I was an installer for 19 years and did a LOT of brands. I am loyal to a handful and I have seen some favorites take a nosedive in quality. Two of my cars have the ENTIRE system replaced from the head unit through the entire audio path. My 'zip code car' had a Mach Audio system but only three channels of amplification were added. Even into my 50's I don't think I am capable of leaving ANY stock sound system alone.
Hi not sure if you will see this but I was wondering if you, I bought a JL rd 900/5 and for mids it’s has 70 watts rms @ 4 ohms but I purchased a component speakers for the front Alpine R2 S65c it basically says 100 rms . What I am wondering is should I buy another amp for the rear (they are going to be similar alpines but 2 ways) or do you think I will be good? I know sometimes with like my home audio I could get an amp that only puts out on paper a small rms but they push speakers so good idk if it’s the same or not I mean if both speakers are 100 rms but my amp says 70 ? I know if I just push the fronts it will change to like 200 I believe so I’m just not sure really. I am also putting a dsp alpine as well 6 channel
It's about time I can't tell you how many videos I've watched that of either been too technical or not enough. You inform me of things I've never been told before and did it in a way I understand. thank you, Derik from Arizona
You do realize you're doing some very, very good work, Mark. I'm building a system now and your channel is teaching me a lot, and I've been DIY-ing for 30 years. I'll be donating to your Patreon soon! Thanks!
For those of you who don’t really know who this guy is..let me tell you. Mark is the Lebron James of car audio fabrication. He’s a very detailed professional who takes his work extremely serious. He has every dam tool you could think of at his disposal to make the job look as good or better than factory. Whatever your audio needs are, Mark delivers. I’ve seen many other car audio fabricators. And all have unique talents. However Mark, (IMO), is the undisputed KING of the tube.
Haha there are a lot of guys way more talented than me, but I'm doing my best to make progress and get better with every build. Thanks for the love and thanks for watching!
On a lot of these controller units and amplifiers, I really wish the manufacturers would spend the extra time to put a tick mark or an arrow on the dials. It would really help a lot of us make adjustments especially while in the car and confined spaces.
Nice Video. I have a friend who has advanced knowledge of state of the art car audio. He has a 4000 watt 18 speakers system which sounded unlike anything automotive sound system I've ever heard...the amazing aspect is the specialized insulation system of the vehicle rendering the immense sound undetectable from out side while the doors are shut...it is truly amazing the tech mankind has achieved.
I'm not talking about the Constructive comments on here but it's funny watching people point out Every little mistake Mark makes,every time he mis labels something or moves his finger in a way that,that person wouldn't personally move their fingers.I have a question.Where is your Video?Where is your UA-cam channel?Where are your almost 500,000 Subscribers?!?!???It's easy to criticize someone when you have the advantage of watching after the video was made and being an outsider looking in.Keep up the great work Mark! You're so very helpful to Car audio newbs like myself.
Very educational video just put my first one two days ago and I’ve been running it with the knobs all the way up cause no one taught me how to use anything but your videos have taught me so much in the last two days
My subwoofer guy put paint on top of the gain controls and all that and said he put them exactly where they need to be, so don't touch them and he'll be able to tell if I messed with it because the paint would be cracked on the dials. Loved that guy
Ian McDonald I’m guessing it’s 17.2v ish’ Measuring with voltmeter you need to multiply by .707 to properly calculate for RMS. Just my understanding. I could be wrong.
His POT position using the DMM is a tick higer than using the DD1. Pobably cause he readjusted the stereo volume before using the DD1. Doesn't really matter, I'm cranking my ACDC to MAX everytime!
At 10:20 you said have the high pass set for speaker at 80hz . Now let say my speakers frequency response claims to be 35-21k Hz . Do I still do 80 or do I set it to something like 50hz (it the lowest my amp can set my high pass to) .My 4 channel lowest claims to be 20-21k Hz. It’s a Rockford fosgate T400x4ad
Question: once I set the gain with the head unit bass at 0 and the auxiliary bass knob at max, can i then later turn the head unit bass back up or do I only use the auxiliary knob? Please help
It might be worth adding that some amplifiers (DD Audio, Audio Control, Rockford) have a clipping indicator to help set the gains properly. I has been my experience that the DD Audio clip indicators on the D Series are pretty well spot on with the DD-1.
Big Ounce yes it will be a bit quieter at lower volume but it’s supposed to be a lot of people set their amps to the max settings thinking it will be the loudest but it over does it and actually isn’t as loud just distorted but if you tune it you can get that max crisp volume without a bit of distortion:)
Problem with this method is that usually car CD or USB players play a lot louder than Bluetooth, for example. So if you plan on listening to music through Bluetooth/aux cable, you should make sure you play the test tones through those when you are setting the gain. Only use a CD if you plan on mostly listening to CDs.
When you use a dsp like the audio control 608 and you do all your adjustments on the dsp. Do you leave the amplifier crossover on off or no crossover or you further adjust on the amplifier controls?
Man i love their product. If i had my own shop that would be my premiere line of amps. Especially since the auto industry is trying their damnedest to keep aftermarket equipment out. Loving the integration
Hey great video. I just want to make sure I got my numbers and math right, I have a clarion amp 1300 watts and the box says 650 continuous watts @ 2ohms. So my math would be 2 * 650 = 1300, the sq route is 36.055.... is this right?
For the equation that was used @ 4:00 did you use the amplifiers RMS power or Max power? Also, what if the speakers you're using are rated for less power than your amplifier can put out?
These kinds of videos would have been great 25 years ago. I mean they are great now, but would have also been great then too. I had no idea what I was doing, lol. Thanks!
@Mark, I just cant thank you enough for this video, my installer have made horrible mistakes on tuning the new amp and audio was worth than stock system. I followed you guidance and my car audio is 300% better than stock now ... 😁 Respect mate 🍻
Hai, my stock speakers are not much good to handle the bass and it bass roll off. In order to compensate that bass I bought a rockford fosgate enclosed subwoofer 8” with built in amplifier. I have some questions please reply: 1. Which is the best option to connect as an Input. Should I take speaker output or the minimum output from the system 2. If I am using high output from speaker as input, does it affect the quality of bass 3. In order to prevent distortion and vibration from speakers, can I turn down the bass level on head unit and allow subwoofer to handle all those bass. If i connect subwoofer to speaker can I turn down the bass on headunit. Please give me a reply.
Watching this at midnight 2.00 am in one remote village of India where these tuning is considered to be as alien technology, i will be able to tune my Focal Amp, JVC Stereo, Infinity component speakers along with Rockford sub in tomorrow morning, thanks to this video 😊
Question..The amp comes with a bass knob and the LC2i comes with a bass knob. Which one do I use? Also do I need to adjust the gain on the LC2i first or the amp? Do I only adjust gain on LOC or both? Thank you!
I have a kicker zx500 amp hooked up to two 10” image dynamic subwoofers. My deck is an avh - 1500 pioneer dvd/divx video. That was one of the settings I did not understand on my amp, which is the crossover dial. It has two others, gain, and bass boost. Where should I start with this setup? Thanks in advance.
Installing Kenwood Excelon 5 1/4 and 6 1/2 inch coaxial speakers in a jeep wrangler. it’s an aftermarket head unit, and also adding a soundstream ST1200D stealth amp to power them. My question is what setting should the crossover be. It has a switch with high pass, full, or LPF. The stereo vendor where I got it from recommended using the high pass switch mode. I’ve been out of this for many years but if I remember right I used to use full setting on my amps. Is the high pass setting correct for these speakers?
Hey there, i'm having issues with a phoenix gold SX system in my Audi. The amp keeps going into protect mode. The audio place I purchased the equipment from installed it, and I've been back 7 times trying to get them to fix it, and they don't know whats going on. They won't return the equipment, etc. Any ideas why the phoenix gold 1200.1 would be kicking into protect even on low bass / low volume ?
Hey question, so I was looking to get an SMD DD-1 but some one was mentioning how it doesn’t tell you about harmonic distortion and that the tool only tells you about clipping. So you can still potentially ruin your speakers even while using that distortion tool
So the hi pass crossover is used if you want to dedicate the amplifier for a certain task, like for door speakers or tweeters and such where you don't want to send bass signals? Is there any opposite function too? Like if you dont want to send high frequenzies to speakers that should be bass only. Like a reverse hi pass crossover. Or do you just buy a dedicated amp for that?
