OEM integration processors

These days, more and more people want to hang onto their stock head units, because either they’re leasing the vehicle and can’t alter it, the head’s a hassle to remove, or they don’t want to lose some of the functions tied into the factory radio. The tricky part is that they still want better sound than the factory system offers. This can be accomplished by adding components downstream of the stock head.

Devices called line-level converters that can take a stock head unit’s high-level or amplified signal and bring it down to line or unamplified level have been around for quite a while. But some of the latest OEM systems add equalization that’s designed to work only with the components in the stock system. So a new generation of OEM-integration processors has become available to filter out this equalization, which can wreak havoc on an aftermarket system (see Figure 17-5). Alpine’s latest OEM integration processor, the PXE-H650H (see Figure 17-6), even comes with a microphone that listens for sonic anomalies and makes corrections to compensate for them. 

Courtesy of JL Audio

Figure 17-6:

Alpine's

PXE-H650

OEM-

integration

processor,

with

microphone.

Courtesy of Alpine