Gain and RCA question..

[slikrider20 10+ year member]

For the last 2 amps, i've had to turn my gain up really high to reach desired voltage. I mean, it's almost 3/4 of the way up. Could a bad rca have anything to do with this? I'm still confuse as to what gain actually is...i thought it had something to do with the Pre-out's on the cd player.....which would relate to the rca's..

..or am i totally out of the ball park..

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[frankiebones 10+ year member]

when u set the gain on ur amp, you set it so that it matches the preamp output voltage that u would send the amp at the max volume you would play ur HU at. thus, if ur HU puts out a relatively high voltage, say 5V, the gain on your amp will be much lower than if u were using a HU that put out only 2V.

so the lower the input voltage the amp is getting, the higher the gains have to be turned up for the amp to reach full output at a certain volume level.

it is possible that if u are using really bad RCAs that you are losing some voltage in between your amp and your HU, but that is not very likely.

dont worry about where the gain is set (i.e., 1/2 the way to full, 3/4 of the way to full), just set it using a DMM and test tones and try and make sure the amp isnt clipping.

 

[dleccord 5,000+ posts]

what tone and how you burn it has a lot to do with where you set your gains. and this is really important. i have tones burned incorrectly where i have to set the gains twice to what a well burned cd is. what volume did you have your headunit at when you set the gains is another thing you might consider.

i dont know about RCAs going bad but i think that if it works, it works but if it doesnt, it doesnt. i mean i still get proper voltage when comparing monster's rcas and cheap vcr rcas but then i have noise issues.

 

[slikrider20 10+ year member]

when u set the gain on ur amp, you set it so that it matches the preamp output voltage that u would send the amp at the max volume you would play ur HU at. thus, if ur HU puts out a relatively high voltage, say 5V, the gain on your amp will be much lower than if u were using a HU that put out only 2V.
so the lower the input voltage the amp is getting, the higher the gains have to be turned up for the amp to reach full output at a certain volume level.

it is possible that if u are using really bad RCAs that you are losing some voltage in between your amp and your HU, but that is not very likely.

dont worry about where the gain is set (i.e., 1/2 the way to full, 3/4 of the way to full), just set it using a DMM and test tones and try and make sure the amp isnt clipping.

i just remember i had to yank and stretch the rca's i have in there to reach the back of the HU, it was a *****. I hope that replacing the rca's help..

 

[iceteebone 5,000+ posts]

well your deck has 2 volt preouts so you'll have to turn the gain up a ways to get them to match. you're perfectly fine

 

[slikrider20 10+ year member]

well my friend, matt_martin87 on here, has a 9853 HU with 2v preout, he has a nine.1 as well on a FI Q and his gains are about 1/4 of the way up.

 

[iceteebone 5,000+ posts]

well my friend, matt_martin87 on here, has a 9853 HU with 2v preout, he has a nine.1 as well on a FI Q and his gains are about 1/4 of the way up.

a 2 volt deck means you'll have to turn the gain up to match. it's pretty elementary. i don't care what your friend's gain is at.