TonyD'Amore
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Posts posted by TonyD'Amore
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Tony will have to chime in on this.
As far as I saw on the scope the signal is pretty much the same.
Very well could be that those amps are well over 1% distortion out of the gate.
My insite is... You knew there had to be a draw back of a 300w 4ch thats the size of a 3x5card.
By no means do i knows thats the case here.
Like i said juan and tony are the guys that will know.
I will hit them up and see if we can figure it out
Let me state , I was not at Rockford during the development of the BR amplifiers; thus I do not claim to know exactly how they work. I have a good idea though.
The SIGNAL LED on the DD-1 is not filtered. Thus the reason it flickers at 40Hz, our eyes are just fast enough to detect the LED turning on and off as it follows the sine wave. This being said, if the SIGNAL LED is not coming on, the DD-1 isn't seeing anything over 1Vrms coming out of the amplifier. It is possible that the output of this amplifier is on a different ground than the B+ input ground.
Let's try connecting the red probe to the + speaker terminal, and the black alligator clip to the - speaker terminal. Maybe this is what is going on.
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Make sure if you do this that the "Sound Check" is NOT selected in iTunes. If this is selected iTunes will adjust the levels of the tracks. ie -10dB track will not be -10dB any more.
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Guys: there will be another delay of 2 or 3 days.....one of the parts we needs got caught up in customs but it will be here on Monday night. We are building 50 as i type and its a slight process..we are doing it all in house. Made in USA! I am currently in Southern Cali with Tony, Juan and Jay Crazy working on the units. I have a better video then the one im about to show you on my other camera, but since i have no means to get it on the computer here much less edit it, i just made a quick iphone video to show we have TONS of stuff! just waiting on one little thing. 50 will go out monday morning and the remaining 200 i have, will go out probably wednesday or thursday tops.
I apologize again but there is 127 total parts on this unit and if one is missing, it slows us down. Dont worry though, we will SOON be 100% caught up and have lots in stock. The sales have been overwhelming so we will do our best to keep them in the store for future purposes.
If you ordered from Ray from Audio Innovations Fresno, dont worry, we are overnighting his order as soon as they are ready to go out!
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Anyone?
Latest revision of manual can be found here for now
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why does the meter only read down to 1% thd??...ppl have said that 1% is actually high and that it should be down to .1% to be fully useful...what do you say to argue that??...and this is an actual question, not tryin to be a dick
Most amplifiers on the market today would just light up the Distortion Detected LED constantly if I had set the threshold at 0.1%
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"The amount of accuracy depends on the scope."
Actually it depends on the scope AND the USER
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It makes me giggle when someone tries to disprove tony. lol
LOL
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an oscope still has its uses, this just isnt one of them anymore.
its kinda like bag phones, they were pretty awesome when they were all you had for a mobile device, now theres new better things or the use. Its just how technology works.
this is a neat new tool but its has NOT made the oscope obsolete by any means. i did an experiment a little while back you can try. tune your mids with a 1000hz tone until its just under clipping. now, at the same volume, play a 100-200hz tone. try it and see if you dont get clipping. i had a video of this but for some reason it got corrupted on photobucket but i could make one again.
now if this thing had 40hz, 100hz, 500hz, and 5000hz. then it would replace my need for an oscope. and that would be nice, because my scope is large and needs to be plugged in. maybe the next version can have those?
If you have your bass, treb, eqs, ect turned to zero like the instructions for the DD-1 indicate, then you don't need to test all of these frequencies. We did 40Hz and 1kHz so that we could do full range amplifier and subwoofer only amplifiers.
in my test it was all flat. used a tone generator. i mentioned those frequencies so you can tune a 4way system. just my suggestion for what would make me interested in the product. i understand i am an odd market though and it may not be beneficial to appeal to that.
maybe theres something i dont understand with what i did. thats always possible. i can make that video again and show it to you and you can tell me if i understand it correctly or not. i would just PM it to you. if you dont mind
I see what you are saying, but just like Steve said; turn your crossovers off, set gain, put crossovers back. Crossovers don't add gain (unless someone really f'd up lol).
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That signal is not clipped. The spike looks to be from having a crossover on or something like that.
...did you read? At all? That was the entire point of the post. Dirty signal doesn't necessarily have to be clipping. Distortion lives in other ways.
I read fine but you missed my point. The spike on the sine wave is not distortion imo but from something else like noise. I have seen this before.
