Getting weird sine wave when setting gain with Oscilloscope

[Preston019 10+ year member]

Hey guys,

I've been trying to set the gain on my Kenwood X500-1 amp, but I'm not getting any square waves when I turn up the gain. I'm using a 50Hz test tone. I'm using a stock head unit and I'm using an Audio Control LC2i.

When I do turn up the gain, at some point, the top of the sine wave just comes to a point and one side of the wave curves more and the other side just straightens; it almost looks like the way you would draw ocean "waves" when you were a little kid. I know it's a bad description but I don't know how else to describe it.

Anyways, does this matter, or should I try to be finding a squared off wave? And how do obtain a squared off wave?

I've set the gains with an O-Scope, in this same vehicle, before with a kenwood KAC-8405 and was actually able to find squared off waves.

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[Full Tilt 10+ year member]

Why do you want a square wave...?

 

[Chriszle 10+ year member]

Are setting the gain with a load? The waveform will change under load.

 

[Preston019 10+ year member]

Why do you want a square wave...?

To find out where my amp is clipping?

 

[Preston019 10+ year member]

Are setting the gain with a load? The waveform will change under load.

There's no load; I just disconnect the positive speaker wire and put the probes on the terminals on the amp.

 

[Chriszle 10+ year member]

There's no load; I just disconnect the positive speaker wire and put the probes on the terminals on the amp.

Could just be the quality of amp you are using, or lack there of. Shit amps can have less than desirable wave forms. Nice thing about a scope as opposed to a DD-1 is you can actually see it.