System clipping

[Warmachine9210 10+ year member]

Do I need to disconnect my knob

 

[Alrojoca 10+ year member]

Before I touch the amp gains, I would check the HU settings, make sure there are no Loud settings way above normal levels, the same for bass and volume level settings on the HU, some HU's have sub volume levels say from 0 to 7, 3 or 4 would be optimal. Also Loudness levels, Loud 1,2,3, Loud 1 is optimal.

The DMM would help, however keep in mind if you set with the car's engine off, the voltage will be higher when you drive it and the engine is on and you will get more volume but less risk for clipping on some tracks. Best thing, if set with a DMM, do it with the car on and go slightly over .5-1V but never under the targeted voltage. Keep in mind some CD's or tracks will be loud and have some bass and even if you set your gains with a DMM after you set all HU settings to normal, flat eq, vol, loudness everything, even amps filters OFF, you will experience peaks of Voltage way over your max voltage setting sometimes by nearly 10 extra volts with some music. Therefore set the gains with the engine ON, play a loud CD, Like Party Rock LMAO, or Black Eye Pee's the End and you will see the voltage peaks going way over the the target voltage, you may lower it if clipping at high volume or max level you can tolerate.

 

[Warmachine9210 10+ year member]

Do I disconnect my bass knob

 

[Warmachine9210 10+ year member]

My dub volume is a defualt 7 so I leave it there and I don't have loud on

 

[Alrojoca 10+ year member]

I think it is a good idea to still set the amp gains, setting it with a DMM is very difficult and you will not get any reading if all the settings are NOT off or flat on both amp and HU and you need a sinewave track at 1Hz if I remember correctly. If your HU has a fixed volume for the sub, your only option is to lower all other settings to flat for trebble and bass, turn off loud or any HU internal amp and just play your loudest CD, with engine on, 3/4 volume on the HU and slowly increase the gain in the amp from the minimum slowly until it clips or you hear distortion then back up the gain a bit from that first sign of distortion, clipping. The thing is you have to do them separate, disconnect the speakers, just hear the sub and set the gain for the sub. Then diconnect the sub and do the fronts, then disconnect the fronts while sub still disconnected to do the rears if that is the case.

 

[Chriszle 10+ year member]

When you set your gain, it is best to use a scope. You can get a cheap scope on ebay for 70-80 bucks. They are easy to use, and you can see the waveform to know exactly when your clipping. When you set the gain, have your head unit settings set to the max you will ever use (ie. volume, bass level 0,1,2,3,4,5, any eq settings). Then after you set the gains you are safe to turn anything down from there, but not any higher. It is also important to note if your bass level control sends a boosted signal (say at 45 hz) than it is best to leave it off, or you can introduce clipping very easily.

 

[Alrojoca 10+ year member]

When you set your gain, it is best to use a scope. You can get a cheap scope on ebay for 70-80 bucks. They are easy to use, and you can see the waveform to know exactly when your clipping. When you set the gain, have your head unit settings set to the max you will ever use (ie. volume, bass level 0,1,2,3,4,5, any eq settings). Then after you set the gains you are safe to turn anything down from there, but not any higher. It is also important to note if your bass level control sends a boosted signal (say at 45 hz) than it is best to leave it off, or you can introduce clipping very easily.

Any brand model or link you can post or recommend, there are a few to choose from. Something like this one maybe?

Portable Arm Nano DSO201 Oscilloscope Mini Storage LCD Digital Pocket Sized Kit | eBay

 

[Chriszle 10+ year member]

Yup DSO nano, the link you have will work fine, as long as your amp doesn't put out more than 80 volts. If you have a large amp, you will want a 10x probe as well, which it doesn't look like that one comes with.

 

[Warmachine9210 10+ year member]

But no one has answered my question do I disconnect my bass knob or no and I kno my HU puts out 2 volts and I only mess with my level on my amp I leave everything else turned down and I leave the bass knob up do I remove the knob and jus run the amp

 

[bgowdy 5,000+ posts]

Mine clips ti but only when i compete so i pretty much done worry about it. Its just like a flicker on mine and just a short period of time about 1min and 30 seconds for all 3 rounds back to back.

