kickass audio

I learned most of the things i know from guys on here and i still learn from ppl on here all the time. I was originally going to do the same thing as you with SOTM and making a build log but i got so involved with it i just said screw it and threw the camera aside and did the work and nailed it out in a few weeks.

yes, my 3sixty.2 is not something the average guy needs in their vehicle. I bought mine so i could have fine tuned adjustments and have a perfectly sounding system and have the crossover points right down to the point and the time delay feature with it to make it sound even better. If i had the expensive tool steve has called the "x-adjust" which will tell you what your subsonic, lowpass, highpass, etc are all set at on your amp i would probably have just said screw it with my 3sixty the first time around but then i would have bought it for the eq control and the time delay.

Yes you would have the fade control on your headunit. If you hooked it up like i mentioned you would not have fade only balance so if your mids were too loud and you turned it down, your sub would turn down as well. With it being like eagle mentioned, if you have too much mids and highs you can set the fader to go toward the rear and have less mids and highs but the same amount of bass. I would personally do it this way if you can as like you said it is a hell of a lot easier and you will get a little more control over it, plus with my old headunit i had the rear channel had extra features for bass control since it was supposed to be used on subwoofer amps.

Oh crap good point, i didnt even think to lookup the radio to see if it had front, rear or sub outputs. If it does i would use like you said with the rear being for the sub and the front being for the doors.

Thank you sir. I was once a noob... well still am to some extent haha. I hated when i asked for help and get stupid responses like "if you have to ask dont do it". The sound processor will greatly improve your clarity of your speakers but like i mentioned would not be necessary unless you wanted to do that down the line. Either way you would need to use a 2 way splitter but only 2 of them. Pretty much the output on your monoblock will need to be split once per channel (the left will be split into 2 left channels, the right will be split into 2 right channels) and then go to your amp. If you want to save a little money and some mess of having extra wires hanging all over the place heres how i would wire it up. 1.) Connect your amps up and wire them up like you normally would. 2.) Once the amps are wired up get like a 3-6 foot (depending on how far you are going to have the 4 channel from the monoblock) 2 channel RCA wire, two female to 2 male rca splitters like shown here: http://www.google.com/imgres?q=female+to+2+male+rca&um=1&hl=en&biw=1366&bih=643&tbm=isch&tbnid=2Da7fBBGaWMbbM:&imgrefurl=http://www.dinodirect.com/wholesale-jack-cable-2male-rca-stereo-female.html&docid=1AjNJEidPaZtFM&w=750&h=726&ei=_wCRTpGJBsnG0AHM9PUW&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=821&vpy=119&dur=769&hovh=221&hovw=228&tx=126&ty=111&page=1&tbnh=142&tbnw=147&start=0&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:18,s:0 3.) connect the 3-6ft 2 channel rca cable to the pass-thru output on your monoblock amp then route the wires to your 4 channel amp (note: make sure you know which output is left and right by matching the colors on them or labeling them) 4.) Connect both the rca splitters you purchased to your 4 channel amp and note which side you hookup (ie. channel 1+2 is your left channel and channel 3+4 are your right channel speakers) 5.) once everything is all set mess with the fader on your radio to ensure when you take the balance to the right only the speakers on the right play. If they do then you have been successful, if not just swap rca's on the amp and you will be fine. It sounds like a whole lot but its not really as hard as it seems. Just dont do what i did like a total moron. I had my left front door speaker connected to the right rear speaker, and had the right front speaker connected to the left rear speaker and it was canceling out the sound so bad i didnt know why my mids and highs sounded so crappy until i played with it today. hahaha.

Processors as great as they are in your case would not be necessary. You can use a splitter just be careful how many times you split it. Now if the pics on google are accurate you wont even need the splitter. Your 500.1 shows it has a pass-thru rca connector on the side of the amp. If you have this then you can use that pass-thru to connect the rca to your 4 channel amp then use a splitter right before the 4 channels connector so the rca will be split into 4 outputs. Basically connect the 500.1 up first, then for the output on the monoblock get a 2 way splitter (either a male to 2 female or female to 2 male connector) and hook that to your 4 channel.

