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Using DD1 on Factory HU with Rockford Fosgate DSR1


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I have a 2019 Ram with 8.4 inch factory head unit.  No factory amp installed.  I put in a Rockford Fosgate DSR1 and new speakers and amps to drive them.  The amps are - 1ea 4 channel Pioneer GM-A6704 1000 watt running the door speakers (6.5 in Kenwood KFC 1696 x 4), a 2 channel Pioneer 3702 500 watt driving the dash corners (3.5 in Kenwood KFC X3C mid range) and a Alpine MRV M500 driving the JL Audio 13 inch sub.

 

I received the DD1 just a few days ago and unpacked it last night.  Hastly tried to run some adjustments on gain.  Followed the instructions as best I could but honestly can't say I followed them to a tee.  I disconnected an RCA leading to front right door speaker (input on the amp) and connected that to the DD1.  Turned yup the volume all the way and none of the lights came on (other than power).  Does this mean I am not pushing enough volts out of the factory head unit?  Is there something I need to do to the Rockford Fosgate DSR1?

 

I then reconnected the RCA to the amp input and tested through the amp and was able to get the distortion light to flicker but not remain on steady.  I was having trouble getting the leads to stay put on the output speaker wires which are accused in the front of the passenger seat and then twist the gain which is accessed through the back seat.  This weekend when I have more time I will remove the amp from it's installed location so I can reach all 4 hands around to get everything to stay connected.  

 

At any rate, I wound up setting the gain a lot higher than I did when I set it all by ear.  And the system sounds horrible at louder volumes.  So it's pretty obvious I did something wrong with that setting.  Problem is I ran out of day light as I started fiddling with it about an hour before sunset...in the driveway.  Not ideal conditions but I wanted to walk through the setup one time before studying up on how this thing works.

 

My main question is how the Rockford Fosgate DSR1 works with this DD1.  I am absolutely sure the DD1 unit is working correctly and looking forward to playing with it more this weekend when I have time and daylight to get this done right.

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i've found when setting at the amp it makes it easier to put the DD1 leads in the speaker outputs and actually tighten the output terminals down to hold the leads in place.  just my $0.02  that frees up your hands to adjust gain and volume on the HU without losing your output

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4 hours ago, bmwking said:

i've found when setting at the amp it makes it easier to put the DD1 leads in the speaker outputs and actually tighten the output terminals down to hold the leads in place.  just my $0.02  that frees up your hands to adjust gain and volume on the HU without losing your output

Yep, first time using my dd1 took me about 3 fumbles trying to hold em in place before I put em in amp and tighten it down slightly.

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2009 Silverado 1500, 7.5" lift, 37x12.50r17s, Built Gen 4 5.3L ( 4.8l flat pistons, decked 243s, SS2 Cam, Pac 1218 springs, ported intake, 120mm TB, Long tubes, 3" duals HP tuner software tuned by me), 4l80e swapped and 4.56 gears. All done by me. stereo is Pioneer avh 600ex, all stinger rca, jp23 v1.5, skar rp150.4, and hertz hpd4. 2 SHCA 6.5 8ohm, 1 SHCA 3.5", and 1 DS18 tw120pro in each door. The 3.5 mid and 3.5" tweeters are powered by the skar rp150.4, the 6.5s are powered by the hertz bridged @4 ohms. Dual runs   of 3/0 welding cable, 300a alternator, 2 Vmax AGMs up front. current sub is a AB XR 12 ( dual 2 ohm) with bottom spider cut out in 2.25 cubes at 32hz

 

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15 hours ago, bmwking said:

i've found when setting at the amp it makes it easier to put the DD1 leads in the speaker outputs and actually tighten the output terminals down to hold the leads in place.  just my $0.02  that frees up your hands to adjust gain and volume on the HU without losing your output

Yeah...last night after posting this I decided to give it one more try and first thing I did was remove mounting screws from amp, slide it towards front a bit and tightened the speaker outputs down on the leads.  That definitely frees up your hands to make the gain adjustment.  It also got rid of some of the flickering of the lights on the DD1...nice tight connections.

 

But I still wind up with distortion in the speakers even when the distortion light does not come on.  I still question the DSR1 interface.  I guess the next thing to do is measure the voltage coming out of the RCAs that input to the amp.  I think I found a setting in the DSR1 called Amp Gain that might be useful.  Also, since I use the iDataLink Meastro I have the Input level on the DSR1 set to high.  I might try setting that to low and bypassing the iDataLink Meastro features.

I can set the gains on the amps by ear and get crystal clear sound.  But when I use the DD1 and follow the instruction I get distortion when I turn the volume up.  One thing I noticed last night is the left side gets distortion (the light on the DD1) at a lower gain setting than the right side.  Is it possible my amp is blown?

 

Im going to follow up with Rockford Fosgate tech support to see if I have that set up properly.  There were some setup settings when I programmed the DSR1 that I did not fully understand which could be the cause of my troubles.

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7 hours ago, Sierra Nate said:

Yeah...last night after posting this I decided to give it one more try and first thing I did was remove mounting screws from amp, slide it towards front a bit and tightened the speaker outputs down on the leads.  That definitely frees up your hands to make the gain adjustment.  It also got rid of some of the flickering of the lights on the DD1...nice tight connections.

 

But I still wind up with distortion in the speakers even when the distortion light does not come on.  I still question the DSR1 interface.  I guess the next thing to do is measure the voltage coming out of the RCAs that input to the amp.  I think I found a setting in the DSR1 called Amp Gain that might be useful.  Also, since I use the iDataLink Meastro I have the Input level on the DSR1 set to high.  I might try setting that to low and bypassing the iDataLink Meastro features.

