Beandip

^ so If I use this device on a sundown 1500d and then throw on a 500 watt sub @1 ohm it won't blow? Unlikely a person would run that combo but people do. Not saying there is anything wrong with doing that. Just need to be careful. Also M5 makes a good point, with different recording levels it's pointless.

Actually I am being quite serious. I may not hit 1847495 dee beez like a lot of people here but I have been into audio for awhile, well 6 years lol. But im very observant. I had a lot of hours with free crappy equipment back when first started so I know very well what happens or how the sub acts when stressed. I blew my fair share of old trashed subs for the purpose of learning and building an ear for it. But really. I set the gain by ear and with common sense. Now I do have a sealed box so really I just go off excursion and listen to the woofer for stress. If I reach peak excursion I back the gain down a tad then run a full sweep of frequencies to see if I am pushing the sub too hard. Now the gain would be set, but of course once you pop in a cd that is recorded at a different level those settings and adjustments are off. I kinda keep an analog volt meter hooked up to see how the sub is doing voltage wise. I know at a certain voltage the sub starts to sound like it's being pushed too hard so with that volt meter I can keep a tab on the sub no matter what frequency or source is hooked up. Sorry if this doesn't make sense but either way setting the gain by ear is the way to go. As stated a little clipping never hurts anything. It's when it becomes audible it does damage. But I'm sure a lot of other factors like box and the wattage of the sub/amp come into play. If anything I want an oscope Because of curiosity and for Troubleshooting. Apparently I have been doing it right since my last sub lasted 3 years until I blew it out of stupidity of having a 1000 watt amp on a mtx 300 watt sub. I was doing a "demo" and pushed too hard. But even then the Q I have now is still going strong. All the other systems I tuned or built for friends are still going with my gain settings to this day I hope that was a joke. As you can't hear the beginning of a square wave on a subwoofer. My headunit clips at 31, out of 35. And I could never hear it start at 31. It clipped at 35 regardless of what I had the sub output control on. -/+15. So on negative 15 on volume 35, it is a clipped signal, even though it doesn't put out hardly any voltage.( I can't remember the exact number.) Just a example that I've came across. I have a Kenwood X789 if anybody is wondering.

I'm sure that steve's clipping tool works, but still won't help people from blowing up their equipment. Like if I use that tool to set the gain on a sundown 1500d with a 300 watt sub. The sub will blow long before the amp starts to clip. Unless I'm misunderstanding something Also the scope nick posted looks pretty good, and for $100 and the fact it's open source makes it even better. I'd still rather trust my ears.

A heat test of the actual jacket would be cool. I know when I solder 1/0 terminals it tends to melt the jacket from the soldering process, though never had a problem with melting welding cable. I'd focus on voltage drop as a main test though.

Probably a stupid suggestion but never hurts. Anyways I wonder if you play a 60 hz test tone on a low low volume, just enough to get the come to move some then get some 400 grit sandpaper and let the sub "do the work". Never had any experience with expanding foam but I'd rather have a scuff mark on my sub than foam that kinda sticks out.

^mind if you share a link? Really interested in getting more in depth about the subject. (I suppose I could google but not sure what's a "good" site) Besides that point you made M5, one reason I see this not working "as advertised" is let's say for example I use this to set my gains on a sundown 1500 with a Fi Q. Sure the signal will be clean but who says the Q could handle that power? Or am I wrong?

Yeah if its priced too high I feel it would be a waste. At least with a oscilloscope you can do much much more.

Wow guys. Though there might have been some arguing but I did learn a few things. I love threads like these because it changes the way I look at car audio every time. But I agree, from a scientific standpoint a tiny change could cause a different outcome, but at the same time that change can mean nothing depending on which way you are looking at it(spl/daily senario). On the testing I can see how it doesn't mean anything, but at the same time I would be open minded to believe it...well actually at least take it into consideration with doubts. For sure though i won't accept such claims until I proved it myself....if i had the proper testing equipment lol.

