Amp advice

[AnthonyO 10+ year member]

Maybe I am just getting old. But, I have tuned both my amps. RF R2-300x4 set with -5db 100hz. And the RF R2-500x1 tuned with a -10db 40hz. And I am just not seeing the full potential from the sub. Granted its a Kicker L7R in Kicker enclosure. But I have had several single 10's that were lower quality that seemed to get louder. The sub is only rated for 500 watts rms. Thats why I paired it with the 500x1. Should I go up to like 750 or 1000 watts because of box rise?

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[LsGuy]

Different subs have different efficiency, volume vs power. The box also certainly doesn't help.

 

[nauc 10+ year member]

you sure its all wired up right?

 

[AnthonyO 10+ year member]

you sure its all wired up right?

Yes. Wired up at 2ohms.

 

[AnthonyO 10+ year member]

I think the main problem is that I do tuning on head unit at 51. It clips at 52. But I listen to music at 25-31. Its loud enough for me at that volume

 

[nauc 10+ year member]

try setting your gains like this. the correct test tones are at the very bottom

Amplifier Level Setting Guide

Note:The following article describes the Amplifier Level Setting process for most car audio amplifiers, regardless of brand. Specific target voltages for applicable JL Audio amplifiers are included...

jlaudio.zendesk.com

 

[AnthonyO 10+ year member]

try setting your gains like this. the correct test tones are at the very bottom

http://[URL]https://jlaudio.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/204374120-Amplifier-Level-Setting-Guide

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The R2 amps have clean setup on the amp. No need for DD1 or DMM.

 

[Buck 5,000+ posts]

I think the main problem is that I do tuning on head unit at 51. It clips at 52. But I listen to music at 25-31. Its loud enough for me at that volume

When I set my gains, I set them based off the maximum that I turn my radio up to. One of my radios went up to 35. The highest I went was 29, so that's what volume level I used to tune my amps. I do everything by ear, as well. I like doing that for blending reasons. Crossover points are usually fairly consistent, you may have minor changes. I just set all my crossovers where I think I want them, and tune the crossovers as I turn the gains up. I actually feel uncomfortable somewhat with tuning with equipment, besides just a volt meter for system voltage, because the songs aren't tones. Songs vary so much in their own amplitude that it sometimes takes finessing that you can't do with tones to get the system to blend well over across a wide music variety. Music is alive, and yes, I will ride around with the back seat folded down with a screw driver tuning a sub amp down the highway. Done it several times. Certain songs and certain notes can really cause a sub to heat up, and you can't really catch that with tones, because some songs are boosted way worse than a tone, clipped to hell. Some of your favorite songs are probably clipped to hell, but we're all going to still listen to them. So, you have to tune for that, too.

 

[AnthonyO 10+ year member]

When I set my gains, I set them based off the maximum that I turn my radio up to. One of my radios went up to 35. The highest I went was 29, so that's what volume level I used to tune my amps. I do everything by ear, as well. I like doing that for blending reasons. Crossover points are usually fairly consistent, you may have minor changes. I just set all my crossovers where I think I want them, and tune the crossovers as I turn the gains up. I actually feel uncomfortable somewhat with tuning with equipment, besides just a volt meter for system voltage, because the songs aren't tones. Songs vary so much in their own amplitude that it sometimes takes finessing that you can't do with tones to get the system to blend well over across a wide music variety. Music is alive, and yes, I will ride around with the back seat folded down with a screw driver tuning a sub amp down the highway. Done it several times. Certain songs and certain notes can really cause a sub to heat up, and you can't really catch that with tones, because some songs are boosted way worse than a tone, clipped to hell. Some of your favorite songs are probably clipped to hell, but we're all going to still listen to them. So, you have to tune for that, too.

I tried this. With my headunit at 35, I can turn my amps to max gain with not clipping. I am thinking my headunit puts out very little output voltage at 35 and thats why I have to turn the gains to max. Either way, I just couldn't do it that way. My old mind just said Nope, Max Gain Bad....lol

 

[AnthonyO 10+ year member]

My gains on both amps are set right at 3 maybe a little higher. Thats where the clip light on the CLEAN OUT comes on.

 

[Buck 5,000+ posts]

I tried this. With my headunit at 35, I can turn my amps to max gain with not clipping. I am thinking my headunit puts out very little output voltage at 35 and thats why I have to turn the gains to max. Either way, I just couldn't do it that way. My old mind just said Nope, Max Gain Bad....lol

Let me share this:

Just because a radio says it has 4v pre-out RCA power doesn't mean that power is clean. I think some people think I'm bragging, but I've probably literally installed around a couple of hundred of systems. It was years ago, but we used to run through 5 cars a day sometimes, we could have 10 cars we had at the shop during tax season.

There's many radios that start distorting well before full volume. Some of these radios start distorting at half volume. That's why I had my 9887 for so long, that was a true 4v+ radio. Very clean signal, from all I could tell.

One thing I noticed is this: I noticed, often times, the radios that have volume levels that go up to 60 or 80 or whatever, they tend to be the crappier radios. It's like they put so many numbers on there that it wears you out turning it up in like 1/80th increments, so much so that you're less likely to blow your equipment from the dirty signal. I swear that seems like it's a thing, to me.

Radios that turn up to say 30, 40, 50 or so, those radios seem to be better. Idk why in the hell these companies need more than 40-50 volume steps. I had 35, that was perfect. If your radio can be turned up to 80 or something, maybe think about why that would ever be necessary.

 

[Buck 5,000+ posts]

So it's always possible that your radio is distorting the signal or giving your amps dirty signal from the RCA pre-outs, even maybe at as low as 50% volume, some may be 75%. That's why you gotta have ears to tune. I can hear this stuff when I'm tuning. I don't mean I'm special or anything, many people can hear it, to whatever extent.

My point is that you really have to make sure all pieces of equipment are acting clean.

Your signal is LITERALLY the most important thing to have clean/sharp/powerful. If the signal is dirty, then the amps are going to amplify dirty, and every speaker will play dirty. It's so important.

 

[nauc 10+ year member]

im still running the 9887, love that thing. i have a scope, and at full volume (the RCA outs) theres 0 clipping. the internal amp clips at volume 21 out of 35.

 

[Buck 5,000+ posts]

im still running the 9887, love that thing. i have a scope, and at full volume (the RCA outs) theres 0 clipping. the internal amp clips at volume 21 out of 35.

I always turned that thing off

 

[AnthonyO 10+ year member]

What I was trying to point out. My headunit says 4v. We all know thats with ideal voltage yadda yadda. It has a max volume of 60. Why, I don't know. Almost every pioneer I have owned has a high volume. Mine distorts at 52. So I tune my amps at 51. Thats when I am getting the cleanest signal from my head-unit. But I usually listen to my music at 25-31 volume. So I tried to gain match my amps at 35 volume. The signal coming into the amps were clean. But I was able to turn my gain to max gain without any distortion at that volume. Meaning its probably putting out less than .2v from the headunit at that volume. So both amps were tuned by to headunit volume of 51, gains matched for no distortion.

The R2 amps have the clean setup. I marked the clean in at 40hz and 100hz. 40hz clipped at 53, 100hz clipped at 52. So I stuck with 51. The 300x4 is tuned utilizing a 100hz -5db tone and the 500x1 is tuned with 40hz -10db.

What I was trying to point out is that the gain is not a volume knob. It is a gain match. Allows me to match my headunits voltage out to the amplifier. Thats why at 51 volume, my gains are at 3 on the amps maybe a little higher. Not much. But at lower volume I was able to max out my amps gain, because my output voltage was pretty much non existent.