So let’s say I was gonna set the gains in a vehicle with all the factory stereo equipment just adding the amp and subs. Would I still play the tone as loud as I could with the head unit connected to the door speakers? Seems like every video I see there’s no speakers hooked up. Only the amp.
great video, but I noticed that you had low battery on the smd dd-1, I had that happen to me thinking my signal was distorted but when I changed my battery I could go a little bit more before distortion. great vid though for setting gains and crossovers.
All is pretty straight forward except @6:20 I can’t tell where the DD1 is connected when checking the distortion volume of the factory radio? Is the dd1 still connected to the amp speaker outs? Am I missing something?
Yes hi I will be installing 2 12 inch gravity warzone subwoofers 3000 watts rms for the pair and will be using a monoblock 3000 watt rms amp. What gauge amp kit should I use? The amp is recommending 4 gauge amp kit and the amp can use 11 gauge speaker wire (which I cant find anywhere just 10 and 12 gauge) will 10 gauge speaker wire be ok to use for the subs which I want to wire the pair down to 1 ohm?
Mark! Thanks so much, I am watching all your videos and I’m meaning a lot. Just a quick sequence question as I’m trying to tie it all together. Haven’t found a video integrating the setting up of the amp gain, while also incorporating an LC2i Pro, and I’m a little confused as to the sequence. Can you explain that in detail or perhaps make a video on that? It seems that would be a sweet spot for lots of folks learning how to set an amp gain while also adding a subwoofer to a factory system…… Thank you so much!!
I have a after market head unit with stick speakers and 4 12’ kicker red lines (I’m 17 with minimal wage leave me alone😂) and I just turned the bass down all the way on my head unit so my speakers can play as loud as possible with no distortion and let the subs do the lows :)
I have some questions I would love clarification on.. after all the rsearch I've done done I still feel lost.. First if I'm testing a head unit for distortion with an oscilloscope do I set crossovers first? To add to that how do I figure out my crossovers to where my speakers are at their max potential without hurting them.. SO if I find distortion on my headunit then go to my amp and find where it distorts and set that gain how to I go about it where I know my speakers are happy with their crossovers and power they are fed ( I have an alpine amp for my door speakers that says 50w rms and apline speakers rated the same power
Hey, what should I have my Amp gain be at if I plan to adjust my lc2i with the accubass? Or how do I adjust the set if I have two gain knobs to use from?
dumb question, when you set the amp gain using method #2 (Steve Meade tool) do you happen to know what voltage the amp was putting out right before clipping? also, did you use 0 db tones, or attenuated tones (-3db or -6db etc). thanks
Ok I'm a old school DIY audio installer. Now that the Technology has change I wanted learn how to match speakers and amps. Tune them properly. Also fabricate speaker boxes. All for motorcycles. I've already subscribed, can you suggest video that can help?
This content is priceless!!! We already know you love premium quality equipment from AudioControl, do you have any comments about the Kicker Key amps with integrated DSP and auto-tuning capabilities. My guess it’s like comparing a full DSLR camera vs a point and a point and shoot one.
Kicker is a reliable manufacture and the Key is nice but using a camera analogy I would equate it with shooting on Auto mode vs Manual. The Key corrects things, but it does it automatically. At the end of the day a pro using "manual" mode and knowing what they are doing will be able to create a better finished result.
When setting the gain in the amplifier, does the bass knob of my amp and also of my epicenter have to have be at max or all the way down when tuning? Please reply
Hey Mark, I have a LC1.800. I'm looking for info on how to set the accubass and can't find any help. Do you have a video available on how to set these up?
My amp has a line level input up to 4V and high level. / speaker input up to 10 volts. My head unit has 5v pre amp output..also my speakers are 100 W but amp only 75 Watts will I have some issues because they don’t match? Or can I just connect to high level and turn the gain up just below clipping?
Much appreciated, love the video very descriptive on making the knowledge easy to understand. The only thing I would comment on that would make it better is your transition timing from one sentence to another specially when you go from an edited video speak about one thing and transfer to the edited part that follows. You talk a little fast so for some it may be hard to follow on a listening paste. Little longer pauses between sentences. Liked and subscribed. Thanks again much appreciated
I have a kenwood excelon dmx 706s with 4 infinity kappa 62IX power by Kenwood XR401-4 channel amp and doesn’t sound as clear i was expected like too much bass over clarity. How should i tune up my amp? Should I use the x’over before tuning the amp or after? I’m all confused 🫤 If anyone will anser my complicated question, I just want to say thank you!
