# Issues with DSP-408 installation Please help



## Only the best (Mar 20, 2013)

Hey guys, so I am in the middle of a build right now and I have everything put in. Everything wired up. What I am running right now:

DSP: Dayton DSP-408

Tweeters: CDT 1200is
Mid: SLA Acoustics AR3
Woofer: CDT HD-M6v.2

Amplifier: WolframAlpha 90.4
Wolfram 125.4

The 125.4 has yet to come in, but thats not the issue herer.

My Vehicle:

Dodge Ram 1500 2013 Sport with 8.4 Uconnect an head unit and the alpine sound system upgrade.

What I've done so far:

I have taken the front left and front right speaker outputs from the alpine amplifier and took the positive and negative from each speaker connection to make L&R RCA. Then I split that into another RCA to have 2 full inputs into the Dayton DSP-408. Then I have a 4 channel RCA going back to the 90.4 amp that I currently have.


Things to know b4 we get into it:

Front left speaker isnt working yet... not sure why... probably my fault for how i hooked it up.
Door speakers and the 2 speakers in the rear roof are still being ran off of the alpine amplifier until i get the 125.4 in.
Door speakers (except driver position), center dash speaker, and rear roof speakers working at this point.

Issues And weird ****:

I attempted to connect the remote wire of the DSP to the "pink" wire that is located near my ignition as I put a volt meter and made sure the wire only went to 12v when the vehicle turned on. This allowed the DSP to turn on with the start of the truck which was great... Buuuuutt, none of the speakers in the truck were working AT ALL. Not 100% sure why but I tried to go ahead and set up the channels in the software for the DSP while I was connected to it, it was able to be recognized by my computer to download the driver but was never actually "recognized". This is probably another issue to solve. I then attempted to turn the truck off to reset the DSP... But when my push to start went to the "off" position the truck was still running, with the head unit turned off. So I assume that the wire that the DSP was connected to may have caused an issue, but I do not know why a simple 12V remote turn on wire would cause this to happen. I have checked the RCA's that I made to make sure that i soldered everything correctly as to how I explained it. Maybe I did that part wrong? I am not sure. If anyone can give me some insight I would greatly appreciate it.

-Zach


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## gjmallory (Apr 13, 2010)

Not really sure about your wiring in car, but I also had a no output issue with the DSP-408. The first step in my troubleshooting was to take the dsp and see if it worked in my home system, since it also works on AC. In my case, it did work, which meant the unit wasn't defective. Ultimate fix for me was turning down the output on the DSP. Turned it down and "SOUND". 




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## Only the best (Mar 20, 2013)

gjmallory said:


> Not really sure about your wiring in car, but I also had a no output issue with the DSP-408. The first step in my troubleshooting was to take the dsp and see if it worked in my home system, since it also works on AC. In my case, it did work, which meant the unit wasn't defective. Ultimate fix for me was turning down the output on the DSP. Turned it down and "SOUND".
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Hmm yeah I could take it inside to rule out the issue of the DSP. It most likely has to do with the way I have things hooked up. I bet the DSP is fine. I am sure there is a crucial step I am missing and somone may be able to point it out. Or something I can do to check and make sure this is functioning.


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## Only the best (Mar 20, 2013)

Hold on... Could the fact that I am creating RCA's off of the left and right speaker WHILE ALSO attempting to run the speakers on the same wires cause the alpine unit to short out?


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## ryanr7386 (Feb 21, 2011)

Sounds like you have a Wiring Mess on your hands. Double check the DSP I sold you again please.


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## timps67 (Dec 29, 2012)

Only the best said:


> I have taken the front left and front right speaker outputs from the alpine amplifier and took the positive and negative from each speaker connection to make L&R RCA. Then I split that into another RCA to have 2 full inputs into the Dayton DSP-408. Then I have a 4 channel RCA going back to the 90.4 amp that I currently have.





