Phoenix Gold Phorum

I'm working on an older Clarion HU I bought some time ago on ebay. I've got it all working, but the internal IC amp is shot and I am trying to source a replacement. Of course the stock IC is long discontinued, so I am looking over data sheets for a possible replacement. I found a Toshiba BTL amp that I'm going to go with, but the specifications on these things are absolutely humorous.

You all likely already know that the HU amp will never hit its power as listed on the box-- in this case 53x4 max power, and at least Clarion was honest and listed it as max power. Now the good part. The data sheets for these IC amps all show a believable RMS power rating of about 20w per channel, it varies a lot based on supply voltage, but somewhere around 16-18w is reasonable for a BTL (each channel in a BTL amp is two stereo channels in bridged configuration) running at 14Vdc. What surprised the heck out of me is this Toshiba one is one of the better ones out there and its specs show that it make's the 20w per channel at 14.4Vdc with 10% THD. Holy Crap, what is the point of even bothering. No wonder people hate the sound of their HU amps!!!

For the record, I could care less about having the internal amp in this HU-- the only reason I am replacing it is because the IC amp actually drives the remote lead in the HU, and it is drawing fairly high current due to it's internal short...

Later,
Jason

Which baby is it?


















By baby I mean HU.

You know me, I'm a Clarion freak, esp their older HU's from the early to late 90's.

Also, I got that 920EQ from that guy on DIY.

DRZ835MP

ive actually taken the large main power amp fet out of a kenwood exelon tape player and put it into a clarion cd player that had a blown one in it. the kenwood was rated as having 50x4 while the clarion was like 25x4 the clarion seemed to have more power but it could have just been wishful thinking. but the funny thing was it worked so i guess it could have been called a "clarwood" or something like that ha ha

you mean dxz835mp? One of my favorites, still have it.

is it me but if you run a HU unit you should not uset he deck power? sorta a waste IMO decd head hu units are the way to do... I hate all deck power for speaker,small amp for me

it make's the 20w per channel at 14.4Vdc with 10% THD. Holy Crap,

WOW!!! Holy distortion city man!

kg1961 wrote:is it me but if you run a HU unit you should not uset he deck power? sorta a waste IMO decd head hu units are the way to do... I hate all deck power for speaker,small amp for me

The only time I use deck power is when I have the amps or majority of the system out of my mustang and then it plays through the stock 2.5" tweeters just to give me some sound.

If you are serious about sound you will not use the decks amp, I wish they had more of a selection of good, high-end, copper chassis dead head systems...

Had me excited for a bit there Jason. When you said older I was thinking something older then 6 yrs. Good HU none the less. All 4 of the Clarion HUs I have are dead heads.

I rarely use any of the HUs power, but I am currently for the rears as it's for the kids only and I can't hear it over the amped section of my system.

Lol, well, this was built in '02, so it is a bit more than 6 years. I may have the model number wrong, I it is d?z835mp-- and as for HU power, nope, I don't use it, and I mentioned that above, but to be fixed correctly, it needs it's chip amp replaced.

I'm thinking of using the HU on my bench, but I might throw it in my car for a while, I really like it. As for the internal amp-- who cares if it is there or not? I have heard other preach the benefits of having a "dead head" but what is the difference in pre-amp output? I have several Eclipse dead heads, and I have an Eclipse 8445 with internal amp, they sound the same and have pretty much the same specs throughout. I also have a Ural Concert, that one has an internal amp which can be turned off-- guess what? The pre-amp outputs sound the same regardless of if the internal amp is shut down or not...

What is really sad is I think I pitched a very early Clarion that you would have loved! It was one of their first CD players that I have ever seen. I bought it back in the mid nineties, and it was used and pretty old then. I can't remember much about it, but it was a dead head, it had the buttons laid out in a square on the right side, removable face, and IIRC dot matrix blue/gold display. When I came across it in a tote full of my old audio stuff, it wouldn't power up, and I think I pitched it. I actually might not have, but I am pretty sure I did. It was quite some time before I dicked with bringing this stuff back to life...

Later,
Jason

I think youmight have the model number wrong, as the 835mp didn't come out until around '05/06. I had to look it up yesterday as I wasn't 100% sure. If you happen to run across that older one (the one you think you might've thrown away), which means you didn't toss it out, I'd like a peak at it.



It might be a wives tail, but dead heads have no internal amp for the possibility to emit noise into the signal. If it's not there then it can't do it type of thing.

Got home from work and finally found it, the 835 is a 2003 model manufactured in April to September usually.

I have all but 2 yrs worth of brochures from 95 to 2011. I'm missing 2001 & 2002.

February '03, I had just glanced at this previously, thought for sure it was '02...

Anyhow, the ic amps are after the pre amp stage, you would have to have a serious problem to have the ic amp have any impact on the pre amp output. Have you ever heard of an external amp that wasn't malfunctioning having an impact on the other pre amp outputs? Same idea really.

Here is a pic...
**edit, deleted giant picture

Later,
Jason

Yep...I bought mine brand new from The ZEB at the end of the year (2003), they were closing them out.

Whoa! Sorry for the ginormous pic. Sent that with my phone, thought the phorum would resize them now.

Later,
Jason

Jacampb2 wrote:Whoa! Sorry for the ginormous pic. Sent that with my phone, thought the phorum would resize them now.

Later,
Jason

The forum resizes attachments, but Tapatalk use their own proprietary server to host the files, rather than uploading them normally.

Well, its fixed. Who votes for the old amp being blown? There was a "tech" in this thing before and he removed a bunch of smd caps, fortunately I have a service manual for this one...
Later,
Jason

daaaamn man the clarion i fixed i thought must have been ohmed down to 2 ohms but man that one had to have been ohmed down to 1 ohms or lower whats wrong with these people it's like they think ohms law whats that? give me some more 6x9's to hook up to this thing! i need more 6x9's! w2hat tha did they bridge the head unit or what?