setting hi/lo converter with dd-1?

[kickass audio]

To find the 1v reading off your DMM, we were just simply testing the rca wire, nothing else. I wanted to see if those converters were actually putting out a signal that the amp could interpret and accept as a signal. Just do it one channel at a time as follows as long as you set the gains for your high-low converters all. The 1v reading you have is perfect as long as your clip/distortion light wasnt illuminated on the DD-1 when you were touching those gain adjustment screws on the converter. Anyways, once you get the high-low converter gains finished (idk if you did them all or not but just do the same thing you did before to get that 1v reading, connecting it to the amp and what not.

Just read page 9-12 to setup the gains on the amp once you have those damn converters setup and locked in at a level where there is no distortion. Just remember, your headunit MUST be at its maximum volume where it is unclipped whenever you are setting the gains on anything in your system. If it is not all the way up, you will never get full power out of your system and you can also get more distortion from turning the gains up on the wrong equipment.

Pages 9-10 are for your mids and high amp. (note: you need to take that red probe and put it on the positive of each speaker output. For example if you have the 2 channel amp like we discussed earlier, you would connect the red probe on the left channel positive speaker terminal, set the gain. Once you do the left channel move the red probe off the dd-1 to the right channel positive speaker terminal off the amp and see if it clips any. it shouldnt but just want to double check it all to be sure. )

Pages 10-12 are for a subwoofer amp/mono amplifier. Please note, that your amp may not have some of these settings as discussed in the manual, if you dont have a bassboost, freq adjustment for the bassboost, just disregard them.

[08tahoe]

very good, thats a better voltage reading. Now question, did you hook the dd-1 up to the amp with the amps gain all the way down and see if it was seeing any clipping? At 1v it is low but your amps will be guaranteed to work with that and not have any clipping. See if it finds any distortion when you hook the dd-1 up to one channel of the amp and ground it to the chassis of your vehicle like we discussed in the latest post. Turn the gain up on your amp until the clip light illuminates. It should be about 40-60 volts ac from what ive seen on average with amps.

Yes I did, but I tried it so many different ways that I can't remember exacly what happened when I tried that one but i will try it again tomorrow and let you know what happens.

Ok so I went back and started over from the start to where I found my hu clipped at. And the highest unclipped vol was 33 out of 40, that's playing the tones through my ipod. And then I did the next step and tested the hi/low converter with my hu at 33 And what happened when I tested it at 40hz -0db was the hi/low converter clips right away as soon as I start to turn the gain knob on it, the signal and 40hz light don't even light up, and I checked the voltage on it at that level and its 0v. And with the 1khz -0db I can turn the hi/low converter all the way up and the distortion light never comes on but neither does the signal or 1khz light.. So that's what made me make this thread in the first place, to find out if I was doing it right and if I was using the right tones. But now that I know I am then I know its just the hi/lo converter that just distorts right away. So that pretty much means they are trash right?, well at least if you want to have your system set up correctly and not distorting?

I also tested the hi/low converter with every other tone on the disk just in case you want to know the results but none of them were good.

Edited August 19, 2011 by youngsticky

[kickass audio]

Yes it sounds like your converters are total garbage, sorry to say it but they are ruining your system. If you can get a sound processor in there that will integrate into your factory radio speaker wires and convert them into rca you will not have any problems with the level of the output or distortion.

[08tahoe]

Yes it sounds like your converters are total garbage, sorry to say it but they are ruining your system. If you can get a sound processor in there that will integrate into your factory radio speaker wires and convert them into rca you will not have any problems with the level of the output or distortion.

Ya they are.. So that's the next step in my system then, thanks again so much for your help kickass audio! If u lived close I'd buy u a bottle or a 12 pack of your favorite drink to show my appreciation

[kickass audio]

Hahaha if you bought me a bottle and got caught you would be in trouble. Im only 20. lmao. Its not too hard but theres so much that makes your setup that much harder since using the stock radio is a pain in the ass to convert it to technology the amps can use.

