Matt Schademann

the amp arrived today, and I just fooled around with the buttons until I came up with something that sounded good. Between the Pioneer DEH-80etc. and this there's a lot more tweaking than in the old days! I have 4 sets of comps, one in each door so they're all identical. I also have a matching crossover box for each comp with sep. cables going to tweet & 6.5 mid. I do NOT want to bridge this. I want full control over all four comps to adjust for placement strength etc. But I will say this, after listening for an hour in my driveway the thing went into protection mode...already! At one point on the fader, fading to ALL front made the sound (except sub) vanish, and fading to rear made the sound stay the same! I understand the concept of high/low freqs going to tweets, or mids, or sub only. But when it comes to numbers and 'Passes' I don't have a clue what I'm doing except hunt and peck! I'm almost there, check the graphic and what would you suggest doing? Thanks! SOmetimes it sounds brilliant (symphony/brazilian jazz) sometimes it sounds so shrill my ears are bleeding like a Chekov (most top 40)

One ting that makes me curious is that Pioneer axed the 80-PRS?? The only higher model is $1300 while the next highest model is like $200-ish!? Wonder why they killed it *update* - disregard. Their website shows 4 featured products in CD single din, and you can't see any others until you click 'products'

I think it was because I was sitting in a closed car without circulation (fan control and dash portion are in the back seat haha), we'll see when/if spring ever comes

I know, X-overs to be bypassed now.

I was able to find the BLT balanced line module online for only $50. Only thing is I don't know how that would work with proposed setup because there's only 2 ports for this. Or can these ports and BLT parse the highs and mids? Or would I use 2 of these boxes. One for L&R highs, one for L&R lows? http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_38337_Precision-Power-PPI-BLT.html I'd still be running the amp on 4-ch correct?

Thx M5 & Fi. I can't say it sounds better 4-way because I've only run it that way lol. So it's going to involve mapping out my existing X-overs (4 Diamond boxes) so I can get the right wires to their ports on the harness (PPI quick release). I'm terribly dyslexic so keeping track of things and numbering the wires w/tape is doable. Just may have to dedicate a half day on only that. But yeah after reading this I'm going to give it a shot. I wonder how many other HU's out there can go bi-wiring, IOW sep. high & mid RCA pre-outs? Have they been doing this stuff for awhile?

And for the record, I am completely stunned at the quality vs. cost. How can they pull this off? Just more efficient manufacturing these days?

OK...ok! That's intrigued me enough to make me give it a shot. I can't really complete it until I get a nice mounting kit anyway so it'll be a few days. Also making me take a 2nd look at my sub & amp. Seems to be all or nothing, from one tune to the next. Again, maybe it's the wild variety of genres but it's just light on one song and just way too heavy on the next. Thanks a ton for the help again. Is it common out there for HU's to have the ability to bi-wire the mid from highs with a switchable set of RCA? And perhaps because just sitting there with no air flow in the cabin the amp couldn't take advantage of circulation?

HOLY CRAP! After a couple hours of playing tweak-monster I made a huge amount of headway. Seems as though the settings in the pic was just about right, a lot of it came down to the HU EQ's and filtration that way. Also saw a YT vid about the 4 mid outs and the 3-way thing and it just jumps the entire program a whole nother level. So seeing as I can't live without rears I just may get a 2nd amp and bridge them that way..HA. Honestly, I can tell already the 115w/4Ω x4 is seriously pushing the limit of good sound. I don't feel like I'm distorting anything. But man that thing gets hot enough to fry an egg on. And that was sitting in my car on this 50˚ night. What gonna happen when summer kicks in? The lights flicker a bit, wonder if it's worth looking at a better alternator for this '08 Liberty. But yeah, the highs are a tad bright coming from strings in symphony to other stuff, but so far NIN sounds decadent. The router in my attic was barely reaching my garage, so I had to kill the wifi and use Verizon LTE network. Spotify AND Plex streamed through at least 320 if not 1411 WAV! Without a hitch. Just have to watch my minutes each month now LOL Thanks for the feedback! PS - one thing I learned this time around (as my neighbor set the gains to full and adjusted the volume around it), is to adjust the gains based on how much Pre-out V'ge you have. So this is a mean 5v, maybe more since my HU reads 14.3 on avg. on the front! I had the gains about 60% and then while it got hot, it didn't go into protect like before I posted this. Looking forward to making this amp and setup even more musical! I see the amp has a special line-connection like a mini XLR, or more like an S-Video looking port. BUT the PPI site doesn't even have this product listed??