Thank you for the time and effort. I've watched a handful of your vids, mostly revolving around the Audio Control amps. I'm very, very interested in them. That said, in other vidz, you've shown the feature LED that AC uses to help set the gain. I'd love to see an addition to this vid, or perhaps a separate one, where you use the Scope or DDM to test out how accurate their LED is. :) Once again, thank you.
This may be a dumb question and forgive me if so, but my understanding is that setting the gain with pretty much everything flat puts your amp right below clipping or distortion? So you're really not supposed to use "bass boost" nor tune the bass frequencies up when you go to equalize, or turn your subwoofer level on the HU up any afterwards? What you set your gain to is effectively as high as you can go with output? Not sure if I understand
Trying this with my subwoofer amp, but I need help. My subs produce 2400 watts but the rms is around 1200 watts. And the way they are wired gives it 1 ohm. So if I do that equation I get around 35 volts that I need to be getting for my calculation. Is this correct? Also does the tone need to be playing at full volume while setting the gain? Thank you
sonic electronix did a video showing how to match high wattage amp to low wattage sub by setting the gain to a position to achieve the desired wattage but in this video you say that its still using 100% of the amplifier power so that means changing the gain won't increase or decrease power? im confused. please somebody anybody reply. i need to know if i can safely use my 2.5K amp on a 1200 watt sub.
The Chrisfix of car audio
Right.
I thought no one realized that
Wish
fact! lol
Love this lmao
I feel like I owe this guy money for the education he has given me.
I was an installer for 19 years and did a LOT of brands. I am loyal to a handful and I have seen some favorites take a nosedive in quality. Two of my cars have the ENTIRE system replaced from the head unit through the entire audio path. My 'zip code car' had a Mach Audio system but only three channels of amplification were added. Even into my 50's I don't think I am capable of leaving ANY stock sound system alone.
Hi not sure if you will see this but I was wondering if you, I bought a JL rd 900/5 and for mids it’s has 70 watts rms @ 4 ohms but I purchased a component speakers for the front Alpine R2 S65c it basically says 100 rms . What I am wondering is should I buy another amp for the rear (they are going to be similar alpines but 2 ways) or do you think I will be good? I know sometimes with like my home audio I could get an amp that only puts out on paper a small rms but they push speakers so good idk if it’s the same or not I mean if both speakers are 100 rms but my amp says 70 ? I know if I just push the fronts it will change to like 200 I believe so I’m just not sure really. I am also putting a dsp alpine as well 6 channel
It's about time I can't tell you how many videos I've watched that of either been too technical or not enough. You inform me of things I've never been told before and did it in a way I understand.
thank you,
Derik from Arizona
You do realize you're doing some very, very good work, Mark. I'm building a system now and your channel is teaching me a lot, and I've been DIY-ing for 30 years. I'll be donating to your Patreon soon! Thanks!
For those of you who don’t really know who this guy is..let me tell you. Mark is the Lebron James of car audio fabrication. He’s a very detailed professional who takes his work extremely serious. He has every dam tool you could think of at his disposal to make the job look as good or better than factory. Whatever your audio needs are, Mark delivers. I’ve seen many other car audio fabricators. And all have unique talents. However Mark, (IMO), is the undisputed KING of the tube.
Haha there are a lot of guys way more talented than me, but I'm doing my best to make progress and get better with every build. Thanks for the love and thanks for watching!
I use his videos as much as I can. I wish I could afford the tools to do that kind of craftsmanship. But I take my builds just as serious.
@@CarAudioFabrication only if you had your own school
So hes not even Kobe or Jordan...? got it!
@@molonlabe7750 savage
Great demo! Sometimes we forget to explain the basics and this video does a great job. Thanks Mark.
BigDWiz Hey Big D. We need more amp dyno test.
