Amp putting out rated power?

[microhaxo 10+ year member]

I would like to know if an amp is supposed to give out the rated rms power just from the gain and no bass enhancement with 0 bass level on the deck?

I know i have a shitty amp but with 0 on the sub level and 0 on my lows the amp only ouputs 19v or about 180w rms with gain fully up. I have to change settings from the HU, bass level to 3 and low to 6 and then i get my output of 500w.. All with bass boost set to off on the amp.

Is this normal or should the amp give out close to max rated rms power with gain alone?

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[01 S 10 10+ year member]

what amp?

with HU set on 0 or -1, and no bass boost, and gain at 1/2 or under i can get full output at about 80% volume

 

[IDSkoT 5,000+ posts]

I would like to know if an amp is supposed to give out the rated rms power just from the gain and no bass enhancement with 0 bass level on the deck?
I know i have a shitty amp but with 0 on the sub level and 0 on my lows the amp only ouputs 19v or about 180w rms with gain fully up. I have to change settings from the HU, bass level to 3 and low to 6 and then i get my output of 500w.. All with bass boost set to off on the amp.

Is this normal or should the amp give out close to max rated rms power with gain alone?

The gain is just to set the input level and has nothing really to do with the output other than if you turn the gain too high, the amp tries to over process a signal clipping it.

An amp at rated RMS power is at perfect gain settings (regardless of the pre-outs on the processor) at whatever volts it's rated at.

Most amps are rated @ 14 volts, some at 16, but very few at 12 (which is most cars.)

Setting bass boost and the like only make it louder because it's clipping the signal allowing more power to be sent.

 

[microhaxo 10+ year member]

The amp is getting 14.4v its a Sony xm-2200gtx

Right now the gain is 75% sub level is at about 4 on a scale of -5 to 5 and the low is set to 6 out of 10. The head unit volume is 19 out of 35 i believe.

And im getting 506 watts. (what i tuned it to run at)

I should say that the MAX output of my amp is 500w RMS.

 

[IDSkoT 5,000+ posts]

So you tuned it to max your amp out at 50% of your head unit's volume...?

=|

What're you asking here?

 

[microhaxo 10+ year member]

Ok so here..

I had the head unit set to 50% volume. Headunit settings: Low 0, bass level 0 on scale of -5 to 5 and my gain on the amp was 100% with zero bass boost. My output was only 180w.

My current setup that produces 506 watts is as follows:

Headunit settings: low 6, sub out level 4 and gain 75% no bass boost.

My original question is: Should an amp give out max rms wattage without help from the deck? eg by just using the level on the amp.

 

[Xprime4 10+ year member]

what's the deck? kenwood?

I guess your not setting the gain at 80% because you're driving the speaker in the hu amp. Is that right?

If not, then you should get it up to like 25/35 without worying about clipping from the hu. The subwoofer control doesn't make it clip if over 0, depending on the headunit. My clarion need to be at +6/-6 +6 to put a full 4v signal @ 28/33 on the deck.

So, set the headunit around 25-28/35, if you got an amp for the high, set the gain again.

Then go on on the sub, i'm sure you'll set the gain a lot lower. Like it's been stated, the max output of the amp can be reach from anywhere on the gain. It's dependant to the hu rca signal output

 

[n2audio 5,000+ posts]

Ok so here..
I had the head unit set to 50% volume. Headunit settings: Low 0, bass level 0 on scale of -5 to 5 and my gain on the amp was 100% with zero bass boost. My output was only 180w.

My current setup that produces 506 watts is as follows:

Headunit settings: low 6, sub out level 4 and gain 75% no bass boost.

My original question is: Should an amp give out max rms wattage without help from the deck? eg by just using the level on the amp.

This is all with a 0dB low frequency 50-60hz test tone?

 

[vario 10+ year member]

I would like to know if an amp is supposed to give out the rated rms power just from the gain and no bass enhancement with 0 bass level on the deck?
I know i have a shitty amp but with 0 on the sub level and 0 on my lows the amp only ouputs 19v or about 180w rms with gain fully up. I have to change settings from the HU, bass level to 3 and low to 6 and then i get my output of 500w.. All with bass boost set to off on the amp.

Is this normal or should the amp give out close to max rated rms power with gain alone?

Definitely depends on preout voltages on the deck as well. Some decks don't put out very much voltage on the rca's and therefore you have to significantly crank the amps up. Try setting volume near max as others have said and also measure the voltages on the rca's, it should be around 3-4 volts optimally if not more, some decks have weaker preamplifiers than others. remember the outer part of the rca's metal sleeve is the ground and the inner is hot.

 

[blazeplacid 10+ year member]

turn up the subcontrol all the way, not the bass, but sub control

adjust your gain from that

then go from there

 

[SilverSquared 10+ year member]

All of my red junk does its rated power

 

[vario 10+ year member]

my cadence had some difficulty doing rated power but my civic had an anemic head unit and alternator.

Replaced head unit and that helped a tiny bit.