Another car sound thread!

[pundit]

I've just installed a new CD head unit and amp.
Okay so it's not a color matched Nakamichi or top end Clarion. I bought a Sony CDX-7710. It's a gun metal aluminium finish with a crapola blue display.
On the postive side it has 6 x 4volt pre outs (front, rear & sub) plus an aux in.

It also can play Sony Atrac encoded discs as well as MP3's and has Burr Brown 24bit 96khz convertors (whether that makes any difference in a car is another thing!)
The U.S. version CDX-7710 doesn't have 24bit convertors. You have to order the CDX-7715 to get them.

At Autobarn it was reduced from $699.00 to $429.00 but after I bought it JB Hi-Fi had them for $379.00... DOH!!! I've fitted a 4channel 4 x 50watt (true RMS) amp and have done the ubiquitous factory booster crossover adaption (removed the amp module and direct wired to the crossover) which seems to work fine... however, there appears to be something different about the overall EQ.

The sound is definately more dynamic and detailed but the low mids from the front bass speakers are now really quite thick and boomy. As I haven't added a sub yet and rolled the bottom end out of the front speakers I know things can only improve, but concerning the Blaupunkt factory amp, I suspect there is also some electronic equalisation going on in the amp.

Mine has two plug in pcb's which, based upon the components fitted, appears to be some kind of active fixed equaliser, not a crossover that's done by the inductors (coils) and large electrolytic capacitors.

The input to the booster amp has to first attenuate the amplified output from the factory head unit. Then the signal is buffered and fed into these plugin pcb's.

I'll run a signal generator through one of them sometime soon and see what effect these pcb's have on the ouput.

[Incantation]

6x 4volt outs? dude.. that's a good deck

[kev535i]

that model looks great, i have a lower model sony and just carefully took the detachable face apart, quite easy, till i got to just the frame ie no buttons and just resprayed it a nice matching black, i then used some lighting colour filter in front of the blue screen to turn it a lovely shade of bmw orange

[pundit]

that model looks great, i have a lower model sony and just carefully took the detachable face apart, quite easy, till i got to just the frame ie no buttons and just resprayed it a nice matching black, i then used some lighting colour filter in front of the blue screen to turn it a lovely shade of bmw orange

Can you post a pic? - Ta!

[pundit]

Here's a pic of the CDX-F7710...




Key features

* Drive-S HX Deck (24bit/96khz Burr Brown convertors)
* MP3 Playback
* ATRAC3plus Playback
* CDR/RW Playback
* CD-Text Display/Scroll
* SSIR-EXA Digital Synthesiser Tuner
* FM18/AM12
* RDS/EON
* S-MOSFET 4 x 52 Watts
* Pre Out x 2
* High Voltage Pre Out: 4V
* Sub Out
* Aux-In
* DSO2
* EQ7 - Seven Band Equaliser
* Bass/Treble Control
* Loudness
* High Pass Filter
* Low Pass Filter
* BBE MP
* CD Changer Control
* MD Changer Control
* Detachable Front Panel
* Remote: RM-X154

It's Sony 2nd top of the range deck after the CDXM7810.
The only difference is the CDXM7810 has a motorised face (big deal) and looks crap. All the other specs are identical.

It appears the Asian-Pacific version of the Sony CDX-F7710 has the Drive-S HX transport which has the 24bit convertors.
The CDX-F7710 sold in other regions appears to have the standard convertors.

I might try some colored film behind the display window.

Sony CDX-F7710 prices in Melbourne during early April...

Retail $699.00
Autobarn $429.00
JB Hi-Fi $379.00

[kev535i]

sorry for the delay but i had to change the camera battery!! heres one i just took sorry about quality but i think you get the idea, that screen was blue like yours and the face was silver!

kev

[pundit]

sorry for the delay but i had to change the camera battery!! heres one i just took sorry about quality but i think you get the idea, that screen was blue like yours and the face was silver!

kev

Kewl! Much better than silver!

[pundit]

For any U.S. based guys the CDX-F7715 may be the ticket.
It appears to be now discontinued but there may be a few kicking about...