1:53 Gain is not a Volume Knob. so hard for people to understand.
especially teenagers. Because their buddy told them to crank it up!!!
all knobs to the right
haha
"just crank it up"
all knobs to 11
This guy is the best on UA-cam extremely detailed in explaining the process as well as the technical aspects of equipment and its proper use
On a lot of these controller units and amplifiers, I really wish the manufacturers would spend the extra time to put a tick mark or an arrow on the dials. It would really help a lot of us make adjustments especially while in the car and confined spaces.
Thanks Mark for all your videos. I am regular do-it-yourselfer and this information helps me understand the tuning process
Nice Video. I have a friend who has advanced knowledge of state of the art car audio. He has a 4000 watt 18 speakers system which sounded unlike anything automotive sound system I've ever heard...the amazing aspect is the specialized insulation system of the vehicle rendering the immense sound undetectable from out side while the doors are shut...it is truly amazing the tech mankind has achieved.
I'm not talking about the Constructive comments on here but it's funny watching people point out Every little mistake Mark makes,every time he mis labels something or moves his finger in a way that,that person wouldn't personally move their fingers.I have a question.Where is your Video?Where is your UA-cam channel?Where are your almost 500,000 Subscribers?!?!???It's easy to criticize someone when you have the advantage of watching after the video was made and being an outsider looking in.Keep up the great work Mark! You're so very helpful to Car audio newbs like myself.
Very educational video just put my first one two days ago and I’ve been running it with the knobs all the way up cause no one taught me how to use anything but your videos have taught me so much in the last two days
My subwoofer guy put paint on top of the gain controls and all that and said he put them exactly where they need to be, so don't touch them and he'll be able to tell if I messed with it because the paint would be cracked on the dials. Loved that guy
I’m a beginner on car audio and I’ve found your videos very helpful
This guy's channel is badass!! I wish I had the kind of money it probably takes to have him hook my stuff up, from the ground up!!
Save up kiddo you will get there some day.
finally someone who really knows what their talking about . thank you, it's been really helpful !
I'd be interested to see the output on the volt meter after you tuned out the distortion. Great video though!
Ian McDonald I was thinking the same thing
Ian McDonald me too. Let’s see it
Ian McDonald I’m guessing it’s 17.2v ish’ Measuring with voltmeter you need to multiply by .707 to properly calculate for RMS. Just my understanding. I could be wrong.
His POT position using the DMM is a tick higer than using the DD1. Pobably cause he readjusted the stereo volume before using the DD1. Doesn't really matter, I'm cranking my ACDC to MAX everytime!
Thank you for teaching a boces class on production and sound quality, basics of sounds put so seamless
At 10:20 you said have the high pass set for speaker at 80hz . Now let say my speakers frequency response claims to be 35-21k Hz . Do I still do 80 or do I set it to something like 50hz (it the lowest my amp can set my high pass to) .My 4 channel lowest claims to be 20-21k Hz. It’s a Rockford fosgate T400x4ad
Wow. That was 5 years ago and the info still stands today.
I finnaly finished my system that took me 2 weeks of work, now this will be super helpful to tune it right
Question: once I set the gain with the head unit bass at 0 and the auxiliary bass knob at max, can i then later turn the head unit bass back up or do I only use the auxiliary knob? Please help
Don't turn it back up.
If you must do any eq on headunit, do it before setting gain on amplifier
Wish I could afford the SMD-DD1
It might be worth adding that some amplifiers (DD Audio, Audio Control, Rockford) have a clipping indicator to help set the gains properly. I has been my experience that the DD Audio clip indicators on the D Series are pretty well spot on with the DD-1.
So by setting the gain properly, it allow me to turn it up more without distortion???
Big Ounce yes it will be a bit quieter at lower volume but it’s supposed to be a lot of people set their amps to the max settings thinking it will be the loudest but it over does it and actually isn’t as loud just distorted but if you tune it you can get that max crisp volume without a bit of distortion:)
Thank you for making these videos. These will come in handy soon!
@ 6.25. " You should never turn up the volume past this point on the Raido !. What Point is that ?
@@Assassin1710 The 3/4 point of full tilt on the head unit.
Excellent content! Always a great watch
Problem with this method is that usually car CD or USB players play a lot louder than Bluetooth, for example. So if you plan on listening to music through Bluetooth/aux cable, you should make sure you play the test tones through those when you are setting the gain. Only use a CD if you plan on mostly listening to CDs.
