Setting Gain - Amp is only getting 1/3 of calculated on max

[srch4aresn 10+ year member]

alpine 9887

sundown 1500d

dc lvl 4

have the sub wired to 1 ohm, playing 50hz test tone on the stereo, volume at ~18 since i rarely go past that. i should get a ac measure of 38.7

upgrade battery cables from innovative wiring (similar to big 3, all 0-2 gauge copper wires) and 1/0 gauge for the amp.

even with the gain maxed out (no bass boost) im only getting a reading of 10.5 ac. should i turn the volume up or start turning up the bass boost or what? im going to go disconnect the mids/high amp and see if i can turn it louder to get the targeted volt reading

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[FamousMassacre 10+ year member]

Is the EQ settings on the HU out on 0?

Also that happened to me one time.. turned out I forgot to turn my bass knob up.

 

[srch4aresn 10+ year member]

alright so i disconnected the mids/high amp and turned the volume up to 23 and i was getting the voltage output from the amp. the problem is, at volume 23 the music is too loud

 

[DonH 5,000+ posts]

GAIN is not a volume level adjuster. refer to here:

A tutorial on gain setting and amplifier power usage - Car Audio | DIYMA.com

 

[srch4aresn 10+ year member]

Is the EQ settings on the HU out on 0?
Also that happened to me one time.. turned out I forgot to turn my bass knob up.

yeah they're all on 0. turns out i can't adjust the bass / treble on this head unit without first hooking up the imprint mic system thing. and i dont have a bass knob.

normally i would just crank up the bass boost but im trying to get this to sound as good as possible and everyone loves to hate on touching the bass boost knob.

 

[srch4aresn 10+ year member]

so i did a quick search on what level the 9887's start to distort at and i turned my head unit up to 23/24 and it was putting out the numbers i had calculated. as a curve ball, i blew a rca for front left channel!