kickass audio

Hahaha if you bought me a bottle and got caught you would be in trouble. Im only 20. lmao. Its not too hard but theres so much that makes your setup that much harder since using the stock radio is a pain in the ass to convert it to technology the amps can use.

Ive been there before and i still am doing that in my free time. Trust me, this site is full of great information, you just have to find it. Ive been a member for i believe 3 or 4 years and i learned so much from here.

Who knows, finding things a customer can screw up are hard to do, gotta love stupid people doing things they cant handle. lol.

Yes it sounds like your converters are total garbage, sorry to say it but they are ruining your system. If you can get a sound processor in there that will integrate into your factory radio speaker wires and convert them into rca you will not have any problems with the level of the output or distortion.

That's good glad you fixed it. Did you check his fuse box by chance to see if it got shorted out and blew a fuse?

To find the 1v reading off your DMM, we were just simply testing the rca wire, nothing else. I wanted to see if those converters were actually putting out a signal that the amp could interpret and accept as a signal. Just do it one channel at a time as follows as long as you set the gains for your high-low converters all. The 1v reading you have is perfect as long as your clip/distortion light wasnt illuminated on the DD-1 when you were touching those gain adjustment screws on the converter. Anyways, once you get the high-low converter gains finished (idk if you did them all or not but just do the same thing you did before to get that 1v reading, connecting it to the amp and what not. Just read page 9-12 to setup the gains on the amp once you have those damn converters setup and locked in at a level where there is no distortion. Just remember, your headunit MUST be at its maximum volume where it is unclipped whenever you are setting the gains on anything in your system. If it is not all the way up, you will never get full power out of your system and you can also get more distortion from turning the gains up on the wrong equipment. Pages 9-10 are for your mids and high amp. (note: you need to take that red probe and put it on the positive of each speaker output. For example if you have the 2 channel amp like we discussed earlier, you would connect the red probe on the left channel positive speaker terminal, set the gain. Once you do the left channel move the red probe off the dd-1 to the right channel positive speaker terminal off the amp and see if it clips any. it shouldnt but just want to double check it all to be sure. ) Pages 10-12 are for a subwoofer amp/mono amplifier. Please note, that your amp may not have some of these settings as discussed in the manual, if you dont have a bassboost, freq adjustment for the bassboost, just disregard them.

very good, thats a better voltage reading. Now question, did you hook the dd-1 up to the amp with the amps gain all the way down and see if it was seeing any clipping? At 1v it is low but your amps will be guaranteed to work with that and not have any clipping. See if it finds any distortion when you hook the dd-1 up to one channel of the amp and ground it to the chassis of your vehicle like we discussed in the latest post. Turn the gain up on your amp until the clip light illuminates. It should be about 40-60 volts ac from what ive seen on average with amps.

If you had a serial data connection like my radio in my envoy does (the stock one that is) you would have two harnesses that connect to the back of the radio. If you only have one harness then you dont have the serial data connection. And for that model radio im almost totally certain you dont have the data connection. The only thing that goes to that radio is a pin that your friend either setup himself or had the dealer make one for him when be bought the car, so if someone with the same monte carlo steals the stock h/u it wont work unless the thief knew the pin code of the radio. If the radio does get locked by the theftlock, it will just say "loc" on the screen and in the manual there is a way to get around it. I believe since my dads 97 Chevy Tahoe has the exact same radio but he has an external cd player as well, you have to press the "hr" and "min" keys until the desired pin appears on the screen (the code your buddy made or the dealer made up) once it is on the screen correctly press the "am/fm" button to confirm the code you entered. Then you can press the volume knob in and the radio should turn. Also note, the radio will have a small red LED at the top right near the volume knob. If when you connect the radio up this light is flashing, it means it is protected by the pin and you must enter it to use the radio, if it doesnt flash then you prob dont have to worry about the radio being locked.

That doesnt sound right. For both 1000Hz and 40Hz, you should have the same voltage level. And .2v is deff not what the output should be on those high-low converters i can tell you that. I would set them as good as you can without them clipping too hard and get the 3sixty as soon as you can because if you dont and you get carried away on your volume you can smoke your equipment. If you can wait until tomorrow ill take my DMM and put it on ACV to see what it reads, my headunits voltage output before the 3sixty.2 is 2.5v rms so i will see what it comes up as on my DMM but .2 just seems wrong.

It is really nice to have it. Either one will be perfect but the .3 is better and more advanced than the .2. The .2 still is powerful, just be sure to not fall for the 3sixty.1 trick. The .1 doesnt have shit for controls and you will get totally dooped if you buy it. Get a .2 and you will be more than happy. Did you try like i said with the DMM to see what your voltage level was on your rca wire coming off the converter tho?

Also, for how the main harness was sliced off, did you cut the wires that look like they run from the driver to the passenger side or just the wires that come out of the back of the stock harness? I really hope you sliced and diced the wires directly behind the old radios harness because if you did anymore than that, you could have seriously fucked something up and have a broken link somewhere in there.

