I'm running a zx1500.1 on stock 140amp alt and crappy battery. Big3 done in 4ga from alt and 2ga motor/frame ground. My power and ground is 1/0.
When I play music with the engine running and a loud bass note of any signifigant duration plays my voltage drops to about 12.5v at the amp, I have not seen it drop any lower than that. I also noticed that if I use my oscilloscope to set my gain with the engine running but subs disconnected I can go up to ~82.2v @ 14.2 dc before it starts to clip. However, when I turn the engine off and switched to accessory, I saw the amp was clipping badly, putting out the same 82.2v @ 12.56 dc. Since my voltage drops this low during decent bass I can only assume that my subs would be getting a pretty harsh signal.
So, should I set my gain based on the unclipped signal with the engine off since that happens to be how low my voltage drops to, or should I meet in the middle somewhere and allow the speakers to get a little bit of a clipped signal?
Aside from the clipping, is 12.5v bad on an amp?
