For the price a Liumy is a must have for any diy'er. Pair it with REW (room eq works) and a Dayton Audio usb rta mic, you have full set of tuning tools for less than $200.
I picked up a small handheld oscilloscope with a quality test lead for $28. A calibrated minidsp USB mic for $100. I have a really nice quality tektronics multimeter that I've had for decades and wasn't cheap, but you can get one of those free cheapies at harbor freight. If you don't buy a calibrated mic, you could have all those tools for about $100 or less to get you started.
I have been using a usb oscilloscope with my laptop for years, it's the best way to set the gains for max output without distorting the signal , and nowadays usb scopes dont cost much at all , especially since you dont need a super high mhz scope to set gains.
I didn't think Id need this channel for a while, but a deer totaled my truck, so I'm back learning again for the next install. The best guys to learn from!!
WOW! I was just about to ask for this specific video lol. I recently purchased the liumy and have long used a mulitimeter to set amp gains. I have wanted to learn more about using my new liumy. Thanks guys!
That's a great explaination of the process. What I do is use the math to set my initial paramater, then use the scope to maximize. I then split the difference between the two readings and set the gain there. In the example you used for this video, I would have set the gain at 16.1v and left it there. It's not 100% at the maximum possible, but it also won't clip at high volumes either.
I love you guys videos very informative and easy to understand. Alot of car audio channels get real technical and make it seem very complicated. That being said would you please do a video on setting gains with oscope but with an audiocontrol dm-608 I can't find anything on it and I have been messing around with it after work for a week and wasting a whole bunch of time and still not getting good results
I tested a dd1 against a few audiocontrol clip lights from different audiocontrol products and the dd1 clips 1st. They were always really close but I always used the dd1s light because it was lower. Great video again. Thanks.
Wait, why didn't the distortion light come on with the AMM-1? Is the distortion detector in the audiocontrol more sensitive and detect distortion lower than 1%thd like the AMM-1 is supposed to detect?
Would love to see some more on the Audio Control MILC and Maximized leds compared to professional SMD equipment. If you could use those to fully tune your amp/head unit. I have an LC6-1200 and have used these lights, but not sure how accurate they are, also if I should tune for the maximized leds to always be off no matter what or if it is ok fir them to come on slightly .. thanks for the vid!!
Hi guys. Thanks for the content. Always informative and educational. I have a 2011 BMW 3 series with Audison APBMW front components and Audison APBMW underseat woofers. I have an Alpine Type R 12" in the boot/trunk. The headunit is the Pioneer 80prs and the amplifier is the Pioneer GM-D9705 five channel. Channel A is driving the front components, channel B is driving the underseats and the sub channel is driving the Type R. I have the Lumy oscope and the DD1. I know that it is convenient and easier to set the mids/high channel using the DD1 and the 1000hz test tone as well as the sub channel using the 40hz test tone. However, the underseat woofers will be bandpassed between 80-200hz, wouldn't that mean that I can't use the DD1 to set the gain on those channels as I'll be limited to 40hz or 1000hz and it'll be more prudent to use say 150hz tone and the oscope for those channels? Or can I get away with using the DD1 on those channels and the 1000 test tone? Thanks.
This video is great, i just aquired that same LUMY, it will be most helpful installing my own systems, its affordable and the math is free. But as an indivdual, i cant justify $450 for the SMD AMM-1 amp dyno, more beneficial to car audio install shops that can make their money back on such devices within a week or two.
Hey man love your videos! Just got one of these as it was going to cost the same to have a fella tune for me ! Wow is the result . used a dmm before and the difference seeing the wave got me 3.5 volts more before any clipping , thanks 😊 can you do a video on setting bass boost safely please , every vid online says not to use it but i see in all your videos you crank it up a bit , i turned mine up a bit befor i set the gain so i assume all will be gd ? Thanks again 👍
used my o scope to check out the tune the shop up the road did to my car says i ca ngo to 37 out of 38 before cliping that thing was clipping on the scope at 16 lol. so i re tuned it quick b4 work so i can have some tunes then when i get home gonna re tune it again and make sure it all checks out great. used a 0 db for bass and a -5 for vocals so gonna have to re do it lol
Great video will help me tons! Also question?? Is there a significant power difference when using low level inputs aka rca or high level inputs from the head unit? Im debating on whether to replace my head unit cause it only has sub out only channel but unsure atm if it would effect the sound or not using the high input instead.
