Dafaseles

So, I just actually went through this an hour ago in a coworkers truck. Set up the DD-1 to find the head unit max volume. He listens primarily to pandora and youtube through his phone. I told him to turn his phone all the way up, then down 1 click. We went on YouTube and used a 40 hz -3db track. His pioneer deck went 100% without distortion. I asked him, just for shits and giggles to give it that last click on the phone. He did, BOOM, red light. Went back down a click, no red light. So if I would have just set his amp and head unit up using just the DD-1 CD, it wouldn't have made a difference, because when he started listening to music through his phone, he would have been clipping.

I think the signal from your phone is where you're getting distortion. Try getting a 40 hz -10db tone from Spotify or at least youtube, then set your gains using your phone and Bluetooth. See if that helps And set your gains with the bass knob all the way up, or at least close. Turning it up after you set your gains can introduce distortion as well. It shouldn't make a difference while tuning, but LPF should be set around 80 hz while the HPF or subsonic filter should be set a half octave below the tuning of the box. So if the box port is tuned to 32 then that filter should be set at 24 hz. Unless it's sealed, then go ahead and turn it off/ all the way to the left. Also, are your mids on an amp as well?

Yeah, 1 ohm isn't going to happen. But if you wire each sub to a 4 ohm load each, then connect each sub to the amp, the amp will see a final 2 ohm load. You don't have to connect the 2 subs. If each sub is 4 ohm each, then because it's a single channel mono block, so connecting both 4 ohm subs to the amp will give the single channel a final 2 ohm load. To install all that stuff, you first should start with what's called the big 3/4 upgrade. You need to upgrade the cable from the alternator positive to the battery positive (preferably for the power you're running, a high amp hour AGM) to at least 4 ga OFC (or 1/0 depending on your alternator amperage). Then upgrade The cable from the battery negative to the engine block/ alternator to preferably 1/0 (everything should be OFC cable or at least pure copper. No CCA cable). Then from the engine block, a nice thick cable going to a spot on the frame that you have cleaned. I usually recommend a nice thick one from the battery negative to the chassis/ firewall as well. Then from the battery positive, 1/0 to a 350a fuse as close to the battery as you can. Then from that fuse, back to I guess the cap. I've never used a cap, and everyone that I've spoken to that used to use them, won't ever again. I guess they cause more problems than they fix. So in my opinion, I'd ditch it. But if you want to use it, go ahead. I ain't ya daddy. Then, take that 1/0 into a dual fused distribution block in the general area of the amplifiers. (There's different ways of fusing, but this is how I do it) One slot will have a 120a fuse. That will be for the 4 ga going to the subwoofer amplifier. The other will have a 60a fuse with 8 ga going to the 4 channel amp. Any other questions, don't hesitate to ask bud!

So you have a speaker terminal for each sub? So 2 speaker terminals? In that case, for the amplifier to see a final 2 ohm load, you would wire each like this so each would have a final 4 ohm loadand then once you hook each sub up to their respective speaker terminals in the amp, the amp would see a final 2 ohm load.

As far as the mids and highs go, I'd set the HPF at about 100 hz, and that's it. Set your gains with a DD-1 (best), an oscilloscope (good), or digital multimeter (better than nothing). There are videos on YouTube that will teach you how. I'm not going to tell you to get rid of the caps, but I've never had good luck with them. I would just keep the subs flush personally, but you can invert them and see which sound you like better. If you invert them, just make sure you wire them 180 degrees out of phase. I'm not quite following how you wired the subs. Are you connecting both subs to a single quick connect? Or does each woofer have its own?

Is one of those things that aren't particularly hard to do, it just takes a good amount of time to get it right

Hurry up! Wanna see it!

After you get the enclosure built, try the sub both ways. See which way sounds better to you

Some people choose to the wire even when going into the amplifier. Which is fine. That would be a 350-400a fuse per run. I like to do it to the manufacturers specifications so if you need to send it back for any reason, they can't tell you that you installed it incorrectly. So, me personally, I would put a 150-200a fuse on each run because I've never seen a 115a ANL fuse

That's so f-cking dope!

I would just slap it in the charger really quick. If it's completely full, the charger should tell you. That charger shouldn't overcharge it

I've seen a lot of guys first make a beauty panel with thick wood as close to perfectly cut as they can, then use expanding foam. I'm not sure what kind of foam exactly though. I'm sure it's something specific

I'm sorry, I was talking about the voltage controller on my truck. Not external. But you've already helped me. I was talking to you through email yesterday. Thanks again! I really appreciate it!