When i ride daily i dont turn mine up very far, 1/2 power at the very most.....

 

[Alrojoca 10+ year member]

But no one has answered my question do I disconnect my bass knob or no and I kno my HU puts out 2 volts and I only mess with my level on my amp I leave everything else turned down and I leave the bass knob up do I remove the knob and jus run the amp

Amp, bass knob remote? yes!

Yup DSO nano, the link you have will work fine, as long as your amp doesn't put out more than 80 volts. If you have a large amp, you will want a 10x probe as well, which it doesn't look like that one comes with.

Thanks

 

[Warmachine9210 10+ year member]

Mine flickers to and I'm jus gonna get rid of my knob till I get a better amp

 

[Alrojoca 10+ year member]

This info is great and it should help You too

Reload Thread: good info for amp settings

Thread Tools

Search Thread

1 Week Ago #1 Rockguy475

Senior VIP Member

Join Date

Jan 2006

Location

houston

Posts

492

Post Thanks / Like

Mentioned

0 Post(s)

good info for amp settings

took a little bit of searching to find this....

Originally Posted by Jmac

Amplifier Setting Tutorial

Outline:

Setting up an amplifier can be a very confusing and intimidating process for newbies. I created this to help guide those people through the process in what I consider to be a simple and easy way.

Preparation:

Things you should do and will need:

1) Read the owner’s manual(s)

2) Familiarize yourself with your equipment

3) Determine the final load of your speaker(s)/sub(s)

4) A calculator

5) A digital multimeter

6) A test tone CD

7) A print-out of this guide

8) A pen or pencil

9) A notepad

Note: All tests should be done with the engine running while using the calculation methods, at least for the part where you’re measuring.

Step 1: Setting up your head unit

1) Turn off all filters (low-pass and high-pass)

2) Set your EQ settings to 0 (i.e. Bass, Treble, Mid)

3) Turn off loudness

4) If you won’t be using the head unit’s internal amp, turn it off (if possible)

Step 2: Choosing the test tones you’ll use

Tones can be found here: Test Tones

I’ve provided 4 different sets of tones and I’ll give a brief description of why one would use that particular set of tones.

0 dB:

Pros – No chance of clipping, very small chance of damaging equipment

Cons – Most music won’t reach 0 dB unless you’re running full range speakers, so you probably won’t get full performance

-3 dB:

Pros – Small chance of clipping with music in subs, small chance of damaging equipment, better performance than 0 dB

Cons – Small amount of clipping on peaks with some music (speakers)

-6 dB:

Pros – Better performance than -3 dB and 0 dB

Cons – User must be able to detect stress in equipment to prevent damage, moderate amount of clipping with some music (speakers), small amount of clipping with some music (subs)

-10 dB:

Not recommended for amateurs

As implied in the above descriptions, the choice of music you listen to may influence the tones you use as well. With pretty much all genres, I found that the mids had peaks above -1 dB, so I wouldn’t recommend that newbies use anything higher than -3 dB for setting the speaker amplifier. However, bass (20 Hz - 80 Hz), is a completely different story. I’ve analyzed a few dozen different songs from a variety of genres with Adobe Audition and here are some briefs descriptions.

Rap/Hip-Hop/Pop – Most of the songs in these genres had peaks in the -9 dB to -3 dB range. I recommend using 0 dB or -3 dB tones if you primarily listen to these genres.

Rock/Metal/Jazz/Classical – Most of the songs in this genre had peaks in the -12 to -6 dB range. I recommend using 0 dB, -3 dB, or -6 dB tones if you primarily listen to these genres.

After choosing the tones, download them and burn them to a CD.

Step 3: Setting up your speakers

If using the head unit’s internal amplifier:

Method 1: By ear

1) Using music you’re familiar with, turn up the volume until you begin to notice distortion or you achieve the desired volume (whichever comes first)

2) Write down the volume

3) Change music to a bass heavy track and set to repeat (if your HU has no HPF, disregard this and the following)

4) Turn on the high-pass filter and set to the highest frequency

5) Turn up the volume to the volume written in Step 2

6) Turn down the HPF frequency until you begin to notice audible distortion

7) Use the lowest HPF frequency with no distortion

8) Turn the volume down to 0 and turn off head unit

Method 2: Calculation

1) Open your owner’s manuals and find the RMS power output of your head unit’s internal amplifier and the rated RMS input for your speakers. Write down both and use the lower of the two in the next step.

