[bmw325i]

Originally Posted by psmitty95

Ehh the earthquakes are what a ton of people use here so I did my homework and expected them to sound good. So far only thing i've lost money on is the MB quarts. If I switch to Jehnerts i'll sell these and I bought them off a member on here so i'll be able to get most if not all of the money back from buying these.

A ton of people also use the ms8 around here. I think I saw a set of jehnerts for sale not long ago.

Originally Posted by jeffb335

buy cheap, buy twice.....or in this case, buy cheap, buy three times....

OP is learning an expensive lesson....do your homework folks, its all been done before....learn from those that went before and save yourself a chunk of $$$.

+1 I saved my pennies until I could get a set of jehnerts and morels from musicarnw. It seemed like alot of money to spend on speakers but it was well worth it.

[psmitty95]

Had to wait on adaptors for the Morels to come in so tomorrow i'm installing everything. Borrowing a friends SMD-dd1 to set the gains but what I can't seem to understand is does that device take into account the speakers or is it just going to give me the max gain I can run from the amp before it's distorted? If it's the latter why would I ever want to do that as oppose to using the multimeter to set the correct voltage for the 2 ohm underseats and 4 ohm morels? Have any of you used this device? @bmw325i Wongway csu87 Any help would be appreciated. Would really like everything dialed in perfectly tomorrow which is why i'm borrowing the SMD

Edit: Sorry if it's potentially a dumb question but i've been watching a ton of vids on using it and whatnot and it still doesn't make total sense to me

[csu87]

It gives you max gain i believe. I've never used it, but it is very popular in the spl world and seems everyone uses it that way

[david in germany]

Originally Posted by psmitty95

Had to wait on adaptors for the Morels to come in so tomorrow i'm installing everything. Borrowing a friends SMD-dd1 to set the gains but what I can't seem to understand is does that device take into account the speakers or is it just going to give me the max gain I can run from the amp before it's distorted? If it's the latter why would I ever want to do that as oppose to using the multimeter to set the correct voltage for the 2 ohm underseats and 4 ohm morels? Have any of you used this device? @bmw325i Wongway csu87 Any help would be appreciated. Would really like everything dialed in perfectly tomorrow which is why i'm borrowing the SMD

Edit: Sorry if it's potentially a dumb question but i've been watching a ton of vids on using it and whatnot and it still doesn't make total sense to me

The DD-1 is an amplifier/deck/processor distortion detector and is really accurate. It does not tell you when a speaker may be over powered. If you use a multi meter you can still exceed the maximum distorted output and possibly damage the speakers. Don't focus on the voltage, stay un distorted and you should be fine.

[psmitty95]

Originally Posted by david in germany

The DD-1 is an amplifier/deck/processor distortion detector and is really accurate. It does not tell you when a speaker may be over powered. If you use a multi meter you can still exceed the maximum distorted output and possibly damage the speakers. Don't focus on the voltage, stay un distorted and you should be fine.

So if I use the DD-1 to set all the morel and sub gains it won't be overpowering them? I thought a multimeter would tell you when you are overpowering them since you know what voltage should be safely passing through the speakers? This is the method I was going to use previously

http://knowledge.sonicelectronix.com...l-multi-meter/

Basically what i'm wondering is what if the DD-1 tells me to set the gain to x because at x level the output is still undistorted from the amp, but on my 2 ohm earthquakes which according to that link should be receiving 14.1 V from my jl xd600/6 are now receiving over 14.1 wouldn't that be overpowering them and cause them to blow?

I'm a noob to this but the dd-1 isn't making a whole lot of sense lol

[bmw325i]

Originally Posted by psmitty95

So if I use the DD-1 to set all the morel and sub gains it won't be overpowering them? I thought a multimeter would tell you when you are overpowering them since you know what voltage should be safely passing through the speakers? This is the method I was going to use previously

http://knowledge.sonicelectronix.com...l-multi-meter/

Basically what i'm wondering is what if the DD-1 tells me to set the gain to x because at x level the output is still undistorted from the amp, but on my 2 ohm earthquakes which according to that link should be receiving 14.1 V from my jl xd600/6 are now receiving over 14.1 wouldn't that be overpowering them and cause them to blow?

I'm a noob to this but the dd-1 isn't making a whole lot of sense lol

The numbers you are getting out of the xd600/6 manual are supposed to be the max power the amp can put out without distortion(as long as the headunit isn't distorting).

I don't think the xd600/6 puts out enough power to blow the morels or earthquakes as long as there is no distortion. I had my xd600/6 bridged for my morels and sound quality was much better because I had more amplifier headroom. With the amp bridged the amp could have put out up to 150watts at 4 ohms which is enough to blow the speakers. Of course I never turned it up enough to do that because my ears would be bleeding.

You are going to turn the volume up to a certain point regardless of what you have your gain at that is why I start out by setting the door speakers by ear at a certain volume on the headunit. I don't set subwoofers or the underseats by ear because I would most likely just want more bass and turn it up too much so I set the headunit at the same volume I set the door speakers and use a multimeter.

