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How to properly set the DD-1


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First off I gotta say I love the DD-1. Man what a great tool!

I didn't realize just how far over my settings were above the minimium disortion range for me to have a clean signal. My old settings caused me all kinds of electrical issues from dimming lights to no starts to battery drains to rough idles to random electrical issues due to the constant power drain. I went thru 3 batteries and 4 alternators before I started using your tool, but I never could figure out why until now. As soon as I hooked it up I immediately saw just how far above the distortion range I was for all of the extra power I was drawing which was only distorting my signal further. I never even knew it until I seen it using your DD-1. I was over the clean signal by about an extra half of the amps gain. There is no telling how long my speakers were slowly clipping from an unclean signal. Your tool just saved me alot by showing me my max clean signal. I was using way more voltage than I needed to and I was distorting my signal alot. Thanks to your DD-1 tool, my signal is now nice and clean.

 

It turns out my cars electrical system couldn't handle the extra electrical power that my kenwood 9106d was wanting to draw on my little 110 amp alternator. Your DD-1 tool helped me fix that issue by not drawing anymore power than needed to produce a clean signal. To put this into perspective my old setting was 5/8 of the full gain setting which is just a smidge under 3/4 of the entire gain. The clean signal at 59 with everything flat and the subwoofer level at 0 is just a smidge above a 1/4. Thats a huge adjustment to the overall power draw on my electrical system. I had no idea that my headunit could play clean all the way up  to 59 out of 62. Before using DD-1 I stayed below 45.

 

Here are the steps I took to calibrate my system.

I connected the red and black DD-1 cables to my secondary speaker level inputs leaving the subwoofer speaker wires connected to the amp

1). I reset my pioneer X6800BT headunit back to 100% defaults

2). Then I turned off the default EQ mode called powerful and I set it to flat mode in the EQ.

3). Next I went to speaker level and set my subwoofer volume from 0 to 10 for max bass.

4). Then I cycled back thru my fronts and my rears to ensure they were all still at 0 on their respective speaker levels.

5). I then went thru my LPF and HPF crossovers on my headunit making sure they were all turned off.

6). I made sure bass boost was off and I also made sure loudness was also set to off.

7). I played track one from your DD-1 CD and I set my SLA to 0.

 

This was my first test

On my X6800BT with the subwoofer speaker level at 0 I got to a clean volume of 59 out of 62.

 

Next I tested how I used to configure everything before the DD-1 and the results were way different.

On my X6800BT with the subwoofer speaker level at 10, eq at powerful (default),  bass boost at +1, loudness at mid, and SLA at 4

I was only able to get a clean volume of 41 out of 62 when using my USB/Iphone with all of these settings.

 

Now that you know my results I have a question about crossovers.

My front speakers are Alpine 610c's mids only, they never installed the tweeters just the mids. Their range is 70Hz - 22Khz  (80w-240w RMS) No amp

My subwoofer is a Rockford Fosgate P3SD2-12 Shallow mount 34-250Hz (50-400w RMS) in a sealed box.

My ISF is turned all of the way down due to it being a sealed box.

My amp is a Kenwood 9106D pushing 1000w RMS at 2 ohms with a 24DB Octave built in.

My vehicle is a C5 Corvette with open airspace. I have been told a 24DB slope is best for open air vehicles. Is this true?

 

Should I be using a 24 DB octave on my HPF filter on the headunit at 80Hz with the alpine 610c's or not since my sub amp has a 24db slope built into it?

What about my sub should I be using a 24DB octave on my LPF filter on the headunit at 80hz or should I leave this turned off and let the sub amp's built in crossover control it. The box is a sealed box with 1 12" 2 ohm DVC subwoofer installed. It says my sub's lowest frequency it can hit is 34hz-250hz.

 

When I am looking for the max clean volume is it a good idea to have my subwoofer speaker level set to 10 and SLA set to the best undistorted option or should I leave both of these at 0?

 

Is it best to have an overlapping frequency between the two or should they be divided like this?

80hz LPF 80 Hz HPF

80hZ LPF 100 Hz  HPF

 

Thanks in advance. Sorry for so many questions I am just trying to make sure I get everything set properly.

I can't tell you how much the DD-1 has helped me. It solved my electrical issues by letting me use the best voltage for a clean signal which means everything when a 110 amp alternator is all you get with so many other things running at the same time.

 

 

 

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Using your crossovers on your head unit are fine, just remember, if your battery dies for some reason, check and make sure the head unit remembers them, or you could really damage your equipment. 

The slope is really a personal preference when blending the subwoofer, to the mids, to the highs. If you had some sort of RTA and microphone to show you a frequency response graph, you could manually tweak it to sound exactly the way you want. If you like the sound, I wouldn't worry too much about it. 

