Johnny248

I'm in!

If all your processors and amplifier have balanced inputs then use twisted pair everywhere. Cool thanks.. So the inputs are what matters, and not the ouputs. Also, your RCA's look awesome, had a couple questions though. The RCA ends look pretty long in the picture which can making installation more difficult sometimes. How long do these measure? Also, what gauge wire is being used? A lot of the mass produced RCA cables use a pretty small guage wire in their twisted pair cables, which I am not sure how important the wire gauge is in a 2-12v signal? 18 AWG each wire in the twisted pair. The coax is 2 x 22AWG center conductors, per channel. RCA shell is 1.1 inches, plus a rubber boot on the end is 0.5 inches. It can be removed if needed, it is only cosmetic. Thanks Tony! I'm sure I will be as happy with these as I am with your DD-1 I own. I'm currently re-doing the system in this vehicle, so once I get it all figured out I'm going to give your new cables a try

If all your processors and amplifier have balanced inputs then use twisted pair everywhere. Cool thanks.. So the inputs are what matters, and not the ouputs. Also, your RCA's look awesome, had a couple questions though. The RCA ends look pretty long in the picture which can making installation more difficult sometimes. How long do these measure? Also, what gauge wire is being used? A lot of the mass produced RCA cables use a pretty small guage wire in their twisted pair cables, which I am not sure how important the wire gauge is in a 2-12v signal?

Ok, I am a little confused by this. Are we only looking at the input side? If the input side on any given unit is Differential, do we want Twisted Pair regardless of what the output of the component feeding the input? Here is my flow chart.... Headunit Balanced Output (speaker level twised pair wire) -> Processor 1 Differential Balanced Input = Processor Unbalanced outputs ->RCA CABLE-> Processor 2 w/ selectable Differential Balanced or unbalanced inputs = unbalanced outputs ->RCA CABLE-> Amplifier Differential Inputs That being said, I *think* That I want to use RCA's as follows? Processor 1 -> Twisted Pair RCA -> Processor 2 with Jumper set to differential balanced input->Twisted Pair RCA -> Amplifier Differential Inputs. Is this right? or do I want P1 -> Coax RCA -> P2 set to unbalanced input -> Coax RCA -> Amplifier Differential Input I may be over thinking this. I just don't get the balanced/unbalanced output part of the equation. Please help! lol

bs... If you are someone who sells products online, not through local dealers, you have the time take the time to respond to a message about someone placing and order, take an order, take a payment, but then can't simply respond to a question regarding shipment time afterward? come on now...

Both companies are online suppliers. One company doesn't have a phone number that people answer. The second company, I messaged the person (on smd) the same way I did when I ordered from them. If you have time to log on to SMD forums, you prob have time to post a quick reply to the envelope at the top of the screen.

What is up with vendors / companies and their lack of responding to questions regarding products, orders, shipping, eta's, etc? Not to mention names, but if you ever follow any of the vendor forums, you might see peoples frustration when they don't get answers. It sucks that more and more you are starting to see places that will communicate with you while you are trying to purchase something, but then any support or help or questions afterward are just ignored. Pretty sh*tty if you ask me. I have purchased items from two different companies who frequent this site. One of them I've spent money with, received my items which are fine, but I've tried to contacted them twice know requesting more information or suggestion for a new purchase from them. That has been well over a month know. I've given up on them. So I got in contact with another company, they were pretty quick in getting back with me and helping me place and order. After the order I sent another email. All I wanted to know was current wait times, or a rough eta on when I might see my order. That was about 3 or 4 days ago. I'm still waiting I know people are busy and whatnot, but with all the choices of companies to purchase from these days, it is things like customer service and taking the time to follow up with any questions a customer may have before and AFTER they order which increases the likeliness that they will continue to receive business from customers and not lose them to someone who has time for them. anyway....

Looking at the the 3901, 3902, 3903, and the Clifford units. Has anyone installed / used one? How do they work? Looking for some add on security to a vehicle that already has factory remote start, etc. This looks like it would be a perfect option to have the peace of mind that a shock sensor etc provides while keeping it all integrated with the factory arm/disarm. Opinions?

A couple of years so I decided that after 3 years of non-stop every day remote start and alarm installs ( good work, but just not exciting). I was just tired of doing them. Unless it was something personal, or close friends I just passed the jobs up to my other guy. Well, yesterday I installed a Python 991 in a Yukon for someone. I just wanted to give a quick review of my thoughts on this install. I'm not sure when Directed changed things, but as soon as I opened the box I was like WTH is this? The unit looks different, uses different harness than I'm used to, and had all sorts of new colors that didn't look familiar. Anyway, after looking at the install sheet, it all made sense, and I have to say thumbs up on the way this unit is set up. The flex relay deal is sweet. Internal impact sensor, and control module are cool, and the entire package just made for a nice clean and easy install. The fobs are very high end and classy. The LED indicator on the control panel is super bright and lights the entire vehicle. The sensitivity adjust for the impact sensor can be control directly from the 2way fob. The starter kill relay is built into the main unit. There are basically no external parts to this thing aside from the siren and antenna/control unit. Also, it is pretty darn cool that the LCD remote has an internal li battery that has a mini usb cable to charge it. Pretty slick. There are some other nice features on this unit. Can't remember everything but overall I was actually impressed with this thing. I personally am not a big fan of security systems in my own vehicles but I actually wouldn't mind having this 991 on my own vehicles. I give it at least a 9/10 for features, install flexibility, and coolness. As I said before, I haven't been into the rs/security for awhile. I'm not sure if all of this stuff has been going on for awhile or not, but I like it. I actually used to prefer the Audiovox lines over the DEI lines as far as installation and overall feel goes, but think I may start installing more of these again, and the Dei stuff is my new preferred.

