Setting my gain but cant get high enough voltage?

[HannaS10 10+ year member]

I tried setting my gain and I cant get higher than like 13. without turning up my bass EQ as well. Im shooting for 38.37 and the only way I can get that is by turning the level and the EQ up. Is this safe or is something else wrong?

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[Supergumby5000 5,000+ posts]

start over, but this time instead of having all the headunit settings at zero, turn up your subwoofer output signal.

This is a common problem with a lot of alpines and some pioneer units, not giving enough signal output. Just gotta turn up the sub out on the headunit and retune.

 

[Spooney 10+ year member]

I've used pioneer decks for years and they have always been reliable but they are definitely lacking in preamp output voltage . If i have my eq settings where i like them on my deck to keep my interiors sounding decent then my bass is almost non existent without a couple clicks of bass boost even with the sub output maxed. I cant wait to get my interiors on a real amp so i can retune my setup

 

[HannaS10 10+ year member]

start over, but this time instead of having all the headunit settings at zero, turn up your subwoofer output signal.
This is a common problem with a lot of alpines and some pioneer units, not giving enough signal output. Just gotta turn up the sub out on the headunit and retune.

I had my subwoofer control on the head unit turned up to 15, the highest it would go.

 

[DBfan187 5,000+ posts]

on pioneers set the gains on volume 61/62

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

on pioneers set the gains on volume 61/62

Seriously? I've got mine set with the HU at 45/62.

 

[hornedfrog1985 5,000+ posts]

No, I think he was making a funny. Pioneers seems to have lower voltage than they say. They don't distort really high up either though, so maybe he was saying that? IDK.

 

[DBfan187 5,000+ posts]

No, I'm correct. I've used oscope on several models and they all clip at full volume, 61 is the highest unclipped volume level.

So set your gains on 61/62

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

So, should I be safe to set my gains at 60 or 01 on my 800PRS? Is the 800 or the 880 one of the models you checked out with an o-scope? Man, I really wish I had an o-scope to do this all myself.

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

No, I'm correct. I've used oscope on several models and they all clip at full volume, 61 is the highest unclipped volume level.
So set your gains on 61/62

This would also be assuming that none of the EQ settings are above 0 and loudness is off. Correct?

 

[DBfan187 5,000+ posts]

yes

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

Well, I might reset my gains then using a higher volume on the HU. Is there really any benefit to doing so? With the gains set at 45, I have some headroom to turn up songs that may be recorded a little quieter. If I set the gain with the volume higher up, I'll be losing out on being able to turn those songs up. Also, is it easier on the amp to have the gains set with the volume up higher? In this case, the gain on the amp wouldn't have to be set as high to achieve the same output. However, the amp will still theoretically be outputting the same power so is it really working less?

 

[Spooney 10+ year member]

No, I'm correct. I've used oscope on several models and they all clip at full volume, 61 is the highest unclipped volume level.
So set your gains on 61/62

I always had a feeling it was something like this. I've always been too **** lazy to bring my o-scope into the garage and try it out though

 

[HannaS10 10+ year member]

well I have an Alpine HU...so that wont work lol

 

[mendon mafia 10+ year member]

i saw a vid on smd where steve used a portable oscope to test the output signal and his pioneer clipped at 59 iirc but i dont remember which which kind it was. mid level if i had to guess.