fine tuning through amps or through headunit???

[gotskill10 10+ year member]

Hey guys,

Ive finally finished putting my system together. This is what I got:

-Kenwood 2ch running audiobahn 6x8 in the front

-Lightning 350.1 running 12" sony xplod sub in the back

-pioneer 6x8 running in the rear through head unit.

-deh-p560mp Head Unit

Alright, Im trying to figure out how to set my system. I want the front to be as powerful as the rear. This means that my amp is on 20% gain right now. Should I be using more. If I use more then the front will be louder then the rear.

Or should I use the fade and turn the kenwood amp up more?

Also, my HU can do HPF. Should I split it at 80 or 125 so that 80/125 or above goes to speakers and everything lower goes to bass?

And whats the GENERAL MENTALITY? Is it better for headunit to be maxed out on settings such as SLA, bass boost, and volume, while the amps are doing less work, or should the Head unit be doing as little work possible? ie, everything on default and my amps (specifically my subwoofer amp) doing all the amplifying?

What are some of people's opinions.

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[azbass 5,000+ posts]

oh boy.

 

[gotskill10 10+ year member]

haha, maybe im making it sound too complicated but this is where a lot of people mess up when building their system. Just wanna make sure i got everything covered.

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

shouldnt have anything maxxed out...if you do you shoulda saved up for sumthing better. if you like heavier bass i would go like +2 on the deck and just a little on the amp. if you push things too hard with what you have it wont last too long

 

[gotskill10 10+ year member]

well nothing is maxed out, even my subwoofer amp is at like 65% gain. My 2ch amp for my fronts is at like 25%. However, when I want it loud, it seems that my headunit is going almost to the max, should I just adjust the SLA??

 

[nosaj070 10+ year member]

Gain is not a volume control. Although to a point it functions as one, it needs to be set to the output voltage from the HU. Adjusting the SLA is simply going to cause your HU to clip that much sooner, so in reality it won't do anything.

What is not loud enough for you? The speakers or the sub?

 

[zachzchw 5,000+ posts]

Keep your headunit setting flat, adjust the amps gain with a multimeter. It might not be loud enough for you, but at least you wont blow your stuff up right away.

 

[XtrmAudioCncpts 10+ year member]

oh boy.

i think all was said in this one responce

 

[gotskill10 10+ year member]

Gain is not a volume control. Although to a point it functions as one, it needs to be set to the output voltage from the HU. Adjusting the SLA is simply going to cause your HU to clip that much sooner, so in reality it won't do anything.
What is not loud enough for you? The speakers or the sub?

well basically right now, i think the gain on my front speakers is set correctly cuz they are as loud as my rear's which are coming straight from my headunit.

What does clipping mean?

The speakers are what doesnt get loud enough, I mean, even without the amp, If I had the SLA on zero, i believe Id be running my HU on max volume when I want my speakers the loudest. Now, I have it set to +4 and I get close to the max 40/50.

Im thinking I should try to get my 2ch front speaker amp to do more work then the HU, but then the rear would be much queiter then the fronts.

 

[gotskill10 10+ year member]

ive been going about a week now with my current settings and my sla is on +4. Everything sounds really good.

Does anyone else turn up their SLA on their HU in order to get the right volume adjustment?

 

[luvinthebass 5,000+ posts]

i turn up my SLA to +4 and THEN i set my gain. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif