great video! thanks a lot for posting it!

Here is a fun fact about the SMD Test Equipment since you are comparing it to Rockford Fosgate Amps. The SMD stuff is designed by D'Amore Engineering A.K.A Tony D'Amore who used to be a Lead Engineer for Rockford Fosgate for 8 years in the Early 2000's. So the SMD stuff was made by some of the greatest minds from Rockford Fosgate 😁👍🏻

Some of your best car audio engineers came from Rockford Fosgate.

I'm really liking how you explain everything and how you do most thing. I'm a big fan and I'm happy as hell to find someone on KZfaq that does car audio show like soundman and Steve mead closer to Sydney where I am and have similar products available . Keep up the hard work bro, ill be watching for years to come.

DD-1 is picking up 1% distortion, that happens before clipping, which is why the Rockford takes longer to detect

I'm so happy you did this!

Also, the way this distortion detector works is with a sharp notch filter that is set to cut out 40Hz and 1kHz frequencies and let every other frequency pass, and when harmonics (distortion) appear (in the case of 40Hz you get 80Hz, 120Hz, 160Hz . . . to the Nth harmonic) they pass straight through the notch filter and you can amplify them for detection and light up an LED.

What’s actually happening is the Rockford Fosgate light means 3 stages of distortion... Blue- .5% thd Blue/red- 1% Red- 10% or higher The smd dd1 is set at .5% thd I believe....so they are both working but since the smd is set to a lower thd detection it’s tricking you....both are solid. Just keep the light on the amp blue and you’ll be alright

the buzzing you are hearing when the amp clips is the amplifier's output filter (takes the hundreds of kHz PWM square wave and filters it back into a sine wave). There is a big inductor on this filter that starts vibrating from the pulses of DC voltage that appear across it during clipping.

Very helpful video. Was trying to figure out this feature. Thank you

As I always say, this does not mean the amp won't clip when you play every song at the same volume level on your head unit, every song has a different level of bass, in fact you could cut yourself short on sound when the song's bass level is lower than the level of the test track you set it with. In addition, more often then not songs have a heavy kick included with the 808 kick, and that kick is a higher level than the 808 so each time that kick happens it can clip your amp even though the consistent 808 bass doesn't So what I care about is an active clipping indicator like all pro audio uses and keep the head unit's level much below head unit preamp clipping

pioneer and sony dont get the love they deserve anymore. good video, not surprised by the results though, with the work that went into the SMD/D'Amore engineering audio tools i would expect nothing short of perfection

Can't go wrong with a pioneer head unit.

Does the CLEAN light need to be solid red or just flicker? Might flickers at times when the bass beat drops real low but goes right back off. Is that a concern or is it when the light stays on?

Looks like the smd dd1 is going to get the best results. Who knows you might not even notice the distortion when it's less than 1%.

I believe the Rockford Fosgate CLEAN measures clipping while the SMD DD1 measures distortion at 1% THD. Hence the slight difference. I personally would like to keep everything below 1% THD rather than up to clipping.

I just want to replace the factory Bose sub on my 09 Tahoe. What would you recommend in sub and amp. The enclosure is hidden in the center console between the pilot and copilot seats

The manufacture set the amp to tune at 1% THD so you can get that extra wattage that appears on the birth sheet thats why most amps are rated at 1% THD

Now I could be wrong, but I wouldn't say either one is more sensitive than the other. The DD-1 detects distortion, doesn't it? Which doesn't necessarily mean clipping. The levels it's set to detect is probably very close to where most amps clip but my point is I don't think they're both trying to sense the same thing.

What if you listen to .mp3, should you use an .mp3 version of the 40hz and 1khz test tones or would it matter?

Hey. Good video. My RF amp t400x4ad plays 471w 4ohm (117,7 x 4). My speaker can handlar 100w rms. Is the amp to powerfull. ? Or can i set the gain alittle Lower so the speaker not get damaged? Thanks. 🇸🇪

Im Lost, What DB for what speaker size, does it say on the manual, or website?

Imo every amp should integrate clip detect on inputs and outputs would be awesome

Yeah i got this amp now, it's super nice. So blue/red light on music is ok right?

I love this amp, but after a year I'm looking for more power. I'd love it if you made a video on how to wire a pair of these on separate subs (since they can't be strapped), and also how to set it up so everything matches properly.

What crossover should I use?

How's that amp doing? Is it still running good??

I've heard the amp noise you're mentioning, it's not exclusive to just rockford amps, my old pioneer gm-d9601did the same thing

Is yours stereo 5 volts ? The rca please let me know

It's crazy how young you look but installs so awesome.

Steve Meade endorsed rockford fosgate products

Hey James. It's me Brian Malcon. lol. Anyway, I installed a new amp recently, and I noticed when I switch the cars Ignition to off, theres a static noise coming from one of my speakers after around 3 secs. Any idea what I should do? Will it damage any part of my system? Cause if not, I'm planning to just let it be. Haha

This vid needs moee views!

Why in mine the blue light is blue and red???? Not just blue And the subwoofers just make a funny noise???

Blue l.e.d for rockford is 0.05 THD blue violet l.e.d is 1%THD. And red l.e.d is 10%THD. It tells it on the rockford website for under the specs for the punch and power amps thatd why tell u to set it at blue l.e.d when doing testing cause when ur playing music its dynamic and should be perfect at 1%thd cuz the amp will mostly show violet l.e.d

My input clip light beats with the songs lol. I can’t get that dam red light to stop coming on. The music sounds awesome. But the red input clip light has me confused. I have cheap rca wires. My pioneer is turned up to 10 on the sub output.

D'Amore is a rockford fosgate engineer he teamed up with Steve Meade and design that distortion detector

distortion detector vs clipping detector.

lol that looks like the amp i have is that the p400x2 ?

When is Project Legacy: Custom PlayDough Tweeter Pods | Part 2 coming?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????7

Vhhh he has come between classes vcccc

Clean system is more accurate

Plug the DD1 into the headunit rca output when measuring the headunit clipping, not into the amps output

Your battery is also low

Get a tripod.

I would trust SMD to be more accurate than RF

to properly test input clipping on the rca's from the HU, plug the rca into the dd-1. doing it the way u did is still only testing clipping thru the amp. great video otherwise

This video is completely inaccurate due to the fact that your SMD DD1 unit is showing a low battery light and if you read the instructions it says to always use a brand new battery when testing any audio signals and a low battery will give unreliable results. Long story short this video is an illegitimate comparison and proves absolutely nothing