dual zone audio? what is this wire?

[bamabonners]

looking at hooking up my tower speakers to a separate volume control. I notice on the guts of the stereo that there is a wire labeled "dual zone audio". What is this and can I use it to run the volume for the tower speakers using the factory head unit? I am hoping it is similar to speaker a and speaker b on my home stereo.

Edited June 12, 2012 by bamabonners

[85 Barefoot]

dual zone on most head units are for using one HU to run two differnet sources. ie, DVD in the rear, CD up front. I don't know that it will control volume independently but that would be pretty interesting if it would. However, if you're using RCAs to the amps, it may lose that ability. If it's just one "wire" labeled as that, I'd bust out the manual to see its capability. If just one wire then it can't carry a signal to the speakers but perhaps you can configure the RCA outs.

[bamabonners]

It is RCA connection. I will poke around and see what I can get it to do.

[Murphy8166]

I had this same questions and I called RF yesterday.

They basically said that it allowd you to play a seperate amp. So if you have an RV, you can be listening to the TV inside and have it piped through the stereo and then you can listen to music outside with the dual zone out and another amp.

The guys description was shaky at best....those guys at RF don't sound too confident about there marine line. I was too busy to call Partrick Industres.

[85 Barefoot]

That description comports with other dual zone setups I've seen. Sounds perfect. bama: rca connection a little different than "a wire"

Would be interesting to know whether volume can be controlled independently though should be easy to test it.

[bamabonners]

I called Patrick Industries. The guy that you want to talk to there is named Nelson. Nelson knows his stuff about the black box. I invited him to come check out our website and pop in on the stereo section as well.

to answer the question, the dual zone cannot be used like speakers a and b setup. Maybe he will come on here and give us more insight into the black box.