setting hi/lo converter with dd-1?

[kickass audio]

Alright bro, there are so many things to try with this idk what to tell you without seeing what happens next so sorry if it seems like im screwing with you or anything. I ran into several stupid things like this with my system. Hell even today i had almost shat myself with my system. I had it metered and after i got done burping it i decided to play some music to see where it gets metered at. Well when i played the music the SMD was going full force but my mids and highs didnt play a single note. I looked at the amp and it was not in protect and was only slightly warm, i then looked at the signal indicators on my 3sixty.2 and they were working. Then i shut it off and tested the resistance of all my speakers to make sure i didnt blow them up (thats my famous trick from all my previous installs, rofl) and none were blown. I turned it back on and it suddenly worked. idk what was up with that but oh well, it works fine now. lol.

[08tahoe]

I have a 2003 Audi a4 and I'm using a scosche line out converter. Would I have to use dd-1 the same way kickass audio explained it? Here's how I have the l.o.c set up http://www.a4mods.com/index.php?page=webcontent/pages/stereo.html

Ya it will work the only problem I'm having is that the hi/lo converter destorts right away, its like you can't even turn the gain up at all on it and that's why I'm thinking hi/lo converters suck. But what I did with mine for now is that I put the volume lower on my h/u than what it clips at(but as loud as I'm gonna listen to it) and then set the gain on my amp all the way up, then turned the gains up on the hi/lo converter (first left gain then right gain as kickass explained in his post) as much as I could before it distroted then after that I pluged both rca's to my amp and set the gains on it.

[kickass audio]

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.

Edited August 17, 2011 by kickass audio

[08tahoe]

Alright bro, there are so many things to try with this idk what to tell you without seeing what happens next so sorry if it seems like im screwing with you or anything. I ran into several stupid things like this with my system. Hell even today i had almost shat myself with my system. I had it metered and after i got done burping it i decided to play some music to see where it gets metered at. Well when i played the music the SMD was going full force but my mids and highs didnt play a single note. I looked at the amp and it was not in protect and was only slightly warm, i then looked at the signal indicators on my 3sixty.2 and they were working. Then i shut it off and tested the resistance of all my speakers to make sure i didnt blow them up (thats my famous trick from all my previous installs, rofl) and none were blown. I turned it back on and it suddenly worked. idk what was up with that but oh well, it works fine now. lol.

No it doesn't seem like your screwing with me, cause everything you've told me to do makes a lot of sence and I apreciate your help a lot!! But really I think it is the hi/lo converter.

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.

I think I'm just gonna have to look into that cause I'm willing to try anything that will work and if you think that will fix my problem then I'm ready to dump the hi/lo converters for the 3sixty.2

[08tahoe]

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.

Thanks for the link! But if the rf 3sixty.2 works for you then I might just look into that one instead. If it will make my stock h/u sound way better and I don't have the issue I'm having with these cheap converters than that would be great, it would be perfect cause I don't want to get rid of my h/u and im down to spend some money on the 3sixty instead of having to buy a whole new h/u

[kickass audio]

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.

[kickass audio]

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.

[08tahoe]

Do u know when the 3sixty.3 comes out? I gotta save up to get one. I was thinking earlier how come aftermarket head units don't have the problem that stock headunits have and I was thinking that its probably something little that has to be added cause how is it that a aftemarket h/u is better than a stock? So if its possible to make a aftermarket h/u with rca's that don't clip like the hi/lo converters than there has to be something you can add to stock ones and I guess something like the 3sixty is what can be added to it. Also is that white noise track you talked about the same thing as pink noise track? Cause the smd disk comes with a pink noise track.

[BJD3]

Knowing hi-lo converters have a tendency to be a bit dirty, I think it would stand to reason that's your problem.

Edited August 17, 2011 by BJD3

[08tahoe]

Knowing hi-lo converters have a tendency to be a bit dirty, I think it would stand to reason that's your problem.

Yup and I had watched that video already but since he said it was a ground loop isolater I thought my issue was probably different but at the end he calls it a line level converter so that's where I got confused