Shop said they dont use DD1 or Oscope to tune. they do it by ear. Should i trust them?

[bcbrassard]

I was hope you would chim in Steve. Thank you sir. I hope the OP finds this useful info coming from you. Those who tune by ear, thats great but dont promote it to newbies when they are trying to get good info on the best site out there.

[meade916]

been to a dozen shops locally , all said they tune by ear, no o-scope , & these are the shops that install maybe 80% of the local

systems ! .... ive wasted gas , time & breath . tryin to push the real !!!!!

sad part is i bet you can go to 100 shops and 99 won't have a scope.

[BASS_ZEALOT!]

been to a dozen shops locally , all said they tune by ear, no o-scope , & these are the shops that install maybe 80% of the local

systems ! .... ive wasted gas , time & breath . tryin to push the real !!!!!

sad part is i bet you can go to 100 shops and 99 won't have a scope.

your exactly right ...!!! I said o-scope, they gave me that look ... & thats at all of the shops ive been to .. no o-scope,

all by ear ..!

[bcbrassard]

Pretty sad then... our 3 shops here in Anchorage have them and we are usually 20 yrs behind the lower 48. LOL

[meade916]

Pretty sad then... our 3 shops here in Anchorage have them and we are usually 20 yrs behind the lower 48. LOL

that's awesome!! i got respect for a quality shop like that.

[_paralyzed_]

I think there are places for both the ear-o-meter and the o-scope. If you want a decent sounding system that will absolutely blow away a stock system, the ear-o-meter will get that job done. If you compete and are chasing numbers and want 100% out of your system, you need diagnostic equipment.

It's like car building. You can build one hell of a saturday night cruiser in your garage. If you are bracket or drag racing, you're probably gonna wanna get your engine dyno tuned.

I've installed dozens of systems by the ear-o-meter and never had a component fail. (until the owner messed with the gains) I will use the ear-o-meter on my own ride, but I'm just a parking lot cruiser, I'll never compete.

If I was going to compete, I would use a dd-1 or o-scope to get the most out of my equipment.

It's not black and white. There is room for both in the car audio world.

[Karkov]

Car audio IMO revolves around clipping. Clipping = bad. Either it clips or it doesn't, it's a black and white sort of thing, so either they do use a O-scope/DD-1 or they don't. SO....get a new shop ASAP.

soft clipping is a whole nother argument.

I think there are places for both the ear-o-meter and the o-scope. If you want a decent sounding system that will absolutely blow away a stock system, the ear-o-meter will get that job done. If you compete and are chasing numbers and want 100% out of your system, you need diagnostic equipment.

It's like car building. You can build one hell of a saturday night cruiser in your garage. If you are bracket or drag racing, you're probably gonna wanna get your engine dyno tuned.

I've installed dozens of systems by the ear-o-meter and never had a component fail. (until the owner messed with the gains) I will use the ear-o-meter on my own ride, but I'm just a parking lot cruiser, I'll never compete.

If I was going to compete, I would use a dd-1 or o-scope to get the most out of my equipment.

It's not black and white. There is room for both in the car audio world.

Black and white was more talking about clipping or not. Later I added the thing about soft clipping was a different issue, and it is, but I was just trying to be basic as to not let on that clipping was a good thing with someone who may think any amount of clipping is *ok*

All good though. =)

EDIT: I should add that I was thinking about an O-scope and sine waves, square waves etc. when I made these posts. The DD-1 is a distortion detector. Distortion *can* happen before clipping. etc.etc.etc. A lot more could be said but I will just leave it at this...

[rockFord_Expedition]

Would you trust a medical professional to give you a flu shot with a turkey baster? Or would you think they weren't actually a professional if they didn't have the right tool for the job?

Same principal. That "shop" isn't worthy a of the name if hey don't have the right tool for the job. Might as well hire someone off of craigslist.

You posted this thread because you already know the answer, or you wouldn't have thought twice about it.

Also, if they tell you they can use a DMM, DMM doesn't stand for distortion multi meter. They don't detect distortion so you aren't in the clear.

Edit: OP I'm sure you meant tune amps not woofers

[SnowDrifter]

Didn't read rest of thread

No. Tuning it by ear sucks. By the time you hear clipping it's too late. Listen to them, and they are insuring a repeat customer when your equipment blows and you need a new one

[bbeljefe]

It never ceases to amuse me when I see people using technology to rattle on about how technology is useless.

It's true that gain setting by ear has been working for most people for years and years. It's also true that rotary phones worked for people for years and years so... why the fuck do we even need smart phones? And what's up with this internet shit? Information used to be relayed by paper letters and rotary phones all the time. We don't need some expensive technology to share ideas and opinions. Hell, Socrates got the word out so well 2500 years ago that he got himself killed behind it. And, he didn't even have a rotary phone or a mailbox to drop a letter into!