Gain on kicker zx1000.1

[AcesHigh 10+ year member]

Installed my new Q12 D1 finally today. I set my gains with a DIMM. 1000 watts at 2 ohms. I came up with 44.72 volts. When I turned my gain up, I got to 44 volts before it was turned even halfway up. This amp can't be this under rated can it? Or could I be doing something wrong?

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[AcesHigh 10+ year member]

bump

 

[ebrunn 10+ year member]

the gain knob is not a volume control.

 

[AcesHigh 10+ year member]

the gain knob is not a volume control.

Yes I know the gain knob is not a volume control.

I was just surprised how much power the amp was making a such a low setting.

 

[XTRProBoy 10+ year member]

Yes I know the gain knob is not a volume control.
I was just surprised how much power the amp was making a such a low setting.

I think he said that because the point he's making is that it doesn't matter where the gain is. The amp could be making that power with the gain set to 5V (or whatever the highest input/"lowest gain" is), if you were feeding it a signal that was 5V at 0dB...

That's the whole thing in understanding "gain is not a volume control". The position of the knob is not an issue. I guess if you were giving it a 1V input and it was making rated power when set to 4V or something like that, it might be a little surprising but otherwise it shouldn't be. But you don't know how much power it's making anyway, doing what you're doing. You're just measuring voltage with no load attached which means the amp isn't making any power at all really.

Also I take a bit of issue to the whole no-load target voltage thing as I don't see how it makes any sense (that's another story I guess though).

As for the ZX1000.1 being underrated yeah you can count on that, it's a Kicker amp... If you had the birthsheet it'd probably say 1200W or more I'm sure...

 

[AcesHigh 10+ year member]

Yea, the birthsheet says 1210 watts.

Would I be better off setting the gain by ear? I'm not sure I trust myself enough to do that. I'm still learning.

 

[XTRProBoy 10+ year member]

Well go with the DMM method first but I think you'll find what I did in that you're gonna think you have no power going to the sub, lol. But try anyway. If that works out great; if not, go to the by ear method... Since you have a sealed box you have a little more lee-way IMO. I mean you don't want to give the sub a clipped signal but unlike a ported box you aren't going to damage it from overexcursion very easily...