Serve the subs with some justice and a little head room.
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CT-2000.1D // 2000 Watts RMS Monoblock Car Audio Amplifier
The CT Sounds CT-2000.1D is a compact 2000 watt class d monoblock car subwoofer amplifier. The 1-ohm stable mono amp features a Low Pass Filter (LPF), Subsonic Filter, and Bass Boost so you can get the exact sound you are looking for out of your amplifier.
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What's your head unit? Head units may produce max rated voltage at or BELOW max volume. Head units can also cause distortion. Even a name brand head unit can cause distortion at or below max volume.
If you're using the bass knob on the head unit, you are also increasing the voltage at that lower frequency. Setting the bass knob to flat, and eq to flat is going to be best your chance at not having distortion. Your head unit is more likely to be causing the clipping then your amp.
If your amp is set at rated power, (and rated power has a low THD, then it's not causing the clipping). All this would do is sound the same as a an amp pushing power and having the volume turned down.
If you have an O-scope, then set all your eq, bass anything to flat, and recheck your signal with lower than max volume on your head unit. Turn it down one, then turn up the gain. When your signal starts to distort, you can check AC voltage like this and see what wattage you are getting. You didn't say the amp. Your amp might be underrated. You (very slim chance) MIGHT be able to get away with a different head unit with higher preout voltage. Spending the time to do this, will at least help you find where the max volume you SHOULD use on your head unit.
If you're using the bass knob on the head unit, you are also increasing the voltage at that lower frequency. Setting the bass knob to flat, and eq to flat is going to be best your chance at not having distortion. Your head unit is more likely to be causing the clipping then your amp.
If your amp is set at rated power, (and rated power has a low THD, then it's not causing the clipping). All this would do is sound the same as a an amp pushing power and having the volume turned down.
If you have an O-scope, then set all your eq, bass anything to flat, and recheck your signal with lower than max volume on your head unit. Turn it down one, then turn up the gain. When your signal starts to distort, you can check AC voltage like this and see what wattage you are getting. You didn't say the amp. Your amp might be underrated. You (very slim chance) MIGHT be able to get away with a different head unit with higher preout voltage. Spending the time to do this, will at least help you find where the max volume you SHOULD use on your head unit.
OP
Bobby67
CarAudio.com Newbie
- Thread Starter
- #4
Stock 2020 ford ranger hu. Amp is skar rp1200. Bass knob at max when setting gain with oscope I was able to get rated power of 1200. I just don't listen to music with bass knob at max. HU bass turned all the way down. Max volume is 30 and I set gains with volume at 24. I think I've done everything correctly, but please correct me if not as I'm new and trying to learn how to do this myself.
24 out of 30 seems low. You are definitely leaving some out there. If the head unit is that bad you need to set it that low then I would look at getting a new one. If you set your amp gain with your head unit that low, then yeah you would be really pushing that amp.
Just to be clear: Bass knob on the amp should be at max (or removed) when setting gain.
Bass knob or any controls on head unit should be flat or off.
With an 1600w amp vs a 1200w amp, you are missing out on almost 20% more. You can most likely go even higher with the supporting electrical, but it doesn't sound like you care about that.
If you really don't care about turning it up, and right now it already does plenty, you just want to get rid of the distortion: then I would test around with different numbers on the volume knob, check to see what wattage you can get out of it and figure out where the distorting point is on your head unit. If you have a multimeter, and will spend the time, set your head unit to 30 and turn your gain way down, check for distortion, then test your wattage, and see what is coming out clearly at the terminals. Keep working your way down on the head unit, and see how the signal responds. I WOULD GUESS, that you will find a number on the head unit, where there is a noticeable difference, and that is your head unit's limitations.
Just to be clear: Bass knob on the amp should be at max (or removed) when setting gain.
Bass knob or any controls on head unit should be flat or off.
With an 1600w amp vs a 1200w amp, you are missing out on almost 20% more. You can most likely go even higher with the supporting electrical, but it doesn't sound like you care about that.
If you really don't care about turning it up, and right now it already does plenty, you just want to get rid of the distortion: then I would test around with different numbers on the volume knob, check to see what wattage you can get out of it and figure out where the distorting point is on your head unit. If you have a multimeter, and will spend the time, set your head unit to 30 and turn your gain way down, check for distortion, then test your wattage, and see what is coming out clearly at the terminals. Keep working your way down on the head unit, and see how the signal responds. I WOULD GUESS, that you will find a number on the head unit, where there is a noticeable difference, and that is your head unit's limitations.
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Did you use a clamp meter to measure the actual power to come up with that 1150 number? