My DD-1 came with missing or wrong parts?

[n8ball2013]

It wont. With out a full range amp you are going to have a he'll of a time

[SnowDrifter]

Mine came with a clamp for the ground. But I know that they've changed lead styles a couple times. If it really bothers you, grab some replacement leads for a klein multimeter. It has point probes with clips that screw in

[oldsoundguy]

I think I would rather have the dmm style leads. Then I could just poke it into my amp ground wire. Easy

[DireRaptor22]

OK, makes sense, the 1KHz shouldn't be detected through the amp. I was able to get a 40Hz through my amp after sticking my ground probe in with the ground 4 awg wire and the + speaker terminals. My head unit is kinda weird. It has a built in "subwoofer level" control and when I have that set as flat "0" it won't pick up a signal until it's cranked almost all the way up and even all the way up 35/35 it won't be anywhere close to distortion. I also have a bass knob for my amp.

Hifonics BRX1100.1D amp

Kenwood KDC-355U deck

Direct RCA connection to deck still doesn't detect signal... connecting to amp however, does. I did the "measure headunit through amp" procedure and with my "subwoofer level" all the way up at +15 I distorted at 32/35... is this realistic?

Edited January 28, 2014 by DireRaptor22

[audiofanaticz]

Turn the subwoofer volume up as far as it goes, it reduces the preout voltage for your subwoofer channel when its turned down, which in return makes the signal weaker. So say of your radio has 4volt preouts, having the subwoofer volume at 0, your lucky to be sending a half volt of signal through your rca cords which is not enough voltage for the dd-1 to detect, but once connected to an amplifier (which amplifies that voltage hence the name amplifier, you see a signal). Numbers are just being used as an example.

So turn subwoofer volume up all the way

Than find max clean volume of the headunit, if its volume 35 of 35 with the sub woofer volume all the way up your done, than proceed to tuning the amp gain with the dd-1.

If you are using the amp on the deck for your vocal speakers inside your car, you can also use the dd-1 to check the max volume of that amp by touching the dd-1 probes to the speaker outputs on the back of the radio (generally the radios internal amp will distort a lot sooner than the preouts of the radio and will yield a slightly lower max volume).

So once you have the radios internal amp volume noted, than proceed to the rca outputs and the subwoofer volume, which would still be all the way up most likely.

then move to the amp gain for your subwoofer.

You will always want to tune your radios volume with the volume, and subwoofer volume as high as you can go without distorting prior to tuning the external amplifier(s).
If for whatever reason you dont want your substage to always be so loud you just turn down the subwoofer volume, and then turn it back up when you please.

Edited January 28, 2014 by Audiofanaticz

[DireRaptor22]

Turn the subwoofer volume up as far as it goes, it reduces the preout voltage for your subwoofer channel when its turned down, which in return makes the signal weaker. So say of your radio has 4volt preouts, having the subwoofer volume at 0, your lucky to be sending a half volt of signal through your rca cords which is not enough voltage for the dd-1 to detect, but once connected to an amplifier (which amplifies that voltage hence the name amplifier, you see a signal). Numbers are just being used as an example.

So turn subwoofer volume up all the way

Than find max clean volume of the headunit, if its volume 35 of 35 with the sub woofer volume all the way up your done, than proceed to tuning the amp gain with the dd-1.

If you are using the amp on the deck for your vocal speakers inside your car, you can also use the dd-1 to check the max volume of that amp by touching the dd-1 probes to the speaker outputs on the back of the radio (generally the radios internal amp will distort a lot sooner than the preouts of the radio and will yield a slightly lower max volume).

So once you have the radios internal amp volume noted, than proceed to the rca outputs and the subwoofer volume, which would still be all the way up most likely.

then move to the amp gain for your subwoofer.

You will always want to tune your radios volume with the volume, and subwoofer volume as high as you can go without distorting prior to tuning the external amplifier(s).

If for whatever reason you dont want your substage to always be so loud you just turn down the subwoofer volume, and then turn it back up when you please.

Thanks, so I was doing it right on the part where I turn the subwoofer level all the way up from the head unit. I had it maxed out at +15. Since I wasn't able to get a signal directly off the head unit RCA, I tuned my headunit through my amp. Gain all the way down, crossover all the way up, subsonic filter all the way down. I distorted at 32/35 with Track 1, 40Hz -0dB.

Now I shall crank my gain at volume 31 at head unit until the distortion lights up as well right? Thanks for all the info btw!

[bbeljefe]

That would be the correct method if you were using an external amp for all your speakers but since you're using the head unit's amp, you need to set the gain at the highest undistorted volume for that amplifier.

It's been mentioned several times in this thread but it bears repeating... head unit amplifiers distort a lot sooner than preamp outputs (RCAs). So while your preamp outs may not distort until volume 34 of 35, my bet is that your head unit amp distorts somewhere around 22-24 of 35. But... you need to verify that setting by using track 2 and probing the head unit's amplifier. Then, once you've found that, you can set the subwoofer amp's gain at the same volume level and that's how you set up a balanced system.

A note about crossovers.... if your head unit has high pass crossover and it is set to 60 or above, you will not detect a 40Hz signal on the speaker wires or the front/rear preamp outputs. And the opposite is true for the subwoofer output, in that you should never be able to detect a 1kHz signal on that output. So if the head unit has internal crossovers, make sure they're turned off when setting with the DD-1.

Lastly, and again as has been said, you may not get a signal detected light on the DD-1. That's okay. I've had systems that didn't light the signal light until the distortion light lit and they sounded okay once set up. So don't worry so much about seeing the signal detected light... worry about seeing the distortion light. And if you get the volume turned all the way up while probing the head unit's speaker outs and the distortion light doesn't fire, you've got something wrong. Normally, when that happens you can simply probe another speaker wire to get it. You may even need to probe chassis ground and a negative speaker wire, which is common for 4 channel amps.

Okay, this will be last, I promise.... in case no one else has seen it, Tony D'Amore mentioned somewhere (sorry, can't remember where) that it's been found that distortion testing each stage of the setup isn't necessary. Ergo, you don't need to distortion test the head unit, then the eq/processor (if you have one) then the amp, etc. All you need to check in most installs is the final amplifiers, whether they be sub and head unit or sub and external 4 channel. Doesn't matter, because if there is distortion anywhere in the signal path it will always show up at the speaker output of the amplifier. That said, if you have distortion that you can't eliminate with amplifier gain, that's when you need to start testing back up the chain.

[dangaranga]

My kenwood hdc-hd545, when using the headunit amp would distort as soon as it hit 25/35. 24/35 was the highest clean power, now that i have a 4 channel, the rca outputs distort at 33/35.

I'm willing to bet your headunit distorts at about that same point like bbeljefe said ^^^

[DireRaptor22]

Sounds like these Kenwoods aren't that great huh? At 24-25 volume my stock speakers are just starting to get loud. May have to get a new head unit someday. Pioneers are apparently good right? Steve Meade himself mentioned they don't distort till 59 or 60/62.

[bbeljefe]

It isn't because it's a Kenwood. Head units are like home stereo receivers with built in amps.The volume control is basically a gain knob for the internal amp, so once you reach about half way you've turned the gain as far up as it can go without clipping. The preamp, on the other hand, doesn't really boost the signal so it isn't subject to the distortion problems that final amp gain is. That's why you can turn the volume much further up on the preamp outs than you can on the internal amplifier outputs.

And I could be wrong but, I'm pretty certain Steve was talking preamp outs, not speaker outs. I know that the Pioneer head units I've experienced all distort at ~60 and other head units with max volume of 35 distort ~29-30.