you leave the CD module & aux-in board completely disconnected, the radio should still work...

 

...if CD's play and you can tune the radio...I have no idea.

...(the cd player is quieter then it used to be). I can turn the volume on the CD player all the way up to 40, and it's reasonably loud, but it's not really loud. Is this normal, have others experienced this?

Something's wrong. I don't normally need to turn my CD player or XM above 10 to be "loud" & above about 22 will be too loud for the speakers to handle on either one...are you sure the stereo cables are plugged in securely at both ends? I suspect the R/L channels are shorted from a partially inserted cable & drawing eachother's signals down...

Does anyone have the experience dropping the screws holding the bracket of the HU inside the center console? I dropped one of them and can't find it. Will it cause any problem?

Nah - it's just sitting on the carpet somewhere. You don't need all the screws to hold the radio in securely, but I'd bet if you fished around down there with a magnet you could pick it up.

Jazzy- can I ask how many of these bad boys you've sold over this past while..?

Enough to become dependent on the extra income - not enough to quit my underpaid day job. Honestly, I lost count quite awhile ago - I've been sellin' 'em for about a year & 1/2 now, but they've gotten pretty slow in the last couple months.

Thanks Jazzy. Do you have any of these for other cars or other model years?

Nope - I just needed a way to hook my XM up to my Outback, I didn't develop anything else. I can get PAC audio parts at "dealer" price and they make *lots* of other vehicle adapters, but so far, no one has requested one specifically from me since they're available tons of other places (who actually stock them) already.

 

Anyway - thanks for the kind words everybody. Still nice to hear my "second job" is appreciated - I know I still use mine every day.

Is the output from the ic-rca at line level?

 

err just answered my own question, but does anyone know how the ic-rca output/amplification compares to the belkin line-level/charger?

AFAIK - none of the cables/adapters do anything to amplify the signal - they just tie into the line level signals the iPod provides.

Will this "splice" disable any use of the actual outlet? like if I do this and I have my ipod running could I still plug in a phone charger?

No - splicing into the power wires will not affect the functionality of the outlet. I spliced into the power wires for the cigarette lighter for my XM and my wife often plugs in her phone charger to that same outlet on road trips w/no probs.

Jazzy, does the ic-rca cable come w/ instructions?

No - just the basic installation diagram I provide on the site:

http://www.jazzyengineering.com/ProKit-iPod2.pdf

 

As ZinFreak and others have said - basically you just need to hook it up to power to provide charging (actually, you don't need to - it will function w/o charging if you want too) and plug it in.

Several folks w/Spec B's & VDC Outbacks have installed it w/no probs. Silent MP3's also works fine.

The ipod cable has dual outputs - both RCA & 1/8" stereo. You can ignore the RCA outputs. The iPod cable connects to the GLI - and the GLI connects to the aux-in board. Here - check it out on the iPod Pro kit installation diagram:

 

http://www.jazzyengineering.com/ProKit-iPod2.pdf

+1 to what wimwam said.

Hey guys - I know a few of you are probably struggling with non-line level output devices :: aka, headphone jacks = low volume. I've found a few devices out there that "work" ok, but nothing that really fits in with this setup terribly well. A few guys on the Saabaru forums seem to have stubmled across a good, cheap, simple pre-amp though that I thought I'd pass the word on for...I haven't had a chance to try it on my laptop & Archos yet, but they swear by it. Anyway, I figured a few of yas might be interested.

 

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103656&cp=&sr=1&origkw=headphones+booster&kw=headphones+booster&parentPage=search

http://rsk.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/pRS1C-2266226w345.jpg

AFAIK - your stereo is basically the same as ours - and therefore made by Panasonic/Matsushita. Only the Japanese made Legacy/Outbacks have OEM Kenwood stereos...AFAIK...

I got my kit a few months ago and installation went well. However, it wasn't perfect. I must have shook the disc-changer too much or something because it didn't want to accept any cd's after I replaced it. I took it out, jiggled it a bit, shrugged and put it back in. This time it accepted the silent CD just fine and I instantly fell in love.

 

until

 

this last weekend when I (finally) tried adding a 2nd disc I didn't have on my iPod yet. The changer wouldn't accept it. Knowing something was wrong I ejected the silent disc and tried re-inserting it and now this disc gets spit out as well. Before I pull everything out again and... well, I dunno, jiggle it some more(?) is there an obvious problem here?

 

edit: to be more specific, here is what happens: I insert the disc, I hear it spin, then the changer spits it out. It does this exact thing regardless of which slot I try.

