I decided I wanted to keep the stock HU and go with the 3sixty for enhanced EQ, no bass attenuation at higher volumes, and AUX input. Right now I have Alpine speakers and sub and Infinity amps already installed, with very minimal noise and LOCs bought at Best Buy.

A friend of mine, who is an installer by trade and did my original install, but has never installed a 3sixty, spent a few hours yesterday trying to get the 3sixty to work.

Main problem: NOISE. A continuous buzz comes from the system whether using the high-level or low-level input on the 3sixty. It was bad enough to where he didn't even try tuning the system via the phone. I'm wondering if this was a mistake but he remarked that the noise was so bad that he didn't try the initial setup because there was no way it could take away all the noise. Was that a mistake? Did you all experience a ton of noise right after installation that was taken away by the "New Install" option on the 3sixty hardware?

Secondary problem: Every time the car turns on there is a huge POP from the system although no such thing happens without the 3sixty. He tried multiple power sources, the majority switched 12V.

Any remarks, suggestions that I can relay if I can coax him into giving it another go?

 

Update: talked to the installer and he says he was getting noise as soon as he plugged in the 3sixty. This was with or without the stock head unit plugged in. He gave it its own ground and still no help. He also frustrated the input levels and noise was still constant. How is it possible that the 3sixty would actually introduce noise into the system on its own?

 

I had a 3sixty2 and it produced a lot of motor noise. We did everything, moving the ground, changing the mount location, added a filter, still nothing.

I got so sick of the noise and gave up about a 2 weeks ago. Another thread talks about intalling a stinger loc instead of a 360. I went a head and did the swap.

So far, the Stinger LOC has worked flawlessly and I have no complaints.
Except for the fact I dropped 550 on a 3602 and could only sell it for 290.

 

I installed my 3sixty.1 this weekend and don't have any noise issues. Here's how I have it setup:

At the stock amp, I spliced the speaker outputs (gray connector) and ran 6 new speaker wires (standard 16 guage from walmart) to the trunk. At the trunk, these wires feed into the high level inputs on the 3sixty. To power it, I just ran 3 short wires to the amp's power terminal. As per the 3sixty's instruction, I've set the gains to minimum on the amps, but I still need to verify with a dmm if their set for optimal power. Then I ran the OEM setup which took about 10minutes for it to do its thing.

It sounds so good! I was using LOCs before but was pretty dissappointed with the sound quality. I had a little bit of hiss with the LOCs, but mainly the cabin speakers, especially the rear deck, had very little midbass and just didn't sound like an aftermarket system should. The 3sixty fixed the channels, so now they all get full range and the mid bass is perfect now. I'm really happy with the results!

 

tejesh83, did you have noise before you ran the OEM setup? This is the one step that was not done. I don't see how it could have taken away noise, but just thought I'd ask.

Also, the setup is being done directly after the stock amp (i.e. the 3sixty is going to be placed at the front of the car, not in the trunk) to facilitate the aux input and to go with the cables that are already installed. Would that change anything?

 

I'm not that good with sound systems, but that interference that you get could be cause by exposed wires or wires that are getting interfenrece due them not being sheilded that run along the car.

 

Figured out the problem. The amps were not set at minimum gain (THANKS, tejesh83!). What a silly thing to overlook. Now it works perfectly in the trunk, and I just need to get it installed in the front or get the aux run up front. I'm going to have a fun time schooling my friend the installer on that one step he missed.

Now I have three final (hopefully) questions. I hooked up the comm port/remote but it will not control anything except source. I've switched back and forth between normal and AUX as well as switching it to control subwoofer and master volume via my phone. Basically the knob has no effect except when I push it in to change source. I'm going to try a new cord tomorrow but was just wondering if I was doing something wrong.

Second, is there anything wrong with keeping the LOCs in place that I already have (would save a lot of install time, I'm guessing)? I have absolutely no noise right now and it sounds very good. The only thing that would be missing is a direct line from the stock amp sub out to the sub input on the 3sixty. Right now the sub amp input is connected from the other aftermarket, 4-channel amp that drives the front/rear speakers. Am I losing bass audio quality or levels because of this?

And finally one last, little question. For you that have the 3sixty, when you are on AUX input how do you know a call is coming in via the HFL? I know the info screen will show the number (I have non-navi, btw), but would there be a simple way to get an audio alert?