It would be fine to put it on with full 12v+ power to the ignition and power wire. And for ground you can put it right into the floor panel or something if you need to ground it somewhere else. Does your buddys radio look like this: http://www.google.com/imgres?q=1999+monte+carlo+radio&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1366&bih=643&tbm=isch&tbnid=JyGS-67-qIOypM:&imgrefurl=http://www.oemradios.com/gm_radios.php&docid=cijthbVsfiRV5M&w=450&h=278&ei=lpBMTpiFNorpgAfS-7zvBg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=168&vpy=355&dur=2440&hovh=176&hovw=286&tx=180&ty=148&page=2&tbnh=112&tbnw=181&start=21&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:6,s:21 If so then you are so lucky because the one in my truck turns on by a serial data connection, there was never a ignition wire that turned the radio on and off. I had to tap into a fuse in my rear fusebox to get my aftermarket radio to work (damn GM!!!) Also, if you need it, here is the wiring color guide from the12volt.com, i use them all the time, http://www.the12volt.com/installbay/stereodetail/553.html

Oh yea, best part is that im not in school yet, i dont start classes back again until the 29th so im getting my last minute fun in before i get hammered. Right now im just at work almost all day, i work from 4-10 and i dont have a garage to work in so i cant do anything at night without getting murdered by mosquito's. lol. I will totally agree with it being hard to take off. I bought the roller from you as well since i didnt want to ruin my dads nice one he had if i went over the rubber with it or anything and it isnt going anywhere. Even when i first was putting it on, i didnt press on it with my hand or anything yet and it just was like a magnet and wanted to go right to the body panel of my truck and when it touched it just slightly, it was pretty hard to pull that sucker away from the panel. Hell the one time i actually pulled so hard the tailgate started to come down on me hahaha.

I know I don't need to heat it up before applying it. I just did that to test if it would smell and it passed my test. I'm very happy with damp pro. Since I have so much extra I'm going to do my front doors next time I have a chance. Love your product guys.

To be honest I can't smell anything with it. If I put my nose like 1/4 of a inch away from the rubber/tar or whatever it is that you use for the adhesive part, it just smells very faintly like a new tire. I had this baking in my truck almost all day before I installed it and it didn't smell the cabin up at all. It did make a big difference but if only my tailgate and window didn't flex so damn much id be all set but I can't do crap about that.

Theft lock only works on the stock radio. What it prevents is if I steal your stock radio I can't put it in my vehicle because it will know part of the original cars vin number. The only way I could do it is if I flashed the radio which is very expensive to do

That is true. It wont matter for polarity of the fan btw so if u were wondering that. If its reversed the fan will just suck air instead of blowing it out. Edit: or you can do the super ghetto 12v halogen bulb test. Take a headlight, turn signal, hood lamp, anything that is a light on the car and hook it up to it

Maybe the wire got disconnected in the dash? Idk. Theres a big reason why you shouldnt ever cut the stock wiring harness in the dash and thats one of them.

Yea it sounds like in that case you are shorting something out (not you directly, the radio) Are the frayed parts of the wire where it plugs into the back of the radio itself, where the two stripped wire ends meet and connect, or where the harness plugs into the harness that is already in your dash? If you can, put a pic of it on here and let me see it.

sticky, i dont know when the 3sixty.3 is coming out, it should have been out already but it isnt. And as BJD3 suggested you can get the other cheaper alternatives to the 3sixty but since you are like halfway there for the cost, i would just wait and dump my money on the .3 or .2. You will have more control with the RF units than your mind is capable of handling, lol, and i will guarantee you better sound quality as long as you set everything up the proper way with the .2 (dont own a .3 but im sure its even better than the .2 for sq).

Thank you Jon, he feels a lot better today but he is still worn out a little but he looks better and more lively today than last night. I got the rear lift gate deadened with just one layer of ss-damp pro and it helped a great deal. It still rattles but the reason for that is that my liftgate along with the window move in and out a ton from the excursion of my woofer. I am not too worried about it, it doesnt sound like someone shaking soup cans together anymore If only i didnt have college in another 2 weeks or id take the headliner out and put some deadner up there since that resonates so badly, it drives me nuts. Plus having the ability to limit the heat that enters my truck is always a plus. I didnt take pics of my lift gate though because i had my hands tied pretty well with taking EVERYTHING off the gate (wiper motor, mini computer, wire harnesses, lock mechanisms, etc) along with checking in on my dad to make sure he was alright. Next year though in the summer i plan to get to the roof of my truck, i have to get some more ss damp pro though, i only have like 5 sheets left from the trunk pack i believe. I used a sheet and a 3/4 of it on the lift gate so however many you get in a trunk pack is what i have left. Great product though, it doesnt stick to your hands much but it is like a magnet to metal, i love it. lol.

