Am I breaking things?

[ledzeppac 10+ year member]

I'm fairly smart, however this is my first install with componants and a sub.

setup is:

kicker ks 5.25 comps 65 watts rms

kicker compvr 10 inch

Alpine mrp-450 70X4

Alpine mrp-d450 220 4 ohm and 450 2 om

1st. my crossovers are glowing extremely bright... just as brighter than my maglight. Are they supposed to do this?

Also, I set the gains to around 65% ( I know I know)... I am listening for distortion. The amp gets pretty hot and by the end of 30 minutes with the volume up pretty loud it cut out. I know that would be a sign of clipping/distortion/overpowering etc... but the gains were only 65-70% up and I was only using 2 channels... And for comparison my mono block wasn't even warm...

Lastly my kicker comps sound nice, get decently loud. BUT they are not that loud. nothing to show off about, nor make my ears ring. My cheesy 5x7s running off the HU over power them when the fader is balanced. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crying.gif.ec0ebefe590df0251476573bc49e46d8.gif

Any input would be great.

Click to read more...

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

The position of the gain control doesn't mean anything. Depending on the HU or processor upstream from the amp, you could clip the amp with the gain set at 0%. Turn the gain down. It is highly unlikely that it needs to be as high as you have it set. Read the gain setting tutorial at the top of the amplifier forum and follow its advice.

 

[ledzeppac 10+ year member]

The position of the gain control doesn't mean anything. Depending on the HU or processor upstream from the amp, you could clip the amp with the gain set at 0%. Turn the gain down. It is highly unlikely that it needs to be as high as you have it set. Read the gain setting tutorial at the top of the amplifier forum and follow its advice.

oh well ok that makes sense.

Are the crossovers supposed to glow super bright like they are? And the kickers "should" be much louder than the old 5x7 off HU power...

 

[theCybe 5,000+ posts]

You'll probably need to make some adjustments on your headunit if it has any sort of equalization.

The light is meant to protect your tweeters from the obscene amount of clipped power you're sending to them - the more power it sees, the brighter (hotter) it gets, and becomes a stronger resistor. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif