Alpine 45x4 power block and DD-1

[Yzf7steve]

So my friend came over today so I could set up his system. He has a new Pioneer double din, alpine 500 on an Alpine type S 12". Alpine Type S front and rears with the small 45x4 alpine power block. So the deck was good to 59 out of 60. We set the mono amp first with -10db. Then we moved on to the Alpine power block. Finally got to get the probes where they could read it had the gains all set to 0 and everything on the deck at 0 and flat. When we used the -5db track with the gains all the way down we could only get to volume 50 out of 60 before the block was fully distorting. It seems to be working fine but I can't for the life of me figure out if the deck signal is clean to 59 why with the gains all the way down the block amp would distort at 51. Just in case you aren't familiar with the power block it's a plug and play brick. It's plugged into the speak wires off the deck. I thought maybe the internal amp that actually amplifies instead of RCA may only max out at 50. Any tips or opinions are welcome. Thanks.

[Robert8252]

The Alpine amp could distort because the radio puts out more voltage then it can cleanly amplify. Not familiar with the amp but I think you're referring to the small amp that can be hidden behind the dash?

[Yzf7steve]

Yeah that's the one. It's the super small one that tucks under the dash.

[Robert8252]

Just looked up the specs and it should be able to handle whatever voltage you can feed it. Honestly I would just try setting it with the head unit around 45 and see what it sounds like, then slowly move up from there. Also make sure the amp is hooked up cleanly and not getting any input from other power wires.

[Yzf7steve]

What I ended up doing was just telling him 50 was his max volume and we adjusted the sub accordingly. I personally think it's got something either wrong with the unit or in the wiring. Like I said the gains never got turned up they were at minimum on both channels and it still distorted at 50 instead of 59. I just wouldn't even know where to begin with checking the unit itself.

[Markous]

I have the first gen Alpine compatible power pack with just a high/low gain switch on the bottom, that and a Alpine deck (CDE-SXM145BT) never tried my DD-1 on the pack itself but ive asked about it here before.

With the deck settings zero'd i don't go over 24/35 on the volume (lpf @ 80 on the deck) the sound quality from the pack doesn't get any better to my ears past that.

I am running two pairs of the Alpine Type R 6x8's with that setup.