Hmm that is odd that it trips the PSU to turn off. When mine did that, i was either overloading it or shorting out the wire on purpose. If anything, see if you can detatch all the wires except the solid yellow (positive), solid black (ground), and the red (accessory turn on) wires. Connect the Yellow one to the yellow wire of your power supply (or just give it +12v of power), connect the solid black wire to the black wire of the power supply (or -12v of power), and connect the solid red wire off the radio to the yellow (positive +12v) wire you hooked up before. As soon as you power on the power supply the radio should turn on and show some life, if it doesnt then something internally is dead on it. Sorry if you already tried just connecting only those 3 wires, just shooting out things to see if you can revive the radio for your friend.

To be honest, the money a 3sixty.2 costs will be up there with a new headunit. But in all honesty, sometimes having the stock headunit looks a lot better and cleaner than an aftermarket one. You can get one new for around $355-400. You can look on here for someone who has it used for sale. I have my mind set on getting a RF 3sixty.3 processor since my radio has an dolby digital output that i would love to take advantage of and have no distortion going into the 3sixty.3 itself. Plus the new unit has even more controls that the current one doesnt. I still am a total fanatic for having this in my truck, it completes the entire system all by itself with what it can do. You can prob fine this used on SMD for around 180-250 max. If anything, post it in the want to buy section and see who comes running your way. Its up to you though if you want to get another headunit or use the money for a 3sixty.2 or 3sixty.3 but think about it like this. When you get rid of this car and get another one down the line and you want to put the system back in it, you will have to spend some money for other parts/adapters for your radio. Granted it wont cost as much as the 3sixty will but you also wont have 1/4 of the controls at your fingertips, the accuracy, the ability to crank your system and not blow your stuff up, make a crystal clear system, etc. If this was me, i would get the 3sixty.2 or .3. The only reason i got another headunit to replace my stock pile of shit that came with my truck and my old car is that i wanted a DVD player in my dash along with a direct ipod control interface like my radio has. Eventually i will ditch the headunit and get a small carputer to run in my truck and get a 10" or bigger touch screen and fiberglass it in my dash.

I know 100% that the 3sixty.2 will work just fine. And to be honest ppl sell theirs on here so they can buy the 3sixty.3 thats coming out soon. Thats how i bought mine, i got mine from my friend on here along with a ton of other things he used that he didnt want and i got a damn good deal on it. The 3sixty also has built in clipping lights if you use the rca adapters (im not sure if it shows clipping if you use the OEM conectors, i would assume it doesnt but idk for sure) and it outputs a good strong 6v signal for all my channels to my amps so my gains on the amps are barely off from being fully turned down. All you need is to have a computer that runs windows xp (sometimes it works fine in vista/7 but i had problems where it would drop my bluetooth connection out of the blue), a computer with a bluetooth adapter whether it be internal or external, and a disc just like the dd-1 to set everything to. For setting it up like OEM integration so it can attempt to flatten out your EQ so you have a nice and equal response, you need to have a White Noise track but you can easily make that in audacity for free. The 3sixty is great to have the ability to control all your channels for music, a very accurate crossover network, tons of equalizer settings to mess with, time delay, and plenty of other goodies. All you need to do if you want to make it easy on yourself is find a place near your dash you can mount the 3sixty.2 to (usually people use the area behind their glovebox, the actual glovebox itself, or their center console depending on the room) and extend the speaker wires that come off your radios stock harness until it reaches the 3sixty and then hookup power and set it all up from there. Its that easy to setup.

You are definitely doing it right but that converter is being a pain in your ass. I have never used one so i cant say if they truly are good or bad but i wouldnt ever use one. The only thing i would get (my 3sixty.2 does though) is a balanced line driver. Thats the only thing i would get to modify the signal coming from my radio to my amps. Hey i thought of another good thing you could do to get your stock radio to work right and i cant believe i didnt think about this before. My RF 3sixty.2 has the ability to let you either have RCA inputs or the speaker inputs that come off your radio. If you cant get those high-low converters to work right, i VERY HIGHLY recommend you think about buying a rf 3sixty.2 . You can ditch the high-low converter and take all the channel outputs from your stock radios harness and put them on the 3sixty.2 and then connect the rca's that go to your amps to the output rca of the 3sixty. That would work absolutely perfectly for you, plus your sound would be 1000000 times better i guarantee it and you can set everything the right way too. edit: Here are some cheaper alternatives to the 3sixty.2. http://www.sonicelectronix.com/cat_i489_factory-sound-processors.html?from=20 I cannot say enough how much i totally love having a 3sixty.2. the unit is so powerful but compact and my sound quality has improved so much i cannot emphasize it. My old system was missing the 3sixty.2 and whenever i listened to any music with it, my ears would ring to no end with it for over 3 hours. With my 3sixty.2 it is playing everything at a flat level and my ears dont ring one bit, even when i burped my system today at the shop my ears didnt ring or anything bad after it.