Subwoofer Volume setting - safe or not?

[carfanatic95]

Hi, I decided to re-tune my system today because I am going on a long (4 hrs each way) trip soon and I know I can get more volume out of my sub.

The components that matter are the following:

Infinity Kappa 120.9w 12" sub (350wrms, on 2Ohm setting, is 2.2Ohm actual)

Sealed 1cuft box

Pioneer GMD8601 sub amp (500wrms @ 2Ohms)

Kenwood DPX300U head unit

'94 Mitsubishi 3000GT with Big 2/3 (upgraded ground wires, not alt wire) and fresh battery

So I set everything back to stock on my HU, then tweaked a couple settings to my desire (treble -1, right +1, loudness at 0). I plugged in my phone to my 3.5mm cord and started up a 50hz test tone (I use only my phone for music) and unplugged my sub from the amp and used my DMM to start measuring voltage..

Now last time when I did this, I had the bass boost on full because I figured I would use it. However it made my sub sound bad so I left it off and don't ever plan on using it again. I found out that with bass boost off, my HU on 27/35, and my amp's gain up about 3/4 my amp is only putting out 10.8volts. This equates to 53wrms.

I suspect the reason why the wattage is so low is because of my music source (my phone) is not as loud as say a CD or tuner.. This is evident if I keep the same volumes and switch from my phone playing music to another source.

Considering that my phone is the only music source I use, I decided to mess with some settings on my HU and see if I could compensate. I ended up turning the subwoofer volume (NOT bass boost, my HU has an independent RCA out for a sub) to +5. This seems to make up for it, and makes my output wattage just around 350wrms.

This leads me to me question - will this cause clipping? I don't think it does and I don't hear any distortion (although I'm not too sure what to be listening for). However, might this extra bass volume be driving the signal amp in the HU too far? I'm not worried about my sub amp itself, that is very strong and is more than capable of pushing 350wrms. As for my speakers themselves, my 4ch amp (GMD8604) is more than powerful enough to push them all at their rated 100wrms.

Sorry for the wall of text, but I figure it best to give as much info as possible. Thanks for any response.

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[mt3130]

Why not put the test tone on your phone to better simulate the input source you use?

I would do that, turn loudness and EQ of any kind off, turn the sub volume all the way up and reset the gain with bass boost off at the loudest volume where you listen to your music.

 

[carfanatic95]

That is what I did, I used my phone to generate the test tone.

I have loudness and all eq off (except for right +1 and treble -1 because these are my preferred settings). Bass boost is also off.

I'm kind of weary about cranking the sub volume all the way up (+15) because I'm not sure if this could cause the HU to clip.

 

[Kangaroux 5,000+ posts]

That is what I did, I used my phone to generate the test tone.
I have loudness and all eq off (except for right +1 and treble -1 because these are my preferred settings). Bass boost is also off.

I'm kind of weary about cranking the sub volume all the way up (+15) because I'm not sure if this could cause the HU to clip.

Some headunits use it as an EQ, others use it as a volume knob. The alpine I had needed to have it turned all the way up, but then I got a pioneer and I could leave it at 0.

 

[carfanatic95]

Okay, I hear no distortion at high volume and I know that I'm well within my amp's specs so I think I should be good. Thanks for the info.