BASSFACE DB1.2 User manual

!Warning!
Bass Face products can produce sound pressure levels that can
permanently damage your hearing. Please exercise extreme caution
when setting volume levels. Also be mindful of other listeners, they might
not enjoy listening at the same levels as you. We will not be held in any
way responsible for injuries caused by the misuse of our products.
Please take care when attempting any alterations or installations with the Please take care when attempting any alterations or installations with the
electrical system of the car. ALWAYS disconnect the positive terminal at
the battery.
BassBass Face operates a policy of continuous improvement and reserves the right to update
and alter the content and design of both product and instructions as it sees fit. Although
the information contained in the instruction manuals is given in good faith based on
extensive testing and experience the final responsibility for the installation and operation
of your system must rest with the installer and the operator. If you are installing your
equipment yourself please be realistic about your abilities and seek professional advice
if you are unsure about any aspect of the task that you are undertaking.
IfIf you face a particular problem with your installation or product we will be happy to
answer your questions. Please email [e-mail] - please note that our
response time is 2 to 3 days, and that we are closed over the weekend. For more urgent
help please contact your country distributor. In the UK this is Thompsons Ltd
(www.thompsonsltd.co.uk)
Please note that Bass Face is unable to process warranty support directly. For warranty
support you MUST contact your distributor.
Introduction:Introduction:
Firstly, thank you for your purchase. Every element of this product has been optimised to
give you the best possible performance for your money. We think that Bass Face
represents the highest quality to price ratio available on the market today.
Please take the time to read these instructions carefully. You will need to follow them to
have a successful install and get the most from the product.
DoDo remember that incorrect installation or abuse is NOT covered under warranty – it is
YOUR responsibility to make sure that your installation and partnered product is suitable
and compatible.

The Bass Face DB1.2 amplifier is a high power mono amplifier with an oversized power
supply for high fidelity distortion free sound and increased reliability.
BeforeBefore you even get the amplifier out of the box (realistically, you will have done this
already and boy it looks sweet doesn’t it!) you will need to install a suitable wiring kit in
your vehicle. We recommend the use of a 4AWG wiring kit with appropriate termination for
maximum performance, especially if you will be running the amplifier at 2 or 1 ohm
impedance. If you are planning to run multiple amplifiers you will need to up the gauge of
the wiring accordingly. Do bear in mind that many manufacturers offer wiring kits that
actually come up smaller in true wire gauge than advertised.
ToTo begin, disconnect the battery terminals, taking note of any required precautions
suggested by the vehicle manufacturer such as alarm or radio codes, or on board
computer or AGM battery requirements.
YouYou need to find a suitable point on the firewall (bulkhead) to run the power wire through,
online forums can be an excellent resource for information about your specific vehicle as
people often share their experiences, having a quick search online can save you hours
looking for a suitable location. If you have to drill a hole, you will need to fit a rubber
grommet to ensure the wire does not get damaged as a short will ruin the whole setup and
can be very dangerous. The positive wire needs to go to the + positive terminal on the
battery. A fuse of appropriate size to protect the cable (for a quality 4 AWG kit we suggest
80A) needs to be fitted in line and no more than 18” from the battery.80A) needs to be fitted in line and no more than 18” from the battery.
Once you have the cable in the car, run it back to the boot or to where you intend to fit the
amplifier. When you do this, be aware you will need to run the remote cable and the RCA’s
from the head unit back to the amp too. A common mistake is to forget that a car amplifier
needs the remote "REM" 12V turn on cable to see power for it to even work! If you only fit
power and ground you’re going to get…. Nothing!
If the wires you are running have to run over or go alongside other looms of the car, try to
cross them at right angles to avoid unwanted interference in the signal, and try not to run
them parallel with other cables either. If you can, run the power and the signal cables
down opposite sides of the car. This isn’t essential but if you do get any interference once
the job is complete the first thing to look at will be separating these wires so if you can do
it first it makes a lot of sense!
The absolutely most important aspect of the power install is the earth wire. This wants to The absolutely most important aspect of the power install is the earth wire. This wants to
be very securely bolted to the chassis of the car. We recommend drilling a hole (take care
not to drill through your spare tyre, brake lines or anything else!) in the boot floor and sand
off any paint to the bare metal where the wire will be connected. A bad earth is a very
common flaw in installation and can cause a number of headaches later down the line so
be sure to take care in doing this. Do NOT use a self tapping screw to try and screw the
earth down, as it will come loose and impair performance. Other common disasters
includeinclude trying to earth to rear light mounting bolts, boot lock mountings and other ways to
“trap” the cable in the vein hope you might get a good earth. For every volt the amplifier
doesn’t see it requires TWICE the power to create the same output. That means poor
performance and a possible broken amplifier…. DO THE EARTH RIGHT! Please see visual
guide for this at the end of this manual.

