Please tell me what I did wrong setting gains

[Keeshwah 10+ year member]

Ok so here's what I did to set my gains and it was obviously incorrect since I saw smoke and the speakers sound like crap. I have an Alpine 9885 HU and I set the balance and fade to left or right speaker. I bridged my amp (RF T4004). Then I turned down the gains, turned the HU up to 30 (out of 35) and then started increasing the gains. I have Rainbow Audio SLC 265 Kicks which are rated at 100w rms. I used my multimeter to set the gains using the screws on the amp where the speaker wire plugs in to get my readings. I set both channels to 20v each (Should be 100w??). Then I went back to my HU and started turning the fade back to neutral and then pop bad smell and smoke. I really hope someone has an answer because I did this to another set of speakers before but I thought I did everything right this time.

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[DejaWiz 5,000+ posts]

How high was the gain set?

And have you read the gain setting write-ups available? I have one linked in my sig.

 

[j3bus2k3 5,000+ posts]

...why'd you fade/balance the speakers? I've never done that and its always been fine...

 

[jmanpc 5,000+ posts]

did you leave the speakers connected? if so, shame shame.

 

[DejaWiz 5,000+ posts]

^ what i was thinking, as well.

 

[shortyg83 10+ year member]

Did you have the speakers hooked up when you set the gains?

 

[shortyg83 10+ year member]

^sorry didn't see somone already posted that while i was typing

 

[DejaWiz 5,000+ posts]

Could it maybe have to do with the amp gains being turned all the way up causing your speakers to receive a clipped signal and reach their mechanical limits?

http://www.caraudio.com/forum/showthread.php?t=239025

I dunno....

 

[Keeshwah 10+ year member]

I did read the tutorials and I understand that leaving the speakers hooked up is bad but I figured if I wasn't giving them more than they were rated at that it shouldn't be a problem. The balance/fade thing I read in a tutorial somewhere. I'm starting to think that my RCA cables were hooked up incorrectly. It was running in 4 channel mode and then I changed it 2 channel. So if the right speaker was still running off the signal to the rear speakers it would explain why setting fade to neutral would blow it up.

 

[Blunt 10+ year member]

I did read the tutorials and I understand that leaving the speakers hooked up is bad but I figured if I wasn't giving them more than they were rated at that it shouldn't be a problem. The balance/fade thing I read in a tutorial somewhere. I'm starting to think that my RCA cables were hooked up incorrectly. It was running in 4 channel mode and then I changed it 2 channel. So if the right speaker was still running off the signal to the rear speakers it would explain why setting fade to neutral would blow it up.

you had the speakers hooked up while setting the gain. you just plain can;t do that thats why they smoked. obviously you didn't read the tutorials very well.....

 

[ugs92 10+ year member]

lol

 

[Keeshwah 10+ year member]

Riddle me this batman. Had I set the gains the same way with the speakers disconnected, then hooked them up how would that have saved my speakers?

 

[jmanpc 5,000+ posts]

not blaring tones through your speakers at full volume = win

 

[Blunt 10+ year member]

Riddle me this batman. Had I set the gains the same way with the speakers disconnected, then hooked them up how would that have saved my speakers?

imped rise > you

 

[CrazedCat 10+ year member]

On a side note, I saw another pair of those SLC kicks in the classifieds...