Outside Soundbar Volume Mod

[NealC]

My amp was replaced with a far better one, as was the sub-woofer, deck, and speakers changed to Alpine. Nothing changed on the soundbar.

[Dutch Star Don]

Neal.....in the first post of this thread, I wrote this.....

"I want to play my Sirius channels (I'm paying for them) from the dash radio without changing a bunch of things. Well.....Captain Gizmo found an inexpensive fix and has posted it in the middle of another post. I did his mod today and I'm very pleased with the volume increase. It's a pretty simple mod and shouldn't take more than 30 minutes".

The reason I started this thread was to explain how to do a simple fix to the radio, for those that wanted to use the radio that came with the coach, and not do hours of rewiring to get it to symphony sound.

I love listening to music, especially the 60's and 70's on Sirius XM while we drive in the motor home. Inside the coach, my new Kenwood and OEM speakers play perfectly for my wife and I. You could put an exotic system in and I wouldn't know the difference.

When it came to the outside radio, I just wanted it to be loud enough so we could hear it without sitting under the TV door opening to hear it. This fix does exactly that. While the birds are chirping, the wind is rustling in the trees and other campers are going about their business, I don't hear any background noise. Inside a quiet coach is different.

You and a couple of others got me to look at my phone and figure out how to Bluetooth Pandora to the Bose outside speaker (be less of a dinosaur). Now I just have to play with it and set it up for me. But.....I'm use to and like Sirius and want to listen to what I pay for. We often camp in places where we receive spotty phone service, making my Sirius satellite the perfect system for us.

[CaptainGizmo]

Sorry I didn’t get a chance help you out with some tips this week, Don. Next time hit me up!

I’m glad the amp works for you. You’ll never have a problem on shoreline power. IF you do run the inverter, just pretend there are Locusts flying around. [emoji2957]

[NealC]

Originally Posted by Dutch Star Don

Neal.....in the first post of this thread, I wrote this.....

"I want to play my Sirius channels (I'm paying for them) from the dash radio without changing a bunch of things. Well.....Captain Gizmo found an inexpensive fix and has posted it in the middle of another post. I did his mod today and I'm very pleased with the volume increase. It's a pretty simple mod and shouldn't take more than 30 minutes".

The reason I started this thread was to explain how to do a simple fix to the radio, for those that wanted to use the radio that came with the coach, and not do hours of rewiring to get it to symphony sound.

I love listening to music, especially the 60's and 70's on Sirius XM while we drive in the motor home. Inside the coach, my new Kenwood and OEM speakers play perfectly for my wife and I. You could put an exotic system in and I wouldn't know the difference.

When it came to the outside radio, I just wanted it to be loud enough so we could hear it without sitting under the TV door opening to hear it. This fix does exactly that. While the birds are chirping, the wind is rustling in the trees and other campers are going about their business, I don't hear any background noise. Inside a quiet coach is different.

You and a couple of others got me to look at my phone and figure out how to Bluetooth Pandora to the Bose outside speaker (be less of a dinosaur). Now I just have to play with it and set it up for me. But.....I'm use to and like Sirius and want to listen to what I pay for. We often camp in places where we receive spotty phone service, making my Sirius satellite the perfect system for us.

Don, I didn't forget and completely understand your desire for SAT reception over something requiring Internet. We typically will have cellular or CG wifi as options so even at the slowest of these streaming music will still work, not streaming video, but music as it doesn't require much Internet speed and some like Spotify that I subscribe to will auto adjust. I also enjoy my SiriusXM channels and they know that Internet music is the way ahead so they offer a SiriusXM app for smartphones and also things like Amazon Echo can connect with and play from your SiriusXM subscription. So I can play my fav SAT music via other options. I'm only making you aware of other ways to enjoy your SAT subscription beyond a SAT radio if you are in an area where you can connect to the Internet one way or the other. We have options. YES, I would love for the sound bar to work as intended as well as the TV, it's all very odd how it's wired such that I've had to do so much rewiring/rearchitecting my cables it was a pain. The sound bar issue IS a problem and it needs to be resolved by Newmar. This is not satisfactory for those of us paying for the external TV option with Soundbar. Now see if anyone can actually get through to Newmar for some future correction for future model years as they can't fix ours nor do they care about it.

