sensitivity??

[DJ CHAOTIC 666 10+ year member]

i have a 800 watt 2 channel amp made by KENWOOD....theres a dial on the amp that says sensitivity that reads 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, .3, .1.....What does this mean and dies it effect my subs because i blew the last subs i had which were the polk GXR's 12" after turning the dial from 1 to .1....could this be why i blew my old subs??? im now getting the alpine type S's and i dont want to blow them again im also goin to get another 800 watt KENWOOD amp so i will have one goin to each sub and i dont want to blow them. thx a lot.....

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[Johnny Drama 5,000+ posts]

That is the gain on the amp. It is used to match the signal from the headunit. Go to the amp section on this forum there is a gain setting tutorial sticked in there. Works great. Use that to set the gain and you have a much beter chance for your speakers to last longer.

 

[DJ CHAOTIC 666 10+ year member]

OOOOOOO.....thx guys

 

[DFW40 10+ year member]

Just like was said before read up on the gain stuff and what clipping is. An easy less accurate way is to turn up the headunit to 75% of its max and have your amp gain all the way down, then start turning the gain on the amp so that the amp/sub "peaks" at the same time. When the sub is really pumping to hard and it starts to sound bad then back off the gain a bit. Also watch any bass boosts/eq's etc. these throw off the gains that you set. But if you have the time and equipment do it the right way.

 

[liar2 10+ year member]

I actually just got done setting the gains on my amp. And I imagine it's the same amp that you have. It's gonna depend on your speakers. I have 2 x Pioneer 350 watt max 4 ohm subs. The amp will do 2 x 150 @ 4 ohms RMS.

so the math goes like this:

(2 * 150) * 4 = 1200.

sqrt 1200 = 34.641

So when using a test tone cd (see other thread), make sure to set the voltage to that. It is actually rather simple

 

[liar2 10+ year member]

That's what I got out of the "gain setting thread". Only my subs were clipping way too much. I turned it down about 2 notches.

I guess I need a little help then too.

 

[DJ CHAOTIC 666 10+ year member]

well i think i kno what im doin now after watching the amp setting guide but i have one ? and that is now after i set the amp to what is suppossed to be them can i turn up the bass on the head unit bc the guide said have the EQ off but can i turn up the bass thats my question????

 

[ANeonRider 10+ year member]

turn up any bass boosts, etc if you want to use them before setting the gain.