The dd1 should be more accurate than a multimeter and you can test it with the speakers connected but I would recommend you get some earplugs.

[jeffb335]

This is getting overly complicated for a straightforward install like this....yes setting with a meter etc... is technically correct but with the equipment the OP is using and the level of system this is its pretty unnecessary....

Turn the gain down on the amp.

Turn the head unit up to about 80%

Play your regular listening tunes and turn the amp gain that is on the front speakers up to as loud as you will ever really listen to it, if you hit distortion back it off a bit.

Turn up the gain channels for the rears and underseats until they are balanced with the rest of the system.

Done.


If you crossovers are set correctly and you dont distort the hell out of the speakers you wont cook anything.

[psmitty95]

Originally Posted by bmw325i

The numbers you are getting out of the xd600/6 manual are supposed to be the max power the amp can put out without distortion(as long as the headunit isn't distorting).

I don't think the xd600/6 puts out enough power to blow the morels or earthquakes as long as there is no distortion. I had my xd600/6 bridged for my morels and sound quality was much better because I had more amplifier headroom. With the amp bridged the amp could have put out up to 150watts at 4 ohms which is enough to blow the speakers. Of course I never turned it up enough to do that because my ears would be bleeding.

You are going to turn the volume up to a certain point regardless of what you have your gain at that is why I start out by setting the door speakers by ear at a certain volume on the headunit. I don't set subwoofers or the underseats by ear because I would most likely just want more bass and turn it up too much so I set the headunit at the same volume I set the door speakers and use a multimeter.

The dd1 should be more accurate than a multimeter and you can test it with the speakers connected but I would recommend you get some earplugs.

Ahh didn't know that the xd600/6 wouldn't put out enough to blow them. I'll use the dd1 in that case and post up my results in here along with what the multimeter reads then if it's too aggressive I can back it down a bit. I was assuming the xd600/6 was more than capable enough of overpowering the morel and earthquakes and even if it wasn't distorting on the dd-1 it might still be overpowering them. Thanks for the help

[psmitty95]

Originally Posted by jeffb335

This is getting overly complicated for a straightforward install like this....yes setting with a meter etc... is technically correct but with the equipment the OP is using and the level of system this is its pretty unnecessary....

Turn the gain down on the amp.

Turn the head unit up to about 80%

Play your regular listening tunes and turn the amp gain that is on the front speakers up to as loud as you will ever really listen to it, if you hit distortion back it off a bit.

Turn up the gain channels for the rears and underseats until they are balanced with the rest of the system.

Done.

Yea but the reason i'm taking it much more carefully this time around and trying to do it the proper way is because I did it by ear the first time and it resulted in a blown underseat and my mb quarts sounding like shit with buzzing tweeters during certain notes in a few songs after having them for a few weeks

[jeffb335]

Yeah, I followed your other thread,

curious, are you turning it up REALLY loud? Ive been in car audio for more than 20 years and ive never seen speakers blow at regular listening levels.....now the sub I kind of understand as they are only 8" and can be pushed too hard and too low..... and distortion on a sub can be harder to hear, but smoking a decent tweeter would take some serious ear bleeding volume (assuming its crossed over correctly) and would sound fairly distorted if overdriven.


Keep in mind that even if you set each gain setting by the meter you will still need to go back and adjust so that the individual sets of speakers are balanced with each other...setting the gain is only step one, gets you in the ballpark, setting the gain only matches the amps input to the output of the head unit, it doesnt really have much to do with powering the speakers (beyond ensuring you are not sending them a mega-distorted DC signal). I suppose since your amp is probably not powerful enough to kill your speakers keeping them out of the distortion zone should keep you from damaging anything but honestly by the time it distorts enough to kill a speaker it would have to sound absolutely horrific....

[psmitty95]

Originally Posted by jeffb335

curious, are you turning it up REALLY loud? Ive been in car audio for more than 20 years and ive never seen speakers blow at regular "loud" listening levels.

Well when I did the original tuning I had it up around 3/4 where i'd listen most of the time in the garage. I'm pretty sure they blew when I was driving on the highway with both front windows down (naturally you would play it louder than normal to achieve the same usual volume with windows down). I'm not 100% sure if that's when they blew but i'm pretty sure that's when. The tweeter buzzing just happened randomly a few weeks into having the MB quarts and didn't turn it up crazy at any point before that

[bmw325i]

Originally Posted by jeffb335

Yeah, I followed your other thread,

curious, are you turning it up REALLY loud? Ive been in car audio for more than 20 years and ive never seen speakers blow at regular listening levels.....now the sub I kind of understand as they are only 8" and can be pushed too hard and too low..... and distortion on a sub can be harder to hear, but smoking a decent tweeter would take some serious ear bleeding volume (assuming its crossed over correctly) and would sound fairly distorted if overdriven.