I would just leave those at 0. But again, personal preference. As long as you're not clipping. 

Play with your high pass and low pass filters and see what you like best. A CC-1 is a great tool that can help you set your crossovers exactly where you want them as well. 

2011 Chevy Silverado under construction

My build log here. Check it out! 

 

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Thank you for all of your help dafasles.

 

I do have another question though if you don't mind. I will do my best to explain the issues I am experiencing.

 

 

1). What - Db should I be using if I listen to all of these various types of music?

bass mekanik, decaf, djsnt, get160, rock, rap, pop, alternative, country, oldies, trap, rap, bass beats, house music, techno, dubstep, bass boosted songs, and a few others which are primarily stream off of youtube pre-made playlists.

 

I prefer alot of bass, but I have a shallow mount rockford p3sd2-12 in a sealed box which is capable of 400w RMS 800w Peak

The amp that drives the system is Kenwood 9106D which is capable of 1000w at 2 ohms RMS or 500w at 4 ohms RMS.

The sub itself is wired in series so its actually putting out 4 ohms.

The 12" box is a a-trend that has 0.86 cuft. of airspace which is perfect for the rockford p3sd2-12. Due to my limited trunk space in my c5 corvette the flush mount with a shallow subwoofer was my only option since the area under the hatchback will only support a triple 8's box due to the hatchbacks height restrictions.

 

Now that you know my build data I have a question that I am really hoping someone can answer.

My primary limitation is my charging system, so I need to know the best way to set this up. My alternator is only 110 amps.

 

When I am setting my subwoofer amp gains with SMD's DD-1 40z -10Db track should my sub preout level on my headunit be at 10 to ensure it won't clip at max power?

If yes, then my next question becomes. After I set the gain at the max distortion free point with the sub preout level at 10 is it then recommended that I put it back to 0 so that I can hear the full volume over the whole range once I have the amp gain locked in? I noticed in the youtube videos when steve sets an amp he turns up the subwoofer control knob to max, then he sets the gain. I'm guessing that its best to use the max pre-out voltage when setting the gain so that my system won't clip at the max pre-out voltage.

 

Next

I noticed that when I hooked up my RCA cable to the SMD DD-1 it wouldn't detect any signal at all whatsoever when I was using the RCA's going from the headunit to the sub amp. The SMD DD-1 wouldn't even show a green power light when testing on track 1 or 2 with the RCA in the SMD DD-1 using the CD source. I can hear the 1 Khz tone thru my speakers though, but nothing registers on the DD-1 when using a pioneed x6800bs headunit. With the SMD DD-1 connected to the red/black speaker terminals on my sub amp it will only report the 40 hz tracks. So now my question becomes if the RCA method doesn't work how do I find the max clean volume for the 1khz tone? All I have is a sub amp.

 

Moving on

I ask this sub level pre-out question again only,  because if I set my gain with the volume at 59 (max clean volume for track 1) and sub pre-out level at 0 my gain has to be turned up almost 3/4 of the way which then causes charging system faults due to the massive power draw on my battery and the 110 amp alternator. I should also note that if I play track 1 and I try to bump the SLA up even by +1 the distortion indicator light turns on no matter whether its CD, USB, Bluetooth or Aux. Is this normal it seems like I can't apply any SLA to my system over any source at all when the volume is at the max clean volume of 59. It happens on tracks 3, 5, and 7 too.

 

To remedy the no SLA increase I played track 3 on the SMD DD-1 CD for -5 Db. I put the SLA at +4 while the volume was at 59. The distortion light immediately turned red, I put the sub level pre-out at 10 instead of 0, I set loudness to high, then I turned the volume down on the headunit until the distortion light turned off. Finally I turned the gain up until it was just under the distortion point. I noted the new volume level where their was no distortion with all of these settings (41).

Is there any problem with doing it this way? What do I lose in overall system performance.

 

Doing this brought my max clean volume down from 59 to 41, but by doing this with the -5 db track I discovered that my gain setting went from needing almost 3/4 of the entire gain to just a smidge above 1/4 of the gain which kept the car running perfect without any charging system faults. With almost 3/4 of the gain which is the setting that is required with sub level 0 my charging system has issues due to the massive power draw. With the sub pre-out at 10 and all of these other settings the car runs fine, because the gain only needs to be 1/4 of the way up. So now I have to ask is their anything wrong with doing it this way. Will it hurt my equipment running it like this? I ask, because my kenwood 9106D has a 65 amp consumption rating according to the manual. Thats a huge power draw on a 110 amp alternator.

 

I tried to check the voltage on the RCA's using a digital multimeter. The results were as follows.

