Completely remove pac out if the loop and connect the stereo high level inputs to the high level inputs on the dsp, im not sure you tried this yet?
PPI DSP-88R Help
I'm sorry if this needed to go in the advanced section. I wasn't sure what was really considered advanced. I think this is kind of in between.
Hey guys, I'm a newb(obviously). I'm gonna be honest with ya here... I joined this forum just to try and figure out a problem, since I don't have a lot of time to contribute much
I don't usually have issues I can't figure out, but not on this one. Now, on to the problem.
I bought a PPI DSP-88R to hook up in my car so I could keep the factory headunit in place and get rid of the factory "equilization" that was made to make crappy speakers sound better. It's a company car that I spend most of the day in. As a music lover, it is my duty to make it tolerable. Anyway, I can't get this DSP to function properly to save my life! Basically, it's inconsistent, and no matter how I hook it up it's just not working. I can have OK mids and highs with no bass, or I can have bass with weirdly distributed highs.
I have it running off of a PAC converter I already had installed when I put an 8inch sub in it. The front and rear channels do not put out the same output, so if I hook it up "normally" with front right/front left/rear right rear left the highs are good, but the bass is weird(I had my sub running off the front channels prior to the DSP for this very reason. That tells me the DSP is pulling the bass from the rear. If I hook it up to the front channels only(tried with only two channels going to DSP, and with splitter, the bass is good, but the highs aren't evenly distributed left to right(I'm aware this makes me lose my f/r fading ability). They don't sound quite right either.
I decided to take the head unit and PAC out of the loop, so I hooked up an MP3 player to the aux on the DSP, and it sounded okay. This has me thinking it's just isn't agreeing with the PAC or head unit's varied output on different channels. That led me to simply run the front channels(since I know they carry all of the signal) to the aux input of the DSP, and that worked well...for a minute. I adjusted the aux input level to compensate for the higher signal, and it was sounding pretty good. I decided to crank the car up and so as to not drain the battery, and then it got too loud and was distorting from the input signal being too much. I adjusted the input to the min, and it was still too hot and distorted. I cut the car back to ACC. and still too loud? I hooked the DSP back up as I originally had it to the headunit and nothing had changed as far as the sound there.
I have checked and double checked the wiring. I have also swapped RCAs and tried every combination of hooking them up to the different channels of the factory headunit. Either I'm missing something, or my DSP-88R is a dud?
FYI, my car is a 2011 focus with SYNC, but no factory sub. It is also a company car, which is why I can't replace the factory headunit. The whole goals is to keep everything hidden, otherwise I would have just purchased an EQ and mounted it somewhere. I also like the adjustability the DSP offers. Do any of you guys have any tips, or ideas on this one? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!
Hey guys, I'm a newb(obviously). I'm gonna be honest with ya here... I joined this forum just to try and figure out a problem, since I don't have a lot of time to contribute much
I don't usually have issues I can't figure out, but not on this one. Now, on to the problem.I bought a PPI DSP-88R to hook up in my car so I could keep the factory headunit in place and get rid of the factory "equilization" that was made to make crappy speakers sound better. It's a company car that I spend most of the day in. As a music lover, it is my duty to make it tolerable. Anyway, I can't get this DSP to function properly to save my life! Basically, it's inconsistent, and no matter how I hook it up it's just not working. I can have OK mids and highs with no bass, or I can have bass with weirdly distributed highs.
I have it running off of a PAC converter I already had installed when I put an 8inch sub in it. The front and rear channels do not put out the same output, so if I hook it up "normally" with front right/front left/rear right rear left the highs are good, but the bass is weird(I had my sub running off the front channels prior to the DSP for this very reason. That tells me the DSP is pulling the bass from the rear. If I hook it up to the front channels only(tried with only two channels going to DSP, and with splitter, the bass is good, but the highs aren't evenly distributed left to right(I'm aware this makes me lose my f/r fading ability). They don't sound quite right either.
I decided to take the head unit and PAC out of the loop, so I hooked up an MP3 player to the aux on the DSP, and it sounded okay. This has me thinking it's just isn't agreeing with the PAC or head unit's varied output on different channels. That led me to simply run the front channels(since I know they carry all of the signal) to the aux input of the DSP, and that worked well...for a minute. I adjusted the aux input level to compensate for the higher signal, and it was sounding pretty good. I decided to crank the car up and so as to not drain the battery, and then it got too loud and was distorting from the input signal being too much. I adjusted the input to the min, and it was still too hot and distorted. I cut the car back to ACC. and still too loud? I hooked the DSP back up as I originally had it to the headunit and nothing had changed as far as the sound there.
I have checked and double checked the wiring. I have also swapped RCAs and tried every combination of hooking them up to the different channels of the factory headunit. Either I'm missing something, or my DSP-88R is a dud?
FYI, my car is a 2011 focus with SYNC, but no factory sub. It is also a company car, which is why I can't replace the factory headunit. The whole goals is to keep everything hidden, otherwise I would have just purchased an EQ and mounted it somewhere. I also like the adjustability the DSP offers. Do any of you guys have any tips, or ideas on this one? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!
1 - 20 of 145 Posts
I was considering taking the PAC out of the loop as a last resort, just because I don't want to pull my dash apart again Maybe this is a stupid thought, but what if I just "sacrificed" some RCA cables and hooked the speaker level inputs to them and plugged that in to the RCA cables that are already run? The DSP does use the same wires for high/low level input right?
Oh, I forgot to mention this is going to a PPI 5 channel amp(i640). The DSP, and AMP are meticulously mounted under my seat and out of site. That is one thing that is making me want to wait until all other options are exhausted, before trying high level inputs, since I will have to take it all out. I know, I should have checked it before doing that, but that would have made too much sense.... Thanks for the comments guys!
