AudioControl LC7i Black 6-Channel Line Output Converter with AccuBASS Bass Restoration

I bought this years ago, but then never got around to putting it in a car - until this year. Unfortunately, my dad's car runs much of its functionality through the car deck, not just the music, and any of the after market decks I found for it do not support turning traction control on and off, so that meant sticking with the original deck. We upgraded the front speakers in his car, and added a subwoofer. Which is great - except even though the amps in his car DO support speaker level input, not all do, and even then, OEM stereos tend to use cheap junky speakers that would tear themselves apart at higher volume levels, so OEM decks roll back the bass as you turn up the volume. The LC7i converts the speaker level signal to an RCA cable output which you can plug into any standard car amplifier's input. It also, as long as you set it correctly, restores all the bass, so your aftermarket speakers can perform how they are supposed to.

I have to write a review. I have a '15 Tacoma double cab. Use to having a better radio, needless to say the stock one blew. I wanted to keep the stock head unit. I put 2 new JBL 6x9's in front and 2 new JBL 6.5's in the back. Mild improvement. Hooked up my 4 channel amp. Sounded a lot better but a TERRIBLE hiss was coming out of the speaker that nothing could improve. It's an inevitable attribute of sending speaker output to the input of a amp. Got sick of it really quick so I unplugged the amp and went back to the mildly improved speakers only. I was strongly considering ordering a new head unit but in order to keep steering controls alone would have been a ~140+ expenditure plus the head unit cost, and misc adapters.Then I figured I'd give this thing a shot. 110 bucks is the same price as the wheel controls box WITHOUT wires, so why not? Bingo. My radio sounds fantastic. There is some adjust-ability, so far I am just running 4 speakers off it but after I make an enclosure there will be a sub as well. I am 100% happy with it and it beyond exceeded my expectations. I have the amp set to where my normal "loud" setting is about 60-70% of max volume. At that volume the hiss is barely audible while driving with quiet music or none at all. But back at normal levels (15-25%) it isn't at all there, unlike before. I absolutely recommend this unit if you want to run a factory head unit. Every time I was in my truck I had this dark cloud of crappy music looming over my head. As stupid as that sounds, it was quite irritating. Not anymore! Unit is pretty small too.

Great line out converter for anyone putting together a serious car audio system that intend to retain their stock radio. I used this for my Ford F-150 and just tucked it under the rear seat compartment. It handles my Pioneer D-Series 6x9 component speakers and my Pioneer 6.5 A-Series 4-way speakers which run a total of 380 watts RMS. Very clean sound with some interesting adjustments that can be made if you pull the faceplate off and play with the board inside. You can adjust grounding settings, which channels you use (and you can combine channels if you’d prefer) and control whether you want dedicated subwoofer channels or not. For the price I wish it came with EQ controls (or perhaps make the exact same unit with a 7+ band EQ component for an extra $30 or so). It would be nice to have that extra control in one unit as I’ll have to add a separate unit right now for more money and use up more space. But I get to keep my Ford SYNC 3 head unit and all that connects to it and that’s a decent deal. Right now I just have a 4-channel speaker system setup on it but intend to add some subs down the line for my underneath second row spot. What’s really cool is you don’t NEED to use the remote in or out connections if you have power coming into the speaker level inputs as it’ll detect the power and turn on automatically. It’s a cool device for ppl wanting to do some more nuanced installs with aftermarket amps and keep that low end that topically rolls off when you turn up the volume.

I installed this in a 2016 Mazda CX-5 to upgrade the rather muddy and disappointing factory system, entirely replacing all 9 factory speakers, including the 2 subwoofers in the doors. I used an additional external amplifier to drive the new subwoofers and kept the factory Bose amplifier to driver the remaining 7 speakers (the CX-5 has 2 subs). At first this setup sounded horrible due to what I believe was the factory head unit dropping off the bass as the volume increased even though I now had subwoofers that put the OEM subs to shame. Whatever was reaching the subwoofers was simply not a quality signal and the new Alpine amplifier was making matters worse. I decided to try this LC7i unit based on a recommendation from someone that had a higher end model of this. I hooked this up inline between the head unit and secondary Alpine amplifier that drives the subwoofers only. The result was vastly improved sound quality coming from the subwoofers as it returned the distorted signal coming from the factory head unit to a usable signal that the Alpine amp could cleanly use. I opted to keep the factory head unit simply because it's so integrated now it's not worth the hassle to upgrade the head unit. I suspect if I was to use this in some fashion to pass the front and rear speakers through it, it would improve my situation further, but for now the system is sounding very good and I am impressed with this unit. The external control to be able to easily control the bass signal is on my list of things to add and I think it will be a welcome additional. Would buy again.