Red clip on rca plug + black clip on rca-outer part no reading on AC or DC. The volume on the headunit works, but the RCA shows no voltage even at max clean volume. Now keep in mind that the RCA in the SMD DD-1 shows nothing too. It takes the red and black wire being connected to the speaker terminals to get any reading at all.

 

 

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Do the big 3 and you should have better car results and there's nothing wrong with it as long as it's distortion free

06 Charger

Pioneer double din

Pioneer 6.5 and 6×9's

Knukoncept Krystal kable rca's

0 ga knukoncept kolossus wire 

Big 3 same wire ^ 1 run 

8g karma ss speaker wire

Sundown sia 3500d at 1ohm

2 Sundown U series 12's

Duralast platinum agm H7 (Main)

Xs power d3400

Trying to find a ho alt

 

 

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So, listening to those kinds of music, I would tune that sub at -5 db, or even 0. Things like decaf and bass mechanik, the bass is actually recorded at a 0 db level, while most regular music is recorded at -10. I think you'd be able to get away with -5 being that it's in a sealed enclosure and is getting maximum cone control. 

Set your settings at 0, set the gains, and then leave them at 0. If you set them with the settings all the way up, your setting your gains at max distortion with a bunch of filters. Then you get rid of those filters and your left with nothing. Everything flat or at 0. Set your gains, then of you ever feel like it, you can go -1 or below. But after you set your gains, Never add. Only subtract. 

If your head unit has a sub RCA out and a separate RCA for the highs, then no, your RCA's for the sub amp won't detect the 1khz tone because that time simply isn't going through those RCA's. For your sub amp, you only need the 40 hz track anyway because your sub will (should) never play higher than 80-100 hz (preferably 80 hz). If you do, you will damage the sub. 

Doing it the way you explained is ok. As long as there's no clipping being introduced to the system, it's fine. Though I would do like @Never Enough Basssaid and so the big 3 with 1/0 wire and see if that helps. The thing is, a 110 amp alternator on a v8 should be able to handle that amount of wattage. That's not a lot. The gain being up 3/4's shouldn't effect anything. I suspect there might be another problem. But do the big 3, and see if you can set the gains without doing all those work arounds. 

Did you watch a youtube video on how to check your voltage on your RCA's?

2011 Chevy Silverado under construction

My build log here. Check it out! 

 

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Idk the v8 dodge chargers have 180 a alts stock

06 Charger

Pioneer double din

Pioneer 6.5 and 6×9's

Knukoncept Krystal kable rca's

0 ga knukoncept kolossus wire 

Big 3 same wire ^ 1 run 

8g karma ss speaker wire

Sundown sia 3500d at 1ohm

2 Sundown U series 12's

Duralast platinum agm H7 (Main)

Xs power d3400

Trying to find a ho alt

 

 

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29 minutes ago, Never Enough Bass said:

Idk the v8 dodge chargers have 180 a alts stock

Dodge has ridiculous stock alternators. I've seen a 65 amp alternator in a prius handle more wattage no problem. My stock alternator in my pickup, which is the same one he has, was pushing a little over 1000 watts back in the day. Granted, not clamped but total, but still. 

2011 Chevy Silverado under construction

My build log here. Check it out! 

 

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17 minutes ago, Dafaseles said:

Dodge has ridiculous stock alternators. I've seen a 65 amp alternator in a prius handle more wattage no problem. My stock alternator in my pickup, which is the same one he has, was pushing a little over 1000 watts back in the day. Granted, not clamped but total, but still. 

Yea dodge does ridiculous things always going big my v6 has 160a alt stock

06 Charger

Pioneer double din

Pioneer 6.5 and 6×9's

Knukoncept Krystal kable rca's

0 ga knukoncept kolossus wire 

Big 3 same wire ^ 1 run 

8g karma ss speaker wire

Sundown sia 3500d at 1ohm

2 Sundown U series 12's

Duralast platinum agm H7 (Main)

Xs power d3400

Trying to find a ho alt

 

 

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1 hour ago, Never Enough Bass said:

Yea dodge does ridiculous things always going big my v6 has 160a alt stock

Makes it easy to upgrade anything though. Can't fault them for that lol

2011 Chevy Silverado under construction

My build log here. Check it out! 

 

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2 minutes ago, Dafaseles said:

Makes it easy to upgrade anything though. Can't fault them for that lol

I appreciate it for the most part it works for what I have even tho I needed a second battery 

06 Charger

Pioneer double din

Pioneer 6.5 and 6×9's

Knukoncept Krystal kable rca's

0 ga knukoncept kolossus wire 

Big 3 same wire ^ 1 run 

8g karma ss speaker wire

Sundown sia 3500d at 1ohm

2 Sundown U series 12's

Duralast platinum agm H7 (Main)

Xs power d3400

Trying to find a ho alt

 

 

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