[08tahoe]

Oh shit well I take that back then, I didn't even think that you could be under 21.

Ya I wish my a/c wasn't connected to my hu cause I would definatly have a different hu.

[kickass audio]

Yea nobody believes me for my age. Everyone thinks im a lot older (until you meet me cuz im rude, annoying, a total smartass, and never shut the hell up. rofl) but i still drink on the occasion but have never been bombed. I got my job i am at now as a helpdesk technician for a bank when i was 18 so i was the youngest guy to ever be hired at that place and one of the smartest too. lol.

For your radio, who needs a/c? Just roll down the windows, and if its raining thats even better for helping you cool off. lol. I know about the radios having the a/c controls through them. My dads old caprice (idr the year) but it had the entire vent control knobs in them. The temperature adjustment, rear defroster, vent speed, vent openings, etc. He still has the radio sitting in the basement and we dont have the car but it was just for some parts if he ever needed them for his friends old cars.

[08tahoe]

You know I meant I'd buy you a bottle or a 12 pack of your favorite non-alcoholic drink right lol.

Ya you know way more than I do, and I'm 27.

And I'm pretty sure I can get a aftemarket hu kit for my car and it would just move the a/c knobs to a different spot but I like that it shows the temperature and stuff on my h/u screen. But imma look into that 3sixty unless i get a tahoe so I can put some bigger subs in it lol I've been wanting one just to put some badass beat in it but that's just a dream at this point.

[kickass audio]

Idc what you meant for the drink. Id take the alcohol anyways, i havent had a beer in months. lol.

I would just get a 3sixty anyway whether you get another vehicle or not. Remember, the 3sixty you can easily transfer to another vehicle in 5 minutes flat so i wouldnt hold back on getting it for that reason. All you have to do is ditch the high-low converters, and then take the wires that used to go to the converters and wire them into your 3sixty. Whats nice is that your stock headunit im sure doesnt have subwoofer outputs or a center channel so you can actually have it auto sense that and merge the left and right channels together internally so you will have rca outputs that allow you to use the center and subwoofer outputs when you dont have them as inputs.

Also, i was wondering this. When you tested the high-low converter voltage, did you test it on both sides of the converter? I am curious to why you managed to get a 1v reading and now it comes up as 0. It could easily be that the converters cant handle the high power you are giving them since you are pretty much maxing out your radio at 33 since it is the max you can go before it clips. How did you get the 1v measurement again? Also, one thing you can do to fiddle with it, turn the volume on your headunit down to like 20-25 and then see if you can turn up those gain adjustments on the converter to get the dd-1 to detect any voltage on them when its hooked to the amp. Also, are you 100% certain your amps dont have any bit of crossover enabled? You must have it set to full pass when you set the gains or else it will block the freq from playing.

[08tahoe]

I hope this doesn't get confusing but when the hi low converter was reading 1v I had the gains on it set higher. But when I had set the gains on it since it was desorting right away I had the volume on the hu set to the highest I used to play my system at wich was 18 out of 40 so with a lower volume and me setting it through my amp and the gain on the amp all the way up I set the gains on the hi/lo one at a time to the highest I could before it destorted. And then after that I plugged both rca's to the amp and set the gain on that to the highest before it destorted. I know I did it weird but I was just doing a lot of testing and trying one thing or another. So remember I told you that I checked the voltage on the hi/lo with the vol at 18 the firt time and I got .2v and then I turned the volume up to 33 and that's when I got 1v. So the reason I got 0v reading on the hi/lo is cause I tested the voltage on it with the gains on it turned pretty much all the way down cause that's as far as I coult turn them withought them distorting.

Edit: and about the crossover, I never got to setting my gains on the full range amp cause I didnt figure out the hi/lo converter part. So all the testing I was doing was on my sub amp and mainly the sub hi/lo converter but also the my other two hi/low converters a lil. And I never messed with my highs/mids amp.

Edited August 19, 2011 by youngsticky