GIANT BOWL of FAIL, audioque and ups

[JoshC 10+ year member]

Unfortunately the answer to that is relative to a lot of things in your setup. If you're pushing your subs pretty hard to begin with, a small amount of clipping will do more damage. If your subs aren't being pushed very hard, it will take more clipping to damage them. IMO, you're more likely to run into issues with clipping by turning up your headunit too much, using some kind of bass boost, setting your gains past what the amp is rated at, and voltage drop that causes the amp to dip into clipping.
With that being said, the songs that I remix have so little clipping they won't affect anything. If your clip light keeps coming on, you may be turning up your headunit volume too high and causing clipping (alpine's usually start to clip at volume 30, and headunits that go to volume 60+ tend to clip around 48-49, but that is just a general rule of thumb)

My alpine HU goes to 35, and i actually have it set to go that high on my highs. But my doors and tweets still sound clear and crisp at 35, i wouldnt hear distortion if i turned it up to high and have started clipping? So should i reset everything to volume 28?

WHAT BATTERY SHOULD I GET, my OEM is shot. I dont really know anything about batts

 

[Kangaroux 5,000+ posts]

My alpine HU goes to 35, and i actually have it set to go that high on my highs. But my doors and tweets still sound clear and crisp at 35, i wouldnt hear distortion if i turned it up to high and have started clipping? So should i reset everything to volume 28?

WHAT BATTERY SHOULD I GET, my OEM is shot. I dont really know anything about batts

My IDA-x200 would start to clip at 30 (heavy distortion made it easy to tell). It could be your CDA doesn't clip until then, but if I were you I would reset your gains for volume 30 just to play it safe.

How much are you willing to spend on a battery? Sears' die hard platinums are good AGM batteries that come with a long warranty.

 

[JoshC 10+ year member]

My IDA-x200 would start to clip at 30 (heavy distortion made it easy to tell). It could be your CDA doesn't clip until then, but if I were you I would reset your gains for volume 30 just to play it safe.
How much are you willing to spend on a battery? Sears' die hard platinums are good AGM batteries that come with a long warranty.

My dads picking up the tab so its not really a big deal, just not something really expensive. I was considering going yellow top, thoughts? Theres a sears here but i was think oreillys. Does sears give you money to trade in your old batt too? Or some off the price w/e

Just a good deal on a nice batt

 

[Decaf 10+ year member]

Newbs... light flickers/goes solid when rail voltage meets output voltage. So the louder of a song you play the closer/more often you will be at rail voltage. The indicator is not lighting because of flattened clipped songs, that can contribute to it, usually its just from the punchy kicks in music that tend to be near 0dB

Just because a song turns red on audacity doesnt mean its detrimental to your subs, typically its the mids/highs riding the bassline that get pushed past 0dB. This is VERY common with CDs as much as any other form. You won't find rock albums that dont go into 0dB.

So the real question is what dB level will you choose to set gains with... one that is safer or one that is louder