Only the best said:


> Hold on... Could the fact that I am creating RCA's off of the left and right speaker WHILE ALSO attempting to run the speakers on the same wires cause the alpine unit to short out?


Are you saying you're using speaker outputs from the amp as low level inputs to the dsp, and running speakers off of the same wires?


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## Only the best (Mar 20, 2013)

timps67 said:


> Are you saying you're using speaker outputs from the amp as low level inputs to the dsp, and running speakers off of the same wires?


No that setup was incorrect. I used the speaker outputs to the high level inputs of the DSP. I have attempted to use the front door speakers coming to find out that the signal they produce is not a full signal. However the rear speakers are a full signal and I used that into the high level input and still was not able to get a signal back to the amplifier.

I then took the DSP into the house and hooked it up to my home stereo in line with the sub and attempted to get the signal to output and still had no luck.


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## OldNewbie (Jan 12, 2019)

I am confused as to the current setup and associated issues. Could you either:
A) Explain again fully what the current wiring situation is, or 
B) Make a sketch of all the wiring and then post a photo of the sketch
And then list what is working and not working.
Thank you.


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## Only the best (Mar 20, 2013)

OldNewbie said:


> I am confused as to the current setup and associated issues. Could you either:
> A) Explain again fully what the current wiring situation is, or
> B) Make a sketch of all the wiring and then post a photo of the sketch
> And then list what is working and not working.
> Thank you.


Think of it like this

Wires: (this is going into high level input, not RCA's)

HeadUnit --> OEM Alpine Amplifier --> Rear Door speaker Pos = DSP Ch1 Pos
--> Rear Door speaker Neg = DSP Ch1 Neg

DSP Ch1 L Out --> 4-channel-Amp ch1
DSP Ch1 R Out --> 4-channel-Amp ch2


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## OldNewbie (Jan 12, 2019)

So with full range high level inputs to the 408, you are getting no signal to the amp? 
And you have been unable to verify the DSP is working when connecting it to your sub?
I would run a signal (CD / Phone) into the DSP and then send that signal into an aux input on your home stereo to see if the DSP is working. You may not get a good idea of how it is working (or not working) when using is between the stereo and the sub.


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## Only the best (Mar 20, 2013)

OldNewbie said:


> So with full range high level inputs to the 408, you are getting no signal to the amp?
> And you have been unable to verify the DSP is working when connecting it to your sub?
> I would run a signal (CD / Phone) into the DSP and then send that signal into an aux input on your home stereo to see if the DSP is working. You may not get a good idea of how it is working (or not working) when using is between the stereo and the sub.


Yeah I havent done the CD part. But I have connected my phone into an aux-to-RCA into the back of the DSP and still get no signal out of the RCA's... my guess is the hardware is just faulty. I looked at reviews on partsexpress for this and its not far off from what i've been reading. 

Keep this in mind. The DSP that I was sold was in phenominal condition when it arrived to me. Basically a brand new unit. No scratches, nothing that would have indicated misuse. Well packaged.


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## gjmallory (Apr 13, 2010)

N when you try it in the house make sure you set the "turn on" switch to either speaker or rca


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## OldNewbie (Jan 12, 2019)

But you have an established USB connection to the DSP, you can modify the mixer, crossovers and Eq's - correct? You have good output levels?
Have you downloaded the latest driver from Dayton? It fixed a few issues for me.


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## Iamsecond (Jan 3, 2017)

you have to make sure the input switch is set properly.
it has three settings and you have to choose the proper one for your set up.

it should be set on rem, but if you are using high level inputs it might be different.

I had the same issue when trying to set it up in the house but then when I put it in the car and set it to rem everything is fine. 

I would also suggest using an appropriate pac loc converter to help simplify the install.


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## MK-ULTRABALL (Mar 1, 2020)

For anyone coming across this thread, here is what worked for me when I had a problem with my dayton 408 DSP not giving any output to any speakers: I hadn't enabled the source for the output channels yet. Once I enabled this, the output RCAs carried signals from the DSP.


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