No one on YT explains this about setting sub amps Gain! grrr

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Bellmeister

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I have a stock HU and stock speakers in a 2021 Mazda 3 Hatchback non Bose. They recommend NOT upgrading the speakers actually cos this system is the brainchild of Mazdas nerdiest nerds called the Harmonic Acoustic system.
It comes with speakers made for this system by Pioneer.
It has 8 speakers including 2 subs in front cowls and a power amp under passenger seat.
I added a 1200 Watt Skar amp (runs at 500Watts RMS @ 4 ohms), an Audio Controls LC2i LOC and an SVR8 400 watts RMS sub. Its 8".

Question is, how do you use the test tone to set your gain when you cant turn the volume up to recommended levels (75%) cos it very well might blow speakers that cant handle the 40hz-60hz???
I cant disconnect the speakers
 
I have a stock HU and stock speakers in a 2021 Mazda 3 Hatchback non Bose. They recommend NOT upgrading the speakers actually cos this system is the brainchild of Mazdas nerdiest nerds called the Harmonic Acoustic system.
It comes with speakers made for this system by Pioneer.
It has 8 speakers including 2 subs in front cowls and a power amp under passenger seat.
I added a 1200 Watt Skar amp (runs at 500Watts RMS @ 4 ohms), an Audio Controls LC2i LOC and an SVR8 400 watts RMS sub. Its 8".

Question is, how do you use the test tone to set your gain when you cant turn the volume up to recommended levels (75%) cos it very well might blow speakers that cant handle the 40hz-60hz???
I cant disconnect the speakers
You're supposed to disconnect the speakers. See if you can disconnect them from the factory amp. If you can't.... do it quickly I guess.
 
You're supposed to disconnect the speakers. See if you can disconnect them from the factory amp. If you can't.... do it quickly I guess.
Yeah, they dont really make that easy or possible in these news Mazda 3s. There is a stock power amp under passenger seat and there a wiring harness down there. Probably just disconnect that i bet. Ill look at wiring diagram.tyvm
 
I have a stock HU and stock speakers in a 2021 Mazda 3 Hatchback non Bose. They recommend NOT upgrading the speakers actually cos this system is the brainchild of Mazdas nerdiest nerds called the Harmonic Acoustic system.
It comes with speakers made for this system by Pioneer.
It has 8 speakers including 2 subs in front cowls and a power amp under passenger seat.
I added a 1200 Watt Skar amp (runs at 500Watts RMS @ 4 ohms), an Audio Controls LC2i LOC and an SVR8 400 watts RMS sub. Its 8".

Question is, how do you use the test tone to set your gain when you cant turn the volume up to recommended levels (75%) cos it very well might blow speakers that cant handle the 40hz-60hz???
I cant disconnect the speakers
What is your bass setting on? I keep my factory speakers centered or on 0, and if your factory system reduces the bass when you turn up the volume you should be able to set the gain quickly without hurting the factory speakers.
 
What is your bass setting on? I keep my factory speakers centered or on 0, and if your factory system reduces the bass when you turn up the volume you should be able to set the gain quickly without hurting the factory speakers.
Dude thanks a lot, That's a great idea.
 
If you want to tune while playing the sub, you there's a formula you can used based off sub wire voltage and ohm reading that will tell you how much wattage your sub is getting. You can read the voltage at different frequencies, too. I personally dislike setting gains with tones, because if you're listening to music, the power level that your sub gets from the amp changes with frequency, so one tone isn't an accurate representation, like if you're playing a 1/2 octave away. There's many factors to why power levels change with different notes being played, but that alone makes me tune while playing music. I guess if you were doing tones, you'd want to set your gains with the tone at which your sub is receiving the most power. If you set your gains as high as possible on a note where your sub gets less power, then you happen to play a note very loudly that gets more power than the frequency you set the gains at, then you might be clipping or overpowering your sub. You know, a lot of songs are clipped in the recording/dubbing studio. Clipped songs + barely too much power can blow a sub over time. Just something to think about.
 
To me, tuning the gain on amp with tones is like tuning a racecar without actually driving it on the track. It's like tuning a drag car on the dyno and thinking it'll perform flawlessly on the track. Tuning with tones might work, but I don't see how you beat tuning your system with the songs that you actually play, because I doubt you're riding around listening to pure tones, you know? Like, I used to listen to some Wakka Flocka songs. I was into slowing songs somewhat, just for myself, and I would run songs through audacity. I thought I was only going to slow down and demo songs that weren't clipped. Holy hell was I wrong; I would barely have any songs to play if I did that. I couldn't believe how many songs were clipped. Your favorite loud bass song? Probably clipped to hell, that's why it's louder than your other songs. I found that to be true A LOT, and I was looking at the waveforms of the bass in a program. What good is setting the amp to a non-clipped signal when many of your favorite bass songs probably are running massively clipped signals? You see what I mean? You can fry subs that way, because you trust in the tones, maybe not knowing some of your songs send more signal than even a -3db tone does. Literally tested this for myself when I used to go to shows and demo for hours at a time. Clipping matters when you're demoing 2 18's all day, playing down in the 20's hard, and it's like 90 degrees outside. Clipping adds that heat in very fast. That's really why you have to get the deep knowledge going, so you kinda get a 6th sense about how things should sound.
 
To me, tuning the gain on amp with tones is like tuning a racecar without actually driving it on the track. It's like tuning a drag car on the dyno and thinking it'll perform flawlessly on the track. Tuning with tones might work, but I don't see how you beat tuning your system with the songs that you actually play, because I doubt you're riding around listening to pure tones, you know? Like, I used to listen to some Wakka Flocka songs. I was into slowing songs somewhat, just for myself, and I would run songs through audacity. I thought I was only going to slow down and demo songs that weren't clipped. Holy hell was I wrong; I would barely have any songs to play if I did that. I couldn't believe how many songs were clipped. Your favorite loud bass song? Probably clipped to hell, that's why it's louder than your other songs. I found that to be true A LOT, and I was looking at the waveforms of the bass in a program. What good is setting the amp to a non-clipped signal when many of your favorite bass songs probably are running massively clipped signals? You see what I mean? You can fry subs that way, because you trust in the tones, maybe not knowing some of your songs send more signal than even a -3db tone does. Literally tested this for myself when I used to go to shows and demo for hours at a time. Clipping matters when you're demoing 2 18's all day, playing down in the 20's hard, and it's like 90 degrees outside. Clipping adds that heat in very fast. That's really why you have to get the deep knowledge going, so you kinda get a 6th sense about how things should sound.
You have to make a YT vid or he won't understand.
 
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That's nothing but an annoyingly common phrase to try to sound smart. Don't say "gain is not a volume knob" until you can explain how it differs...
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Sounds like you got it set correctly.
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Bellmeister

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