[Johnsonk64]

I, like DS Don, wanted to be able to enjoy our XM outside. Adding the amp and the ground loop made it possible. Not perfect, but considering the other outside noises, good enough. It was tolerable with just the amp added, but the ground loop took most of the noise away and you really have to lower the volume of the radio and stand right next to the speaker to hear it at all.



For what it cost, I can live with it for now.



Thanks to all that contributed ideas and links for this!!

[CaptainGizmo]

Originally Posted by Johnsonk64

It was tolerable with just the amp added, but the ground loop took most of the noise away”.



Thanks to all that contributed ideas and links for this!!

Glad it helped you!

Tolerable with the amp. You say ground loop helped.

Am I to assume you installed a ground loop filter as well as the amp?

If you can clarify your statement...that would be great.

[Johnsonk64]

Originally Posted by CaptainGizmo

Glad it helped you!

Tolerable with the amp. You say ground loop helped.

Am I to assume you installed a ground loop filter as well as the amp?

If you can clarify your statement...that would be great.

Yes, I installed both and by tolerable with the amp, I meant that with normal outside noises, it wasn’t terrible. But, the noise was there. So I added the ground loop filter today and it minimized the noise to almost nothing.

I hope this clears up what I initially said. Thanks!

[mikena]

Terrific, just, just terrific.

[Vagabells]

Is this work being done behind the radio on the dash( or behind the sound bar outside? We recently left the factory and their solution was use the fader and crank up the volume!! Poor solution on a high end, reputable coach. Drives me crazy not being able to correctly use a festure we paid for.

[CaptainGizmo]

Originally Posted by Vagabells

Is this work being done behind the radio on the dash( or behind the sound bar outside? We recently left the factory and their solution was use the fader and crank up the volume!! Poor solution on a high end, reputable coach. Drives me crazy not being able to correctly use a festure we paid for.

Exactly my sentiments!! Pathetic.

And, yes and no. We’ve installed the amp at the radio. The filter, however can go up there as well, but some have installed it just prior to the SoundBar.

Realistically, an amp should be placed at the END of the low-input run, aka RCA cables to avoid noise and signal loss issues
You just need to plan ahead with the right connectors for both devices.

[Winepress]

I finally got the time to install the noise filter on the outside Bose. Took about 10 minutes. Results... noise, hum, buzz, whatever you call it is gone. Many Thanks

[CaptainGizmo]

Originally Posted by Winepress

I finally got the time to install the noise filter on the outside Bose. Took about 10 minutes. Results... noise, hum, buzz, whatever you call it is gone. Many Thanks
Attachment 244165Attachment 244166Attachment 244167Attachment 244168

Hey, wow! You installed it AT the switcher????

I'm glad it's working without amplifying any noise. Generally, you'd be better to install it closest to the RADIO. Reason being, you want the cleanest signal coming into an amp, rather than installing it down the line and picking up any signal noise and loss, and then amplifying it.

But, so long as it's working for you...then WINNER! Just make sure there's no noise when your inverter and DC charger is on...those are the nasty culprits in my coach.

[Winepress]

Originally Posted by CaptainGizmo

Hey, wow! You installed it AT the switcher????



I'm glad it's working without amplifying any noise. Generally, you'd be better to install it closest to the RADIO. Reason being, you want the cleanest signal coming into an amp, rather than installing it down the line and picking up any signal noise and loss, and then amplifying it.



But, so long as it's working for you...then WINNER! Just make sure there's no noise when your inverter and DC charger is on...those are the nasty culprits in my coach.

Totally agree and that was my first thought, but the connections were so easy to get to, so I tried that first.
One more issue solved.

[CaptainGizmo]

Originally Posted by Winepress

Totally agree and that was my first thought, but the connections were so easy to get to, so I tried that first.
One more issue solved.

Awesome!

Where’d you find the 12v power back there?