I kinda have this with my truck but it takes a lot to make it kick on, typically i have to restart the engine a few times for my voltage to drop down. If this is not the computer telling the alt to charge at a lower voltage try to have the car cold and rev the engine up, if your voltage drops down as if you are running off straight battery power then your alt is bad. I had that happen with my first mechman alt that was damaged in shipping. The alt was super hot when it was working the first 2 days but the third day it had a loud groan on it when it was spinning and when i revved the engine above 1500rpm it would stop charging and send me down to run on battery power. Thank god i had my xs power battery to help me drive 25 miles home on.

do you know how many times the protect light flashes? some manufacturers have them setup so if they flash a specific number of times sequentially it means different faults occurred. If you havent tried it, disconnect everything from the amp, even the power. Keep the amp disconnected for a few minutes and hookup just the power, ground, and remote wires. leave the rca and speaker wires disconnected. Try to turn the radio on and see if the amp still throws itself in protect, if it does then the amp has a problem and it could be your wiring for it or something in the amp blew.

Just keep an eye on that kinetik to make sure it doesnt have bad voltage drop with how you said the voltage was resting so low before. For your post here about the orientation as previously mentioned it doesnt matter at all. You can take the battery and put it upside down if you really wanted to as long as the terminals dont touch or ground out on your vehicle you will be perfectly fine.

Good idea, I didn't even think about that. Thank you bro.

Again ipod videos have a hard drive and when my bass hits it shakes so bad that it makes the heads of the hard drive slam on the platter and im done paying for new hard drives every few times a year. So far to the best of my knowledge only 2nd-4th gen ipod touch's have solid state memory which is what im really after. Its too bad i cant get something like an external hard drive for mine.

Damn man! I need you to follow me around in my town so the cops can keeps their eyes off of me hahaha Edit: IO've heard this song a while back and could never figure out wat it was called.... Thanks Fish! Haha i would but you are nowhere near where im at. Plus tbh i have never had any cops give me a dirty look. Even when they have someone stopped or are sitting on the side of the road catching speeders and im doing 20 over the speed limit they dont care (knock on wood) Im glad i havent gotten myself a sound ticket because up here in NY they are pretty costly and they charge you extra b.s. too.

That's not how imp rise works, imp rise is only the amount of rise your enclosure gives you. Usually from what I've read a new box design or maybe a new port will change your imp rise but I don't know for sure since I just started getting into designing and building boxes the hard way.

Yea fish you are right but that's only some rap that ppl do that with. Most ppl just look back in disgust at me no matter what I slap and I can't blame them, when I'm within 2-3 car lengths from you, your mirrors already start to vibrate and if I'm within 1 car from you, I can make your window flex too. Lmao

If you are still wondering fish they just keep saying whats in the link in the entire song over and over again. It does slap but for certain systems. I still will take my yelawolf, e-40, tech n9ne, and other artists like them and slam them before this song but if you want attention then ill listen to that song. lol. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100803093150AAnL7C5

walk faster bro hahaha jk man. I wouldnt take any of my advise since im 20 and still under my parents roof till i graduate from college in another 2 years and get an even better job than i have now and go out on my own. If it was me though i would love to have a new start in a totally different and new place. Think of it, there people wont know you so you can make a better life for yourself whereas at home everyone and anyone knows you and any stupid thing you may have done will be held above your head. Thats one thing i want to get rid of when i move totally away from where im at is all the b/s ppl around me. I know i cant eliminate it because the world is filled with a-holes (including myself hahahaa) but those who always pull the "remember that one time...." i cant stand that. If you can though id say get the job near where you are currently at, maybe get a cheap place and save your money hard. Then use that hard earned money to move to another bigger and better spot. I wouldnt go for selling the car all at a first jump because it is your key to getting around and experiencing things. Yea you can walk and all that but if you keep getting job offers from locations that are not necessarily close to you, you will be screwed without a car.

zunes have a hard drive and thats not what i want. Also i need an ipod since my radio has direct control over ipods through its interface cable. If it wasnt for being able to control and see everything through my h/u i would just get a 64gb micro sd card for my phone and call it a day. thank you though for the suggestion but it needs to be an ipod for the control on my radio and it needs to be something without a hard drive in it.

