ok went and played around with amp settings and finally decided to take the time to dmm the gains... i think i did everything right, but for some reason the dmm didnt wanna read up high, im wondering if maybe the decimal place was somehow messed up? like the decimal place was in the 10s spot instead of the hundreds if that makes sense... like this -> 1.000, instead of 10.00 so i needed to get 34.64 for my sub amp voltage, and 15.49 for my highs amp voltage... did the sq root of watts times resistance so unless my math is off this is what i should have gotten, the Elemental amp is 600w @ 2 ohms x 1 channel... the jbl amp is 60w @4 ohms x 4 channels, so i should take the sq root of 1200 and the sq root of 240 correct?

 

Your math looks right...Im assuming you dont have your DMM set on the 200V setting??? AC too, remember.

 

hmm...i know i had it on the AC setting for sure, but im not sure that my dmm has a 200v setting thats seperate from the standard AC setting... its my cheap one that i keep in my toolbox at my apt..my good one (a fluke) is down at my parents house in the shop, but thats an hour away. this is my first time to actually try the DMM method for tuning in an amp, i usually do it by ear but figured i would give it a try this time. I used a 50hz tone for my subs, and a 150hz tone for my highs...i used those tones based on a tutorial i got off of TERMLAB's forum. After reading a bit im wondering if maybe i should have used a higher frequency for my highs? some people have used 1khz...what do you think bart?

 

Sounds to me like it might just be on the wrong setting. If its auto-ranging that COULD be the problem, those are a bit of a bish at times, especially if they are cheaper ones. What kind of readings were you getting? How high did you have the volume on the HU?

As for the 150 hz tone for the front stage, it will work fine AS LONG as its well within the frequency range your speaker is playing ( I doubt you have them crossed over anywhere near that) and as long as you have everything set flat on your HU (EQ, TA, level, etc). Personally I use a 1kHz tone for my front stage.

 

it is an autoranging dmm...and i had a feeling that was going to be a problem. i never could get exactly the numbers i needed, but i just went ahead and watched for the four digit readouts i needed and ignored the fact that the decimal places were off by one. when i needed 34.64 for my subs, i went until i got about 3.464; and when i needed 15.49 for my highs i went until i got to 1.549 if that makes sense. i dont know if this will still work or not...i am definitely not thrilled with how its sounding right now but that due to me trying to set the crossover according to a test tone, i had it set lower but according to the tone i needed to bump the crossover up a bit and now my bass sounds muddy, like its crossed over too high, so im going to turn it back down like i had it earlier.

 

ok so i dropped my crossover point back down to around 80hz instead of the 120 or so that im pretty sure i had it according to the test tone i did ( it was an 80hz tone, but it seemed to play the loudest when i had the crossover **** closer to 120hz or so)...maybe the crossover **** isnt very accurate or something...but anyway i did that and played around with my sub volume on the headunit a bit and now im thinking that i dont have the gain set high enough....the output just isnt there and what is there still seems sloppy...i really think it sounded a lot better before i attempted to set gains and crossvoers by dmm...now im kicking myself b/c i cant seem to get it just right

 

When setting gain with DMM should it be set AC, DC and what number?

 

it needs to be set at 200v AC

 

hey South can we see some pics of your car with everything in it

 

yes, i will take some pics this afternoon and add them to my gallery...

 

ok new pics have been added to the gallery. they are in the second album. i just pulled the amps back out a few minutes ago after i took the pics b/c i am trying to get them mounted on a carpeted board and rewired a little neater. in the pics they were sortof thrown in there hastily and i hadnt had time to fix them like i should, but its my day off so im going to try and get the amps remounted properly with wires all loomed up and out of sight, i know you never even see the amps back there since i keep the plastic panel over them, but i like it to look neat and professional just the same. And ive definitely decided I am adding an Audiocontrol 3.1 to my dash so i can adjust levels and crossover points without having to pull that panel off and get in the backseat. My tacoma had the Audiocontrol 4.1 and Epic 160 mounted in the dash under my alpine and I loved having that control over all my levels. I keep swearing that I wasnt going to get that complicated with this truck but now I cant help it

 

Just curious, about how high are your gains after setting with the DMM (1/3, 1/2 way up, etc)???

If you set your gains by ear before, you will almost never be happy if you go and set them with a DMM, because chances are you had them quite a bit higher before.

As for the corssovers, I never set them with a volt meter...that just something you need to set by ear for the most part since there is no exact predetermined spot where they should be set...just gotta play with it till it sounds good.
If your trying to match crossovers on separate amps or maybe for the crossover point between the mids and highs in an active setup its nice as a reference, but I just dont do crossover settings with a volt meter.

 

ive almost got it straightened out now. I will be putting the oscillioscope on the amps this weekend to see how far off it is right now...ive played around with the levels and crossovers again, more so by ear this time (like i usually do) and ive got it sounding pretty good again

 

gains were like a third of the way up after DMM setting..maybe a little less

 

Good call on the oscope...pretty much the only real way to tell how far you can go and be safe without leaving anything on the table so to say