ok im about to buy one of these.. is 285 a good price?? is a good unit?? also.. it only has 2 pre-outs.. Front and rear.. how would I go about hooking up a 4 channel amp as well as an amp for subs?? like I know i could hook the the 4 channel up with a 4 channel 4rca cable and get a y adapter to bring each pair of two down to 1 and plug them into the front.. the sub amp into the rear but would i be able to fade F-R or not.. should i do it like that or no?

 

That is the trade-off with this unit. The lack of 3 sets of pre-outs (and it is not bypassable-you have to flip a toggle switch three times on the park brake wire). We only sell them if they are requested (I don't even have them in stock anymore).

Usually, you have to give up fade-ability and "Y" the front outputs at the 4 channel amp. Then, use the rear pre-outs for the sub amp (go into the config. screen and change the usage of the preouts from "rear" to "sub" channel. I am not a big fan of this unit due to those two items.

If you are getting it for $285 brand new from an authorized Pioneer retailer (I would be VERY suprised if this is the case), then it is a really good deal. If you are getting it from a discount on-line retailer or eBay, then I can give you a couple of members email addys that you can get first hand examples of why this is a bad idea! At least two here that I remember off hand bought these specific P4000DVD's online and both had problems out of the box. These units' origination was questionable and I believe they were defective returns (Pioneer has a major problem with whole trucks of defective equipment getting jacked and the stuff ends up with transshippers like SonicElectronix and others or eBay/Amazon).

Ask guys in the business like luke_81 and TBSpyder and GradeA TireFryer and jermwarfare about their experiences at their shops with this...

 

ok i will go in order here.. you said a toggle switch.. I have heard that a momentary switch will work here instead of switching it on and off 3 times.. it grounds it powers it and grounds it again....

as for the preouts.. thats not too bad i guess.. I dont fade it anyways..

the $285 i looked around at reviews of the site and they are all bad so I will go else where lol.. It looked fishy any ways..

Sonicelectronix has been nothing but great for me.. they have high shipping costs i will admit but other than that they have been excelent.. I haven't bought big things from them though so.. I bought.. a few connectors.. 2 sets of y adapters.. and a noise filter..

 

also how much do you guys offer it for? offer it for installed?

 

please - if you looking for a sound quality or even spl system, buy a unit with high prevolt outs, this will keep you amp gains lower and should get a little more volume out of your system.

If it only had 2 sets of rcas, but today most 4 channel amps have a output - do all 4 inputs and then use the output to your sub amp.

 

ya but the pre-outs from the 4 channel would be a higher freq wouldnt they? anyways im going a different route

 

The preouts from any amp are a thoroughput. They put out EXACTLY what is coming in on the 2 sets of input RCA's. You would have to adjust your crossover on your sub amp (low-pass filter on).

One option you do have that we have done before is install a decent active crossover. Like the selections from Kicker for only about $70-they have only front and rear RCA inputs-but they convert to three sets of outputs-front, rear, and subwoofer. These actually make a great companion to head units that only have to outputs. But I have found that if you listen to many genres of music, it is best to have a sub amp remote bass knob up front sense you will not be able to control the sub from the HU (only the crossover).

I will PM you pricing on the P4000DVD if you really want it still...

 

More pre-outs doesn't neccisarily mean better. Some of the best decks made only have 2 volt pre-outs.

 

This is true. Remember the old Rockford Digital Sound Processors? Those were some of the nicest pieces of equipment to ever come out of the Rockford family and they only used ONE set of RCA inputs. This was the highest end stuff you could put into your vehicle and all the show winners had one. The DSP seperated out all the signals coming in through the one set of inputs and divided it up to several outputs that were completely tunable and adjustable.

Now that DSP equipment is pretty much obsolete, you don't see this much anymore. But, most good active crossovers only use front and/or rear RCA inputs now anyway (as was aforementioned). A good active crossover also has adjustable pre-outs that can go from .5v to 6.0v or so. Makes it a breeze to get rid of any unwanted noise in the signal.