William94

No need to feel bad. If you don’t want to deal with this I really understand and it’s not going to hurt my feelings. I would probably be annoyed at all this also. I didn’t think this was going to be this difficult when I started this project. I did a lot of research before and it seemed doable and everything went fine. I just have a lot of hissing and it has to be gain related. But I’ll try and explain this as simply as possible cause it’s somewhat confusing. My head unit sends signal to my factory amp. But it is not a traditional speaker level signal. It’s just a fixed level signal. (I have verified this with PAC audio technician) My factory amp for the factory system does all the magic and amps the sound and turns it into audio blah blah blah. Not important because I am obviously going aftermarket. But I can’t remove the factory amp because then my head unit doesn’t work at all. The people at PAC know this and design the amp pro4 to work this way to retain all the factory head unit because it’s to fancy. the PAC Audio amp pro4 (like a line output converter....but it’s not at all) it takes that fixed level signal and processes it digitally and sends out RCA low level signal (just like an aftermarket radio would). I talked to a tech and he said that on the models he has used an oscope on there has not been any clipping at all. Dean from 5star audio agrees. I have used the DD1 to test the signal coming from head unit to the amp pro. It worked just fine. No distortion all the way to max. awesome. So everyone is telling me that my head unit is good all the way to max. here comes the problems. After the amp pro my DD1 stops working. It won’t detect a signal any more. (dean says that it should work just fine) It doesn’t work plugged into RCA before my aftermarket amp. It doesn’t work on the speaker outs of my amp with gains all the way down or up or anywhere in between. next problem. My amp comes with a input clipping detector. And it comes on at 53 with gains down. It doesn’t really matter where my gains are because it just tests the input before it gets amplified. I am not a expert but I feel like audio control Is a decent brand and I trust their stuff also. I would love to just compare the clipping light on the audio control vs the DD1 just to see if things are the same or different. (I would trust the DD1 more because that is it’s one and only job) but it’s not working so I don’t know what to do. 10 volume difference possibly is a big difference when setting gain I feel. That’s why I have come to the decision I am going to just find an oscope and settle things that way.

Well thanks guys. I won’t wast y’all a time any more. I’ve used the dd1 to set up 2 F150s and a chevelle. And it’s worked just fine and it didn’t even take 15 minutes for each. I don’t understand why it won’t work after the amp pro on this vehicle. I can’t even use it to set the output of my amp regardless of what volume on the head unit. It won’t detect a signal after the amp pro. I guess I am doing to much because the dd1 sure isn’t doing anything for this vehicle. So it’s fine. I’m not going to blame the device cause that seems to get everyone’s panties in a wad. So I will just find a shop with a oscope and be on about my way. I paid to much money for all this audio equipment in this car to just guess and hope that it’s all set up correctly. again thank you guys both for your knowledge and advice

Yes If I play a 40hz -0db tone with amp gains all the way down it detects clipping at 52. Still strange that the DD1 won’t even recognize a signal when plugged into the RCA before the amp or on the speaker outs of the amp. I am going to try re testing on the outputs of the amp and I am going to try touching a negative just to see if polarity has been flipped some how. Little faith in that. But it’s worth a try

I am not sure if you have heard of Dean from 5 star audio in florida, they were doing a live stream video on youtube today so i hopped on and asked if they have ever had issues using a DD1 with a vehicle using ampPRO4. and he actually responded luckly and he said that they have never had any issues with it. that it should work just fine. He also said that the amp pro does not produce distortion. so if my dd1 was not detecting distrortion between the HU and the factory amp before the amp pro. and no distortion after the amp pro then i wonder what the d 6.1200 is activating at 52? it should be good all the way to max?