What's hard about it? I'm going to need to do the same thing..... eventually🤣

Damn lol. Hopefully you didn't cook them. If you had a HPF for them on your head unit, I would have just set that. Or took the door panel off and disconnected them at the speaker

unplug the speakers from the amp

It is possible that your head unit doesn't distort. Just some things to check. It's the eq set to flat on the head unit? Does the 40 hz detection light come on in the unit? Have you tried 40 hz and 1000 hz? Does the unit have a fresh, name brand, strong battery? What LOC are you using? (Im guessing it's the clarion?) Does the LOC have a gain? Is that gain in the LOC set correctly? Does the LOC have the function where it corrects the output signal of the stock head unit so it is, and remains, a flat signal? (A lot of vehicles nowadays manipulate the head unit signal so the crappy, paper, stock speakers sound ok, but are protected from lower signals. As you turn up the volume, it'll actually cut the lower frequencies more to protect the stock speakers)

A little blink here and there isn't anything to worry about. It's just a soft clip. The voice coil can usually dissipate that extra heat pretty quickly. The more it happens, the more worried you should be though

A hard, light stays on clip? Or, blink every now and again type clip?

Well, batteries will also help the alternator hold the voltage as well. The electricity is coming from wherever the amplifiers can pull it from. I should have asked you this before, but what voltage are you dipping to? Really, if it's not under 12 volts, it's not really anything to worry about and you're clipping for a different reason. And I'd change that CCA stuff out to OFC or welding wire. Watching some comparison videos on YouTube, CCA doesn't transfer voltage anywhere near as well as pure copper or OFC. Just remember, if you go welding cable, to up the size. 1/0 OFC car audio cable is about the same size as 2/0 welding cable

Well, yeah. With a single smart 3, and that 320 alternator, I would run 2 80ah or more AGM's (or a decent lithium). Regardless of how many ohms you have the subs set to. Those amps are power hungry. The fuses are only to keep the amplifier from receiving too much current. If your voltage is dropping, then your not supplying the amplifier with enough current. So no, the fuses wouldn't blow. Absolutely more electrical will help with clipping. Basically the amplifier is trying to produce "3000 watts", but it doesn't have the power to make it. So it's still trying, but not able to, so it ends up clipping or trying to exceed its electrical capabilites. Also, what size wire do you have going into the smart 3? The manual says 4 awg, but a lot of things I've read says that amp still needs 1/0.

Well, usually what I've seen people in my position do is go externally regulated alternator, and completely bypass the controller. Then just do the big 3 like normal.

That would actually help a lot! Lol

@MECHMANI have a question you might be able to help me with. I'll try to keep it as short as possible. I am putting a system into a 2011 Chevrolet Silverado 1500. Installed, I have a Mechman Elite 370 (about 5 or 6 years old). My truck has the voltage regulator controller in between the battery negative and the engine block ground. I read from a piece of Mechman literature, and I've also seen Mr. Meade talk about it in his escalade, that because of the voltage controller, you shouldn't ground anything to the frame, and instead of a big 3 upgrade, it would be more like a big 2 upgrade. My question is about my plan to ground everything. If it's right and will it be sufficient. I won't be running a battery under the hood, just a lithium battery in the bed with the amps and the subwoofer enclosure, so I have a battery delete setup in the stock battery location. Amplifiers are 2 Sundown SALT 4's, a Cresendo C2000.4D, and a Cresendo S1 (880.4). The positive side is just 2 runs of 1/0 from alternator to battery delete, then battery delete to Lithium battery in the bed (along with proper fusing). My plan to ground is a run of 1/0 from the lithium battery to a "negative terminal" in the battery delete location. Then 1/0 from that terminal, through the voltage regulator "doughnut", then to the engine block ground location. Will that be enough ground for the lithium battery? For the amplifiers, their grounds will go to a solid distribution block, then 2 runs of 4/0 from the distro block the the alternator ground. So you think this would be correct? Sufficient? Also, should I also send a run or 2 from the lithium battery ground to the solid distro block as well? Or would that confuse the voltage regulator somehow? Sorry for the long question. Hopefully you can shed a whole lot of light on this for me. Thank you in advance I also included a picture just incase my description was confusing

I'm an old fucker, I don't mess with tik-tok 🤣