I have some 1/0 gauge from a local welding supply, Radnor is the brand. Could snip off a piece for you but doubt it will be any different than the cable from welding supply.

lol i just about died laughing glad to see you guys have a great sense of humor. +1 on putting that on the FAQ section. guess the video title puts everything in all caps because you/it typed FI :edit: just noticed you have other videos.

Honestly I don't see why people are looking for wire cheap when welding cable is super cheap and a lot better. Stuff is $2.30 a ft at my local welding supply for 1/0 gauge. When it comes down to copper you really can't get any cheaper than what it already is, unless the wire isn't ofc.

Wow i have been saying it wrong the whole time.... would make a great t-shirt though lol. doesnt sound right to me now... "oh what sub do you have in your truck?" "nothing much, just a 15" Figh Q" guess its sorta like Focal, where its pronounced Foe-kal.

Yeah a bit of a old thread bump but whatever. so far i still love this sundown amp, always runs COLD, not cool lol. i have a hard time bringing the amp up to room temp. since then i rewired my stereo with 1/0 welding cable just because, not like i noticed a difference but good to know this amp is getting all the voltage/current i have. I kinda wish i had the dual 2 ohm so i could take advantage of this amp, but not like the stock Q could handle this amps full potential anyways.

Hey guys i have a question. i searched around (and having fun learning) in the amp section and only found one person having the same issue as me but the problem was not resolved. so i will try to give as much info as i can so there will be no confusion. First off, i am very mechanically/electrically inclined but for some reason this problem has me stumped which usually calls for faulty equipment. second, this thread here is the problem i am having. it is on another forum but it is exactly what mine is doing. http://www.*****.com/board/topic/61561-amp-problem/page__hl__m1000%20hot so first off, my electrical. Big 3 soldered with 4 gauge Deka intimidator battery 9A78DT under the hood. 4 gauge all the way back to the amp stock 105 amp alternator equipment. Deh-p5900ib HU Alpine MRP-M1000 amp Fi Q dual 1 ohm version wired in series to present a 2 ohm load(got it before all the fancy options)...also want to add the DMM reads 1.4 ohms when i connect it to the speaker leads...is this wrong? the RE: specs say .7 ohms per coil but i guess that is the DC resistance correct? if so is it simply getting hot because the amp is seeing 1.4 ohms instead of 2 ohms or what? I have heard the nominal impedance will be 1 ohm when a/c current is applied though the DC resistance shows .7 and that is normal...correct me if i am wrong please. Sub is in a 2.43^ft sealed box, 2.24 after sub displacement. Now what is happening. the voltage at full tilt drops down to 13.3 volts TO the amp. of course listening to a moderate level presents almost no voltage drop. also i tested the ground for resistance and that checked out good. so power and ground is good and my electrical is almost perfect except for the stock alt but since the voltage is not dropping excessively then i rate my electrical as decent but you guys tell me what you think. gains are set correctly though the problem is not gain related. reason i say that is because the amp will get hot at a moderate volume. on a scale of 1-10, 10 being max volume the amp will get hot running at about 3 and in about 30 minutes or so running at 4 or half power, the amp gets hot enough to limit itself. gets about 160ºF when this happens. most of the time it just runs around the 110-120 range. so my question to all you audio gurus is why is my amp getting hot? is it defective? I have read on here that if its not hot enough to cook an egg then its fine. also it has been this way ever since i unboxed it almost 2 years ago and i have no clue why....If the voltage is not dropping then what is causing the amp to get so hot? could it be the sub possibly? I do have a feeling it is the sub since it does show 1.4 ohms and the amp is having to work a little extra duty. also the bass boost is on zero on the amp. only the gain is turned up to .5 volts which is the RCA pre-out voltage. again it doesnt have to be full volume for the amp to get excessively hot which makes me think its more of an amp problem. If that is the case then i will probably get a sundown amp since i have heard nothing but good things from them...though they are a little pricy but their amps makes most of their power at 1 ohm...since i have a dual 1 ohm my options are limited since i have to get a sundown SAZ-2500D just to get 1000W @ 2 ohms. Also here is a pic of the setup. super old pic since i have long gotten rid of that crappy fold down console in favor of a full 5 speed s10 blazer console. i might want to add this is in my sonoma. Thanks for your time reading this and if you have any questions or want me to get DMM readings or whatever feel free to ask. -Jonathan

Man if anything they can just up the citation amount. Get caught playing too loud music in public 3x the fine.

