joblo1978

That's another good idea. I just used the directions.

Well, seeing as he has 5 or 6 kids....

Well, actually my second, but I won't have my subs until next month. I bought the DD-1 before having the whole setup. But this was a good learning experience. Anyway, buddy of mine with a '10 Tahoe has an L5 in a ported box running off some 500w mono, stock door speakers,, and a decent HU. He got it all installed at cartoys, which looked pretty shitty. I couldn't believe how much he paid for it all. I have no idea how his gear is wired or anything and neither does he. I offered to tune his setup with the DD-1 since I had one already, he had never heard of it and said cartoys tuned his and he hasn't messed with anything since getting it in. I looked at his setup, the gain, crossover, and bass boost were all at 12 o'clock. After finding where his HU clipped I checked his amp. Sure enough there was clipping as cartoys had installed. I tried tuning it with track 5 as he said he want the compromise of SQ and SPL. I asked where he wanted his bass boost and he wasn't sure, he had left it how they set it up. He just said he wanted more bass. I quickly discovered that as you turn up the bass boost, your gains need to go down. I worked the bass boost higher and higher with the gains going lower by using the DD-1 while asking him if he wanted more. I ended up going to track 7 and tuning it and eventually we had the bass boost all the way up, the gain was about 8 o'clock, and I could start hearing a difference in the output of the subwoofer and his mirrors were now shaking. In the end he was happier and to his ears it was much improved and even I could tell his setup was hitting harder. I know very little about car stereo, haven't even completely installed my first set of woofers and I can tell you this tool is the real deal. He said he might need me to hook him up later. He's thinking about changing the setup. Maybe next time I should charge him.

Thanks guys. Since this is my first build, I guess I'll just run it at RMS ratings and follow the instructions.

I have a DD-1 and will be tuning my first amp with it here shortly. I keep hearing/reading about guys who are running over the rated RMS on subs and speakers. They all say "keep the gains low" etc. etc. What does that mean if the point of setting gains is to match the output and input voltages? Why would you want to set gains any other way than with a scope or DD-1? Why do guys keep fiddling with gains if there is only one "proper" setting? I'm just wondering, if you set your gains with the DD-1, which is as high as possible without distortion, is this considered a "high" setting? "low" setting? I'm going to be tuning a T1000 constant constant power to to SD-2 10's and wondering if I should just shoot for the RMS rating on them which would more than likely have me running them at 4 ohms.