help please. kicker zx1500.1 only 1100 rms wtf?

[forbidden 10+ year member]

You assume you have a good ground. If you are still running the stock ground from the battery and you have not checked the resistance on the ground return, all you are is assuming that you have a good ground. The ground is the most important part of the wiring, verify that you have a good ground. The Alpine is so low on output voltage (needing to be at full output to get it's maximum), that I would automatically suspect it as being a culprit as well. Borrow a friends cd player that is not a Alpine and retest again, chances are it is going to come to life.

 

[tacovic 10+ year member]

the batt ground will be upgraded to 1/0 when i do the big three next week. i tested my ground in my trunk and it was pretty solid. i didnt know my h/u was shitty

so what can i do to get my amp up and running right?

i have heard reasons but no answers or solutions.

 

[king ranch 5,000+ posts]

i have horrible pre out voltage and dont have a problem and only have gain like not even halfway like 40% up to get my 56.6 volts for 1664rms i am using a shitty jvc unit only does 2volts for preouts and i only turn it up 35 out of 50 to set gains but i am using a LOC and its only designed to put out 2 volts at max and only setting it at 75% HU vol so really prob amp is only seeing around 1.5 volts to the preouts

also just curious if anyone knows how to test a ground with a dmm

 

[tacovic 10+ year member]

ok so if your getting 1600 rms at 40% gain then wouldnt that mean that that amp would be capable of putting out like 4000 rms? that doesnt make sense. maybe im just stupid but it doesnt make sense to me.

and im pretty sure you touch red prong to wire running off + and then touch ground spot with black prong

 

[tacovic 10+ year member]

can someone eloborate?

 

[tacovic 10+ year member]

ttt

 

[king ranch 5,000+ posts]

you use a dmm to set gains on amp with 50hz tone set all settings on HU to flat or zero then turn up hu 75% of the full volume mine is 35 out of 50 then use your dmm and put the red to the positive speaker output on the amp and the black on the neg speaker output terminal and then turn up gain until u get the voltage

and no just becaue my amp does 1600rms at even half gain doenst mean it can do double that it means that the rest over 1664 according to my BS is a clipped signal i am sure they do more than rated but its not clean power

 

[99grandprixGT 5,000+ posts]

does ur alpine have a subwoofer control on the HU? mine did and i had to turn it all the way up to get the voltage reading i wanted with out haveing it pretty high. but make sure u resest the gain if you turn up the subwoofer control on the HU as they will affect it.

 

[blackman 10+ year member]

ever stop to think you got the only overrated zx1500.1 in the whole world? u know its a possibility

 

[king ranch 5,000+ posts]

it will still read more volts on the dmm even being underated it will sned a clipped signal at half gain i got over 100 volts on my dmm

 

[tacovic 10+ year member]

does ur alpine have a subwoofer control on the HU? mine did and i had to turn it all the way up to get the voltage reading i wanted with out haveing it pretty high. but make sure u resest the gain if you turn up the subwoofer control on the HU as they will affect it.

ya it does have a subwoofer control. will that cause a clipped signal though? and what do you mean reset the gain?

and isnt it true that the readings are different for differnt vehicles and setups? or no? like 2 people with the same amp trying to get the same voltage. one has to turn the gain all the way up to get desired voltage and other person only needs to turn it up 1/2 way.

but GP i might have to try that if i cant figure this out.. still unsure how you did it though

 

[blackman 10+ year member]

it will still read more volts on the dmm even being underated it will sned a clipped signal at half gain i got over 100 volts on my dmm

i didnt read the post fully. just the topic.

 

[king ranch 5,000+ posts]

turn up the subwoofer setting up 75% of max so if it only goes to 10 then set it like 7 out of 10 and set all the bass and treble to zero flat, then turn up hu vol 75% then set gains and see what you get

 

[tommyk90 5,000+ posts]

What volume is your headunit set at when you are setting your gains?

What level is your sub level set at? With alpines I always set them at +15 so you can get the strongest signal possible.

 

[Supergumby5000 5,000+ posts]

turn the subwoofer level up on the headunit and reset your gains.

I had a similar problem in my buddies WRX with an alpine unit. It wasnt providing its rated RCA output voltage.