Wow this is a great read! Its really nice to see these types of threads develop since you can learn so much. sticky worthy for sure

And stiffen up the baffle. Shame to spend that much on gear and not put them in right. Thanks for the suggestions! And yes I will be getting a hold of Don. It would be a shame if I left them installed this way but I wanted to learn the difference between sealed/non sealed doors. Also I had to do some research about deadening the doors in the meantime. Found out my answer was to go with SDS lol.

Well, might as well share my design. Your box will obviously be different, but you can build a false floor so you have a nice foundation to build everything on.

It would be a complete waste if I added a set in the rear. It's a ext. Cab truck which nobody can sit behind me because of the subwoofer box taking up all the room.

For me I just always read about the whole music coming from you from the front so that is what I did. But I needed some "rear fill" I'm talking about me personally and currently have it faded about 85% to the front. The rears I really can't tell are playing even if I put my head back to the ext. Cab part. The reason why I fade it this way is because I spent $600 on some components and I'll be damned if I want to hear those pos stock speakers lol. But I still need to amp and sound deaden/seal off the front doors. When I do that I may just fade all the way to the front since it would get loud enough. Having both front and rear balanced just wouldn't sound right to me, I guess it could, but for reasons I don't yet understand it just sounds better with The front being the main speakers. I guess it would be more of a "headphone" type of effect with the front and rear balanced. IMO just keep it to the front. If the rear speakers are Fallling apart then any $10 replacement would work, just for any company. Oh and just to add I just recently installed my new long overdue components 3 days ago so I'm just now starting to tweak and experiment but regardless what I have read it just sounded right to me to set it up this way. Guess you could say I was just used to the stock system for too long.

For me I fade the rear stock speakers in my truck to where I can barely hear them, then fade a few clicks to the front. If you would sit in my truck you can't tell they are on, yet if you turn off the rear speakers you would tell that something was missing if you heard it moments before. Then again I'm not in any hardcore sq comps or anything and if your not either I can't say it would hurt too much to have some rear fill for any passengers if they need it. Or just fade some to the rear when having company. I used to have my stage coming from the rear, the factory set it up that way ( well the fronts were overpowered by the rear) so for 6 years I was used to hearing music coming from behind me (ext cab s10). But the more I tweak with my system the more I'm slowly fading more and more to the front. Guess since you are so used to it.

Who says there is no corrosion ? If I check a ground without a DMM I remove the ground and inspect the metal to see if it's clean or not. Can't tell you how many times I hear people say "i checked the grounds and they were good" but yet that ended up being the problem.

Finally got some components to replace my worn out stock speakers. i have been putting this off for soooooooo long. Went into my buddies stereo shop and he demo'd the Focals, fell in love. you dont know how crappy your stereo sounds until you hear something better, after i left the store i looked at my system with disgust lol. i never knew i was missing so much out of my front stage. to stock. They barely fit in the door too, had to space the window track out some. I swear it took forever to decide where to install the tweeter at. but i'm happy i found a good spot for them that sounds great. had to put the crossover in the door pocket, they dont rattle around and that is the only spot i could think where to put them for the time being... Soon to come is probably a sundown amp to power them and to seal off the doors. i should have done it while i installed but i want to see how they are over stock, then sound deaden the door and see the results, then amp them. i could do it all at once but you wont gain any experience from doing that still sounds amazing compared to the crap i was listening to. i had the sound stage coming from the back speakers for the longest time best part is i got them for $560 out the door, buddy gave me a employee discount

^ word If you don't have a DMM you can't say your ground wires are "good" besides visually checking them. You can get a DMM for cheap and once you do I would check out the voltage to that amp while playing and check for a significant voltage drop. I'd do it before you put a new battery in.

Check locally for a Welding supply company. I picked up 50 ft of 1/0 for $117 out the door.