pintich Posted March 17, 2013 Report Share Posted March 17, 2013 hey, I am thinking about getting a o-scope but i am not sure how to use one when setting the gain on my amp's. So can someone try to explain it for me? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john253a Posted March 17, 2013 Report Share Posted March 17, 2013 heres just the first one i found when you google it on youtube Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torres Posted March 17, 2013 Report Share Posted March 17, 2013 a DD-1 will do the same thing and is easier to use, and most likely cheaper if that's all you plan on doing with the o-scope Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pintich Posted March 17, 2013 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2013 a DD-1 will do the same thing and is easier to use, and most likely cheaper if that's all you plan on doing with the o-scope yeah i am only going to use it for setting gain, but its much cheaper to get a o-scope because i am getting a used one... and its going to cost less the half the price of a DD-1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pintich Posted March 17, 2013 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2013 heres just the first one i found when you google it on youtube It was only the DD-1. and am plaing on a O-scope Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torres Posted March 17, 2013 Report Share Posted March 17, 2013 ahhhh ok gotcha. good deal then Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pintich Posted March 17, 2013 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2013 ahhhh ok gotcha. good deal then yes its a great deal, but i dont know if i have to set some "settings" or something on it before measureing. Or if its just to plug in a ,ex 40hz tone in the radio and then just plug the o-scope to the amp's speaker terminals... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pintich Posted March 17, 2013 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2013 after some searching i found this: 1 - Turn off all of your headunit's processing (crossovers, EQ, etc) and if you have an Alpine, set the bass level to the full +15. 2 - Turn your amp's gain and your headunit's volume all the way down (counterclockwise). 3 - Unhook all speaker(s) from the amp and hook up the scope's leads to the + and - on one of the amp's channels. 4 - Put on a test tone near the center of your amp's bandwidth. I like to use 1khz for class ab amps and 50hz for class d amps personally. 5 - Slowly turn up the headunit's volume (remember to adjust the resolution on the scope accordingly so you can see the entire waveform on the display) 6 - When you see the waveform start to clip, turn the headunit's volume back down a notch or two until it becomes clean again. If you don't know what clipping looks like, Basic Car Audio and Electronics has a nice figure illustrating it for you here(it's the first figure on the page, the white curve is what it should look like, the yellow curve is what clipping looks like). If this maximum volume is at a weird number (32, 47, etc) then it's perfectly fine to turn down the volume a little more to get it to a nice round number, this will make it easier to remember later. 7 - When you find the maximum undistorted volume of your headunit, it's time to start turning up the amp's gain. You're looking for the same thing here, as soon as it starts to clip you want to back off of the gain slightly to make sure it's clean again. If your headunit has powerful preouts and your amp has a small input range, there's a chance that it might clip as soon as you start to turn up the gain. This is perfectly fine, just leave the gain at the minimum setting and you're good to go. 8 - If you're at this step then your gain is set, all you have to do is remember the headunit's volume at which you did the test and you're set. Remember also that you should not turn your volume higher than this setting unless what you're playing is recorded at a very low level, or else you risk clipping. Another thing to remember is that any EQing that you do will change the point of clipping, if you have anything boosted more than a dB or two then you should try to stay a good bit below this maximum volume found in step 6 or you risk clipping at those boosted frequencies. EDIT: by this is seems like you don't need to do anything except plug it in to the amp... can it realy be that simple? then its exactly like setting it when using ex a DD-1.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torres Posted March 17, 2013 Report Share Posted March 17, 2013 what kind of scope is it? i believe you'll have to calibrate it before using it. i had to calibrate mine, but i can't speak for all scopes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pintich Posted March 17, 2013 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2013 what kind of scope is it? i believe you'll have to calibrate it before using it. i had to calibrate mine, but i can't speak for all scopes its a "Aron bs-310s" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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