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

[kirill007]

No u can't always hear it and it's not about hearing if they are getting too much power it's about a clean signal. And no one can hear that and that's a fact

See how I said : "Setting gains by ear(+eyes+nose)"

Your eyes will tell you if there is too much excursion, your nose will tell you if you go beyond the thermal limit and the ears will tell you if it sounds bad or if something is stressed.(like the suspension,....)

Clean signal isn't that important since no signal is clean unless you only play test tones.

I stated what happened exactly as it happened, so all your snide comments. Like you didn't smell anything weird and it takes brains and common sense can STFU. I must be the only person to ever blow at tweet with the tried and true (ear, eyes, and nose) method. Troll someone else Kirill007.

You seemed to have changed my words around.

Nowhere does it say that you actually used the correct method, you said you used "the 80% rule". That's all.

The part where I said "it takes brains and common sense" was in general. Not directed to you.

Especially a tweeter will let you know if it can't handle the power.

"Dirty power"? That's a funny thing, everytime you listen to anything that isn't a sine test tone you have "dirty power".

Look at some music through a oscilloscope, you'll instantly know what I mean. (or the cheapest way: oscilloscope on windows media player or audacity)

There have been enough tests that have proven that "dirty power" or "clean power" has the same effects, as long as the amount of power is equal the effects will be equal.

Turning your gain up too high does produce distortion, and increases the power output of the amp. The distortion isn't what kills the speaker, the amount of power does.

Setting gains is not an art, it is in fact a science. Making music is an art, reproducing it is a science. I don't know why its so difficult to understand."Using a device only makes people work like a robot, " Using a device to "Calibrate" another device is the right way not a robot. That doesn't even make sense. I wish car audio required brains and common sense, or at least access to this site.

You want a clean signal, why? Well that way you don't introduce stuff that isn't there. If the recording has distortion you for sure don't want to add to it. Setting gains by ear+eyes+nose is not a very good way. It is the wrong way. The ear+eyes+nose method is used after the gains are set and you are playing songs that are not clean. If you hear see or smell something goofy you turn it down. If you have decently recorded stuff that will never happen. Unless you are grossly overpowering your stuff it will be fine all the way to clipping.

Setting gains without an O-scope/DD-1 is literally just guessing. You can make and educated guess, but its still a guess. Why would you risk making a guess when its so easy to just do it right and get it exact.

If you set gains by ear and have had luck thats fine. I'm glad its working for you and that you're happy. Don't try to mislead other into thinking that you doing it makes it right. All of these "ear" guys that are defending setting gains by ear are really just too proud to admit they are doing it wrong. Its fine if you are, its better than just cranking the knob up max like some people do. If you truly believe you are doing it right then you are under-educated on the matter and need to do more research. Obviously you don't design, or even fully understand the design and workings of an amplifier. Those that do use O-scopes and DD-1s.

All I'm trying to say is that It doesn't matter to me if you want to use your ears etc to set gains. Just don't come on here and try to defend it like you know better than the engineers designing the stuff.

It does makes sense, because most of the people that buy the DD-1 have no clue on how a amplifier, headunit or any other part of their install works.

A robot doesn't think about why it has to do it that way, it just does what the instructions say. Which seems hard enough for some people since I notice some have problems.

The DD-1 is good for setting the gains if you only play test tones.(hopefully they are pretty close to 40Hz and 1kHz)

Find me music that has no distortion at all(you won't find anything,unless it's a fully electronic song). Define distortion

Every instrument has "distortion" that's what gives it it's distinct sound even though it plays the same note.

Well recorded music has a lot of dynamic, which makes a fixed setting useless. Not only is the music itself dynamic but most songs are recorded at a different level.

Obviously most people on this site want to overpower their subwoofer/speakers, so first setting it by a DD-1 and then adjust it back down makes the DD-1 pretty useless.

So it's not the best partner for SPL, so maybe the best for SQ? No, look at the points Cablguy has provided.

I really had to laugh out loud at the red part, I can design a amplifier myself from scratch, electronic engineering is my thing.