Uhh... great, now I'm wondering if this guy doesn't deserve the business, or you just had a bad experience. Anyway, I was under the assumption that graphic places can only cut what they licensing rights to? whether they are allowed through a "graphics package" which they purchased or something? I guess even if that were true, enforcing would be a problem. Does someone else have a site that is good if this tech force is not?

btw, the Sansui 8080 in the background is not made in Korea =) If anyone is either old enough, or is into hi-fi might remember that receiver. Love that thing. What is cool is the original box and everything is there, and this is from back in the day when it actually came with a repair manual / schematic of the entire unit. pretty cool. Don't see that stuff anymore.

The company has changed hands several times since then.. This was back from the ADST times I think...

I know right?!

Here are some pics

My phone is dead, so pics have to wait, but.... I have an older Orion Amp that says Made in the USA right on the side, and in the manual, and whatnot. I just opened it up, and the board has Orion in the middle, and in the lower corner it says Made In Korea in the board. Wth??

I know this is weird, but I am nearly positive that with all the flashing, dancing, ad link buttons that shows up on the SMD screens (sundown,DRC,Skar,dAmore,etc) that used to be one for some website that sold car audio decals? I clicked on it once, and they had just about everything available. Anyone know if I am in fact crazy? or was there such a thing? what is the website or company called? Chanks!

Lets see some pics I've looked at some pretty poor quality raptor wire on youtube

Seriously? I asked the stupid guy working there. He was just not very helpfull. Oh well, it's done now. That 16ga cca is not the worst wire I've ever used, so it worked. But if for some reason (please never) I run into this again, I will def check it out. I did just look at it on the BB site, and that would have worked fine if someone would have tried to sell it to me lol

I would say your welding cable is OFC. The easiest way to tell is by weight, and cross section. If you cut the wire and look at it, CCA is going to have a copper color to it on the outside of each strand, but the center of each strand is going to be bright like aluminum. OFC is going to either be copper all the way through, or tinned copper which will be silverish/bright on the outside of each strand, and copper color in the middle. Also, 1' of OFC weights about 2x that of 1' cca in the same gauge wire.

I know it is 100% my fault. It just sucks that you can't get copper wire from a normal store anymore... That's all I'm saying.

With this topic, I decided to walk out side and take a couple of pictures.. This first picture is of a couple pieces of 4ga wire that I had sitting here... Next picture is some random 8ga wire...btw, one of these actually says "o2 Free CCA" and, the paired blue wire all the way on the right side is 10ga Knu Kord speaker wire. Just for comparison. And here is some 16ga wire.. .The last one on the right (a little spaced away) actually claims it is 14ga... And finally some 12ga speaker wire... Wouldn't mind seeing some other peoples wire if interested...

There are no local-local shops near me. I haven't gone to Wal-Mart or anything looking for electronics in years and years, but I do remember going into wal-mart or meijer back in the day, and being able to buy speaker wire. I'm pretty sure they used to have Scosche OFC speaker at some point. And if you couldn't find some car wire, you could usually get a spool of Acoustic Research or some sort of 'ok' home style speaker wire or zip cord. Times have changed. I guess it has been longer than I thought lol So, lesson learned. Be more prepared in the future lol

No he needed 20 feet or so, I am sure he didnt just splice it together he reran the runs. Correct, I'm no that ghetto lol I take pride in my installs, and do my work with the idea that someone may go into this dash for some reason in the future, and when they do I'd like for them to say "wow, whoever did this did a nice clean job" instead of "whoever was in here really f*cked this up, what the hell was he doing? " lol

It was in the evening, and trying to get over to a specialty shop wasn't happening. I used to work for a company called American Terminal Supply a long time ago, and we sold wire which was made in the USA. In fact, I still have a TON of 8ga power cable from Global Sound Int. which purchased their wire from the same company we did. (I'm sure all of this has changed, and if they are still selling wire any more, it is imported, and who knows of what quality) My local car audio wholesaler doesn't carry any wire or amp kits that worth a damn. Their best kit id a CCA Street Wires kit. That being said, I've been doing most of my business with KnuKonceptz. Believe it or not, Bill used to buy product from me at ATS way back when he was with American Bass. One thing I can say about the Knu products, is that I never have to worry about getting a good quality product. There higher end power, speaker, and rca cables are very nice. I've never had a problem. Pricing is not the cheapest, but I feel is very fair for what they are selling. Also, whenever I place an order, it shows up very fast. Seems like most orders are shipped out the same day or next. So as long as I'm not in a huge hurry, waiting is never more than a couple days. That being said, I think I need to put together another stock ordered so I don't have to bitch about this whole thing again lol. It is nice to see the support from the online brands likes SSA, Fi, Sundown, etc. At least the aren't just some label which finding anyone responsible for it is next to impossible. It would be nice to actually get to see and feel something in person before buying though...