Help with setting the Low pass and high pass filters on PPI 900.5

[Milk Mayne 10+ year member]

Chromatic, glad to see everything's coming together for you it seems. I have a serious question for you though, for curiosity's sake. Are you a professional journalist/blogger/attorney by any chance? I understand you're trying to learn a lot of ins and outs since you've joined, but **** if you don't type posts like nobody's business. I don't mean any offense, just curious. I don't think I've seen anyone else here that types as much as you do.

As far as your setup is concerned, that's just going to be something you're going to have to play with once you have everything installed. I prefer my settings at 80/80, have a friend that likes his more around 120/120, and another that likes to run his mids full and sub up to 100 for some reason. Everybody's ears are different, and that's one thing with audio, no two installs or listeners are alike. We all have our own likes, dislikes and personal preferences.

Oh, and *high five* for being a fellow Z owner.

 

[fasfocus00 5,000+ posts]

No it's not labeled correctly. Will it function correctly, sure.. and that's all that really matters to me.
It's not EXT/INT,.. It's INT/SUB. I'll have that selector on SUB, so it utilizes the SUB RCA's. Semantics there, but since we are speaking of "labels" it's not EXT/INT. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

It doesn't have 5CH because they didn't put the label on the amp and the switch with 3 selections. I'm not making this up. The manual has 4 different amps in it,.. The last of them being my 900.5,. The End Panel's are very distinctly described for each amp,.. they aren't carbon copies of each other as the amps are all different.. from 1000.1, 600.2, 900.4 and my amp, 900.5.

Example: Input Selector Switch: "Choose ST for single stereo input. This allows the front and rear channels to receive signal from only the front RCA inputs. Chose 4CH for 4 Channel input. This allows for independent front and rear RCA inputs. Choose 5CH to use independent signal inputs for 5 channel RCA Inputs.

The amp has [sT-4CH] -- This is mislabeled,.. or more precisely, it is missing the third notch for 5CH and of course the 5CH label. The switch should be [sT-4CH-5CH].

But, placing it on 4CH,.. Having it on SUB, and having the 3 sets of RCA's in the amp will have it work in 5CH mode regardless. Haven't tested this, but I don't see any reason why it wouldn't. The amp comes with an output for a Bass Knob (which it has).. and the obvious RCA inputs for the Sub channel the reason it's 900.5 instead of 900.4.

And it's 5 channel, not 6 channel since we are talking specifics here.

Being general and what really matters,.. the amp will work as intended,.. it's not a big deal. The only function that is not going to work that it is supposed to have is Band Pass Crossover.

Rear Crossover Selector Switch: "Choose to activate the High Pass Crossover, Low Pass Crossover, OR Band Pass Crossover for the rear channels. Band Pass Crossover uses the High Pass AND Low Pass Crossover Simultaneously.

Again, another switch NOT included on the amp panel,.. The amp has a selector as you can clearly see that sas [LPF-HPF-FULL] and it SHOULD have [LPF-HPF-BPF-FULL] (Again missing a switch notch, and label). So should I have wanted Bandpass that this amp is advertised to have ,.. it simply is not available. Switching to LPF will only use LPF, switching to HPF will only use HPF,. and FULL is going to turn the crossover off. I can work around that, but some people want all the features advertised on the amp,.. someone hel.l bent on having both X-overs , using Bandpass would send this amp back and buy another companies amplifier. I am not, For my purposes it isn't necessary, plus I have redundant Crossovers due to having a very feature rich Headunit that has all Crossovers, independently for each of the 3 RCA outputs (Front, Rear, and Sub).

I'm not trying to be a douchebag here.. You were correcting me with your response.. I'm just restating my original statement and being very, very clear on why the amp is mislabeled. That said, I'm not worried about it in the least. If I were, I would have already sent it back.

I will say PPI's tech support is terrible. As in they aren't available, and do not return phone calls, voicemails, or emails after 2 business days. While this is minor in functionality, it is something a company with pride in their products would want to know and would fix in a revision to the amp on future production runs.

My bad genius, your right. I am retarded and posted on a forum about how I don't know how to set gains or crossover points and can't read a manual. I run PPI amps and just talk out of my sphincter all day long. Just bc the amp doesn't have the exact words you are looking for doesn't mean it doesn't do it. The switches are similar to the Infinity 5350 which I have installed a ton of. I was just trying to explain to you that the terminology is different but the out come is the same. Some one got there feelings all hurt bc I challenged there intelligence and reading capability. Good luck with getting help.

 

[vaiboy 10+ year member]

You can use a DMM to set crossovers, the procedure is similar to setting the gain. Disconnect the speakers, connect your DMM leads to the speaker output, play a test tone for the crossover point you are aiming for, note the voltage, and adjust the crossover until there is a 30% drop in voltage. For example, if you want a 100hz crossover point, you start by playing a 100hz tone and the voltage is 20VAC, adjust the crossover until the voltage reads 14VAC. It's an easy way to get an accurate -3db crossover point with an unmarked dial.

 

[Chromatic]

Chromatic, glad to see everything's coming together for you it seems. I have a serious question for you though, for curiosity's sake. Are you a professional journalist/blogger/attorney by any chance? I understand you're trying to learn a lot of ins and outs since you've joined, but **** if you don't type posts like nobody's business. I don't mean any offense, just curious. I don't think I've seen anyone else here that types as much as you do.

lol.. Yeah, I am a "part-time" Writer,.. but my day job is Network engineering/system design. I just tend to write a lot, and type incredibly fast. How I've always been on "paper",.. in person it's not like that. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

As far as your setup is concerned, that's just going to be something you're going to have to play with once you have everything installed. I prefer my settings at 80/80, have a friend that likes his more around 120/120, and another that likes to run his mids full and sub up to 100 for some reason. Everybody's ears are different, and that's one thing with audio, no two installs or listeners are alike. We all have our own likes, dislikes and personal preferences.