This is because cd quality is better than the other forms of audio you are playing.
There is more information there.
On my headunit i can set levels for either as well as enabling media extender
Holy moly.
WOW.
You made this very simple for my understanding.
When you use a dsp like the audio control 608 and you do all your adjustments on the dsp. Do you leave the amplifier crossover on off or no crossover or you further adjust on the amplifier controls?
Man i love their product. If i had my own shop that would be my premiere line of amps. Especially since the auto industry is trying their damnedest to keep aftermarket equipment out. Loving the integration
So much more involved than It seems...one day I'll get my system sounding right
Hey great video. I just want to make sure I got my numbers and math right, I have a clarion amp 1300 watts and the box says 650 continuous watts @ 2ohms. So my math would be 2 * 650 = 1300, the sq route is 36.055.... is this right?
yup
When you use the smd to check the head unit for distortion, how is it hooked up? To the line out at a speaker? Sorry, just a little confused.
For the equation that was used @ 4:00 did you use the amplifiers RMS power or Max power? Also, what if the speakers you're using are rated for less power than your amplifier can put out?
These kinds of videos would have been great 25 years ago. I mean they are great now, but would have also been great then too. I had no idea what I was doing, lol. Thanks!
Thank you for another great video. You supply information that isn't readily available, all explained in an easy to understand manner.
@Mark, I just cant thank you enough for this video, my installer have made horrible mistakes on tuning the new amp and audio was worth than stock system. I followed you guidance and my car audio is 300% better than stock now ... 😁
Respect mate 🍻
Ce
Much respect for this video ... Most people just dont understand
Would have been cool to see what the difference in voltage was between the voltmeter and the tuner setting
They are the same lol
Hai, my stock speakers are not much good to handle the bass and it bass roll off. In order to compensate that bass I bought a rockford fosgate enclosed subwoofer 8” with built in amplifier. I have some questions please reply:
1. Which is the best option to connect as an Input. Should I take speaker output or the minimum output from the system
2. If I am using high output from speaker as input, does it affect the quality of bass
3. In order to prevent distortion and vibration from speakers, can I turn down the bass level on head unit and allow subwoofer to handle all those bass. If i connect subwoofer to speaker can I turn down the bass on headunit.
Please give me a reply.
I'd be curious to check your voltage after using the SMD meter to see if you how close you were.
Did you go back and check the voltage after the DD1 settings were used? Just wondering if it was even close to 22.3 volts.
So if you have a head unit that goes up to 35 Max volume without distortion, do you still use the 80% of the max volume when setting gain, or max it?
Watching this at midnight 2.00 am in one remote village of India where these tuning is considered to be as alien technology, i will be able to tune my Focal Amp, JVC Stereo, Infinity component speakers along with Rockford sub in tomorrow morning, thanks to this video 😊
Dude literally saved my life.
Thanks for the information. Should the car be on while setting the gains?
What would you use to power the out of car system in your shop? Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us 🤙
Question..The amp comes with a bass knob and the LC2i comes with a bass knob. Which one do I use? Also do I need to adjust the gain on the LC2i first or the amp? Do I only adjust gain on LOC or both? Thank you!
Also with the hd 750/1 would I want to run 2ohm speaker in stereo, or series or parrell to get the maximum watts?
After the amp is set using a multimeter, can you go back and adjust the bass and treble settings back to your original preference?
Very good video, clear, concise and easy to understand
Mark you are the best and have been for a while
I have a kicker zx500 amp hooked up to two 10” image dynamic subwoofers. My deck is an avh - 1500 pioneer dvd/divx video. That was one of the settings I did not understand on my amp, which is the crossover dial. It has two others, gain, and bass boost. Where should I start with this setup? Thanks in advance.
Installing Kenwood Excelon 5 1/4 and 6 1/2 inch coaxial speakers in a jeep wrangler. it’s an aftermarket head unit, and also adding a soundstream ST1200D stealth amp to power them. My question is what setting should the crossover be. It has a switch with high pass, full, or LPF. The stereo vendor where I got it from recommended using the high pass switch mode. I’ve been out of this for many years but if I remember right I used to use full setting on my amps. Is the high pass setting correct for these speakers?
