Crazy Idea - Direct connection to Amp (no HU) - Will it work?!?

[GTO]

I have already been through 3 Pioneer headunits on the Jeep; all of them ended up permanently damaged due to water, muck or a combination of both. Plus, having gotten used to carrying all my music on the iPod, I wasn't too sure of going back to CDs. Navin stepped in and suggested doing away with the headunit altogether. He had a Blaupunkt amp on him, which had an AUX input. The idea was to fit the amp inside the existing boombox of my Jeep and hook the iPod up directly to the amp.

The excellent staff at Bharat Audio set up my ICE yesterday. All new wiring (amp, power etc.) & cradle with fitting charges came up to less than 1,500 bucks! Cheapest ICE solution yet. My iPod sits in a mobile phone cradle that's screwed up between the two front seats. The amp aux-in wire plugs into the headjack of my iPod.

Probably the only modern part of my Jeep : The iPod!

Attachment 31770

Surprisingly, these old Pioneer speakers (prolly over 7 years of Jeep service) are still up to the job. The box is custom made from MDF and sits snug below the rear seat.

Attachment 31771

When I reach my destination, I simply carry the iPod with me. No worry of theft, as it was with the headunit.

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The sound is pretty darn loud, infact I haven't gone over 60% of the iPod's volume level. Quality is decent too, but obviously doesn't have the deep thumpy bass of other car audio systems. The good thing is, I can't hear the Jeep rattle & squeak anymore ...its all drowned out. On board are all the 35 gigs of my music collection, and it will provide for some great entertainment with the barbeque & whiskey in the mountains!

Thank you, Navin!

[GTO]

Just copying the previous post from my Jeep thread to the ICE section, and wanted to say thanks to everyone who commented on this thread. Yup, it is possible and sounds pretty good too! The HU can be entirely done away with.

[greenhorn]

I was hunting for this thread when GTO posted. The last place i expected to see the answer come from, the 4x4 and offroading section

[navin]

Originally Posted by GTO

Navin stepped in and suggested doing away with the headunit altogether. He had a Blaupunkt amp on him, which had an AUX input.

The excellent staff at Bharat Audio set up my ICE yesterday. All new wiring (amp, power etc.) & cradle with fitting charges came up to less than 1,500 bucks! Cheapest ICE solution yet. My iPod sits in a mobile phone cradle that's screwed up between the two front seats. The amp aux-in wire plugs into the headjack of my iPod.

Thank you, Navin!

Actually my idea was a bit different.

I wanted to use teh line out from the ipod to drive the amp. This amp (PA 275) has a wired level control (as the amp is often used in bridge mono as a subwoofer amp) which I wanted to use as a volume control.

Why the headphone out was used beats me as I would find controlling the volume on a touch sensitive ipod much more difficult than with a regular rotary knob.

To be honest, I did not spend much time on this and let Bharat figure it out.

I have always found the guys at Bharat (Worli) to be honest and reliable. They wont make a custom fiberglass boxes and such but for 99% of the installs a good honest installer is all you need. For example they could easily have sold GTO a new pair of 6x9s but chose to tell him that his existing pair is still in good working condition so he should save his money. Kudos should go to Bharat for this.