I can set the gains on the amps by ear and get crystal clear sound.  But when I use the DD1 and follow the instruction I get distortion when I turn the volume up.  One thing I noticed last night is the left side gets distortion (the light on the DD1) at a lower gain setting than the right side.  Is it possible my amp is blown?

 

Im going to follow up with Rockford Fosgate tech support to see if I have that set up properly.  There were some setup settings when I programmed the DSR1 that I did not fully understand which could be the cause of my troubles.

when using a DD1 on a 4 channel amp you want to hook the positive lead to the positive of channel 1 and the negative to the negative terminal of channel 2, effectively bridging the 2 channels to the DD1, that way you won't have a disparity between them, itll allow you to set them both equally to your max clean volume.

 

as far as the other equipment you're running (maestro, dsr1) I don't have any experience with those, hopefully someone who does can chime in

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13 hours ago, bmwking said:

when using a DD1 on a 4 channel amp you want to hook the positive lead to the positive of channel 1 and the negative to the negative terminal of channel 2, effectively bridging the 2 channels to the DD1, that way you won't have a disparity between them, itll allow you to set them both equally to your max clean volume.

 

as far as the other equipment you're running (maestro, dsr1) I don't have any experience with those, hopefully someone who does can chime in

So now I can retune my nvx jad, thanks lol. I only used left channel on front mids and then left channel on front highs. Only used the left input RCA also, unplugged the right altogether , guess I figured headunit was putting out linear output. On a good note, tuning by ear my max volume in my hu was 33, and after using my dd1 it's 36 and got to turn my gains up quite a bit more! Made me have to commit to running my second run of power wire to the md8k tho, can't hold volts with gain set properly, so had to turn gain back down till second run is done. 

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2009 Silverado 1500, 7.5" lift, 37x12.50r17s, Built Gen 4 5.3L ( 4.8l flat pistons, decked 243s, SS2 Cam, Pac 1218 springs, ported intake, 120mm TB, Long tubes, 3" duals HP tuner software tuned by me), 4l80e swapped and 4.56 gears. All done by me. stereo is Pioneer avh 600ex, all stinger rca, jp23 v1.5, skar rp150.4, and hertz hpd4. 2 SHCA 6.5 8ohm, 1 SHCA 3.5", and 1 DS18 tw120pro in each door. The 3.5 mid and 3.5" tweeters are powered by the skar rp150.4, the 6.5s are powered by the hertz bridged @4 ohms. Dual runs   of 3/0 welding cable, 300a alternator, 2 Vmax AGMs up front. current sub is a AB XR 12 ( dual 2 ohm) with bottom spider cut out in 2.25 cubes at 32hz

 

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Update:

Last night I left work a little early and no one home to bother me with honey do-s.  Spent some quality time with my audio system.

 

First I started with the DSR1 settings.  Put everything flat.  No crossovers.  Killed the sub completely to protect it and avoid needing to disconnect wires from the sub as it is all buried under the back seat and I really felt that adjustment was in the right place.  I'll fool around with that later to see if I can make it better with the DD1.

 

One thing that challenged me...on the DSR1 I set the trim levels mid way on all speaker sets...thinking middle would be flat.  Wrong.  I could not get a reading on the DD1 with the trims set halfway.  I then turned all trims to full volume, master volume full and then the HU adjustments started working out perfectly on the DD1.

 

First thing that went wrong (and I kind of predicted it in the OP) was I failed to remove all the speaker wires from the amp outputs.  I missed that in the instructions.  So I peeled all the speakers wires off, placed the DD1 leads on A Channel left.  Got a consistent 36 on the head unit lit the distortion light.  Back off one notch to 35 and had clean signal.  Moved probes to Channel B, Left and did the same, got the same results.  35 it is!

 

Next I ran audio track 6 (my second mistake as I kept using tracks 1 and 2 for the amp gain adjustment).  Turned the gain up till I see distortion on the DD1.  Backed off a little till the light went out and stayed out.  Both channels got the same setting, right at the "high" mark.  This is almost exactly where I had it when I adjusted by ear.

 

Next I moved on to the 2 channel pioneer amp for the front dash speakers.  Exact same results.  Gain landed right on the "High" mark.  Makes sense since both amps are same (Pioneer)except one is a 4 channel and the other is a 2 channel.  Speakers same manufacturer and all 4 ohm.

 

So then I get a call from work that they need me quickly.  As I'm pulling out of the driveway I notice no bass.  No sub.  But other than that this system is loud and crystal clear with volume set below 33.  35 was just too loud and uncomfortable for me.  No bass to fill.  When I got home I trouble shot the sub...getting 5.? volts out of the output.  Blue light is on.  I'm getting power, but no sound.  Pulled the RCAs and found 0 volts on the input.  Got tired and went to bed.

 

Then this morning as I'm going to work I decide to play with the Perfect Tune app for the Rockford Fosgate DSR1 app.  That's when I remembered protecting the sub by shutting it off.  My ride to work this morning was filled with Godsmack and Highly Suspect.  My ears are ringing right now.  I'm going to have to play with EQ settings now to fine tune.  But I have a solid foundation now thanks to the DD1!

Edited by Sierra Nate
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9 hours ago, ehall8702 said:

So now I can retune my nvx jad, thanks lol. I only used left channel on front mids and then left channel on front highs. Only used the left input RCA also, unplugged the right altogether , guess I figured headunit was putting out linear output. On a good note, tuning by ear my max volume in my hu was 33, and after using my dd1 it's 36 and got to turn my gains up quite a bit more! Made me have to commit to running my second run of power wire to the md8k tho, can't hold volts with gain set properly, so had to turn gain back down till second run is done. 

lol my pleasure, happy to help motivate :P

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