Wicks

Use a small power resistor inline with your power wire to charge up your amplifier's internal capacitors to avoid the dreaded blue arc that scares the crap out of you when you're trying to connect the power wires.

Nice practical examples! Since you're covering voltage/current in and out of various sources and loads, it might be handy to very quickly go over Kirchhoff's Voltage and Current laws. Or something along the lines of the conservation of power rules which you mostly covered by saying that the power out of the source = the power into the load. I've seen a lot of people on here confused about how power from a source gets distributed to more then one load. Never hurts to quote some laws (like Ohms Law already mentioned) since there are some people occasionally who think they can invent their own laws from time to time. While you're still on DC circuits, any plans on doing a practical example using an alternator, battery and an amplifier and explain how they interact? This especially ties into the conservation of power since there are a lot of inexperienced people running HUGE amps from a stock electrical system who are blaming the equipment because its blowing up. Just because you have a 10kW amp, doesn't mean that it magically produces that 10kW...

Soooooooo not that I want to get in the middle of another pissing match, but when talking about wire there is another thing to think about besides just OFC or CCA......your end terminations. There's so much more to it then just copper or aluminum. Soldered terminals, crimped, fuses, how many fuses, quality of solder, amount of solder, type of crimp........... When you combine different metals there is also a voltage drop incorporated with that as well. Copper terminals, aluminum terminals, plated terminals, surface area of contact.... Take that into account when you're discussing your real-world results as well. There are literally thousands of combinations of equipment (besides the HU, amps and speakers) that make up your system and every little bit is going to affect it. All those small voltage drops probably add up and account for more voltage drop then a huge span of OFC or CCA. The way I look at it is this: Look at your system parameters and calculate the appropriate gear for the requirements. A great rule of thumb is 2x what you need for reliability. Then if you're happy with your voltage drop and all, then great, you're DONE! As was said above 99% of us aren't hard core competitors so gaining that 0.2V or 0.5dB isn't going to amount to squat on the Ear-O-Meter so just have fun with your system.

Booooooo....Aye....Jamie....Get off the stage....no one cares....back to the discussion....

Some of you guys here are ridiculous...! I won't name names but damn..... Tony isn't inventing shit for a profit, he's creating tools that are affordable to most and elevating the common intellect. He's simply stating theory, yet you guys think its voodoo. Testing methods have been WRONG for years, he's trying like hell to get people in the right direction yet you think he's fooling you.... Would you rather be in the dark and be happy in your world of misconceptions or realize there were mistakes and use the correct methods? I hate to break it to you, but testing AC electronics correctly can be expensive..... GET OVER IT! Most electronics manufacturers spend THOUSANDS actually tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to accurately test their equipment. Tony has customized some of that equipment into pieces that most everyday people can afford which is damn impressive. I have a professional LCR meter at work that cost $12k! Tony's IMSG does a very similar function for $300...Bargain. AC signals involve frequency which means there are varying impedances and phase changes. Testing those signals requires a little knowledge and the right equipment which is not generally possible with generic multimeters. Sorry to break it to you, but sometime change hurts...otherwise society keeps making the same mistakes. Whew..ok I'm done.

Good start on the basics Couldn't wait to jump into the OFC/CCA debate I see. Unless I missed it, how often with the vids come out?

Wow, if there is this much arguing over a chunk of wire I can only imagine where this is going to go when Tony gets to the real topics like subs, amps, impedance, "box rise", class D. This is going to be a wild ride.......

That is the sign of a well built amplifier with lots of current capacity, if it can continue to double its power when you halve the impedance.

>9.5k from the DC5K

7k from the DC5K....

Let the fun begin!

Stumbled on this myself a while back and have it in my Watch List just for kicks..... http://www.ebay.com/itm/181146586099?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

Unless you're in an ultra quiet home listening room with very high end equipment...... http://www.bcae1.com/thd.htm

An even 1250

it only gives you the discount on the Damplifier Pro™ 20 sq. feet - Trunk Pack Yep, there it is..... I just saw "TrunkPack" and jumped on the first one without realizing there are two TrunkPacks. Thanks guys

Am I doing something wrong? One TrunkPack: "Your order does not meet the minimum total for this coupon code to be applied. Please spend another $37.87 first." Two TrunkPacks: "The coupon code you entered couldn't be applied to any items in your order." The website is showing the regular price of the trunk pack much cheaper then it was before when I bought on in August from the other sale...?

