Help me tune my amp?

[Bm96]

Here's what my mrv-m500's settings look like right now:

I just got this JL sub enclosure and I'm gonna need help maximizing my bass loudness. I had a Polk Audio 12" hooked up to this amp before I got the new subs

Thanks

Click to read more...

 

[garychoffmann 10+ year member]

We can't really help you "tune" it by pictures, or by ear at the moment. Heres my best shot at helping you do it. Turn the gain all the way down. Turn the bass boost to zero. I'm just assuming that you are running highs off your head unit. Turn your head unit to the highest volume you want your highs at. Listen for distortion. Play many genre's of songs, make sure they are staying clear. When happy with that volume. Start to adjust your gain. Adjust the gain until you get the volume you are looking for. If the subs start to distort or make any odd noise, back the gain down.

You have to tune your set up, if you don't have any metering devices, you have to do it by ear. Only help I can give you. Good luck

 

[Bm96]

We can't really help you "tune" it by pictures, or by ear at the moment. Heres my best shot at helping you do it. Turn the gain all the way down. Turn the bass boost to zero. I'm just assuming that you are running highs off your head unit. Turn your head unit to the highest volume you want your highs at. Listen for distortion. Play many genre's of songs, make sure they are staying clear. When happy with that volume. Start to adjust your gain. Adjust the gain until you get the volume you are looking for. If the subs start to distort or make any odd noise, back the gain down.
You have to tune your set up, if you don't have any metering devices, you have to do it by ear. Only help I can give you. Good luck

Thanks for the reply. I will do what you said and try to listen for distortion while adjusting my gain. And yes, I'm doing it all by ear, with no experience.

What do you mean "turn your head unit volume where you want your highs at"? I listen to mostly dance/dubstep/rap genre so I'm trying to maximize my bass as much as my 500W amp can handle. Do you think I should be turning the bass boost up more? And where should LP Filter be turned to?

Thanks again, sorry for all the questions. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

 

[phemps 10+ year member]

This isnt a proper way to set gains. you can do it a little closer to correct with a cheap digital multimeter from walmart. spend a few bucks get one and read a gain setting tutorial and go at it

 

[calebkhill 10+ year member]

Yea. use a dmm. Probably will end up being an arno ora voice coil.

My buddy just saw steam come up from his, he thought you could crank things with no worries.

 

[Bm96]

Then I guess i'll just leave my settings alone..... I have no experience on how to use a reader and i'll probably mess something up. They're fine how they play right now, no distortion at all right out of the box. I just wanted to see if there was anything I could do to safely tune it for the new subs. Thanks guys.

 

[calebkhill 10+ year member]

There is.

You buy you a DSO Nano fur 60 bucks on ebay. It's a piece of cake to use, and you will guarantee yourself than you will never burn up an amp or subs.

Distortion is hard to hear in subs man, for all you know, you could be clipping the hell out of your amp every time you jump in your ride.

 

[bmk6795 10+ year member]

Then I guess i'll just leave my settings alone..... I have no experience on how to use a reader and i'll probably mess something up. They're fine how they play right now, no distortion at all right out of the box. I just wanted to see if there was anything I could do to safely tune it for the new subs. Thanks guys.

buy a cheap dmm, unhook the speaker wire from the amp, insert the positive and negative probes into their respective terminal on the amp, download a 50hz sine wave, turn your hu up to 85% of it's max volume (mine is 50 so i use 42), and use this formula, volts = sq root of watt x ohms, example if you wanted 500 wats at 2 ohms itd be 500 x 2 = 1000 then take the sq root of 1000 = 31.62, turn the gain up on your amp until the multimeter reads 31.62 volts, hook the subs back up to the amp and viola.

 

[calebkhill 10+ year member]

buy a cheap dmm, unhook the speaker wire from the amp, insert the positive and negative probes into their respective terminal on the amp, download a 50hz sine wave, turn your hu up to 85% of it's max volume (mine is 50 so i use 42), and use this formula, volts = sq root of watt x ohms, example if you wanted 500 wats at 2 ohms itd be 500 x 2 = 1000 then take the sq root of 1000 = 31.62, turn the gain up on your amp until the multimeter reads 31.62 volts, hook the subs back up to the amp and viola.

Another good method. easy

 

[Bm96]

buy a cheap dmm, unhook the speaker wire from the amp, insert the positive and negative probes into their respective terminal on the amp, download a 50hz sine wave, turn your hu up to 85% of it's max volume (mine is 50 so i use 42), and use this formula, volts = sq root of watt x ohms, example if you wanted 500 wats at 2 ohms itd be 500 x 2 = 1000 then take the sq root of 1000 = 31.62, turn the gain up on your amp until the multimeter reads 31.62 volts, hook the subs back up to the amp and viola.

I read this about 7 times and I'm trying my best to understand it.
1. Buy a cheap DMM (all multimeters look different and have different specifications, which the hell one do I buy?)

2. Unhook speaker wire from amp (and which one is that??)

3. Download a 50hz sine wave (how do I know if what I'm downloading is good quality? maybe a link? also how do I know for sure it's 50hz? and why 50hz?)

4. volts = sq root of watt x ohms (this makes sense, my amp is 500Watts RMS at 2 ohms, so following your example will be correct?)

You didn't tell me to switch off my LP Filter or bass EQ? what do I do with those?

 

[bmk6795 10+ year member]

I read this about 7 times and I'm trying my best to understand it.
1. Buy a cheap DMM (all multimeters look different and have different specifications, which the hell one do I buy?)

2. Unhook speaker wire from amp (and which one is that??)

3. Download a 50hz sine wave (how do I know if what I'm downloading is good quality? maybe a link? also how do I know for sure it's 50hz? and why 50hz?)

4. volts = sq root of watt x ohms (this makes sense, my amp is 500Watts RMS at 2 ohms, so following your example will be correct?)

You didn't tell me to switch off my LP Filter or bass EQ? what do I do with those?

1) just about any basic multimeter will work.

2) the wires coming from your subs to the amp

3) google 50hz sine wave download, use a -3db tone, or make one in aduacity. ill get you a link to a site where you can make your own wheni can get to my laptop.

4) turn bass boost off and don't touch it.

 

[Bm96]

1) just about any basic multimeter will work.
2) the wires coming from your subs to the amp

3) google 50hz sine wave download, use a -3db tone, or make one in aduacity. ill get you a link to a site where you can make your own wheni can get to my laptop.

4) turn bass boost off and don't touch it.

Ok that makes more sense. I'm gonna go to Radioshack and buy one tomorrow.I don't want to pay too much for one.

Also, you said turn the bass EQ off, what's the LP filter and what do I do with that??

 

[Bm96]

This has to be the most stressful situation I've ever gone through. None of this makes any sense and even though I've just bought a DMM and am following instructions on how to set my gain the light on my AMP is turning red, and I'm not sure what any of the 20 wires connected in my amp are for. I'm just going to bring it to some place where they can help me because it seems like people on this forum either know there stuff too much to help someone who doesn't or they don't like to help at all. Frustrated...

 

[Bm96]

God this forum is awful, it takes a whole day to get help when theres over 1,600 people online right now??! bye haha..

 

[AndrewHD 10+ year member]

Low Pass Filter (LPF) is just a crossover frequency setting. Turn it off or all the way clockwise when setting your gain. After you are done set it to 80hz