I attached a photo of the PAC program what it looks like when I plug my computer into the amp pro. i have turned the minimum volume all the way down and the EQ disabled. I would think that i would be able to plug my DD1 into one of the 6 RCA'S coming from the AmpPRO and i would at least be able to detect a signal there before the Audio Control amp. but it sure doesn't. it seems like the DD1 wont do anything after the AmpPro for some reason. I am pretty familiar with the Audio Control DSP software. it is very simple and user friendly. i have watched the 5 Star audio video on it, and i have watched the Audio Control Zoom/facebook live meeting that they had that they spent an hour discussing and explaining the program. so i feel like i know it pretty well and i have played around with it quite alot because i have had this set up since january. i just have not pushed it hard to the limits because i am not confident in the gain structure. i would have taken it to a installer to have it set up more properly but i had just moved and i do not trust anyone here. they wouldnt do it any justice. i walk into the store and they either dont sell or hardly know the amp. I can not think of any settings in the amp that would be causing the DD1 to not work properly on the outputs of the amp. Can you think of anyone that i could talk to or anything? next week i am going to give audio control a call and see if i can ask them some things. i have the additional bluetooth port for the amp and i can stream music directly into it so i am going to try and get the input sensitivity set correctly on the bluetooth so i know roughly what it sounds like at full output so i can compare to when playing through the car head unit. Thank you by the way for looking into this for me, i know its way out of your way. and i understand if this is getting to complicated. i am looking into finding some installers that i would trust in the states near by that i could take it. i just need somone that sells PAC and AC that seem like they know what they are doing. AMP Pro 4.tiff

So I tested things out as we discussed. DD1 test probes to the speaker outs of the amp. It wouldn’t even detect a 40hz or a 1khz signal on any -0db -5db or -10 dB tracks. I am starting to wonder if something is wrong with the DD1. I even tried hooking into the RCA’s right before the amp from the LOC. does not even detect a signal there either. I had the head unit all the way up. LOC and amp gains all the way down. Played a test track and increased the gains slowly. Never detected a signal all the way to max. I have my cross overs set wide open so I know it’s passing through the amp. I even plugged the speakers in just to make sure. I checked the dd1 and used it to set the gains in my truck. Works just fine. Everything plays perfectly. All the signals detect fine. And distortion kicks in right about where you would expect it to. So I am confused once more. on a side note. With the LOC and amp gains all turned all the way down. The amp detects distortion at 53. just for giggles I tries setting it by ear. You have to realllly crank the gains up to get significant volume. This all just seems odd

yes i have everything off and set to zero and the fade balance is in the middle. i am going to even plug into the AMP PRO LOC and make sure that that all the equalization is turned off also. it should be off but just to make sure.

copy all! i definatly didnt mean for it to become super complicated thats why i bought the dd1 because it is so simple. just lack of experience i had a hard time believing the head unit was not putting out any distortion. but guess i was wrong and just should have trusted the equipment! thanks both of you for all your help. ill let you know this weekend that it is all set up just right

thanks for the help, i wont get to it till tomorrow night. i will post back on here to let you know how it turns out i feel confident this is going to be spot on

everything i listen to comes off of apple music, country, metal, hip hop. pretty much everything. nothing should be bass boosted. i actually just learned how to stream music directly into the amp via the bluetooth option port the other day. so i want to give that a try also. i just wanted to get all my gains set up correctly before i got to carried away with anything.

ok thank you for the help i will give this a try. head unit at 62, amp gains all the way down. then start adding in some gain with the test probes on the aftermarket amp outputs until it shows distortion. so would i use the -5db or -10db track since the headunit does not distort? i guess what sorta had me really confused is the input sensitivity on the audio control amp i didnt think of it being just like a standard amp that has turn dials. sorta a dummy move on my part. i was starting at 0db which is the standard position that it comes at on computer program which on a standard amp would be roughly half way up.

So if the head unit doesn’t have any distortion. Does the line output converter distort the signal because my amp is detecting distortion aT 49

The line output converter grabs the signal before the factory amp. The factory amp isn’t doing anything anymore. But I can not remove it because it does more than just audio. Without it I lose my whole radio or infotainment system. So the line output converter takes the signal from the head unit before it gets to the factory amp. And this is why I need to know the volume which the head unit clips at. So I know what volume to set my head unit so I can tune my amp

That’s why I have posted this. I have checked that. I used the right front door speaker coming from the factory head unit before the factory amplifier. Test probes to positive and negative. -0db test track. And it detects the signal. But never shows distortion all the way up to 62

Alright guys. I have checked it multiple different locations. This is why I am confused. I have checked it before the factory amp (crutchfield and the amp pro had wore diagrams) . I have not checked it after the factory amp because I have no way of controlling the gain settings on the factory amp. I have checked the RCA coming out of the LOC (amp pro4). No distortion on any of these methods with my DD1. I will try checking the speaker outputs on the aftermarket amp at minimum gain setting to see if I can determine the maximum clean signal coming from the head unit. It’s just alittle confusing because it is a DSP amp. So the gain(input sensitivity) goes from -20 Up to +12 dB I believe. So would I want to go all the way to -20 on the input sensitivity or check it at 0db. Hell. I’ll just try both.