Hey all, 1st virgin cherry-popping post here. Some folks on the CarAudio Forum highly recommended SSA for the outstanding lineup of amps etc. and even better price tags. I'm under the impression that these names here are young, hungry and trying to make a name for themselves while offering great values. So, I've only had 2 amps, both Kickers. One was about 2001, Impulse 405 which sounded great to start but destroyed my Excelon comps. Didn't know what clipping from underpowering was! 2nd was some 180w behemoth and the Alpine 505 IVA DVD player. DEF not high quality sound emphasis. Imprint junk blah blah. But in my Jeep are 2 sets of Diamond Hex 600's about 4y/o. The amp is toast, I have a new Pioneer-DEH-80PRS that's supposed to be audiophile grade. So my question is this: These Diamond's are recommended for big power, assumedly to bring quality, imaging and sound stage. I like it loud, but I don't care as much about power as I do about making them sing. I see the Alpine PDX-F6 for just above $400, that's 150x4. The other specs that look good in SSA's lineup here are: Sundown: SAX 125.4 Incriminator Audio IA6.4 870W RMS 4 Channel Crescendo Audio C1100.4 SoundQubed Q4-120 4 Channel (why so cheap???) a couple others not sold here are: Soundstream REF4.760 760W RMS 4-Channel Ref. Series Kenwood Excelon X600F 100x4 Focal I LOVE in my home system, have everything from ELectras to Cobalts so I understand the importance of high watts for SQ. Can anyone comment on the few I've listed? Many of these I couldn't find in any stores around me. Jazz, Classical, SteelyDan, is as important as KMFDM or NIN. Thanks much!

"After snooping around inside it, I expected the amp to sound good, and I wasn’t disappointed! The PC640.4 is one of the more musical car stereo amps I’ve heard in a while. The amplifiers sonics were very similar to my studio reference amplifier, and that’s saying something...." - Garry Springgay - PASMag Review Sorry...just saw this, couldn't resist!

SAW that!! he used the A-word :-D OCS was out, it was their hot-deal of the week but I got hooked up. I love that I can add some PPI goodies to the thing later if I want, DSP's etc. This and almost all of SSA's items are pretty much unknown in these parts amongst the mainstream. I love any newer hungry less known company for everything, makes sure they don't take things for granted or just ride a broad fan-base. Oh over the phone, the guy sais Soundstream and PPI are pretty much the same company

OK so after being OCD with whatever research i can do without actually hearing one (most of these non-popular brands are very hard to find in a store like Ken, JL, Alp et al) I think the PPI Powerclass series is looking really good. Good connections and build, terrific price. Their website has it listed as unavailable, but I've seen it for about $200 online. I would eat the tax and get it from local just to support local biz but can't find any dealers in Chi that carry it! Unless anyone is going to stop me I'm going to pull the trigger on PPI PC640.4 - I don't think I'll be that starving for power with the Diamond Hex 600's. http://precisionpower.com/store/products/amplifiers/power-class/pc400-20.html I'll play with this and try to give some feedback to the forum with quality pix etc. And because Admin's here didn't try to steer me to one of SSA's lines, I think that's so classy I'll come back for the Crescendo I really want after I get this one tried out for awhile. THanks all! Wish I didn't have to wait for California shipping. It's going to be a LONG week, Xmas in April lol. Thanks again for the thoughtful replies. -matt

Yes, any headphone jack is going to be pure crap! That seems severely cheap though, it can't possibly be much of a quality conversion. There must be a mobile version that bumps up the audiophile processing at least as good or better than most nicer HU's that take the file via USB from ipod etc. you can throw in the glove box?