^^ this, like i said you can never know what else could be a problem with your amp. It may be just the caps being old, it may be even more than that. I only know how amps work, i dont know how to repair them too much tbh. I have fixed a few of my old amps but they just had blown caps worse than yours and some cracked buss bars, it wasnt too bad. Just because the amp does work even with the bad cap doesnt mean something else can break on it down the line. With a high powered amp like that i would rather have a pro look at it for the risk of having all that power start a fire or melt the amp. I know if something went on my amps (dc audio) even with the warranty if it was expired id still send it to a place who has experience with dc for help and not risk it myself.

Well after a long amount of thought i put on it i decided against putting a mac mini in my truck because i doubt ill be able to take full advantage of it. With this i need a new ipod since the one i have is dying from the bass shaking the hell out of it hard drive. I need the ipod to be a first through 3rd gen touch with either 32gb or 64gb of space. I would highly prefer to have a 64gb since i am so close to maxing out my current 30gb ipod video. It MUST be solid state memory since having the hard drive is causing too many problems but im sure the ipod touch doesnt have a hard drive, i think its ssd memory on it but i could be wrong. If anyone has one that functions and isnt in too bad of shape please hit me up, i would like to see if anyone on here has one before i scrounge the interwebs for one. lol.

Alright so heres how to test each and every cap on that area of your board to see if they are good or not. Take your DMM and set it to its highest DCV setting and quickly touch the cap with the black lead going to the side of the cap with the white stripe that has the "-" on it and the red lead to the opposite connector coming out of the cap. Look at your dmm when you do so to see if it has a voltage. If it does then you want to take the capacitor and get a piece of wire or a screw driver and touch both the leads together for a minute or two to short the cap out and make the voltage drop to almost 0 (it may spark but its not going to be like a car battery or anything) and then perform the first test with voltage again. When you know the voltage is near 0 then set your dmm to its highest ohm setting (usually like 2000k ohms) and connect the positive and negative leads off the dmm to the same connections on the cap. You should notice the resistance climb up the longer you hold the leads on the capacitor. If this happens look to see if its a fast increase or a slow one. If its fast then the cap is alright, if its a slow or doesnt increase at all then the cap is bad. let me know if you get stuck at all man.

im sorry but im not following you. You didnt think it was the imp rise because of the amount of wire and subs? Imp rise doesnt apply to how many and how thick your wire is that you are using for the speakers or necessarily the amount of speakers you have. imp rise is more for what enclosure you have it installed in and the freq and all other things like that. Imp rise is almost always the problem with the box. a good box will have low imp rise, a bad box will have a high imp rise, at least thats what ive experienced.

Here is the site you can use to help with finding if the caps you have are good or not: http://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/showthread.php?t=5326 NOTE: You HAVE to disconnect each cap from the circuit board to test them, you do not want to test capacitance with it connected to a circuit as it will energize other circuits in the process too. As for your pm you sent me, you can get as many as you wish from here: http://www.tedss.com/item.asp?id=2020031013 it will be $80 to get all 10. I would highly advise against doing just a few of the caps that are swollen or have torn labels as they are 100% malfunctioning. Just because the other ones that you have on your amp with the label ripped do not feel like they are bulged out doesnt mean that they dont bulge when the amp is being used. I have seen amps where when they are in use they get big but at rest they return back to normal. When this happens the label will stretch out and break apart because of the size change and when the cap cools down it will get smaller to its normal size but the label will still be torn since it changed its size. For your worry about the caps rubbing i highly doubt it is but if you want to test it you could try to take something like weather stripping for a door/window and put that on the side of the cap and see if it rubs on the case of the amp when you put it together. I highly doubt it is rubbing, just the caps expanding and even if the side of the cap touched the amps case as long as there is no friction or rubbing it will be fine. The outer part of the cap is not conductive trust me. My old 1 farad cap i got from rf had its label ripped off from be installing it so many times and it was touching the frame of my car and didnt do anything bad. Its too bad you cant use 1000 caps, lol. it would be a whole lot cheaper to do that than get the amount you need. lol.