2) Calculate the desired voltage using the formula: Voltage = SQRT(Power*Resistance)

3) Write down the desired voltage

4) Set the volume to 0 and turn off the head unit

5) Unhook one of the speakers

6) Attach the leads of the multimeter to the speaker wires (do not ground speaker wires or leads)

7) Set multimeter to measure AC voltage

8) Turn on the head unit

9) Adjust the balance and fade to only the speaker that is unhooked (i.e. If using front right speaker, balance to the right and fade to the front)

10) Insert the test tone CD

11) Fast forward to the 1000 Hz track and set to repeat track

12) Turn volume up until you achieve the desired voltage

13) Write down the volume

14) Turn the volume down to 0 and shut the head unit off

15) Unhook the leads from the speaker wires

16) Hook the speaker back up and remount

17) Turn the head unit back on (if your HU has no HPF, disregard this and the following)

18) Insert a bass heavy track and set to repeat

19) Turn on the high-pass filter and set to the highest frequency

20) Turn up the volume to the volume written in Step 13

21) Turn down the HPF frequency until you begin to notice audible distortion

22) Use the lowest HPF frequency with no distortion

23) Turn the volume down to 0 and turn off head unit

24) In the future, do not exceed the volume written in step 13

If using dedicated speaker amplifier:

Method 1: By ear

1) Turn the gain/sensitivity all the way down (counter-clockwise)

2) Turn head unit on

3) Insert music you’re familiar with

4) Turn volume up to maximum volume you will normally use or 80% of maximum volume

5) Turn the gain up until you reach the desired volume or you notice audible distortion

6) Turn the volume down

7) Turn the high-pass filter on. If your HU and amp both have HPFs, use the one with the most flexibility (continuously variable > selectable > fixed) (if your head unit and amplifier have no HPF, disregard this and the following)

8) Turn the HPF up to the highest frequency

9) Insert a bass heavy track and set to repeat

10) Turn the volume up to the volume written in Step 9

11) Turn down the HPF frequency until you begin to notice audible distortion

12) Use the lowest frequency with no audible distortion

13) Turn the volume down to 0 and turn off the head unit

Method 2: Calculation

1) Open your owner’s manuals and find the RMS power output of your amplifier and the rated RMS input of your speakers. Write down both and use the lower of the two in the next step.

2) Calculate the desired voltage using the formula: Voltage = SQRT(Power*Resistance)

3) Write down the desired voltage

4) Turn the gain/sensitivity all the way down (counter-clockwise)

5) Unhook all speakers from the amplifier (unhook at the amplifier, not at the speakers)

6) Insert leads of multimeter into one of the channels and tighten slightly

7) Set multimeter to measure AC voltage

8) Turn head unit on

9) Insert test tone CD

10) Set track to 1000 Hz and set to repeat

11) Turn volume up to maximum volume you will normally use or 80% of maximum volume

12) Write down the volume

13) Slowly turn the gain up until you reach the desired voltage

14) Turn the volume down to 0 and turn off head unit

15) Remove multimeter leads from the amplifier

16) Hook speakers back up to the amplifier

17) Turn head unit on (if your head unit and amplifier have no HPF, disregard this and the following)

18) Turn the high-pass filter on. If your HU and amp both have HPFs, use the one with the most flexibility (continuously variable > selectable > fixed)

19) Turn the HPF up to the highest frequency

20) Insert a bass heavy track and set to repeat track

21) Turn the volume up to the volume written in Step 12

22) Turn down the HPF frequency until you begin to notice audible distortion

23) Use the lowest frequency with no audible distortion

24) Turn the volume down to 0 and turn off the head unit

25) In the future, do not exceed the volume written in Step 12

 

[Warmachine9210 10+ year member]

I kno I need my amp to be puttin out 31.62 volts to ideally power both my subs