That distortion in the waveform is caused by a Class A/B amplifier with the output device bias adjustment (internal) set too low. This is called "Crossover Distortion". NO not Crossover as in Low Pass ect! Crossover as in where the waveform crosses the 0V point and goes from positive voltage to negative voltage. The DD-1 looks for harmonic distortion, that is anything that is a harmonic of the fundamental. What that means is if you are playing 40Hz (the fundamental), the tool looks for things that are not 40Hz, which any noise, "spikes" whatever are not going to be 40Hz because if they were they would be the same as the fundamental and you wouldn't see them at all. Harmonic Distortions of 40Hz would be 80Hz, 120Hz, 160Hz, 200Hz...ect
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an oscope still has its uses, this just isnt one of them anymore.
its kinda like bag phones, they were pretty awesome when they were all you had for a mobile device, now theres new better things or the use. Its just how technology works.
this is a neat new tool but its has NOT made the oscope obsolete by any means. i did an experiment a little while back you can try. tune your mids with a 1000hz tone until its just under clipping. now, at the same volume, play a 100-200hz tone. try it and see if you dont get clipping. i had a video of this but for some reason it got corrupted on photobucket but i could make one again.
now if this thing had 40hz, 100hz, 500hz, and 5000hz. then it would replace my need for an oscope. and that would be nice, because my scope is large and needs to be plugged in. maybe the next version can have those?
If you have your bass, treb, eqs, ect turned to zero like the instructions for the DD-1 indicate, then you don't need to test all of these frequencies. We did 40Hz and 1kHz so that we could do full range amplifier and subwoofer only amplifiers.
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Hummmm. I understand your logic, I'm trying to think of something that can "distort" a sine without being "distortion".
Sure looks and sounds like a duck.
reasons:
box flex
environment of car
transfer
that jacket laying on the back seat
the blow up doll in the front seat
bottle of mountain dew in the port
cracked window
window not rolled all the way up
there are actually alot of things
hows that? I can understand that if you were playing a sine wave through the speakers and reading with a mic, but how does any of that stuff interfere if the signal is being read at the amp, through the terminals, with the speaker unhooked?
anyway, i see the distortion light on, i see the wave that is not very clean and clearly has something going on. Whatever it is the DD-1 Picked it up!
That distortion in the waveform is caused by a Class A/B amplifier with the output device bias adjustment (internal) set too low. This is called "Crossover Distortion". NO not Crossover as in Low Pass ect! Crossover as in where the waveform crosses the 0V point and goes from positive voltage to negative voltage. The DD-1 looks for harmonic distortion, that is anything that is a harmonic of the fundamental. What that means is if you are playing 40Hz (the fundamental), the tool looks for things that are not 40Hz, which any noise, "spikes" whatever are not going to be 40Hz because if they were they would be the same as the fundamental and you wouldn't see them at all. Harmonic Distortions of 40Hz would be 80Hz, 120Hz, 160Hz, 200Hz...ect
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Apparently not that good as per the comments made during Pulse Car Audios testing videos.
It could be that RayOVac battery... I've since switched it to an Energizer and no problems.
For sure!
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nothing to do with the DD1 but if you are using the CD to set it and playing music with an Iphone or Itouch there will be distortion. I saw the guy with the crescendo and btls was playing with an Iphone. if you didnt do it, you should of set the gains with the Iphone playing tones. something about the Iphones, the just put out more signal, my car when Itouch > Zune > CD it terms of what was louder on the same deck volume
This is an excellent point! Also something that I will include in the revised production owner's manual. If the customer's primary source is an iPhone, iPod, ect, the tracks from the CD should be ripped to the iPod at the highest bit rate possible, and then use that as the source for all testing. Also, very important, iTunes "Sound Check" HAS TO BE TURNED OFF during this process. If not the iTunes software will adjust the level of the tracks and mess you up.
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I was just wondering what the battery life is like on the new units?
X2
Its a good question but no one wants to touch it?
On the battery life: I've designed special circuitry that turns the unit "off" when it's off, meaning its not "sleeping" its actually very much off. So if not being used the battery would last as long as if it wasn't plugged into anything. When being used it depends; if it is just "on" but no signals are being examined it should last around 15 hours continuous. When signals are being injected into it, the run time would be less because the DD-1 is doing more work. If used in a shop for 10-15 minutes at a time, several times a day, it should last for months.
We didn't design in a rechargeable system in order to keep costs down, and put the money into the design in more important places. If used in a very busy shop there is nothing stopping anyone from putting a rechargeable 9V in it, like this one My link Note however that rechargeable types have less capacity than a standard non-rechargeable alkaline battery, so it might have to be re-charged often.
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i see a lot of people giving steve tons and tons of props for this unit. while i agree and give him props as well, i equally give tony d'amore props all the same. i'm sure he had a huge part in this product too
Thanks man, my boy Juan Rodriguez and I have some time invested in it for sure.
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ALL POWER AIN'T GOOD POWER - REMEMBER THIS FOLKS!
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a little more info for you guys...
We all know that when you clip your system it adds "dirty power" so I wanted to see what kind of dirty power Gary had before setup with the SMD dd1. The results are surprising.