Thanks, everyone, for being so quick to answer and helpful.

 

OK, scratch question #1. Tried a new wire this morning and the remote works. Went back to original wire and still works. Weird...

 

I recommend hooking the sub input/output through the 3sixty. The sub channel had the most dramatic change of all the channels after OEM setup. If I get a chance tonight, I'll post a screen capture of the before/after chart for the channels.

 

That would be great, tejesh83. I am getting amazing bass levels right now. SO much better. I'm wondering how much the bass attenuation had to do with it (i.e. the stock HU changing the EQ based on volume). When it's loud there is a ton of bass now, finally. Would sub output coming straight out from the stock amp into the 3sixty significantly change the sound I get now from the 3sixty summing the front/rear channels? It would require running another wire and that requires a lot of time.

 

My setup:
Stock Amp's speaker outputs feed all 6 channels of 3sixty
Tuned at volume 30 with fader/balance/bass/treble/center/sub at default level
Autosum channels when full range is not detected is enabled



I just found a loose wire for my front speaker inputs, so the front channel charts may not be accurate. I haven't had a chance to rerun the setup yet.

The software doesn't say if the auto sum feature was actually used, but judging from the charts it looks like it was. When I get a chance, I'll rerun a test with the auto sum off to see how the charts and SQ compare. I'm also not using the 3sixty's center output, so I want to run a comparison without the center input connected, since I think it may be putting some static into the system.

Tweaking the 3sixty is on the back burner for the moment though. I'm trying to test out a neat idea I had for my carpc

Good luck with your install!

 

after u guys go through the process what do u do then do u bring up the levels or leave em as it is.

 

If you mean output level and amp gains, here's what I did. If you're not familiar with using a Digtal Multimeter (DMM) to set gains, check out this article first: http://www.icixsound.com/vb/showthread.php?t=27819

As per the 3sixty instructions, the gains on the amps are set to minimum. The remote was not connected to the 3sixty. I calculated that I need 40Volts on the sub channel output and 16.5V volts for the cabin speakers using the formula given in the guide above for optimal output.

For the cabin speaker, I played a 150hz tone on repeat at volume 30 from my cd player and placed the dmm on the speaker leads leaving the new amp. I adjusted the levels on the 3sixty software until the voltage measured was 16.5V.

For the sub, I did the same with a 50hz tone at volume 30. However, after maxing out the levels on the 3sixty software, it was still below the required 40Volts, so I bumped up the gains slightly on the amp to get it up to the optimal 40V. I'm not sure why the 3sixty adjustment wasn't enough, since its capable of 5V. Maybe the 3sixty defaults to a low volume on the sub channel when the sub remote is not connected?

 

I am familiar with all of this pretty much its just that i have some hiss issue with this one. So where did u end up leaving the levels on the 3sixty software. at zero or - 10 or where exactly.

 

It's going to vary depending on your setup, amps, etc, but here is my config:



After setting the levels and gains up correctly, I can still hear a bit of hiss, but its significantly less than the LOCs I was using before. When I use the 3sixty remote to control volume, the hiss is not audible at all. I'm not too keen on using a seperate volume control, but it does make the system sound better since it gets rid of the attenuation as well.

I also thought about trying the stock preamp signals to see how it would sound, but I'm dreading the rewiring. I've already spliced and resoldered the connections once, and it was a pain. Plus it sounds really good as is.

 

mine is similar in that case too then, i guess i dont have a problem then. But i do have one with my subwoofers. they are fine up to volume 20 lets say but then after that it feels like if only the speakers increase in volume but not the subwoofers. I also think i might have a small box for my 2x12 inch subs so now im thinking of gettin the infinty kappa perfect vq wich are suppose to play really good in any kind of box so lets see. all this experimenting is becoming really expensive

 

I reran the setup today, but this time said no to the sum channels prompt. Here are the new frequency charts.



It looks like the only difference is the center channel, since it now cuts off below 200hz. Given that its primarily vocals, thats probably fine. I'm not using the 3sxity center output, so it doesn't affect my setup at all.

DVD-Audio discs also sound significantly better with the sum feature disabled, since there is better channel separation. 2-channels sources sounds the same as before. I think I'm going to stick with the sum channels feature disabled.

