I recently got a system in my car & i am fairly new on what the bass boost & gain & xover means so i wanted to see what would be the best settings to have it on. I have a kicker compS 12in with a Kicker CXA 600.1 amp i want the car to sound good & as loud as if can get without sounding bad so what would you guys recommend on putting the settings. Thanks for your time [emoji1305]
First I'll start off by saying the gain is not a volume control. The point of the gain is to match the output of your head unit. Setting the gain correctly requires ether a DMM or a device like a DD1 or an oscilloscope. You can set it by ear but you have to be careful because it's hard to tell when it's starting to distort.
Step 1: set your crossover. A good starting point is 80hz. You can adjust it later to your tastes if you like.
Step 2: Set your subsonic filter (if your amp has one) this will not let the sub play frequencies lower than what it is set at. If your using a ported box set this to what the box is tuned to. If using sealed this is not as important. Set it to what sounds good to you. Good starting point is 30hz
Step 3: if you have a bass knob turn it up all the way. This way you will set your gain for it being all the way up. Also turn your bass boost all the way up.
Step 4: Turn the gain on your amp all the way down. Make sure the eq on your head unit is set to flat and all crossovers and loudness settings on your head unit are turned off.
Step 5: If setting by ear turn your head unit up to 3/4 volume and play a song you are familiar with. Slowly turn up the gain of your amp until it sounds like your sub is distorting and then turn it down slightly below that. Your gain is now set about as good as it can be without using a tool.
If you have a DMM and want to know how to set it that way just let me know.
