? about gains

[raisefold 10+ year member]

Hey guys, I have a question about setting the gains on my amp.

If i have an amp that is 300 watts @ 2 ohm...and gives around its rated power. and If i wanted to give my sub 300 watts. according to the gains tutorial, i would set the gains until it says 24.49 on my dmm. but when i do that...the gain is only about 1/2 on my amp. but im thinking...if the amp does rated 300 watts....wouldnt i set the gains up all the way? im confused

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[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

That's why the gain isn't a volume knob //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

If you have a strong preout voltage from your source unit, I wouldn't be surprised at seeing what you're seeing...

 

[psych0ticnemes1 5,000+ posts]

no... the gain just matches the voltage from your head unit... it is not a wattage controller... yadda yadda yadda

 

[raisefold 10+ year member]

my preout is only 2v i believe. so basically my amp needs to match the source voltage? so if i have a 500 watt amp...and i set it to 24.49 on my dmm, would that mean my sub is still getting 500 watt? still confused.

 

[soul05 10+ year member]

http://www.bcae1.com/gaincon2.htm

that might clear up your confusion

 

[mtdewelf 10+ year member]

the gain is used to set how quickly you get your power, or at which volum on your h/u you get max power. You will still get same power if you max it out, it'll just be clipped(bad) power. Set it correctly, which it seems you did, and be happy.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

Wow! I must really have a lot of power left, cause I have my gains all the way down (and I mean ALL the way) on my front stage amps. I wonder why my fronts are still really loud...Oh yeah, it's because I used a line driver to boost the preamp voltage exactly so I could get max volume with the gain set as low as it would go...

My point is, don't read anything into where in its range the gain is set when you know that you have set it correctly. I have explained many times in gereat detail how a gain works and a cursory search should quickly reveal one or mny of those threads.