I also found that if put the volume on the 3sixty down a notch, the little hiss I had goes away and its still louder than I ever plan to comfortably listen to.

 

i found out something funny today. As i was runing the 3sixty software setup and setting my gains again today i used the 3sixty knob as a main volume controller, now the hiss doesnt exist anymore. My problem thoe is that i cant get the sub to sound right and the funny thing that i noticed today is that when i put a 100 hz tone at 0db to set my gains acording to, the sub channel indicator always shows cliping and it doesnt matter at what volume it is set to. is that suppose to be normal or not. Even in regular songs i always see it blink red. On the front and back channel it doesnt do it.

do u guys have the same thing or is my unit defective ?

 

My sub sounds pretty good. Here some things you can check or try that I did.

Did you disconnect the remote when doing the 3sixty setup? I had it disconnected.
Did you disconnect the remote when setting the gains? I had it disconnected.
What volume did was your head unit at wen you set the gains? I used 30.
What happens when you play the 3sixty setup CD, the track that just beeps? Is the clip indicator flashing or is it steady on. During setup, I set mine so that it just barely blinks.
Is the polarity right for the sub input? Someone said here said that they had a problem with this on their 3sixty.

Also, I think 100hz test tone for the sub might be a little high. I used 50hz for my sub, since I have my crossover set at around 95hz. I used 150hz for the cabin speakers. Maybe you should try something lower than a 100hz.

 

Im not using the 100 hz signal to set the gains for the sub but when i use it to set the gains for the cabin speakers i see the indicator flashing red on the 3sixty on the last knob wich i belive is for the sub. It does not do it when i use the 3sixty cd to set the clipping point. I was just wondering when u play music regular cds whatever and looking at the 3sixty does the gain setting on the 3sixty for the sub blink red or not. Its not constantly on but it blinks all the time when i play music i belive at any volume. As i said when doing the setup with the 3sixty disk it does not do it and also while playing a 1khz tone.

I dont see a reason why it should blink red when everything is set right and yea i used the volume 30 to set everything as well.

 

another thing i found out is that when i have the subwoofer level on the stock unit at -2 it doesnt do the clipping on the 3sixty. I think it sends a much cleaner signal at that point so im gonna try run the 3sixty setup with the -2 subwoofer level and see what happens. i dont know how u guys dont see that i mean at this point that i have it now it hits hard but its not as clean it has some hangover.......

 

can someone confirm this please i just wanna know if im the only one with that problem or is everybodys 3sixty bahaving like that.

 

I just checked it out now with a song that has some punchy bass. Like you said, the sub channel clip indicator blinks even at moderate volume. When I put the volume at 30, I even get some clipping on the front channel, but I believe that is normal operation. The sub clipping at moderate volume though is not.

I haven't played around with the levels yet. I'll probably just turn down the level screw a little and see how that sounds.

It might be a good idea to post your question on the Rockford forums and see what their experts say.

 

i posted on their webisde forum and we are trying to figure it out. If i find out anything ill let u know

 

So whats ur final thought on this ???

 

I posted some new screenshots from my tests in your thread on the RF forums:
http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/forum...TOPIC_ID=28484

You can either lower the level screw for the sub on the 3sixty to min or you can set the sub level in the head unit -5 or lower and rerun the setup. Some combination would probably work too.

But if you set the 3sxity level screw too low, the center channel in the 3sixty will turn off. I'm not using the center channel, so it doesn't affect my setup. But if you are using it, you can try experimenting with the level screw to find the min level at which the center speaker will still work and the sub won't clip.

 

I am not using the center channel either as i dont have no more channels to power it up so im using it of the stock anyhow. wich puts me in the same situation as u so i guess im gonna do the same thing as u did. at wich volume u think is best to have the setup done ?

 

I did it at 28. I don't think it make much of a difference though. You want to be around 3/4. So 30 is fine too.

 

i wonder if many tl users are aware of this situtation. so many have done the isntall but nobody seemed to mention a thing i wonder why ....

 

Clipping in the sub channel is harder to hear since its lower frequencies. They might not have noticed. I would've missed it if you hadn't mentioned it. Also, some may have just turned down the level screw if they saw the light go off too much.

If there was clipping in the cabin speakers, I'm sure we would've heard about it much sooner.