ANYTHING ELSE NEEDED!?!?!

[RyanRosier]

Thanks man your heading in the right direction. Im personally running a budget build in my second gen dodge. Its not fancy, just a 1500 watt @ 1ohm amp and two 15" subs in a 6.6 cubic foot ported box tuned to 35 hz. Its all entry level stuff hense only being a $600 build and if i joined the forum earlier BEFORE i bought my gear i would have chosen better equipment but right now it pounds pretty damn good later this year i plan on walling off my dodge and doing three or four 15's but i need ALOT of electrical work to be done before i start building lol.

Heres a very very very generic ball park way to set up a sub amp with out having a DD1

*** this is for setting ur sub amp, if u have a mids/highs amp disconnect the RCA going into that amp and recconect after ur sub is set*****

1. Go on youtube or a website u can download a 40 or 50 hz test tone @ 0 db

2. Disconnet ur subwoofer speakers

3. Set ur head unit volume at 3/4 of max and play that 40 or 50 hz test tone on repeat

4. Set ur SSF on the lowest it will go and the LPF the highest it will go

5. Put ur DMM (digital multimeter) on A/C volts and put the leads in the amp speaker terminal

6. The audio que amp is rated at 2200 x 1 ohm so just find the square root of 2200 which is like 49 something but me personally i would set it at 45 so with ur gain all the way down, HU @ 3/4 on 40 or 50 hz turn ur gain up till u see 45 volts on A/C VOLTS.

7. Turn ur head unit down to 0 and plug ur sub speakers in, turn ur HU to like 1/3 volume and play a 75 hz test tone with ur leads on the speaker terminal and measure the a/c voltage. Times that measured voltage by .707 and then turn ur LPF down till u see that voltage and then do the same with ur SSF filter. With out getting technical in a sealed box u can set the SSF @ 20 HZ if ur ported usually 1/2 octave OR 5 hz below tuning is where u wanna be for a generic "safe" tune. So if ur ported box is tuned to 35 hz u set ur SSF to 30 hz. There is awhole lot lot lot lot lot more factors but i can help explain that later.... if not google and other posts on this forum have the answers.

This is a practice found All OVER the internet, its not the RIGHT way to do it but crutchfield, alpine and other sites say this same procedure. I tuned this way before i was able to borrow and tune with a DD1 and let me tell you after i tuned with a DD1 my subs played lower and harder with retuning with the DD1.

If u decide to tune with above instructions ur max volume WILL be 3/4 volume on the HU. Most head units can play 3/4 volume with no distortion thats why all the sites say turn volume up 3/4 to tune, when i tuned with the DD1 i found out my kenwood goes 100% volume 35/35 with out distortion thats the perk of the tool is to see how high ur volume can go with out distortion and matching ur amp gain until distortion. So u know this for sure is the loudest i can go before i get dirty.

So if ur running a $600 build or $8,000 build it doesnt matter having a DD1 is a must for all system builds u wanna get every single CLEAN watt of power out of your amp.

and if u get the CC-1 it will do the SSF and LPF settings that is the BEST way for setting them. the way as mentioned above is using test tones and math and has been around for decades but it isnt as accurate as the proper testing equipment we have now.

That is literally how I have mine done!

[RyanRosier]

Okay so my buddy has a factory stereo. So he has the Hi/Low Converter with the knob. Now this amp has a control knob. I read some where about using control knobs and setting gain but it was hard to understand. Could you maybe help out for their usage? Cause I know he will want to use it. And what do they do? (Control Knobs-I know it like controls bass and stuff. But like what exactly.) Also on his facotry head unit, Some where above I could have sworn we talked about setting the EQ flat for something. Will I need to set it all to 0? If I'm correct, (thought it said the eq could cause clipping somewhere up above but I can't find it-just skimming though. Havent re-read it all.) then how could an equalizer cause clipping? I mean after all gains have been set. Wouldn't adjusting it cause clipping, because donesn't a EQ increase the volume of frequincies? And this includes the EQ's on the deck and Aftermarket EQ's. Are they the same?

Also on my head unit I have my eq set to Powerful, (Standard issue with every pioneer correct?) Do I need to set the EQ to flat then reset my gains? Then can I put the EQ back on? Or what..? Just looking for more great info like the stuff you've given me already loll

[Bayuk89]

On ur dudes amp personally i wouldnt even install it for him.... that bass knob isnt hard wired u dont need it to install and tune the amp, my amp has a bass know and i never hooked it up, i dont need to. If the song has too much bass i just cut some volume to my sub pre-outs. Most radio and pandora im at 0 on my sub outs but if im listening to decaf or bass patrol i go -5 on my HU for my sub outs..

When ur tuning everything is set FLAT or zero so that way ur getting the "purest" signal from ur HU to the amp.

[Bayuk89]

I wouldnt mess with "powerful" setting on my HU because normally thats associated with "loud" setting being on along with bass boost.

U never wanna turn on loud or bass boost on ur HU if ur runing amps or atleast i dont.... all its doing is intensifying the signal and WILL cause issues in the long run, heres an example you got ur amp "tuned" now ur gonna turn on ur loud setting. Oh wow yea thats alot better lets try the bass boost holy shit that sub is really banging now oh wait lets mess with MORE settings and tweak the bass knob on the amp and other EQ setting...

now all those changes u made are being sent to the amp and the amp is like WTF man lol ok i guess i will play this heavy clipped ass signal to these $400 subs, i hope the coils dont unwind or overheat.

Bottom line bro is to leave loud and bass boost OFF on ur HU and u should be fine if u wanna go up a few settings on the mids and highs cool, DONT TOUCH the bass adjustment because its already be set its highest un distorted level @ 0 setting on the EQ if u need to can minus some bass on the EQ but NEVER add bass on the EQ or ur gonna get distortion and more clipping