another gain setting question...

I have a question about setting gains with a dvm. My question is that i am setting gains on a cadence sqa-4 60x4 rms amp in my boat going to 2 sets of polk db6501 6.5 components. The speakers rms is 125 watts. Funny thing is i meant to order an sqa-4100 which is an 100 watt rms amp. I went ahead and got the gain voltage chart and found that 125 watts is like 22 volts and set it there. The gain knob is about halfway up, then after finding this is only a 60 rms amp i figured no way. My next step was to take an amperage reading to find out how much current i'm really dealing with and calculate exact impedance as well to figure actual wattage i'm recieving. Since i am most likely underpowering can i set the gain close to max as long as my calculations are near 60-70 watts or will the signal be clipping. I don't know the quality of this cadence amp and I do not have an oscilloscope to check with. On another note, am i missing a lot by only powering 60 watts, with high pass filters set and passive crossovers i get distortion after volume 30 of 35 as is, will more power just create the distortion at a lower head unit volume. Or is the head unit probably clipping at that level and more power will create a louder volume at 30 of 35?
I appreciate any knowledge to help me out, i love electronics and learning about them.
Thanks
Brian

If you set your gains based on 60w then you will not be clipping assuming two things:
A) The amp does at least rated power
B) You are using the correct impedance for that amp to be @ 60w... If it's 60w @ 2 ohms and say only 30 or 40 @ 4 ohms then that could be a problem.

Really, the only way to be absolutely sure is with an oscilloscope.

My main concern was seeing how at max capability i will still be underpowering, i didn't think it was good to just set gains all the way up. I figured the amp wouldn't produce quality output at it's max level.

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Originally Posted by kerpit

My main concern was seeing how at max capability i will still be underpowering, i didn't think it was good to just set gains all the way up. I figured the amp wouldn't produce quality output at it's max level.

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The gain knob does not set some sort of percentage of power. It is gain applied. It depends on the input signal voltage... depending on that, you could clip at any point... it all depends.