Hi i have a powered underseat sub that has gain, sub sonic , frequency and bass eq adjustment ! Now as this doesn't have a speaker out as its a powered inbuilt sub how would you set the gain on this as you cant use the meters to read output voltage etc ? It does have a clipping warning light ,would you up the gain until this comes on loke the distortion light in your video then back it off a bit ?
QUESTION: What does it mean when on my Liumy oscilloscope at the top of every wave my Taramps Bass 8K amp shows a thick crinkly snow-like cap as if a mountain top covered in snow?? I'm setting my gains before clipping and it constantly shows these snow-top mountain like waves. If I were to guess, it would equate to a dirty power but before I jump to conclusions I thought I should ask a pro. I have screenshots of it I could email you if helpful. THANK YOU.
Are there other things to consider when you’re over the amps rated numbers? Like thermal etc? Or do you typically hit distortion before that is a real problem. Asking because I’m running a 600@4 on 2 ohm till I get my new setup in. I should get an o scope it looks like.. so I set it at 35v vs 49v
hey dean and fernanado. i made something that get close to maximum clean signal output. i found the video from youtuber called barevids. its a distortion sniffer. i tried it out and it works pretty well. i also used a SMD DD1 to compare and the gain is lower on the sniffer than the DD1 with a 1khz tone. its a 3.3uf 400v non-polar cap in line with small 2in speaker in a cheap plastic tube. check out the video from barevids and give us your opinion on it please.
how would a 5db work for tunning because i listern to alot of different music from bass bosted and none bass bosted i just wanna be able to play all kinds of music and hit really good
When you turn the volts up from 14 to 18 and got more power out of it with very little clipping is that normal? You can go up a few more volts without an issue.
In this example should the amp be set at 14.14V out knowing you have the extra headroom on tap? Or should it be set at 18V (point of clipping) assuming the radio is at max volume?
It is great ! but what about a speaker to be connected with less power RMS to handle, like a tweeter ? no output optimization ? It could be an example of 6 channel amplifier tuned for the three ways speakers activelly filtered according to speaker capability , gains i mean ?
Exactly, most people forget about that, if you maximize a 200 watt rms amplifier but connect a 30 watt rms speaker to it that speaker will bottom out or probably melt the coil at half the headunit's volume, Un advice from a 30 year car audio enthusiast...USE YOUR YEARS.
Weird question, i’m a newbie to tuning amps. How is it that you got 76 watts from a 50 Watt x 4 ch. amp? Does adding slightly more voltage really make it go from 43 watts to 76 watts per channel? That couldn’t potentially damage the amp or speakers that can’t handle more than 50 watts?
I have a Lanzar VCT-2210 2 channel amp I am confused about if it's a 2ohm or 4ohm amp. 1,000 watts x2 output @2ohms. Dose that mean it is 2ohm per channel???
How’s it going brother! Been learning so much from you and your vids, thank you for your time and effort! Got a request: I’m someone who has a factory head unit, an Audiocontrol Lc2i, an Audiocontrol bass restorer, and an aftermarket amplifier. I’m sure I’m not the only one with the extra bells and whistles :) Can you please teach us where to start checking for clipping, and where to go after each step until we’re done tuning for clipping? Thanks again brother!!
How do you see where the head unit clips? Would you just set the amp gain to a setting you know doesn’t clip and turn the head unit up until you see a clipped waveform?
Thanks for the response, I listen to a lot of old school music and I find that I need more gain overlap than usual, what is a good overlap for older music? Also would the procedure be similar to what is shown in the video when looking for the max undistorted volume?
Pedro Salazar current is equal to power divided by voltage. For ease of use, use the least voltage measurement (12.8V would be car off) to get maximum current necessary...but remember, music is dynamic, you’d only use that current while playing a sine wave at full volume.
