Rainbow CS 265 Profi Vanadium Phase Plugs.

[mokedaddy 5,000+ posts]

Thanks for the elaboration, Fox, I appreciate the honest, thought-out answers and not a summary blast of negativity like a lot of posters seem so keen on doing on the boards nowadays.
So your gain on your amps are set all the way down, like essentially turned down to the lowest possible adjustment setting? That would make sense, then, that your mids are getting the kid of wattage that they are.

This obviously isnt for everybody either. I am guessing he has a good amount of headroom to do that although it really takes less power to mids and tweets than many think, especially running active, but thats a whole nother story.

The best way to set gains is by ear if you dont have the equipment. Actually even with access to the equipment I still set by ear and then double check with an o-scope.

A dmm is quite arbitrary IMO, all it tells you is a number, while your ears tell you when you are distorting or one set of speakers is too loud for the others. Level matching is a big part of a good system that people overlook and merely grab the dmm to set for full power which is rarely level matched across the system.

 

[FoxPro5 5,000+ posts]

So your gain on your amps are set all the way down, like essentially turned down to the lowest possible adjustment setting? That would make sense, then, that your mids are getting the kid of wattage that they are.

Yes, mine are. I have Linear Power 1502IQ on each of my tweeters (Dyn MD102) and midrange (Scan 12m) that are level matched, with the gains only adjusted on one amp to level match across the car. The gain only literally had to move a hair to bring the L/R channels within .1v. For me, the gain setting happens on the HU where I attenuate the tweeters down lower than the midranges as they are obviously more efficient. I think it works out to be -3 on the MR and -5 on the TW.

I only mention this in detail because I've tried all the other ways to "set your gains correctly" and they didn't yield as good of results. Take it for what it's worth.

But, I know what my HU is capable of voltage-wise b/c I've measured it.

I also know what a lot of my music looks like b/c I've measured it.

To me, it's not if the speakers can take it, because speaker ratings tell us little and amp ratings tell us little. It's about being a good listener...and I listen to my system LOUD and have pretty expensive "world class" drivers that could be melted. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/greedy.gif.5a53e6246569d7ab79867170f3b06629.gif