Nice custom stealth install. Very clean!

Scooped up a pack!

I could clamp mine if youre really curious, but like Kyle mentioned, it's tiny. Well << 1amp. It's just a couple measurement ICs and the LEDs which draw very little current.

I think there may be an underlying problem man. There is no way with the list you're giving should the loudness make the system sound better. Hmmmm. ^^Agreed. Your list of equipment should sound great with no Loud button or other boosting/tweaking. Have you started at the HU only with the DD-1 and worked your way down the system? Are the settings truly flat? Any other processing modes or features turned on? Do you have another HU to try instead of the 4300? Maybe even an iPod, just to utilize a clean signal.

distortion happens BEFORE clipping so ill take the DD-1 over an O-scope any day....even if my name wasn't on it. don't confuse people here. The DD-1 "works on two frequencies" only because those are the frequencies we reference on our disc. That has absolutely NOTHING to do with the other frequencies that are played during actual use. you make it sound like "you are good to go at 40hz and 1000hz but fucked if you play anything else"....which is totally bogus. Other people seem to think that too, i have no idea why. Confusion not intended, sorry Sir. I am in no way implying that an O-scope is better then a DD-1. I have a DD-1 and love it. I also have access to a very nice O-scope as well and I always use the DD-1. The point I was trying to make was that it would be difficult to tell if you had distortion if your DD-1 was looking at 40Hz and you were boosting at another frequency at the same time or afterwards. There are a lot of people who suggest to tune the system with the EQ already set. I was just trying to explain how that could be troublesome. I absolutely agree to tune with the settings flat and go from there, cutting and not boosting.

The DD-1 can only look for distortion at 40Hz and 1kHz. Therefore you need to set all the levels flat so that you are adjusting your entire frequency band to the point of 1% distortion (clipping). If you boost, then that frequency range could easily start clipping while the other frequency's are OK. If you knew that your boosted frequency was directly at 40Hz then you could use the DD-1 to monitor it. "Loudness" is a volume dependent boosting feature. You get more boost at lower volumes. As you turn up the volume, the amount of boost decreases as its not needed anymore. As long as you knew that at your max usable volume, the Loudness boost was no longer preset then you should be fine, but all Loudness features are probably different and I haven't really looked at a response curve for one to know for sure. In a nutshell, you want to make sure that you are not driving your input signal past clipping. The DD-1 is a great tool to find your clipping point but its limited to only two frequency's. Therefore if you boost outside of those two frequency's, you run the risk of accidentally clipping. The best tools to absolutely guarantee that you're not clipping would be a frequency generator and an O-scope. With those, you could sweep the entire frequency band and monitor your output signal live and tell if your boosted settings are causing clipping. BUT that is rather expensive to do. If you're that concerned about it, you could check your local audio shop and see if they could perform such a service? I would hope that a quality shop would contain a frequency generator, o-scope, RTA, etc...

Yep, I do agree, a solid glue joint should be much stronger than screws. Mine should have been pretty solid but maybe I didn't coat that connection point with enough glue. It could also be that the angle of my baffle contributed to the joint braking loose over time... Ohhhh yeah, next time I'll definitely be bracing the baffle with much more then a glue joint, that's for sure. I ended up adding some screws to my front baffle since I couldn't remove the baffle and completely redo the glue joint. So the screws are there for some extra structural strength to hopefully help keep the baffle from moving. Not ideal, but fixing stuff never is. The added fiberglass at that joint should also help as well. For those interested, check out my build log (in my signature) for the fixes I'm attempting.

Very nice!!! Any examples of what's possible with the spoked 12" basket?

Interesting point. I may have to try some out instead of the TB3. Waterproofing shouldn't be an issue inside my trunk.