Amp problem?

[SplAffair 10+ year member]

I'm testing an alpine pdx 1000.1 1000 rms mono block. I'm setting my gains with my trusty DMM at 44.7 (square root of 2000 is 44.7xxxx) is it Normal to have to turn the gane about 3/4 of the way up to reach 44.7? I'm using a alpine cde-136bt which I believe is 2v pre amps.

Click to read more...

 

[bubbagumper6 5,000+ posts]

There is no "normal" as there is no standard RCA pre-out voltage. The gain is there to match the input voltage, i.e. the lower the input voltage the higher the gain needs to be. You could have a very weak input signal that would require the gain to be at 100% and still not produce a clipped wave. If you're getting the correct output voltage you should be fine. Having an oscilloscope can be great for this however as you don't need to guess you're not clipping, you can just view the waveform itself and check...

 

[SplAffair 10+ year member]

There is no "normal" as there is no standard RCA pre-out voltage. The gain is there to match the input voltage, i.e. the lower the input voltage the higher the gain needs to be. You could have a very weak input signal that would require the gain to be at 100% and still not produce a clipped wave. If you're getting the correct output voltage you should be fine. Having an oscilloscope can be great for this however as you don't need to guess you're not clipping, you can just view the waveform itself and check...

I need to get one. How much are they?

 

[bubbagumper6 5,000+ posts]

I need to get one. How much are they?

You can get a handheld DSO Nano scope from amazon or ebay for ~$70