JL Audio. Bottom Line. Expert Advice only please

[wilzyx 5,000+ posts]

I know that you are correct with that assumption IF you take the subs to task and not allow them to cool. And turning the gain down on a amp does not magically make it produce any less power either. If you think it does, great, here is a hat, pull a rabbit out of it.

hahah you a such a ****ing retard, quit giving this guy shitty advice and learn a few things before you run your mouth. and underpowering your speakers is perfectly alright as long as there is no clipping. and about the gain thing, lower gain = less voltage, less voltage = less wattage, less wattage = lower volume. do you even know how a head unit works? the reason you set your gains with your volume know about 80% of the way up is becuase the volume knob changes how much voltage your amp sees, the higher the volume, the more voltage, the louder your stereo goes. you dont want your amp pushing full power all the time or your subs would drown out your other speakers all the time. and to the original poster, those jl's are nice subs but i would never buy anything from jl, i think you can way better for way cheaper. for the price you paid you could a pair of diamond d6 12's and for the price of that 500/1 you could get an orion 1200d to push them both, and that setup would smoke the w3's

 

[wilzyx 5,000+ posts]

Lets see here, you incorrectly set the gain of the amp by decreasing the dependency on input voltage and it gets quiter, well no ****. An amp is an amp. It makes power as rated into the load regardless of where the gain is set at. All you have accomplished by turning the gain up or down is changed the point of clipping of the signal going into the amp. Instead of say the clipping happening at volume level 30, it may happen at 40, or at 20. End result is that you have incorrectly set the gain and leave yourself wide open to start destroying speakers. Your test above is flawed as you have also left one variable out of the equation. Turn the volume dial back up until the overall volume level is the same as before you adjusted the gain and magically watch what happens to the output power of the amp, it will be exactly the same as before.
You are telling me that we take a 100w rms amp and set the gain properly we get 100 watts of non clipped signal at full output. Then we take the gain and turn it all the way down and get the exact same 100watts of non clipped output with the volume turned to full. I don't think so dude. Change the gain on the amp changes the point of clipping, not the amps ability to make power as rated. Change the load on the amp and then you change the output power of the amp.

Turning the gain way down on a amp does not make it any safer to over / underpower a speaker. Again all it does is change the point of clipping. Always set the gain properly to the input voltage of the cd player. It is not a volume control as some people still seem to treat it as.

he never said anything like that, i hope your just ****ing around with us cuz if you say you have been into car audio for 20 years and you think this i feel bad for you.

 

[jklfd 10+ year member]

^

hah....implyin sth there?

 

[wilzyx 5,000+ posts]

^hah....implyin sth there?

what?

 

[forbidden 10+ year member]

hahah you a such a ****ing retard, quit giving this guy shitty advice and learn a few things before you run your mouth. and underpowering your speakers is perfectly alright as long as there is no clipping. and about the gain thing, lower gain = less voltage, less voltage = less wattage, less wattage = lower volume. do you even know how a head unit works? the reason you set your gains with your volume know about 80% of the way up is becuase the volume knob changes how much voltage your amp sees, the higher the volume, the more voltage, the louder your stereo goes. you dont want your amp pushing full power all the time or your subs would drown out your other speakers all the time. and to the original poster, those jl's are nice subs but i would never buy anything from jl, i think you can way better for way cheaper. for the price you paid you could a pair of diamond d6 12's and for the price of that 500/1 you could get an orion 1200d to push them both, and that setup would smoke the w3's

Dude, when did I decide to insult you, hmm, perhaps today is a good day? I think I should run my mouth here, give what I get perhaps? Let me know when you pass grade 6, third time lucky for you? Yes I have done car for this long, yes I have my own business and yes this can be verified with a quick PM to Jmac. You might want to take that pink scarf that you are wearing over your yap and pull it up over the rest of your face and do the rest of the forum a favour. If I were you I'd be that embarrased. A$$hat, shut your cookie trap and if you want to post something constructive, please do it without the insults.

I never ever made the comment about underpowering speakers, you can underpower a speaker all day long provided that the thermal barrier is not broken. Matter of fact, you can even underpower a speaker and give it a clipped signal all day long and the speaker will not fail unless the heat generated in the voicecoils cannot be dissipated.

Do I know how a head unit works, nope, never seen one, never sold thousands of them either. Hmm, what happens if you set your gains on the amp at the 80% like how you do, then crank up the dial to 90% on the head unit and all of a sudden you are clipping all over the map. I really like this comment "lower gain = less voltage, less voltage = less wattage, less wattage = lower volume." So what happens when the deck is taken to full output and is sending full output voltage to the amp (perhaps even a clipped output voltage)? Is the amp making less power now? Jeez, I think I will try your method and set all my customers gains like this and then tell them who I learned it from. You can be made famous as the little tool that couldn't. And what happens if the persons system has a front end that can keep up with the back end, "you dont want your amp pushing full power all the time or your subs would drown out your other speakers all the time". I guess your definition of a system is some coax speakers and some forum brand of the month subs with a brand of the month amp in a trunk of your friends car (you can't drive in grade 6). My idea is one that is matched together properly, set properly, installed properly and used properly.

Again, perhaps I should have worded it better as well. Lowering the gain on a amp does not limit the amps ability to produce power. An amp has a gain control to work with a wide range of head units and their differing output voltages. Sure you can turn the gain down and at a normal volume level it will be noticeably quieter, turn the volume up though, to full output, therby increasing the input voltage to the amp and undeniably the point of clipping will be hit. If an amp is rated to produce 100w of output power, it does not care where the gain is set at in order to produce full power when the proper amount of input voltage is reached.

Jujumantb, I think you know where I was coming from and I can see how my comments were taken out of context as well. Sometimes all it takes is going back over something and reading it again to see it as someone else does, thanks for making me aware of this dude. Kinda late at night for me as I had just gotten in from work as I have tonight.

 

[jujumantb 10+ year member]

Jujumantb, I think you know where I was coming from and I can see how my comments were taken out of context as well. Sometimes all it takes is going back over something and reading it again to see it as someone else does, thanks for making me aware of this dude. Kinda late at night for me as I had just gotten in from work as I have tonight.

no worries //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[$$mok3d 10+ year member]

I had JL 12w3v2d2 and i wasnt very impressed by them. Compared to my RL-p their sq is mediocre and spl wasnt all that great. I got my 2 for $150 brand new and they were worth that for an entry level woofer. I would look into Incriminator Audio 187 for almost the same price. I just reread your first post and you got raped on the price...$220 each is highway robbery for what you get.