Question about clip indicators

[ovalevader 10+ year member]

So I have an amp that I'm fairly confident should do 1000 watts RMS. While setting the gains with a DMM, I'm turning the gain up slowly, and while looking out the DMM to get a ballpark voltage, the clip light starts flickering. I was going for about 30 volts, and it started flickering at about 20 volts. Now, I've heard 1000 watts rms, and this is nowhere near 1000 watts... So, I got to thinking that maybe i'm clipping somewhere before the amp (this is an oem integrated setup), but I just wasn't sure if a clip light would show a clipped pre amp signal... anyone know?

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[ahole-ic]

So I have an amp that I'm fairly confident should do 1000 watts RMS. While setting the gains with a DMM, I'm turning the gain up slowly, and while looking out the DMM to get a ballpark voltage, the clip light starts flickering. I was going for about 30 volts, and it started flickering at about 20 volts. Now, I've heard 1000 watts rms, and this is nowhere near 1000 watts... So, I got to thinking that maybe i'm clipping somewhere before the amp (this is an oem integrated setup), but I just wasn't sure if a clip light would show a clipped pre amp signal... anyone know?

If your amp's clipping indicator actually knew whether a signal was clipped or not, then if your preamp signal was clipped it would light up no matter what the voltage was. Since it's not lighting up until you have turned the gain up, it is telling you that is has reached it's limits. Make sure your crossovers are off and that you're using a 50hz 0db tone. A lot of people drive into clipping a little ways anyways so don't worry too much about it.

It looks like you're wiring at 1 ohm. 31.6v would give you 1000 watts. It sounds like your amp is overrated. What kind of amp is it? If it's clipping around 20v, then it's only about 400-500w at 1 ohm.