I have a Clarion DXZ946MP. The other day, when installing my carputer I accidentally connected the sound output of the computer onto what I assume are the preouts of the Clarion (gray cable with L & R) - and lo and behold I heard the sound coming out of the front speakers ON TOP of the radio which was already going...

Furthermore I could NOT adjust the volume of this new source with the volume button on the Clarion (but I could adjust it with the computer obviously).

While I like this - so that I can use my carputer GPS while lsitening to the radio, I was worried that it might damage the headunit, so I just put it through the Aux input - which means I can't lsiten to radio and GPS at the same time...

My question is - can someone explain how connecting an INPUT into a preout on a headunit results in sound coming out of the corresponding speaker - and whether this is a bad thing to do?

This unit also has 2-zone but I haven't quite figured out how to use it, plus I don't really want to listen to music with one set of speakers and the GPS with the other set...but I guess I could live with that if I had to :)

:) - obviously not many ideas about this...

Anyway I have worked out another method....

Apparently dual zone means that the headunit can put two different outputs at once - one to the car speakers and another to RCA outputs 0.5V meant for headphones...

I simply connected the headphone output from the H/U to the line IN on my computer and then took the line OUT from the computer and connected it to the Aux in for the headunit and...

voila - can listen to radio/cd/mp3 + whatever the computer is playing at the same time (in this case GPS instructions)

I am glad my headunit has dual zone or else I would have been in trouble :confused: