Readjusting the Gains?

[MBrock4u 10+ year member]

I am upgrading from a 4 volt preout to a 5 volt preout from the head unit. Should their be any significant need to resetting the gains on my amps?

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[luvinthebass 5,000+ posts]

will be lower

 

[///M5 10+ year member]

Yes, but depending on how the headunit is rated it may not be lower.

 

[jmanpc 5,000+ posts]

Just whip out the DMM and go to town //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[luvinthebass 5,000+ posts]

the DMM will be your friend in need //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[SQChevy 10+ year member]

Hook it up to a meter and turn up the gains until you get a square wave with the volume all the way up on the head unit. Then turn the gain down just enough to get a sine wave again. You will get the most out of your amps that way.

 

[MBrock4u 10+ year member]

Thanks!

 

[n2audio 5,000+ posts]

Hook it up to a meter and turn up the gains until you get a square wave with the volume all the way up on the head unit. Then turn the gain down just enough to get a sine wave again. You will get the most out of your amps that way.

not a whole lot of people I know are rollin' with an o-scope

a dmm and some basic math will work just fine

 

[MBrock4u 10+ year member]

True! It's too bad that upgraded my head unit will require more tweeking. Of course when you have lots of money tied up into a system, I don't want to take any chances. Just want to be sure.

 

[luvinthebass 5,000+ posts]

Hook it up to a meter and turn up the gains until you get a square wave with the volume all the way up on the head unit. Then turn the gain down just enough to get a sine wave again. You will get the most out of your amps that way.

i've never tried that before, have everything flat too? i figured at full volume you'd get a clipped signal no matter what even if you dropped the gain a tad or maybe i'm wrong -shrugs-

 

[SQChevy 10+ year member]

It would only be clipped if it is a limitation of the head unit. To me it is dumb for them to allow the unit to run in that range. If it is clipping due to the amps it is because most people play with the gains and turn them up too far and when they turn it up it messes up the amps causing distortion and bad sound. Tune the levels you want on that amp and then find the point of distortion and turn it down just a little bit.

 

[MBrock4u 10+ year member]

It's funny, the aveage Joe is really clueless about gains. That is one of the first things I really learned from you people here on the forum. I spent alot of time with my old set up with gains. I wanted to make sure I could turn it up worrie free, and not have distortion or clipping. The forum has been a big help in this area. It would seem alot of people out there see it as more power so they crank the gains way up and poof! Speakers blow and amps sizzle.