I've tried being sneaky and inserting a 2nd disc before the first one gets ejected. (selecting a different slot and pressing the insert button) I can get away with it but then when I switch back to the first disc, after the 2nd has been rejected of course, the first spins up and gets spat out as well.

Well - this is a little late now - sorry, I dunno why I don't get notifications sometimes. Anyway - what you describe sounds a lot like what happens on the extra CD player I have on my desk. I knocked it off the desk at one point & it landed pretty hard on the floor. In the process, it broke the mechanism that "grips" the CD to spin it up after it changes disks. For some reason, it doesn't have any problem spinning it up once it's "gripped" it once, but if I eject it or change CD's, I have to sorta mess with it to get it to "take hold" the first time or it will just spin w/o the CD & eventually spit it back out like a bad CD.

 

You didn't *drop* your CD player did you?

A question/comment about installation: are there particular hot spots in the radio that we should be aware of when routing the audio patch cable?

Not that I know of...the MOFSET is at the back of the radio & screwed into the giant heat sink. Everything else should be fairly passive.

 

Glad your install went well & you're enjoying the board. You can order the other parts from me if you want - my prices are about the same as everyone else. Of course, that means you can get them from pretty much anywhere else too.

Impressive - nice work. I still want to do this some day, but you guys don't do much to make it look easy. I say leave it red though.

As far as the kits - the iPod Pro kit comes with a GLI. I have made it optional (you can buy the iPod Install kit w/o it) but I have been told time & time again that it should be just required - ie. with an iPod install, I think you're going to want it, but it's all about sound quality - some people don't mind a little buzzing in the background...some people it drives insane.

Indeed. Thanks - I'll get your order out asap.

Cool - we finally busted through 100k views on this thread!

Not that it has anything to do with my aux-in mod (??), but AFAIK, no one has ever tried swapping only the CD changer units between radios. I've always been curious if the 6CD changer could be swapped into the 1CD radio...

Your air bag light?

 

I might take credit for a radio-related problem, but I don't see how this mod, or any mistaken installation thereof could cause a problem with the SRS.

 

...better go see the dealer.

It just depends on how you're going to use it. I don't need a jack availble because I almost always only listen to my XM on it - I think most others also only listen to one thing on it.

 

That's a pretty clean install though. It looks good. I would have had the jack located nearer the armrest cubby (or inside it), but that's just my personal preference. I assume this location works better for you.

Uh... when it says that "Best Way" is the only shipping method available for this item, what does that mean?

It means I ship whatever way I want - - j/k. In the shipping information - it says I ship everything USPS Priority...in your case, USPS Global Priority.

Do you think there is a difference in sound quality too? I assume that there probably is since a 1:1 unit is losing some of the signal.

I do think there are quality differences between GLI's, although not necessarily related to the uneven windings. The signal response on the PAC GLI is nearly perfect. The uneven windings just help prevent voltage loss.

 

Regarding your Sirius unit - it seems almost universal that the Sirius units don't put out a high enough voltage signal for some reason while XM units do. Considering the different manufacturers, I have no idea why that would be, but I have yet to hear from a Sirius owner that didn't think it was a little quiet and have yet to hear from an XM owner that thought anything was lacking at all.

 

On my XM unit - I have an adjustment (in the menus) to turn up the output of the line level signal too, from one to 10 I have it set on 8 right now I think - often I listen to it at 5-8 on the radio and can hear it quite well driving around. Does your Sirius unit maybe have a similar adjustment available?

 

If it doesn't, I think you need a preamp to get the best sound out of it. If you can't find one in Canaydia, I can sell ya mine for $30 and just order another one with my next parts order. It's the Turbo 1 on this page. I've only used it once for a long road trip when we hooked up the laptop for book tapes off the 'net (damn DRM), but it worked really well. You might be able to find one on ebay Canada for cheaper too.

I'm going to have to buy this from you Jazzy since crutchfield doesn't ship to Canada...

Bummer...I'm beginning to think shipping USPS to Canada isn't the best way to ship stuff either, but Fedex & UPS are more expensive...

 

Anyway, regarding the 1:1.3 windings - yea, the idea is that it offsets some of the loss by transmitting the signal through a passive transformer. It will not make a huge difference though, just enough to offset using it - if your signal is far too quiet now, you probably are not using a line level signal? ...so you need a pre-amp to bring up the voltage level of your signal up to line level voltages. That's what I use with my Archos & Laptop when I hook them up in the car. PAC makes one, I think called the Turbo X - anyway, that's what I use...

Nope - I've got tons of everything again.