It doesnt look like it rubbed just expanded. Caps are supposed to expand upward since thats where the vent marks are cut out at but sometimes the vents do not operate right and the side of the cap will expand when the cap fails. If it was rubbing then the metal side of the cap would have chaffing on it which it does not look like it does in the pic. Pretty much what happened here was the cap expanded while the black labels for the caps stayed the same size, when the cap got bigger in size the label stretched out until it ripped at the seams. Ive seen so many blown caps when ive worked on tv's, computers, and radios that its not uncommon for me to find one. And op, if you need to ask anyone at radioshack or anything (id just get the caps online if the amp repair guys say i would be fine to do just that) its a 160v cap rated at 1600 micro-farads (the symbol that looks like it says "uf" stands for micro farad) and it is a polarized cap (thats why there is the white stripe on the cap to indicate which lead is for the negative leg of the cap. When and if you replace the caps you MUST pay close attention to which way the caps are wired up. You want to ensure that the white side of the capacitor showing the "-" symbol is on the part of the board that has the extra white dot on it. Like if you look at your first pic where you show the board and cap, look at where the circle is drawn on the amps circuit board. See the part of the circle where it has a larger spot with the white mark on it? If not just follow the circle and look for the part of the circle where it has more white on it than the rest of the circle, this side is the negative side of the amps capacitor circuit.

You should not solder that cap back on the amp. Capacitors are not supposed to be swollen like that at all. When the top or bottom starts to balloon out that means it is either being overcharged or is near the end of its life. I will admit that i dont know much about amplifier repair but i would ask around on here to see if someone knows what cap you should get. I wouldnt go to radioshack and start soldering all their caps on the board to have a new capacitor circuit. But to test them some dmm's have settings on them to allow you to do so or you can do an even better test on my oscilloscope (tpi 440 plus). You need to drain the cap of ALL its power first (some people like to short out the leads but i just clamp my scopes leads around the cap on DCV and let it read the voltage till it drops to 0, it does take awhile for big caps so it is a pain to wait for) and then i set my scope to test the cap and it will show me an output graph to tell me what kind of cap it is, how many farads/micro farads it operates at, and what its voltage is. This will tell you if the cap is bad or not by the farad/microfarad rating that is on the side of the cap and what you actually read with your dmm/scope. Personally i would rather do it right and repair the amp the right way than have a car fire because caps are not always easy to clean up when they pop, trust me, i have cleaned out several computers from capacitors popping and the acid is a pain to get off of everything. Now you could have a bigger problem with the amp which caused the caps to overcharge and caused the caps to balloon like they did or it may just be that the caps are just old and lost their life either way it seems kinda odd that you have that many caps that are swollen on your amp. edit: here are the exact same brand, cap size, rating, etc for the ones in your amp now that are ballooning out: http://www.newark.com/jsp/search/productdetail.jsp?SKU=16M7227&CMP=AFC-GB100000001 Like i said i would ask some amp repair experts on here about what they suggest before you spend some money getting new caps and solder them all in and something else is bad on the amp.

Sweet. Good job finding that out. I honestly thought it was odd that the radio swap would cause it to protect. Also watch ur imp rise when the woofer breaks in. My imp dropped like .3-.4 ohms from what it used to be when I first got my system in.