In over my head on new install.

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

One more thing I noticed today. During one bass heavy song I noticed a slight electrical burning smell. I felt the amp, felt pretty warm but didn't burn me. Then when I opened the trunk the smell was much more. The sub I am running is 250 watts RMS 700 watts peak. It is wired in 4 ohm and I have 12 gauge wire running to it. At 4 ohms my amp should output 200 watts RMS to that channel. The bass boost is down and gain is roughly half way maybe slightly less. The sub isn't distorting (maybe slightly from being run free air) and is nowhere near bottoming out. It can go way louder but I have it turned down so it doesn't rattle the rear deck so hard (deck mounted sub in the factory mounting location). What's the deal, am I burning the sub up?

If its smelling, you are clipping. Gain is not a volume knob, half way could already be past danger zone.

 

[LsGuy]

Understood. Advice on setting gain? Most articals I read say that you set gain below distortion at 75% volume. I'm well below that as it tries to rattle the deck apart well before distortion.

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

Understood. Advice on setting gain? Most articals I read say that you set gain below distortion at 75% volume. I'm well below that as it tries to rattle the deck apart well before distortion.

Turn off all bass eq, bass boost, loudness settings on head unit and amp. Get up to 80 to 90% head unit volume, go up relatively high on the sub level, give yourself like 6 levels of headroom so you can adjust it on weaker bass music. Go to the amp lower it all down, play your hardest hitting song, raise the gain till it stops getting louder, then back it off a hair. Then do 2 to 5 min test sessions to see if any of the equipment gets hot or smells. If it doesnt smell and only gets warm, you are good. If it does smell, keep backing the gain or sub level down.

 

[LsGuy]

Turn off all bass eq, bass boost, loudness settings on head unit and amp. Get up to 80 to 90% head unit volume, go up relatively high on the sub level, give yourself like 6 levels of headroom so you can adjust it on weaker bass music. Go to the amp lower it all down, play your hardest hitting song, raise the gain till it stops getting louder, then back it off a hair. Then do 2 to 5 min test sessions to see if any of the equipment gets hot or smells. If it doesnt smell and only gets warm, you are good. If it does smell, keep backing the gain or sub level down.

Appreciate it. Ill give that a shot when I get time. In the meantime I'll keep the volume around half. It doesn't seem to smell if I avoid the high volumes.