Once your power cable, RCA and remote lead are all securely running through the car to
where you want the amp and the earth wire is fastened securely, somewhere close to the
amp, you can fit the amplifier. Don’t forget to fit the bass remote control and run the
control cable with the other wires to the amplifier! This can be plugged in right away.
TheThe amp needs to be mounted on a solid surface, favourites are boot floors, backs of
seats etc. Wherever you do choose to mount the amp, it needs sufficient ventilation; 2-3”
around will be enough. We do not recommend mounting an amplifier on a bass box as the
vibrations can cause damage to the internals of the amplifier over time.
YouYou are now ready to connect your subwoofers! The DB1.2 has 2 positive and negative
connectors, this is for ease of connecting multiple speakers and bridges inside the
amplifier (THE ARE NOT SEPARATE OUTPUTS IT IS A MONO AMP) Take care that the
positive on the speaker is going to the positive on the amplifier. If your car speakers and
woofer are connected “out of phase” then it can severely affect bass output as the
speakers might cancel each other out acoustically.
ThisThis bit is VERY IMPORTANT. You need to ensure that the load you subject your amplifier
to is within specification and of a sensible nature and that you have the appropriate
cooling where applicable. This particular amplifier is suitable for running a mono load at at
minimum of 1 Ohms, however at 1 Ohm it can generate a large amount of heat due to
being less efficient. At 1 Ohm loads, it is YOUR responsibility to ensure the amp is kept
cool. Vertical mounting, “hot boxing” or other improper installation can cause severe
damage to the amplifier. The TDOS protection circuitry reads current draw to define
protectionprotection parameters, the algorithm it uses presumes the amplifier is used at 4 Ohm. If
you are using the amp at 1 Ohm you will need to bear in mind that the protection circuitry
may not intervene in time. That is not to say that the amplifier can not function reliably at
1 Ohm. It just needs the appropriate cooling; if used in a confined space it needs fans to
circulate the air (especially if mounted vertically) ideally the amp needs to be horizontal on
the ground plane and be mounted to a heat conductive plate. A regular mistake that is
made is to mount the amp onto a board that has been covered in carpet. This restricts
airflowairflow under the amplifier, limiting the amount of convection cooling that can be achieved
and insulating the amplifier underneath. This actually builds up heat inside the amp! Avoid
mounting on to carpet where possible!
Just as important is to remember that as well as the actual physical impedance you need
to consider the type of load you are going to subject your amplifier to. A single (or pair of)
8, 10 or 12 or 15 inch subwoofer of an appropriately matched construction and in a nicely
designed enclosure will be fine run off a DB1.2 amp at 4 ohms, 2 ohms or 1Ohm in the
case of the pair (assuming proper setup) but you don’t want to try and run eight massive
heavy coned dual voice coil monster woofers off it, even though on paper you might well
have a 2 Ohm load. You have to use a bit of common sense – if you need to fill a van with
eighteight woofers like that then use eight DB1.2’s. Big power woofers often have heavy cones,
these type of woofers can have big impedance dips and can cause clipping on transients.
Obviously, we recommend the Bass Face range of subwoofers and speakers for ultimate
compatibility. It's also worth mentioning at this point, that, running audio into the amp,
with any level of gain, but no speaker attached can and can seriously damage your
amplifier if done for long periods of time. Some amps have load sensing and will shut the
amp down if no speaker is attached, some do not. Car amplifiers often do not.