Keep in mind that even if you set each gain setting by the meter you will still need to go back and adjust so that the individual sets of speakers are balanced with each other...setting the gain is only step one, gets you in the ballpark, setting the gain only matches the amps input to the output of the head unit, it doesnt really have much to do with powering the speakers (beyond ensuring you are not sending them a mega-distorted DC signal). I suppose since your amp is probably not powerful enough to kill your speakers keeping them out of the distortion zone should keep you from damaging anything but honestly by the time it distorts enough to kill a speaker it would have to sound absolutely horrific....

+1 even my stock logic 7 speakers could get as loud as I can tolerate without blowing after replacing the amp. The stock underseats could even take as much power as the xd600/6 could put out as well.

Imo you can't possibly have too much output from the underseats or subs that is why I set the door speakers to normal listening volume(by this I mean as loud as I can tolerate) before adjusting the gain on the midbass and subwoofer channels to the rms rating of the amp.

[Wongway]

Personally, I think you're overthinking the whole gain setup.

[jeffb335]

indeed....but he explained why.....and if he managed to kill one set of speakers I suppose he better learn to do it "the right way" first.

But yeah, as I alluded to earlier....this thread seems to be getting pretty far into the weeds....

[psmitty95]

Alright well just finished everything up. Using yhe dd-1 the multimeter reads 18.9 ish for both with barely any gain. Everything sounds good except for the shitty earthquakes. I put my one good mb quart in the passenger side and it blows the earthquake out of the water. Think i might finally be making the jump to the jehnerts or at least getting the blown mb quart replaced. The morels sound amazing though. I have the underseats set at LP ~120 and the morels HP ~135

[Wongway]

If/when you get Jehnerts for the underseats, you can bring up the low pass to about 200hz (might be a bit high, but that's the next notch I see on that) and then bring the Morels up to high pass at the same point.

Do the Morels work off a passive crossover for the tweeters? Any idea what the passive crossovers are set at?

[psmitty95]

Originally Posted by Wongway

If/when you get Jehnerts for the underseats, you can bring up the low pass to about 200hz (might be a bit high, but that's the next notch I see on that) and then bring the Morels up to high pass at the same point.

Do the Morels work off a passive crossover for the tweeters? Any idea what the passive crossovers are set at?

Lol the noob part of me is coming back by passive you mean it has an adjustment for the tweeters? If so yea it goes -2db, 0, and 2db and I have it set at the default which is 0. The ones on the Virtus 402 are MXR200.3 crossovers and according to their website crossover point is 220hz/ 12db

[psmitty95]

I know everyone's seen this before but I had to take pics for 50% off the speaker adaptors so figured i'd post them up here anyways. Here's my install of the virtus 402's

Got the speaker adaptors from http://www.car-speaker-adapters.com and he was a pleasure to work with. Made me a custom set with the proper size cutout for the Virtus 402's

[Wongway]

Yeah, basically, by passive what I mean is this:
If your amp/dsp were directly sending the signals and highpass to your tweeters, then it's considered "active"

If your amp/dsp were directly sending the signals to the box (crossovers) that you have in the scalloped foam area in your door before being redirected out to the tweeters, then your tweeters are "passive".

Basically that box there is splitting the proper frequencies up to the tweeters and the rest to the mids.


Edit:
And incidentally, your pics told me the whole story, thanks!

[psmitty95]

Originally Posted by Wongway

Yeah, basically, by passive what I mean is this:
If your amp/dsp were directly sending the signals and highpass to your tweeters, then it's considered "active"

If your amp/dsp were directly sending the signals to the box (crossovers) that you have in the scalloped foam area in your door before being redirected out to the tweeters, then your tweeters are "passive".

Basically that box there is splitting the proper frequencies up to the tweeters and the rest to the mids.


Edit:
And incidentally, your pics told me the whole story, thanks!

Ahh gotcha. Lol slowly but surely learning

[psmitty95]

Originally Posted by Wongway

Yeah, basically, by passive what I mean is this:
If your amp/dsp were directly sending the signals and highpass to your tweeters, then it's considered "active"

If your amp/dsp were directly sending the signals to the box (crossovers) that you have in the scalloped foam area in your door before being redirected out to the tweeters, then your tweeters are "passive".

Basically that box there is splitting the proper frequencies up to the tweeters and the rest to the mids.


Edit:
And incidentally, your pics told me the whole story, thanks!

I think I might but the driverside OEM back in and leave the MB quart in passenger until it sells (if someone ever buys my mb quart kit). Could I raise the freq with the OEM and earthquake or should I just leave them where it is if I do put the OEM in?

[Wongway]

It's been reiterated a ton of times on your threads.

Earthquakes sound horrible above 100hz

So, you never never never never want the Earthquakes playing up high. They are SUBWOOFERS. You'd never ask your subwoofers to play that high.

It's akin to you asking why you shouldn't be driving your modded car to go offroading.