BEFORE TUNING WITH SMD dd1
ACv- 62.09
amp- 39.14
2430.2026 watts SPL score 150.8dB
AFTER TUNING WITH SMD dd1
ACv- 56.14
amp- 34.07
1912.6898 watts SPL score 150.9dB (after playing music for over 45 minutes straight with the truck off!!!)
edit: in other words... 517.5128 watts where "dirty" or distorted power and it didn't help the score at all. and FYI I have seen a few people (one re re on youtube said this too) say that "i've tuned by ear this tool is useless you can hear distortion"... I have been doing car audio for 16+ years. I have built countless SPL and SQ setups not to mention everyday bangers... I can tell you this... This is the fastest and easiest way to set up tuning, and I thought I got the cars pretty close by ear (judges comments on my competitors setups confirmed that) but this takes the cake so to speak. Gary's truck sounded fantastic before, and anyone who has heard it would agree... like i said in the vid though.. it sounds BETTER now.
if you don't add this to your toolbox as an installer of audio both home and auto... then you are insane. bottom line.
Good stuff right there!! Nice review
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I know it's hard to grasp the concept of distortion if there is no clipping. I will try to get some good pictures from my bench, showing the SMD DD-1 in action. For now, check out this picture of a distorted sine wave vs. a clean sine wave. Your little hand-held scope is not going to tell you about this, it may show it on the screen but unless you have robot eyes you aren't going to know what you are looking at. Hell, you have to look closely at those little LCD displays even to see clipping!
By the way, the blue is the distorted signal, red is clean.
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For someone like Ray who, from what I've seen, is an SQ expert, to have such positive comments about it, definitely makes me want this thing more!
Me too. Ray usually says it like it is too...no bs! I really wouldnt expect much less from Tony D'Amore though
Thanks man
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hey tony got a few quick off topic questions for you... you only designed the 3sixty.1 and .2 right nothing with the .3? and any advice on ground loop with a .2? my new rcas seemed to have helped but theres still a some alt whine
Hey man, no not me. Tony Janke designed the 3sixty.1 and 3sixty.2 The 3sixty.3 is something totally different and neither Tony Janke or I had anything to do with it. My claim to fame at Rockford was the T15kW as well as various other amplifiers.
ah shit my bad... too many tonys
haha no worries man
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hey tony got a few quick off topic questions for you... you only designed the 3sixty.1 and .2 right nothing with the .3? and any advice on ground loop with a .2? my new rcas seemed to have helped but theres still a some alt whine
Hey man, no not me. Tony Janke designed the 3sixty.1 and 3sixty.2 The 3sixty.3 is something totally different and neither Tony Janke or I had anything to do with it. My claim to fame at Rockford was the T15kW as well as various other amplifiers.
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Is there a voltage or amperage limit on this thingie? Also, are the gains suppose to be set with the speakers hooked up? Thanks. Looking good.
Voltage limit is 125 VACrms, 176VACpeak. This equates to a 15,000 watt RMS amplifier at 1 ohm, or 7,500 watts at 2 ohm ect. This, I believe will cover everything on the mobile and home audio market.
I recommend setting the gains without the speakers being connected, just to save your speakers from having to deal with a continuous sine wave at full power. My testing has shown that with the speakers disconnected you end up with about 1 - 3 more dB of overlap. The exception to this would be if the amplifier has a regulated power supply, then it wouldn't matter either way.
I just did two cars with it last night. Set the fronts at 10dB overlap and rears at 5dB overlap without the speakers connected. They both came out perfect. Neither car has subs yet, but when they do I'd set the sub with 15dB overlap.
Tony D'Amore
D'Amore Engineering
When you say overlap what do you mean exactly? like you used -10DB tones for the fronts and -15 tones for the rear?
Yes sir
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Is there a voltage or amperage limit on this thingie? Also, are the gains suppose to be set with the speakers hooked up? Thanks. Looking good.
Voltage limit is 125 VACrms, 176VACpeak. This equates to a 15,000 watt RMS amplifier at 1 ohm, or 7,500 watts at 2 ohm ect. This, I believe will cover everything on the mobile and home audio market.
I recommend setting the gains without the speakers being connected, just to save your speakers from having to deal with a continuous sine wave at full power. My testing has shown that with the speakers disconnected you end up with about 1 - 3 more dB of overlap. The exception to this would be if the amplifier has a regulated power supply, then it wouldn't matter either way.
I just did two cars with it last night. Set the fronts at 10dB overlap and rears at 5dB overlap without the speakers connected. They both came out perfect. Neither car has subs yet, but when they do I'd set the sub with 15dB overlap.
Tony D'Amore
D'Amore Engineering
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so at the bottom why does it say "D'Amore Engine Ring"
is that the name of this or was that a typo or something? lol just curious it caught my attention
It's supposed to be D'Amore Engine2ring. As in e squared. It's hard to see the little "2". I need to make it larger.
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D'Amore Engineering
in SMD Distortion Detector (DD-1) Topics
Posted
New website finally launched!! DD-1 support information can be found there, as well as a Spanish owner's manual and some other downloads. Check out the fresh t-shirts that just came in and let me know if you find any bugs on the site that need to be fixed!
I do know that it will not work with internet explorer 8.x --- too old
Thanks all!
www.DAmoreEngineering.com