Hi. Could really use your help here in the UK. I have purchased a Mustool mt8206 graphical multimeter. Its identical to the Luimy your using in this vid. I have tried to use it to find out if I have clean signal on my Kenwood DPX- 7100DAD headunit. Trouble is its not detecting hardly anything graphically. I can see the voltage it set to .000. When I've seen other vids the voltage has been set to 0.00 so you see 3.00volts for example. Since mine is Auto and it has set itself to .000 is that why I don't see anything. Tried hitting sele to zoom in but nothing. If I can't figure it out I will have to go back to setting things by ear 😧
@@SleepyBoiii I actually figured mine out. Rather than Sele I hit the button on the left of it (REL) and it made the wave visible. For small voltage I only saw a small wave but I also used it for my amp and managed to set that to 39 volts. At 39.4 volts it clips. It does work I just need to know how to use it. Also its a little slow to respond so have make a small adjustment and then wait a second or two. But rather than spend £200-300 on pro devices it does the job.
@@SleepyBoiii the head unit it was small but on the amp its fine to me. I saw the clip. It was on the head unit that it was low due to low voltage. But luckily my pre outs are clean all the way up. When setting the amps I got 19 volts set on the mid/high and 39 on the low without problem once I knew what I was doing. Maybe that's why they say use 1000hz coz anything higher really won't be any good visually for these type if units?
Jason Piegaro I used the method shown here with the liumy to set my active tweeters with a few different test tones between 8k-12k hz. Worked great haven’t blown any tweeters since. I used the tones in Spotify and from somicelectronix RU-vid test tone playlist.
Daylin Supple you’ll just set the crossover points wherever the mfgr recommends using 24 dB Linkwitz-Riley slopes. Having an in-line capacitor is nice insurance just in case. Look for the recent Car Audio Fab video on them.
Daylin Supple I’m not sure what you mean by running multiple tweeters in series, so I don’t know how to answer your question. When you run active you’re going to set crossover points and slopes for each individual speaker. You’d set them for left tweeter and right tweeter separately. Re. Setting gains, I use my mid-bass as the starting point. I maximize what they’re able to do, then adjust the sub and tweeter accordingly. The gain setting for my tweeters is almost 0 on my Zapco Z-150.6. I also make my adjustments using an RTA. If you don’t have a way to use an RTA, adjust your mid-bass, then set the tweeter volume by ear. I’d recommend going to the “Test Gear” page on the Audiofrog site and downloading Andy’s tuning guide.
I'm going to run 8 tweeters active. Series/parallel is how they are wired. Disregard that part I was adding more info than needed. BUT if I run 4 tweeters per channel the company says 40 watts rms a tweeter. So 40x4 is 160 watts rms. My amp puts out 200 watts rms per channel. So would that be too much power or should I dial it back a bit. Crossover points will be easy I have a DSP so it's all computer controlled. I'm just worried Gain wise. I domt want to blow 8 tweeters.
I’m very curious as to how you got such a close up on the wave form with the liumy. Mine is very much “zoomed out” so I can’t very accurately see when it starts to clip. Also, does it have a built in feature that causes it to beep when the wave form clips? Mine started beeping when I turned the input sensitivity on my amp past a certain point.
No, leave BB off, it's too easy to induce distortion and clipping by boosting and it's centered around a particular frequency, often 40-50Hz. That means if you use the boost at Max and then set the gain, sure, you may well be good with a clean ouptut, but everything produced further from the bass boost frequency will be attenuated dramatically in comparison leaving you with a lifeless sound.
So if I used an oscilloscope to try and find the clipping point of my factory head unit, would I just play a 1000hz sine wave at -5 db and connect the oscilloscope to any one of the 4 channels and turn up until the signal clips and then just back off a bit,, then just remember the volume level ?
No. Playing only 1000hz is wrong. You should try 100hz and 200 hz as well so all frequencies that are played over your high pass filter. If you set it on 1000 it will clip at 100-500hz (try and you will see better performance)
Depends on the model. Some pioneer HUs can play at full tilt while remaining clean on the preamp outputs, some can't. Same goes for Kenwood, though I feel their QC is a bit lower and their units don't tend to last as long, but...