Hey there, i'm having issues with a phoenix gold SX system in my Audi. The amp keeps going into protect mode. The audio place I purchased the equipment from installed it, and I've been back 7 times trying to get them to fix it, and they don't know whats going on. They won't return the equipment, etc. Any ideas why the phoenix gold 1200.1 would be kicking into protect even on low bass / low volume ?
Did you find the problem?.
Poor ground ?
@@cdracos1 nope. Still have em. Have had issues since day 1. Gave up trying to fix them long ago
Wow! the amps look amazing!!!!!. Awesome video
What's so amazing?
Hey question, so I was looking to get an SMD DD-1 but some one was mentioning how it doesn’t tell you about harmonic distortion and that the tool only tells you about clipping. So you can still potentially ruin your speakers even while using that distortion tool
U just earned a new subscriber.....thank u
when checking voltage? what should I have my LPF set at? mono amp single sub setup
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, now i feel confident to do it myself. Very informative.
So the hi pass crossover is used if you want to dedicate the amplifier for a certain task, like for door speakers or tweeters and such where you don't want to send bass signals? Is there any opposite function too? Like if you dont want to send high frequenzies to speakers that should be bass only. Like a reverse hi pass crossover. Or do you just buy a dedicated amp for that?
So let’s say I was gonna set the gains in a vehicle with all the factory stereo equipment just adding the amp and subs. Would I still play the tone as loud as I could with the head unit connected to the door speakers? Seems like every video I see there’s no speakers hooked up. Only the amp.
If you are tuning a sub amp, are you doing it using a different frequency for your test tone?
When your adjusting the gain. Where are setting the subsonic to, off of some other number?
great video, but I noticed that you had low battery on the smd dd-1, I had that happen to me thinking my signal was distorted but when I changed my battery I could go a little bit more before distortion. great vid though for setting gains and crossovers.
I like crossovers. I always attempt to make the bass sound like it's coming from the doors as much as possible without distorting the mids and highs.
All is pretty straight forward except @6:20 I can’t tell where the DD1 is connected when checking the distortion volume of the factory radio? Is the dd1 still connected to the amp speaker outs? Am I missing something?
Yes. You can measure distortion in anything downstream so it's still on the amp.
Yes hi I will be installing 2 12 inch gravity warzone subwoofers 3000 watts rms for the pair and will be using a monoblock 3000 watt rms amp. What gauge amp kit should I use? The amp is recommending 4 gauge amp kit and the amp can use 11 gauge speaker wire (which I cant find anywhere just 10 and 12 gauge) will 10 gauge speaker wire be ok to use for the subs which I want to wire the pair down to 1 ohm?
Mark! Thanks so much, I am watching all your videos and I’m meaning a lot. Just a quick sequence question as I’m trying to tie it all together.
Haven’t found a video integrating the setting up of the amp gain, while also incorporating an LC2i Pro, and I’m a little confused as to the sequence.
Can you explain that in detail or perhaps make a video on that? It seems that would be a sweet spot for lots of folks learning how to set an amp gain while also adding a subwoofer to a factory system……
Thank you so much!!
Dude this is the most helpful video thank you!!!
Question. I know this video is old but its awesome. How is the connection made to check clipping from the radio itself?
I have a after market head unit with stick speakers and 4 12’ kicker red lines (I’m 17 with minimal wage leave me alone😂) and I just turned the bass down all the way on my head unit so my speakers can play as loud as possible with no distortion and let the subs do the lows :)
Xxx tentacion that’s what i do lol
If you’re Turning up gain on the knob should I also turn up volume on my Equalizer?
Hey went to a car audio shop to get my system tune and was wondering if its OK to leave the hpf freq of the car speaker at through
This dude is cool and full of life.
I have some questions I would love clarification on.. after all the rsearch I've done done I still feel lost.. First if I'm testing a head unit for distortion with an oscilloscope do I set crossovers first? To add to that how do I figure out my crossovers to where my speakers are at their max potential without hurting them.. SO if I find distortion on my headunit then go to my amp and find where it distorts and set that gain how to I go about it where I know my speakers are happy with their crossovers and power they are fed ( I have an alpine amp for my door speakers that says 50w rms and apline speakers rated the same power
Hey, what should I have my Amp gain be at if I plan to adjust my lc2i with the accubass? Or how do I adjust the set if I have two gain knobs to use from?
dumb question, when you set the amp gain using method #2 (Steve Meade tool) do you happen to know what voltage the amp was putting out right before clipping? also, did you use 0 db tones, or attenuated tones (-3db or -6db etc). thanks
Ok I'm a old school DIY audio installer. Now that the Technology has change I wanted learn how to match speakers and amps. Tune them properly. Also fabricate speaker boxes. All for motorcycles. I've already subscribed, can you suggest video that can help?
