Is turning gain all the way up necessarily a bad thing?

[alvitae 10+ year member]

 

[Alpine4life89 10+ year member]

Honestly dood, you are still learning................if you want to call it that and you shouldn't give advice to anybody.........especially from someone who can't get his front stage loud off 500rms.....

i'm pretty sure it's as loud as it's going to get. Setting gains is really not that difficult.

 

[Lakota 5,000+ posts]

You mean if my head unit has a low voltage input? Mine is 1.8V, that seems pretty low. What do you think?

Yes, that's pretty low.

 

[DBfan187 5,000+ posts]

No. Mine's turned all the way up. I use the sub level on my HU to control it then, so everything is at my finger tips.

 

[JeepBeats96JGC 10+ year member]

the only thing ur doing by messing with the gain is distributing the amplifiers max power. if the amp is rated at 1000w screwing with the gain wont change that, what it will do is change how fast the power gets used. you want to match your amp to your HU, for example. say the volume on ur HU goes up to 30.. you want the amplifiers max power to peak around 26-28 or so. adjusting the gain to where as ur HU is using ur amplifiers max power at 15 on the HU is no good and you start to run the risk of system damage past that point on ur HU. same as the other way around, you dont want to have ur HU all the way at 30 and its only using half of your amplifiers power.

fumble around with it and find the "sweet spot"

 

[fearof85 10+ year member]

Does everyone remember what they were running in highschool? The kid obviously has no idea what he is doing. You can usually tell alot about someones level of experience by what they're running. Two Infinity reference 12's running off this badd arse Hifonics being fed by 4 gauge and probably no second battery, this means this is one of his first systems and he's going to learn the hard way. What you should do is invest in some high quality gear and run it just like you are now, blow it up, and only then you will appreciate the advice given to you. Also, if you are running you head unit at max volume with you speakers running off it, I don't need to hear it to tell you it's distorted, same with you subs.

Drew

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

You can usually tell alot about someones level of experience by what they're running.

I'd say the quality of installation is much more dependent on experience than simply choice in equipment //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

 

[hatedonmostly 5,000+ posts]

the only thing ur doing by messing with the gain is distributing the amplifiers max power. if the amp is rated at 1000w screwing with the gain wont change that, what it will do is change how fast the power gets used. you want to match your amp to your HU, for example. say the volume on ur HU goes up to 30.. you want the amplifiers max power to peak around 26-28 or so. adjusting the gain to where as ur HU is using ur amplifiers max power at 15 on the HU is no good and you start to run the risk of system damage past that point on ur HU. same as the other way around, you dont want to have ur HU all the way at 30 and its only using half of your amplifiers power.
fumble around with it and find the "sweet spot"

My HU goes up to 33. I turn it up to only 28 or so. The subs are not near reaching their limit at half volume, and continue to get louder until I hit 28 or whatever. I don't turn it any louder than that.

Does everyone remember what they were running in highschool? The kid obviously has no idea what he is doing. You can usually tell alot about someones level of experience by what they're running. Two Infinity reference 12's running off this badd arse Hifonics being fed by 4 gauge and probably no second battery, this means this is one of his first systems and he's going to learn the hard way. What you should do is invest in some high quality gear and run it just like you are now, blow it up, and only then you will appreciate the advice given to you. Also, if you are running you head unit at max volume with you speakers running off it, I don't need to hear it to tell you it's distorted, same with you subs.

Drew

Sorry I don't have a couple grand laying around to drop on car audio. That said, the Infinity woofers came out of an old car my dad bought used. Can't beat free. The Hifonics cost me $195. That's a deal, and it still took me months of saving to be sure I could afford it.

Why in the **** would I need more than one battery for this setup? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif

You just sound like one of those tools who think they have the right to talk, because you've spent more money than most people on what you have. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rolleyes.gif.c1fef805e9d1464d377451cd5bc18bfb.gif

I do all of my work to my car, so if you're calling me inexperienced because I run equipment you don't like, then **** you.

 

[fearof85 10+ year member]

Naa bro, I was trying to let everyone know that you are new to installing just as all of us were at one time. We all have made mistakes and thought our shit sounded awesome but in reality it sounded like doo doo when we first started. I was like you when I first started, running the head unit full tilt, distorting my speakers, I was actually blew 400 dollar subs off of 400 watts for my first system. That's what I meant by letting you learn the hard way. We have all been there one way or another and made stupid mistakes. Sometimes I put things differently and sound like an ******* while doing it, especially after an open bar after a wedding. Sorry if I pissed you off with my last post.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Drew

 

[fearof85 10+ year member]

Back to the problem at hand, I think you might be trying to compensate for your input voltage from you head unit with the gain on your amp. When I didn't have a DMM I would set my gain at 1/4-1/2 with the volume at 3/4. Basically never run your gain all the way up unless your listening volume is at less than 1/4. And remember noooo bass boost, it kills.

Drew

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

The gain on the amp can't "compensate" for anything - it's a passive control.

 

[DidUHearThat? 10+ year member]

The gain on the amp can't "compensate" for anything - it's a passive control.

Yes, it would be more accurate to call it an input attenuator.

 

[murilo 10+ year member]

If we follow this the power supply voltage will drop, and if we turn it up all the way the subs will receive clipped signal... it is a common mistake.

This is why we use clipping LEDs on the amps, always know when the output reaches the power supply voltage. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/veryhappy.gif.fec4fed33b4a1279cf10bdd45a039dae.gif

 

[hatedonmostly 5,000+ posts]

Naa bro, I was trying to let everyone know that you are new to installing just as all of us were at one time. We all have made mistakes and thought our shit sounded awesome but in reality it sounded like doo doo when we first started. I was like you when I first started, running the head unit full tilt, distorting my speakers, I was actually blew 400 dollar subs off of 400 watts for my first system. That's what I meant by letting you learn the hard way. We have all been there one way or another and made stupid mistakes. Sometimes I put things differently and sound like an ******* while doing it, especially after an open bar after a wedding. Sorry if I pissed you off with my last post.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Drew

Thanks for the apology, and sorry that I flipped out a bit too. I got five hours the sleep the night before, after staying up until 4 the night before drinking at a grad party all night myself. Then I work up at 9 to go to work hungover lol...

Anywho...my treble is at +7 because I just don't have an amp that'll fit in my car at the moment. That's basically the weak spot in my setup, because those are what's reaching it's limit first.

Currently, I have the gain maxed out on the amp, and the remote knob for the amp at about 1.8. It sounds good, even better than with both the knobs at full tilt. I'm going to see if there's any difference in how it sounds if I put the gain at 1.8, and the remote knob at max. Because that knob seems a lot like a gain knob, if it's at the minimum, I hear absolutely nothing coming from behind me.

Back to the problem at hand, I think you might be trying to compensate for your input voltage from you head unit with the gain on your amp. When I didn't have a DMM I would set my gain at 1/4-1/2 with the volume at 3/4. Basically never run your gain all the way up unless your listening volume is at less than 1/4. And remember noooo bass boost, it kills.

Drew

That I know. It'll just make everything sound muddy like those tools I used to go to high school with.

 

[badvlvo 10+ year member]

Drew-

Nice to see that you are trying to help this kid. Seems that there are a bunch of assholes on this forum that know everything, or so they claim.

l4yfr4me-

A DVOM or DMM will help you set the amp but it's not the final word in your setup. There are other ways to set the gain properly but the equipment is a little expensive. Check all of the basics out to be sure you have it connected properly. Make sure you don't have the power cable ziptied to the RCA going to the amp, that could be a cause of the distortion you are hearing.