What if gain settings produce low volume?

[Grmanalishi 10+ year member]

I followed a tutorial at (http://www.subwoofertools.com/forum/setgain.asp) and JL Audio to set my gain settings on my amps (110W RMSx2@4Ohms and 100W RMSx2@4Ohms) connected to 100W RMS component speakers (4). I adjusted the gains with a multimeter and I also did it by ear and the resulting volume is way too low for my taste. It's easy to set the gain by ear. I used a 1 kHz@0dB sine wave test tone. The gains on the amps came out to about 20% of total gain. Why can't this go louder?

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[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

Set it by ear if that's they method you prefer.

 

[IgnoreMe 5,000+ posts]

i prefer a -3db test tone (even a -6db can work just fine)...but do whatever floats your boat.

 

[Grmanalishi 10+ year member]

I'm not interested in floating my boat. I'm interested in setting up my amps correctly so they don't klip.

 

[dipitydoo 10+ year member]

set by ear. test tones and music are different. no clipping with tones sometimes means no power. as suggested, use -3db or -6db, or music.

 

[IgnoreMe 5,000+ posts]

I'm not interested in floating my boat. I'm interested in setting up my amps correctly so they don't klip.

then you will need an oscilloscope and 0db, -3d or -6db test tone depending on how much potential clipping you deem safe.

no method will give you a signal that is 100% unclipped, but 0db 1khz comes close. the problem just stems from the fact that you never know what level your next source material is recorded at.

you might put in a reggae cd with almost the whole album never going above -10db anywhere on it. then you pop in a rap cd that might have peaks at -2db or even more. if you want ALMOST guaranteed unclipped power youve already found it (using the 0db test tone but you said you were unsatisfied), if you want better performance with a slightly bigger chance of clipping use -3db, if you want even better performance, again accepting the potential that you will clip the signal, use -6db. like i said do what floats your boat, depending on how much you trust your self with the volume knob. setting by ear is great and all but its probably the least reliable, not because it doesn't work (because it does), but because you don't get a chance to see the signal like you would on an o-scope and you have no idea whether your actually clipping or not. i will guess that by the time you hear clipping its probably a severe clip (not sure, i just would assume, as ive killed speakers that were underpowered but didn't sound like they were clipping before).

so like i said if you want the best method

1) choose a tone you will be comfortable with

2) use an o-scope