This content is priceless!!! We already know you love premium quality equipment from AudioControl, do you have any comments about the Kicker Key amps with integrated DSP and auto-tuning capabilities. My guess it’s like comparing a full DSLR camera vs a point and a point and shoot one.
Kicker is a reliable manufacture and the Key is nice but using a camera analogy I would equate it with shooting on Auto mode vs Manual. The Key corrects things, but it does it automatically. At the end of the day a pro using "manual" mode and knowing what they are doing will be able to create a better finished result.
Hey mark, i want to ask, if i install a dsp upstream of the amp, if everything is set perfectly on the dsp, what should i do on the amp
Thanks
When setting the gain in the amplifier, does the bass knob of my amp and also of my epicenter have to have be at max or all the way down when tuning? Please reply
Hey Mark, I have a LC1.800. I'm looking for info on how to set the accubass and can't find any help. Do you have a video available on how to set these up?
My amp has a line level input up to 4V and high level. / speaker input up to 10 volts. My head unit has 5v pre amp output..also my speakers are 100 W but amp only 75 Watts will I have some issues because they don’t match? Or can I just connect to high level and turn the gain up just below clipping?
Much appreciated, love the video very descriptive on making the knowledge easy to understand.
The only thing I would comment on that would make it better is your transition timing from one sentence to another specially when you go from an edited video speak about one thing and transfer to the edited part that follows. You talk a little fast so for some it may be hard to follow on a listening paste. Little longer pauses between sentences. Liked and subscribed. Thanks again much appreciated
I have a kenwood excelon dmx 706s with 4 infinity kappa 62IX power by Kenwood XR401-4 channel amp and doesn’t sound as clear i was expected like too much bass over clarity. How should i tune up my amp? Should I use the x’over before tuning the amp or after? I’m all confused 🫤
If anyone will anser my complicated question, I just want to say thank you!
What did you have the Distortion detector hooked to when you tested the head unit for distortion? At 6:14.
Thank you for the time and effort. I've watched a handful of your vids, mostly revolving around the Audio Control amps. I'm very, very interested in them. That said, in other vidz, you've shown the feature LED that AC uses to help set the gain. I'd love to see an addition to this vid, or perhaps a separate one, where you use the Scope or DDM to test out how accurate their LED is. :) Once again, thank you.
Can i tune the gain properly using the distortion detector on 2000w amplifier and 1000w subwoofer?
i understand bud but why do thay not bring the price dond on the smd
down that was
I have a JL audio hd 750/1 amp. I have 2 skar ddx 1000w 2 0hm 10 Inc subs what should the voltage be?
This may be a dumb question and forgive me if so, but my understanding is that setting the gain with pretty much everything flat puts your amp right below clipping or distortion? So you're really not supposed to use "bass boost" nor tune the bass frequencies up when you go to equalize, or turn your subwoofer level on the HU up any afterwards? What you set your gain to is effectively as high as you can go with output? Not sure if I understand
Trying this with my subwoofer amp, but I need help. My subs produce 2400 watts but the rms is around 1200 watts. And the way they are wired gives it 1 ohm. So if I do that equation I get around 35 volts that I need to be getting for my calculation. Is this correct? Also does the tone need to be playing at full volume while setting the gain? Thank you
How Would You Adjust The Amount Of Power The Amp Is Drawing From Battery, & Alternator and Powering Sub/System? Can You reduce the amp Load?
So are you setting all the crossover points on the amplifier instead of the headunit?
sonic electronix did a video showing how to match high wattage amp to low wattage sub by setting the gain to a position to achieve the desired wattage but in this video you say that its still using 100% of the amplifier power so that means changing the gain won't increase or decrease power? im confused. please somebody anybody reply. i need to know if i can safely use my 2.5K amp on a 1200 watt sub.