I'm trying to wrap my mind around this, but would anything like this be what you mean? http://precisionpower.com/store/products/accessories/signal-processors/deq-8-127.html#!prettyPhoto (granted 10x the cost of that Behringer)

cranking up volume and/or gains to compensate for not enought power causing clipping...?

It's not completely without parallels though, 1st thing coming to my mind is the damage caused for underpowering drivers, and the benefits to having more power than you'll use. Just trying to figure out why PPI so damn cheap in price compared to the big names!

I do appreciate the feedback and well thought out responses. So I'm on the right track looking for the 'suggested' 120w+ range for these Diamond Hex's. Was going to do Focal 'Glass but I opted for the Silk tweets over the Diamond Aluminum versions, because if I learned from anything from my home Electra monitors (Berylium no less!) is that anything extreme on the bright & revealing side needs a more butter-warm amp (B&K 200.7) in my case to balance out. So in the home world, amp lines do vary and one-size doesn't fit all. Tube makes Focal's insatiable. But if you're doing SS circuitry then you'd better research the right sound and lineups. But I guess what does make the home setup 'musical' really, you're correct, is the ridiculous resistance in the monitors and the anything less than 200w would just suck. The more wattage, the more 'musical' terms can be brought in to describe the experience like imaging, sound stage, depth. More visual terms than audio, because it's almost so real and 3D you can reach out and touch the strings etc. The Zed lineup looks great! The Micro looks a little underpowerd @75 and the Draconia is spot on but a bit over my $400 budget. Don't care much about footprint, unless someone can seriously convince me the Alpine PDX-F6 (150w) is caught up with D to A/B quality? This PPI looks incredibly low priced for 130 watts? http://precisionpower.com/store/products/amplifiers/black-ice/bk120-52.html This one too: http://precisionpower.com/store/products/amplifiers/power-class/pc400-20.html And almost all are out of stock on their websites OK UPDATE: The PPI site is probably about the best Amp website I've come across yet! THe PDF's are incredibly informative, the reviews on every site are all nothing short of stellar, and you can tell the people leaving comments really know about the SQ they're looking for, not just "blew the doors off my Yukon dude...." And the prices are almost too good to be true. Man have amp prices come down the last decade! Thx for the PPI plug, I'm smitten! I did want to keep my soapbox statements about wattage for imaging and not just volume. Because I think it's one of the single most overlooked topics and is the turnkey for people to get what it's all about, at least in the home arena. THX GUYS...

Thanks for the input Impious... So dare I say you're claiming all amps are the same beyond the low end junk? Are not some more musical than others? Or all just procesing the same electrons?

Sorry for the late entry here but this is a fascinating read so here's my take on it. I'm not a mobile-audio expert by any stretch, but I have racked my brains trying to figure out the best way to stream my 35k songs in iTunes across the house to my Pre-Pro's, and Focal Electras, all while using PS3 to access the library. Not an audiophile player, but the best I can do for now. And ONE thing is clear: never let the iPod or Mac (or windoze for that matter) do the DAC process. So, nothing would make me happier than having a pop-out iPad mini holder in my dashboard and running an app that controls all things regarding levels, menus, playlists etc. But only if the file itself were extracted from the device and DAC processed by a superior (FAR superior) device that kicked out 4-5V pre-outs RCA to Amp. Using a sound card with RCA outs from a laptop would be useless. Jap big-box store names like Denon et al, they have all your bells and whistles for iPod drops, and do take the file out and process it themselves, but you're dealing with mass-consumer satisfaction, which IMNSHO, is a lower bar than the Audiophile demands. So, to bridge between superior PRE/PRO sep's and our digital music collection, we'll use something in between, like Cambridge DAC Magic - http://www.cambridgeaudio.com/products/dacmagic-plus-digital-to-analogue-converter So the new Pioneer-DEH-80PRS of course will do this, taking the files out of iPhone, Pod, Pad, etc. from SPotify, Pandora, my iTunes home collection via Plex app, you name it. As good as a Cambridge or other home device? Who knows.