Detailed setup questions....

[Shanon14m]

Right or wrong until this point i have always tuned amps by ear and have have really good luck getting things to sound good. After tons of research and watching various videos on YouTube, i know that I can get more out of my systems. Question 1. When setting amps with the dd1 and other special tools, I see how to tune the amp to the max for the gain. I don't know how that would set that for a particular speaker. For example a 6.5 vs a 8in mid range. Obviously they are going to have different capabilities.  Also the difference between various types of speaker frequency.  2. When using a crossover, i know you tune frome the source down the line. How do you know where to put all the crossovers before the amp?  3. When using a crossover before a amp, do you just set the amp as flat with no filters? 

4. How do you tune the amp to run certain frequencies as recommended by the the speaker and how the max rms power it can handle?

[Joshdashef]

53 minutes ago, Shanon14m said:

Right or wrong until this point i have always tuned amps by ear and have have really good luck getting things to sound good. After tons of research and watching various videos on YouTube, i know that I can get more out of my systems. Question 1. When setting amps with the dd1 and other special tools, I see how to tune the amp to the max for the gain. I don't know how that would set that for a particular speaker. For example a 6.5 vs a 8in mid range. Obviously they are going to have different capabilities.  Also the difference between various types of speaker frequency.  2. When using a crossover, i know you tune frome the source down the line. How do you know where to put all the crossovers before the amp?  3. When using a crossover before a amp, do you just set the amp as flat with no filters? 

4. How do you tune the amp to run certain frequencies as recommended by the the speaker and how the max rms power it can handle?

1. Setting the gain with a dd-1 will give you a maximum gain level, you can always decrease it if it turns out to be too much for your 6.5s/8s. Just do not go beyond that point. (will talk about changing db levels of tracks in a second...see #4b.)

 

2. crossovers before the amp will depend on your setup. I run active crossovers, so my headunit has a crossover for my mids and highs amp and for my monoblock sub amp. I run a high pass on my two tweeter channels, a highpass and low pass on my two mid channels, and a low pass on my monoblock sub amp. I just grabbed this off the internet but this is the same model radio I use, a pioneer 80 prs. It allows me to set the frequency of my lpf/hpf and the slope for each. Not as good as a dsp but good enough for me. 

 

Here is some information on high pass, low pass, and bandpass filters: https://jlaudio.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/206556458-Understanding-Crossovers

 

3. You can set the amp to have no filters if you really want to, so long as your radio (source unit) has crossovers like in my case since I rely on the headunit exclusively, except for in the case of a infrasonic or subsonic filter. That will be on the amp itself unless your radio supports a high pass filter (subsonic filter) on your radios subwoofer output. 

 

4a. I follow a general guide for my speakers. I run subs with a low pass filter at 80 hz. Mids with a high pass filter at 100 and a low pass filter in the 3k. Tweeters pickup from there with a high pass filter at 3k. You can tweek these settings to make your system sound good to YOU. That is the beauty about this hobby.

4b. One way to match the rms of your speakers is to just turn the gain down once you reach your clipping point with a dd-1. Another way is to tune your  mids and highs amp with a 1k track that has a 0 db level instead of a -5 or -10 db level. Essentially, when you see these tracks that are negative db level instead of 0 db they are going to allow you to turn the gain up higher since the actual source level of them is lower than the base ( of 0 db ) hence making the system louder with a -10 db level tuning vs a -5db track and a 0 db tuning quieter than a -5 db tuning. 

 

In general you can always use a more powerful amp on a speaker or subwoofer, so long as you are not sending dirty power to it. Tune with a dd-1 or oscope and adjust gains down from there if you feel like the speaker or sub is taking too much power. If you have more questions or want clarification feel free to ask away. 

[Shanon14m]

Thanks that helps alot

[AaronT]

If your amps grossly over power for whatever speakers your driving with them, then setting for Max unclipped power with a DD1 is not ideal.

 

In that case I use DMM and set for specific voltage within my driver's comfortable capability.

[MrSkippyJ]

11 minutes ago, AaronT said:

If your amps grossly over power for whatever speakers your driving with them, then setting for Max unclipped power with a DD1 is not ideal.

 

In that case I use DMM and set for specific voltage within my driver's comfortable capability.

agreed, I would still use a DD-1 for everything upstream of the amps though.

[Shanon14m]

How accurate is the setting when set with a dmm as far as output power?

[Joshdashef]

1 hour ago, Shanon14m said:

How accurate is the setting when set with a dmm as far as output power?

If your using a Walmart meter it’ll be fine. A fluke or quality meter will just be more accurate. 
 

for your case, so long as you have a maximum point that doesn’t distort according to the dd-1 you can go lower and use a dmm to get to within 10-20% of your desired output even with a cheap dmm. 

[AaronT]

On 4/27/2020 at 3:50 PM, MrSkippyJ said:

agreed, I would still use a DD-1 for everything upstream of the amps though.

Definitely

 

Just upgraded to dd1+