Maybe this is a stupid thought, but what if I just "sacrificed" some RCA cables and hooked the speaker level inputs to them and plugged that in to the RCA cables that are already run? The DSP does use the same wires for high/low level input right?Oh, I forgot to mention this is going to a PPI 5 channel amp(i640). The DSP, and AMP are meticulously mounted under my seat and out of site. That is one thing that is making me want to wait until all other options are exhausted, before trying high level inputs, since I will have to take it all out. I know, I should have checked it before doing that, but that would have made too much sense.... Thanks for the comments guys!
Yeah, run the speaker outs of the headunit straight to the 88r harness. On mine (while I had the stock HU in) I just clipped the RCA ends off the harness.I was considering taking the PAC out of the loop as a last resort, just because I don't want to pull my dash apart again
Oh, I forgot to mention this is going to a PPI 5 channel amp(i640). The DSP, and AMP are meticulously mounted under my seat and out of site. That is one thing that is making me want to wait until all other options are exhausted, before trying high level inputs, since I will have to take it all out. I know, I should have checked it before doing that, but that would have made too much sense.... Thanks for the comments guys!
Now that I have an aftermarket HU I just ran one pair of rca's and attached em to the aux inputs (the ones on the unit not the harness)
That is exactly what I did last night. The PAC is out, and it is running on high inputs now. Unfortunately, just like everything I have tried before, this isn't working either. Everything I've tried sounds decent at first, but when I hop in to go to work the next day, the sound is back where I started?! I don't know what the heck is going on. This damned DSP is making me think I'm crazy!
It's almost like it's trying to sum the inputs every time it powers on after it's been off. No, my power/turn on are not crossed. It's flash memory anyway, so it SHOULD stay where it was I'd think. I'm really starting to think the DSP is faulty. No matter which channels go front or rear, two of the channels that are output(not counting G,H sub channels) are bass only or nothing at all. I can have good highs and some bass if I max out the gain on the amp for the sub while also reducing the gains for the channels A,B,C,D so the levels kinda match. They really don't though. There's some really wonky stuff going on here...
If I swap channels around going into the DSP I can get good sound from every speaker, just not all at once, so I'm pretty sure the amp is good. Tonight or tomorrow, I'm going to run straight to the amp just take the DSP out of the loop and confirm the amp is functioning as it should. If I rule the amp out, then all signs seem to be pointing to the DSP, which sucks
Has anyone else had this kind of problem with the DSP-88R/Harmony? If I could get the sound where I wanted without the DSP, I wouldn't blown the $200+ on it in the first place. Does it sound like I'm on the right track on this troubleshooting adventure to you guys? Thanks for all the help so far!
HMMMMMM when you are tuning are you actually saving it to the DSP? You can save the file on your computer but have to save it to one of the save slots on the unit or it will go back to factory once you turn it off.That is exactly what I did last night. The PAC is out, and it is running on high inputs now. Unfortunately, just like everything I have tried before, this isn't working either. Everything I've tried sounds decent at first, but when I hop in to go to work the next day, the sound is back where I started?! I don't know what the heck is going on. This damned DSP is making me think I'm crazy!
It's almost like it's trying to sum the inputs every time it powers on after it's been off. No, my power/turn on are not crossed. It's flash memory anyway, so it SHOULD stay where it was I'd think. I'm really starting to think the DSP is faulty. No matter which channels go front or rear, two of the channels that are output(not counting G,H sub channels) are bass only or nothing at all. I can have good highs and some bass if I max out the gain on the amp for the sub while also reducing the gains for the channels A,B,C,D so the levels kinda match. They really don't though. There's some really wonky stuff going on here...
If I swap channels around going into the DSP I can get good sound from every speaker, just not all at once, so I'm pretty sure the amp is good. Tonight or tomorrow, I'm going to run straight to the amp just take the DSP out of the loop and confirm the amp is functioning as it should. If I rule the amp out, then all signs seem to be pointing to the DSP, which sucks
Has anyone else had this kind of problem with the DSP-88R/Harmony? If I could get the sound where I wanted without the DSP, I wouldn't blown the $200+ on it in the first place. Does it sound like I'm on the right track on this troubleshooting adventure to you guys? Thanks for all the help so far!
It does seem like a strange problem to have, especially if its working great and then all of a sudden doesn't.
Here's some more weirdness for ya. I have now loaded 7 of the 10 available slots in the DSP so I can switch between them for trouble shooting purposes. The same preset selection does NOT always yield the same sound. It may sound normal, or it may be peaked out, or it may decide it wants to "enhance" certain sounds that it didn't when that preset was previously selected.
All of this is with the bass/treble on the headunit at 0 mind you. If you bump the bass up, and cut the car off, and then turn it back on: it will try to level the bass back down to the previous sound(it's trying to randomly flatten the inputs). I'm pretty sure this thing is nuts
I haven't called PPI yet, because I wanted to make damn sure it was the DSP first. I deal with people at work all day long who blame equipment for their own stupidity, and I don't want to be one of those people,haha! Seriously though, either I've lost all my reasoning/troubleshooting ability, or the unit is hosed.
All of this is with the bass/treble on the headunit at 0 mind you. If you bump the bass up, and cut the car off, and then turn it back on: it will try to level the bass back down to the previous sound(it's trying to randomly flatten the inputs). I'm pretty sure this thing is nuts
I haven't called PPI yet, because I wanted to make damn sure it was the DSP first. I deal with people at work all day long who blame equipment for their own stupidity, and I don't want to be one of those people,haha! Seriously though, either I've lost all my reasoning/troubleshooting ability, or the unit is hosed.
1 - 20 of 145 Posts