Another danger to your amplifier is mounting it onto your bass box. While this is a very
popular technique, people completely overlook the fact that the bass box will cause the
internals of the amplifier to be vibrated violently and can cause components to become
disconnected from the board, or crack the board itself. This will of course break the
amplifier and would not be covered under the limited warranty.
TimeTime to lay on some power. Connect the earth first. Then 12V power, then remote. Then
connect in the RCA cables and you can move onto setting up the gain and sound controls
on the amplifier (the fun bit!)
Setting the “Gain” or “level” on the amp is a crucial aspect and NEEDS TO BE DONE
WITH CARE, otherwise you can easily damage your equipment. Before we move onto this
we need to be sure the crossover settings are right for the application.
WeWe recommend a LPF of about 100hz initially as an excellent starting point for most car
woofers. Try 80Hz and 120Hz too – you will notice the sound change. If you are running a
15 inch woofer then you will want to be looking at a lower crossover frequency (like 80Hz)
– if it’s an 8 inch driver then you may want to go up to 120, 150 or even higher.
Once your crossover settings are set up, you can move on to the gain or “Level”. This bit
is REALLY important!
BeforeBefore you do anything else, please ensure the BASS BOOST knob is set to 0 – I.e.
switched off. We also suggest you turn the bass remote level to a mid setting to allow
adjustment later to taste.
Next,Next, you need to learn about the subsonic filter. This is a crucial part of the setup. When
the music frequency goes lower than that which the subwoofer system can reproduce
with any guts you are wasting a lot of energy asking the amplifier to create those parts of
the music. Worse still, your woofer will try its best to create them and find itself moving
backwards and forwards at very large levels of excursion and distortion from the
overstretched amplifier. Many bass amplifiers do not have subsonic filters – this is
MADNESS and results in a lot of burned out woofers and amplifiers. Many bass amplifiers
DODO have subsonic filters that their owners do not understand – this is MADNESS and
results in a lot of burned out woofers and amplifiers!!!
As a rule of thumb you should set your subsonic filter to about 30Hz – this is a
generalisation because obviously different subwoofer setups can play to different low
frequencies. Something like an 8 inch sub in a ported box designed to be very punchy will
struggle to get below 50Hz – in which case inch up the subsonic to that level to improve
all round performance and protect the components. If you have a 15 inch woofer in a well
sized sealed box that is designed to sound low and atmospheric then you may be able to
come down to 20Hz with the filter. As you turn the filter up you will hear it stopping the low
bassbass from being played – but you will notice that you can play the music louder with less
distortion. You need to set this to optimum balance later.
Now it is time to disconnect all other subwoofers or speakers so that you can hear only
the woofer powered by this amplifier. Next, turn the level on the amp all the way down.
Choose some music that you’re not particularly keen on that has a good range of bass,
treble and vocals (helps not to get lost in the music whilst you work on the system.)

