Hey Steve,
Good to hear you like my verbal dribble. I'd be glad to share my findings. Well theres no doubt that Phoenix Gold is a very reputable manufacturer of car audio peripherals, and the item you showed me seems it has a bit more control than other LOCs out there. Generally there isnt much to a signal converter circuit, so your standard run of the mill Jaycar LOC will do the job. BUT the problem is filtering out noise, and this was my main concern. From all the reviews i read on the net, the Peripheral SVEN4 is one of the best on the market and ultimately this is what i wanted to get, or the Stinger (Same company). I found one on eBay in the US and the picture was of the SVEN4 but to my disappointment they sent me something else. Which was also a decent LOC, but only average, called the PAC2.
Now i decided to keep this item as it had other features like a remote turn on delay, for the amp, with a 1 second delay to avoid the 'pop' noise you hear from the sub when the amp is switched on before the source. When i first installed this LOC, or LLC(Line Level Converter) rather, i wasnt so impressed because at low levels and silence between songs i could hear a hissing. This annoyed the sh!t out of me, but rather than spend more money on a new LOC, i figured i'd try and eliminate this noise myself first, by fine tuning the output levels from the LOC, and the gain on my amps. This did improve things a lot, but there was still slight noise.
So after a few sleepless nights i had a brainstorm to relocate the LOC to the rear of the car (closer to the amps), rather than at the front where the head unit is. My logic here was if the LOC is at the front of the car, and coverts the signal low, by the time the low signal gets to the rear of the car next to the amps, the rca cables would have picked up noise, and then this noise is amplified by the amp of course. Other reasons for this, is you can conveniently tap into the rear output leading to the 6x9's in the boot area, so i only had to run 2 pairs of wires to the back for the front speaker signals. This also means i didnt have to run 3 sets (front, back, sub) of rca's to the back of the car, which would reduce and induced noise in the rca lines.
End result, i have wired it now at the rear of the car, and grounded the LOC much better, and damn, it's close to flawless sound. It doesnt just NOT have noise, the music just sounds better and clearer (but this could always be a mind thing). So my tips, wire the LOC near the amps, and ground the amps and LOC like you've never grounded before.
Now on another note, i would still recommend the Stinger/Peripheral, because my brother installed a Stinger into one of his mates new camry's and installation was less of a headache, and less soldering involved because of the screw connectors. Excellent sound without all the dramas i went through. But we did notice lower volume coming from the sub and he couldn't crank it as much as he'd hoped. But that may just be a matter of adjusting outputs and gains.
Hope that all gave you some useful information, i swear i was planning to make this a short message but i just couldnt help myself
As for your LOC, read reviews on the PGold and compare it with the Peripheral reviews, then make your decision. Best way to learn is from others that have used it.
Originally Posted by directedfx
lol
and everyone has there own opinion. Generally 6x9's are used as an effective substitute, when there isnt space or a budget for sub woofers. 
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