Replaced my audio panel and intercom
Posted: Fri Jul 05, 2024 7:59 pm
I replaced my KMA 24 audio panel and SPA 400 intercom with a Garmin GMA 345 audio panel with built-in intercom. The avionics shop recommended that I replace all 4 of my monaural headphone jacks with stereo jacks so that's what I did. Afterward I realized that two of my David Clark H10-13.4 headsets were only monaural so I replaced them with David Clark H10-13.4S which can be switched between mono and stereo. My Lightspeed Zulu 3 headset worked fine in the front panel jacks and the rear seat overhead jacks but the H10-13.4S headsets didn't work properly in the rear seat jacks. I only got audio in one ear. I told the avionics shop that they might have mis-wired the rear seat jacks but it took a month of so for them to look into and fix it. The reason that the Lightspeed Zulu 3 worked okay in the rear seat jacks was that it is set to "mono" and automatically routes both stereo channels to both ears or one stereo channel to both ears. The H10-13.4S doesn't do that.
The new GMA 345 audio panel has a digital voice recorder so I removed my Flightcom DVR-300i digital audio recorder. I forgot that the fused wire from the battery that provided power to the DVR-300i also powered my analog clock. I had to ask the avionics shop to re-install it so the analog clock will work. Surprisingly, there are no other devices in my airplane that show the current time for IFR flight. The GMA 345 has a much better intercom than the SPA 400. With 4 people in the airplane using headsets, the SPA 400 wasn't powerful enough to provide enough amplification. The GMA 345 has no problem with that.
The GMA 345 also has Bluetooth connectivity for headset with that capability. I could connect my iPhone to the GMA 345 to route music to all headsets but right now my iPad with Foreflight is connected via Bluetooth to my Zulu 3 headset only. I'm going to experiment with connecting the iPad to the GMA 345 via Bluetooth so see if I can get both music from the iPad and Foreflight announcements to work with all headsets.
The new GMA 345 audio panel has a digital voice recorder so I removed my Flightcom DVR-300i digital audio recorder. I forgot that the fused wire from the battery that provided power to the DVR-300i also powered my analog clock. I had to ask the avionics shop to re-install it so the analog clock will work. Surprisingly, there are no other devices in my airplane that show the current time for IFR flight. The GMA 345 has a much better intercom than the SPA 400. With 4 people in the airplane using headsets, the SPA 400 wasn't powerful enough to provide enough amplification. The GMA 345 has no problem with that.
The GMA 345 also has Bluetooth connectivity for headset with that capability. I could connect my iPhone to the GMA 345 to route music to all headsets but right now my iPad with Foreflight is connected via Bluetooth to my Zulu 3 headset only. I'm going to experiment with connecting the iPad to the GMA 345 via Bluetooth so see if I can get both music from the iPad and Foreflight announcements to work with all headsets.