I dont understand it.

[Twista89 10+ year member]

Ok guys everytime I set my gains on the last 3 amps Ive had somethings doesnt sound right. I would follow the calculations and set the voltage to the right amount at the maximum I want to turn my hu up on but when I start playing the subs at that volume its barely heard. My speaker amp plays loudly at that volume no problem but the subs dont even sound like they are trying. Just got done retuning my sundown 1200D and it says it should be around 35-36 volts. I hooked up the DMM to the channel turned my HU up to 35...and turned the gains up to 37 volts...no loudness on no bass boost nothing is on. I hook up the subs and it barely moves unless I turn the bass boost on. What is going wrong here????

Subsonic filter is set at 25hz....box is tuned to 35hz....low pass filter is set to 125hz on the HU and I believe 150hz on the amp...

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[ThatChevyGuy 5,000+ posts]

Do you have the sub up on the decK?

Put it on around +4

What about your source level adjust (SLA)

 

[infamous_e46 5,000+ posts]

Voltage ?? Grounds ???

 

[infamous_e46 5,000+ posts]

Did you hook up your capacitor correctly //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/sneaky.gif.7189749b3a3f769e8815b47e8ae87f88.gif//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/naughty.gif.94359f346c0f1259df8038d60b41863e.gif

 

[Twista89 10+ year member]

I dont have a cap....just got done doing the Big 3 and running my 0GA power wire through the car....voltage doesnt even drop below 13.8 now even at idle....I keep my SLA around +2 and the bass boost I usually dont use but right now have it at 4 on the HU....

 

[Twista89 10+ year member]

Im thinking I should cut my low pass off on the headunit and just turn the EQ on the amp up to around 225hz or something right??? Should that fix it???

 

[infamous_e46 5,000+ posts]

U sure u have the sub out rca jack on the hu connected to the rca's for sub amp

 

[microhaxo 10+ year member]

Im thinking I should cut my low pass off on the headunit and just turn the EQ on the amp up to around 225hz or something right??? Should that fix it???

WHAT?

First of all why dont you do a bit more testing instead of guessing..

Play your music at the set volume for the gains you set, take your DMM and see the readings from the amp while playing music, take the LARGEST value seen (hardest bass hit) and square it, then divide by OHMS.. That will tell you how much power the sub is getting on those particular songs / bass hits. (expect it to be about HALF of what you tuned it for) If its much lower than that then you must have used a 0db tone to tune the gain and i would advise you try again with a -3db tone.

 

[sundownz Pro Seller]

It depends on the recording level of your music - you may have to bump the gain up a bit by about 1/8th turn or so on the 1200D after setting the gain.

 

[I Like Waffle]

The SLA feature on the pioneers isnt worth a ****. I dont know if you have the sound retriever function on your HU but its a nice feature they added, something about an advanced decoder for mp3s i think. I turn all loudness and bs off, sub on 0, crossed at 80hz, and put the sound retriever on level 1. Seems to make the highs much more clear and also brings out the lows a good bit more too, makes rock music sound tons better. Some pioneers dont have an option to turn off the low pass on the HU so i usually just turn the low pass on the amp all the way up and control it from the HU. As far as i know thats the proper way to do it when you run into that problem.

Go check all your connections over again, no matter how many times you do something you can always afford to double check it. Make sure nothings wired out of phase, disconnected, etc. I say set the gain by ear. I usually turn the volume up a little higher than i listen to it at, and set it from there. Mine on my m1000 is about halfway.

 

[Ellsworthz 10+ year member]

i'd say new RCA's.

my subs were just vibrating one time and one of the RCA wiggles loose a bit, try running new ones.

 

[TurdFergueson2 5,000+ posts]

I saw someone suggest checking if the sub out RCAs are hooked up correctly. You use the gain knob as all? If so, you may have had it all the way down. If you did that and it's still too low, I'm not sure. I had the same HU as you and output wasn't an issue at all.

BTW, what wire did you end up going with?

 

[Twista89 10+ year member]

i'd say new RCA's.
my subs were just vibrating one time and one of the RCA wiggles loose a bit, try running new ones.

I forgot where I bought my RCAs but they are pretty high quality and new..havent had them for more than a month now.

It depends on the recording level of your music - you may have to bump the gain up a bit by about 1/8th turn or so on the 1200D after setting the gain.

I used the tone off your site to set the gains.

I saw someone suggest checking if the sub out RCAs are hooked up correctly. You use the gain knob as all? If so, you may have had it all the way down. If you did that and it's still too low, I'm not sure. I had the same HU as you and output wasn't an issue at all.
BTW, what wire did you end up going with?

0/1 GA Knu KLMX wire....20ft for 40 shipped....

Its ok I think Im good on the gain setting....I turned the low pass up to 250 on the amp and yea you cant turn it off on the headunit so I still got that on. But once I turned the low pass on the amp up I was able to back off the bass boost on the HU and now I only use +1 or 2. Also my friend thought it would be cool to see how loud my subs would play while I went to go take a piss and had the volume up at 40 while I set the gains at 35 on a bass heavy song and it was sending the amp into protect so I think my power is fine. I usually dont turn the volume up past 29....

 

[sundownz Pro Seller]

Not sure if your sheet had the note about tweaking the gain after setting it up - I added that to the newer sheets.

You may need to move it up ~1/8th turn after setting with that tone.

 

[Twista89 10+ year member]

Well when I set the gains with the DMM I did set it to around 37 volts instead of the 35 so would that be good then???