gain

[bdjacks 10+ year member]

I have a 600 watt amp and two 250 watt subs. so when I am figuring the target voltage for the gain setting do I use the 600 amp figure or the 500(2*250) desired output figure???

Click to read more...

 

[Warp3d ReALiTy 10+ year member]

use what the sub can handle, -6 tone is preffered since music never even goes above that cuz it's so dynamic unless you play a song with sine waves then it's near -3 db

 

[jrerun21 10+ year member]

I have a 600 watt amp and two 250 watt subs. so when I am figuring the target voltage for the gain setting do I use the 600 amp figure or the 500(2*250) desired output figure???

yeah... use the speaker... i think the idea is to get the max out of the speaker without having to set the gain by ear. Lets say you got an amp that could handle 3000 watts, then you'd be setting a voltage that the subs couldn't handle.

 

[bdjacks 10+ year member]

OK, thanks, let me get a bit more specific with other scenarios to make sure I understand myself.

I have a Cadence 500HC amp, specs as follows

4 Ohm RMS Power: 2 x 100 Watts @ 13.8 Volts

2 Ohm RMS Power: 2 x 200 Watts @ 13.8 Volts

1 Ohm RMS Power: 2 x 300 Watts @ 13.8 Volts

2 Ohm Mono RMS Power: 1 x 600 Watts

Frequency Response: 20Hz - 30kHz

Damping Factor: >200 @ 100Hz

S/N Ratio: >100 db

Minimum THD:

I have 2 Infinity 1052w wired at 2 ohms mono, specs-

Impedance Dual 4 ohms

Peak Power Handling 1000 watts

RMS Power Handling 250 watts

Sealed Box Volume .75 cu. ft.

Sensitivity 91 dB

Frequency Response 25 - 400 Hz

And I have a single twelve, cadence beast dr, rated at 600 wrms dual two ohm voice coils that I have wired at 4 ohms in a 1.5 cu ft. ported box.

So when I leave the amp in the car and I swap boxes around what do I do with the gain?

Two questions, multiple choice answers

One is the tens at 2 ohms. at two ohms mono, the amp will put out 600 watts, 100 more than the subs are rated for, so do I, A. set the gain per the instructions on the sticky at 34.6 volts, then I am techinicaly overpowering the subs. VS., B. I set the gain for the max that the subs are rated for 500 twrms then it should be set at only 31.6 volts

Two is the twelve wired mono and at 4 ohms it should pull around 400 watts out of the amp bridged, so the square root of 400*4 = 40 volts (A) (OR actually the DMM measures the impedance at 4.4 or .5, that would change the volts to 42.4 (B)) OR do I run the 600*2 34.6 figure according to th sticky ©? There is a big difference here.

I hope that someone really knows the answers. With my minimal experience, I trust math much more than I trust my ears.

Thanks again!

 

[casper97ta 10+ year member]

If the subs are rated at 250w a piece then set the gain to put out 500w. No sense in running the risk of blowing the subs even though I'm sure they can take an extra 50w a piece.

 

[bdjacks 10+ year member]

What about the second question with the twelve, it's a bit more complicated.

Thanks for the input,

 

[gijoe 10+ year member]

I am having a little trouble understanding question 2. Either way, setting your gains properly has more to do with protecting your speakers and has less to do with the amp. Set your gains according to the LOWEST number of rms watts between your amp and subs. If you have a 400watt rms amp and 900watt rms speakers you would use 400watts as your target, if you have a 600watt rms amp and 500watt rms subs, then 500 is your target. Pick the smallest of the two.