Do i need to be carful with gains if sub and amp match??

[Louisiana_CRX 5,000+ posts]

N.o

Ok I'm up here in north Louisiana..I didn't know if you were Close but I have all sorts of car audio test equipment up here ...rta meters ..spl meters ...true wattage clamp meters and thd meters ... I can fine tune out just about anything

 

[Greg B]

dont use a tone, use music your hardest hitting song. You are listening to music not test tones. Test tones are only valid if you actually analyzed the recording levels of each song in your music library and you generate a test tone that matches the recording level, not some random ass 0 db test tone you find online that will literally just give you a super innacurate setting.

Power acoustik has pretty poor quality control so the actual power output of each amp can vary. Just a thought.

Since you are using a stock head unit, you are using an LOC right? raise the level adjustments on that a lot higher and lower your gains then restart the tuning process.

See if you can find a little piezo, wire that up with your sub at the same time, The impedance is so high it wont really affect the sub the buzz noise would be clipping. very fast easy method.

Does the sub have to be wired up for the piezo method? I’ve done it both ways on different amp. The one where I just had the tweeter attached (the same one as the op) didn’t buzz until nearly full gain and over 40v. I did my alpine mrv with the sub on and it buzzed really early, the voltage was something like 12v which would be below rated power.

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

Does the sub have to be wired up for the piezo method? I’ve done it both ways on different amp. The one where I just had the tweeter attached (the same one as the op) didn’t buzz until nearly full gain and over 40v. I did my alpine mrv with the sub on and it buzzed really early, the voltage was something like 12v which would be below rated power.

yes because a different load is presented to the amp when a sub is connected. The full gain and low gain is because all amps have different levels of sensitivity in the potentiometer. Your head unit outputs a signal, the gain is to match that signal however how much the amp has to go up is different with each amp. some amps go have gain from 9 volt to .2 volts which need a **** ton of gain before you get proper signal while others are 5 volts to .2 which need very little gain to get to proper voltage. Its all different.

for your amp that needs to go up really high, you'd need to raise the sub level and raise the head unit volume up really high because you are most likely not getting enough pre-out voltage from the head unit.

 

[Greg B]

Thanks jeffdachef load is what I was wondering about. Somehow when I first clicked the link it skipped to the video that’s suggested after that one. The one in the link only has the tweeter hooked up though. I’ve been meaning to check the voltage at my rca’s. I tested both with the same setup so I was surprised by the discrepancy. The pa amp goes from 6-.2 and I think the alpine was 4-.2.
I didn’t care much with the various big box store subs I’ve always used but I have an ssa demon on the way and want to make sure it’s seeing clean power.

 

[Greg B]

I rechecked with the sub attached and was clean to 36.4 volts (662 watts) Works for me

 

[Slo_Ride 5,000+ posts]

I see no noods.

 

[1aespinoza 10+ year member]

I see no noods.

Total clickbait.