does the bass control cause clippin/distortion?

[dumpin907 10+ year member]

on the zx2500.1, im thinkin of installin my bass control knob up front but im not sure, would it just be the gain? or would it be the 'bass boost'?

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[Canaan 10+ year member]

Yes, the kicker knobs are 'bass boost'.

Think of it like this:

Loudness is a string that you are holding tight between to hands.

When you turn up the volume...you move both hands up equally.

When you turn the bass boost up, your hands stay in place...but someone else comes by, pinches the string and raises it at a point along the line.

I don't use bass boost.

 

[dumpin907 10+ year member]

Yes, the kicker knobs are 'bass boost'.
Think of it like this:

Loudness is a string that you are holding tight between to hands.

When you turn up the volume...you move both hands up equally.

When you turn the bass boost up, your hands stay in place...but someone else comes by, pinches the string and raises it at a point along the line.

I don't use bass boost.

yeah like i have my gain set with a dmm so its all clean and my bass boost is off but i was just wondering if the bass knob was a gain setting or a bass boost setting. and now i understand that it is a bass boost setting. so what if i set me gains low at like 40 volts and use my bass boost knob to rise it back to the exact output it was at before. what it still be a clean signal or would it be clippin?

 

[dumpin907 10+ year member]

anyone have experience with this amppp

 

[Super Pickle 10+ year member]

what most people (including myself) did was just set the bass boost at max with ur gain set at what you set it with your dmm.

Thats what i did and now i just keep the bass boost down unless im listening to rap or something.

 

[Rashaddd 5,000+ posts]

think of it this way. If you set your gains to the max they can go without clipping, thats what your amp is putting out. Agreed? So any 'boosting' of any sort you can possibly do, is pushing it past that max and causing it to clip.

 

[dman4486 5,000+ posts]

as long as the "peak" does not exceed the amp's rated output then it will not clip

 

[jdawg 5,000+ posts]

I think what he is asking is if it is a remote gain control or actually a bass boost

 

[DidUHearThat? 10+ year member]

what most people (including myself) did was just set the bass boost at max with ur gain set at what you set it with your dmm.
Thats what i did and now i just keep the bass boost down unless im listening to rap or something.

That's the worst thing you could do. That's maximun distortion and phasing, and you still wind up with improper gain settings.

IMO, no don't use a bass boost at all. The bass controls on your head unit are plenty. Even then keep boots to less than 3-4 db. All EQ adds distortion and phasing. With small amounts of eq the noise is not noticable, but with a large boost the noise effects the sound significantly.

The best way to control the sub output is with the sub level control from the HU.

 

[lil_italy773 10+ year member]

if u set everything right u should be ok

 

[lil_italy773 10+ year member]

That's maximun distortion and phasing

tru its a 100% distortion the bass boost is and will heat ur coils up fast burning them if not careful.

phasing has nothing to do with that what so ever. all that does is sync multipal subs together so there is no cancellation or damage to woofers if there in a box without divider

and yes to ur question it can cuase clipping or distortion if gains are not set properly set b4 u adjust the bass boost. it is a bass boost know not a gain setting knob.

 

[rc10mike 10+ year member]

If it starts sounding like crap, turn the boost down, easy as that.

 

[DidUHearThat? 10+ year member]

phasing has nothing to do with that what so ever. all that does is sync multipal subs together so there is no cancellation or damage to woofers if there in a box without divider

Your thinking of acoustic phasing. Analog EQ's induce electrical phasing and harmonics into the music signal. Analog eq's work by manipulating the audio; spliting it into bands with crossovers points and phasing. All analog eq's induce electrical phasing and harmonics. When the amount of eq boost is subtle the phasing noise is not, usually, noticable, but hard boosts cause noticalbe phasing, even with the highest quality eq. With simple low quality eq's it is even more apparent.

The electric phasing is heard as a muddiness and subtle distortion (not a hard clipping) around the crossover points that reduces clarity. Narrow phasing is heard only near the crossover points, while severe phasing can be heard across much further up and down the frequency band from the crossover point. Harmonic noise is heard only at a doubling of the frequencies.

 

[pawn man 10+ year member]

peripheral makes a knob that goes inline on the rcas in between the hu & the amp. if you want a bass knob, get this. that way you can set the gains on the amp properly &you will not overdrive the input on the amp..

on most amps the bass knob is just an external gain & most ppl turn them all the way up(if you have a hu that has 4 volt out & you turn the gain all the way up. you are setting the amp to accept app .5 - .8 volts and you are putting 4 volts into the amp. that causes clipping & can damage the amp & subs)

 

[lil_italy773 10+ year member]

Your thinking of acoustic phasing. Analog EQ's induce electrical phasing and harmonics into the music signal. Analog eq's work by manipulating the audio; spliting it into bands with crossovers points and phasing. All analog eq's induce electrical phasing and harmonics. When the amount of eq boost is subtle the phasing noise is not, usually, noticable, but hard boosts cause noticalbe phasing, even with the highest quality eq. With simple low quality eq's it is even more apparent.
The electric phasing is heard as a muddiness and subtle distortion (not a hard clipping) around the crossover points that reduces clarity. Narrow phasing is heard only near the crossover points, while severe phasing can be heard across much further up and down the frequency band from the crossover point. Harmonic noise is heard only at a doubling of the frequencies.

ok thanks for the enlightment that deff was sumthing new to me im not in to EQ's so much but great info