Oh, and *high five* for being a fellow Z owner.

For sure. I have all but beaten every possible scenario out of people with my posts on this and another forum... Combined with a month of research/reading and watching videos I've got it down fairly well. I didn't start at zero,.. I've had a system, was familiar with what Sub, Mids, Tweeters, components, RMS vs Peak,.. some brands, etc.. But coming to this forum, wow,.. I learned more than I thought I needed to know!

Yeah, right on with the Z's - Love the car, only had it a little over a month now,.. And the whole interior is ripped out of it as we speak! How many people would do that? lol.. Cars are cars though.. The interior is a handful of screws/clips/bolts and then everything pops off... just the way it is.

The Z shines in it's Engine, RWD, and just the way these cars are made (how they drive)... I had a 300ZX a long time ago and it was my favorite car, until this 350Z I just bought. Don't know what it is exactly about them, but they fit me well.

 

[Chromatic]

My bad genius, your right. I am retarded and posted on a forum about how I don't know how to set gains or crossover points and can't read a manual. I run PPI amps and just talk out of my sphincter all day long. Just bc the amp doesn't have the exact words you are looking for doesn't mean it doesn't do it. The switches are similar to the Infinity 5350 which I have installed a ton of. I was just trying to explain to you that the terminology is different but the out come is the same. Some one got there feelings all hurt bc I challenged there intelligence and reading capability. Good luck with getting help.

No, my feelings are fine. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif -- Seems like you got a little miffed with my response. But you were being pedantic, so I just reiterated what I originally said about the amp settings and what it LACKS. To be simple,.. It lacks Bandpass,.. otherwise nothing is effected on the amp due to labeling and switch "issues".

As I said before, it doesn't bother me.

As for "good luck with getting help".. People have been great here and elsewhere,.. some are typical dbags.. but most are nice and helpful. It's the nature of the internet.

Thanks for the response.

 

[Chromatic]

You can use a DMM to set crossovers, the procedure is similar to setting the gain. Disconnect the speakers, connect your DMM leads to the speaker output, play a test tone for the crossover point you are aiming for, note the voltage, and adjust the crossover until there is a 30% drop in voltage. For example, if you want a 100hz crossover point, you start by playing a 100hz tone and the voltage is 20VAC, adjust the crossover until the voltage reads 14VAC. It's an easy way to get an accurate -3db crossover point with an unmarked dial.

Perfect. I was thinking hooking the laptop up to an Aux port on the headunit would be easy with a tone generator like Audicity. Or, just putting key crossover points I"m after on a USB drive and letting them go. I thought maybe with the Attenuation of signal that the voltage might drop noticeably enough to essentially dictate a crossover point. I was thinking about it the hard way though,.. Where I'd play multiple tones while watching the DMM, when the Voltage dropped I'd then check what TONE was playing and that "hz" would be where it was set. Moving the Crossover while playing say 100hz until it dips is much easier.

Appreciate it.

 

[Milk Mayne 10+ year member]

Yeah, right on with the Z's - Love the car, only had it a little over a month now,.. And the whole interior is ripped out of it as we speak! How many people would do that? lol.. Cars are cars though.. The interior is a handful of screws/clips/bolts and then everything pops off... just the way it is.

The Z shines in it's Engine, RWD, and just the way these cars are made (how they drive)... I had a 300ZX a long time ago and it was my favorite car, until this 350Z I just bought. Don't know what it is exactly about them, but they fit me well.

That's the same thing my brother said to me when I got the 370. The second day I had the car it was gutted and I was installing my system. I love the way this thing drives. That was the selling point for me. I test drove all kinds of other "sports cars" before getting this (SS Camaro, SRT8 Challenger, GT500, WRX STi, Evo X and the 370Z) and it just happened to be by-far the most FUN car to drive to me. It's impractical as all h*ll as a daily driver, but hey you only live once!

 

[Chromatic]

That's the same thing my brother said to me when I got the 370. The second day I had the car it was gutted and I was installing my system. I love the way this thing drives. That was the selling point for me. I test drove all kinds of other "sports cars" before getting this (SS Camaro, SRT8 Challenger, GT500, WRX STi, Evo X and the 370Z) and it just happened to be by-far the most FUN car to drive to me. It's impractical as all h*ll as a daily driver, but hey you only live once!

Agree with everything.. but to me it's not impractical as a daily driver to be honest. If I'm light on shift points.. I can bring out 21mpg city avg.. Highway 25-30.. Of course if you drive it more aggressively you are going to be lucky to get 14-16mpg.

Otherwise, this car is super comfortable for me.

Remember I'm coming from a Pontiac Solstice:

Interior shot doesn't do it justice on just how SMALL this car is inside. But I'm 6ft (long torso).. and my head hit the roof (soft top).. and I had to drive slightly leaned to the right , lol. This 350Z is like getting into an SUV in comparison. So maybe I'm a little biased due to the differences.

Plus this thing has a "trunk" (well hatchback).. tons of room in contrast. The 350Z is actually a BIG car.. I can attest after all the detail work I've done on it.. The body is just as big as most of the Sedan/4 doors I've worked on. Which gives the 2-seater a great deal of room inside.