Then go to your head unit and gradually turn up the volume until you begin to hear slight
distortion from the subwoofer. This is normally about ¾ the way up the scale. This is the
maximum setting that you will EVER use from now on – make a mental note of it. Next,
turn the head unit down from here by around ¼. This builds in a little bit of “headroom” so
should you have a track that is recorded quieter than the others or is at a lower bit rate,
you can boost the volume without pushing anything into distortion.
OnceOnce the volume is set on the head unit, go to the amplifier and slowly start to turn the
“Level” knob up, keep going till it is at a level you are happy with (that isn’t going to deafen
you!) or until your woofer(s) are just about to distort. If they do start to distort, turn back
down till they sound perfectly clear.
OneOne thing that you need to learn is how to actually hear a woofer “distort” – it sounds
different than a full range speaker because rather than hearing distortion in the
conventional sense you will hear it as an unclean bass note – you may hear a cracking, a
metallic slapping sound or a rattle. It is CRITICAL that you detect this sound and back the
amp off to stop it NOW. If you do not perform this step you will become another sad
statistic in our “rejected warranty” book – you will be ringing up in about a week
wondering why your woofer or amplifier is toasted. Don’t be this sad individual!
YouYou will notice that earlier in the text we set the bass boost to off. This is because more
often than not this EQ control is misunderstood and can cause damage. The bass boost
control ramps a range of frequencies in the bass region that will cause more bass to be
created than the signal coming in from the head unit expects. It will also consume more
power and can push a system into distortion if the settings are not made carefully. An
example of a valid use of bass boost might be where your woofer system has an uneven
response – as you turn up the gain the upper region of the output becomes strained and
beginsbegins to distort but yet with low frequencies you are able to turn up the bass without
distortion. In this case, you would go back to the beginning of the setup instructions, get
the woofer playing at a modest level and then swing in some bass boost until the
distortion happens at the same volume level, regardless of the music you are playing.
Then, you would set the gain with the bass boost control in THAT position – to take
account of that level of boost. You ABSOLUTELY cannot increase the bass boost once
you have already set the gain level – you’ll overdrive the amplifier and burn something out.
Treat the bass remote with similar caution. It is effectively an overdrive gear – designed to
allow you to fine tune the sound to your preference. It cannot, however, make the system
more powerful than it already is! So yes, as you drive slowly with little tyre noise you might
want to reduce the setting on the cockpit knob to reduce the bass level. And yes, if you
are listening to a track with a low recording level and you fancy a bit more output you
might increase the setting. But it is your responsibility to listen for “dynamic compression”
(where you are turning the system up on the knob and yet the actual volume is not
increasing)increasing) since this is an indicator that the limits of the power available have been
reached and over-reached!
For strapping guide lines, please see the separate strapping manual, available on request.
We hope that these instructions have been helpful and that the information will help you
to build a well balanced and stable system that will provide years of listening pleasure.
Enjoy your system!

Strapping RCA Output
Strapping Audio Input Gain Control
Bass Boost Gain
Bass Boost Fequency
Low Pass Filter Frequency
Subsonic Filter Frequency
RCA Audio Input
Amp Status LEDs
Bass Remote Socket
REM
B+
Car Grounding Point Close to Amp
GND
Car Battery
+
-
Fuse
RCA Cables
Remote Cable

To the right here is a
complete fail, the earth has
been attached to painted
metal and held with a washer
and a self tapping screw, this
will most definitely cause
serious resistance and while
thethe amp may appear to
function correctly initially, at
higher output levels, the amp
will strain and a component
within will fail very quickly.
DO NOT DO YOUR EARTH
LIKE THIS!!! PLEASE! :)
To the left, we see a hole drilled directly into the
chassis, big enough for a bolt and with access to
the nut from behind. The area has been prepared by
sanding off all the paint down to the bare metal. on
the contact side of the hole. Although you do not
need to sand off as large an area as you see here,
this was done for illustration purposes.
Here you can see the finished product, as
you can see there will be ample contact
between the ring terminal and the chassis of
the car. The bolt is the correct size to clamp
down only on the ring. It’s worth mentioning
at this point, a quick blow over with primer
will stop the metal rusting too!
As explained in the previous instructions, getting
a good quality connection on the earth is critical
for getting your equipment working correctly. If
you get it wrong, it WILL fry your amp and WONT
be covered under warranty! These pictures give
you very clear examples of good and bad
practices.
ToTo the left you can see what is commony
percieved to be a good earthing point. It is not,
there will not be enough pressure on the ring
terminal and oxidisation will occur on surfaces.
X
X