SMD DD1 or OSCOPE?

[momofx 10+ year member]

I'm looking for something to set gains and I did notice the oscopes with color displays, etc. are going cheaper than the dd-1. Anyone here used both? Which one would be a better choice?

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[AnthonyO 10+ year member]

Oscope. I have owned the DD1. The nice thing about the DD1 is that it allows you to set you gain to max before distortion. I myself just use a dmm. That way i can match my amps output to the subwoofer

 

[Kangaroux 5,000+ posts]

The DD-1 can detect all kinds of distortion, not just clipping. An o-scope (at least the cheap ones like the DSO nano which is $80 iirc) will only let you see clipping, but at the same time you can also do a lot more with it since it's more than just a box with a couple lights on it. You can't really go wrong with both though personally I would want to have the o-scope since it has a bit more capability, especially if you want to use it for outside of car audio

 

[butterMilk 10+ year member]

I have a dd1 and its kinda for spl purposes, or like a peace of mind instrument. With the dd1 you can check all your equipment and see if anything is distorting. For me nothing was. And then you can set your amp to the max output without distortion.

If you have a amp thats got more power than you need, for your your subs or mids. Then the dd1 is kinda useless, because if your gain is set low, then chances are you are not getting any distortion at all. Unless its a horrible amp.

 

[momofx 10+ year member]

I see, but then if the amp is more poweful, can you just set the level of the amp with a dmm my calculating the ac volts?

 

[Chriszle 10+ year member]

I prefer to use a scope. Would rather see the wave then look at a little light.

 

[butterMilk 10+ year member]

I see, but then if the amp is more poweful, can you just set the level of the amp with a dmm my calculating the ac volts?

Yeah in that case I would just use a dmm. If you have a powerful amp, that puts out a lot more power than you need, chances are your gain is not turned up very much. And if your gain is not turned up very much, the chances that you have any distortion are slim to none.

But if you want to get the most out of your amp (distortion free) then dd1 is nice to have.

 

[momofx 10+ year member]

Yeah in that case I would just use a dmm. If you have a powerful amp, that puts out a lot more power than you need, chances are your gain is not turned up very much. And if your gain is not turned up very much, the chances that you have any distortion are slim to none.
But if you want to get the most out of your amp (distortion free) then dd1 is nice to have.

Ok kinda off my topic a bit here, bit I thought setting any amp with a DMM and no load on the amp (ie. only the dmm connected to the amp's output), would give a false AC voltage reading? So does that mean, that I need to have to sub connected to the amp with the dmm as well and set the gain that way?

 

[SPL Blazer 10+ year member]

I have an SMD DD1 and it's a waste of money. Best thing is using it for finding out the peak volume of your headunit, but even with those it'll only work with certain headunits, like higher voltage pre-out decks. For a daily driver maybe it's ok, if you ever plan to use your system for bass comps then forget it. A DMM will do everything this unit does, and a good O-Scope would work great too.

 

[momofx 10+ year member]

Hey has anyone tried that o-scope idea that uses the mic input of your laptop with some resistors and some recording software? Seems like everyone who tried it on the youtube video says it works well and is flexible cos you can change the input resistors to suit your power output... I might try this...

 

[maylar 10+ year member]

Using a DMM alone can be deceiving. You make the assumption that your amps make rated power and your HU is clean at whatever volume level you pick. A scope showed me that my amp puts out only half rated at 12V and my HU clips at 65%.

I've never used a DD1 so I can't comment on that. I wonder if it'd blink at you if your preout signal looked like this:

 

[momofx 10+ year member]

You are right, after spending many days I have discovered that nothing can really come close to a scope - I just invested in one infact //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif Awaitings its arrival!

 

[Myquadzilla]

That wave looks good on top & bottom but looks like something is there side to side. shouldn't be any ripples in the wave..

 

[Slo_Ride 5,000+ posts]

Holy first post in dead thread. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/nutkick.gif.acc8dcd6c1bd27fba0cbeda5b212085c.gif

 

[bbeljefe]

Using a DMM alone can be deceiving. You make the assumption that your amps make rated power and your HU is clean at whatever volume level you pick. A scope showed me that my amp puts out only half rated at 12V and my HU clips at 65%.
I've never used a DD1 so I can't comment on that. I wonder if it'd blink at you if your preout signal looked like this:

No, it wouldn't show distortion with that waveform because that waveform is not clipped. Distortion happens when the peaks of the waveform are flattened out. That waveform isn't flattened and thus, isn't distorted.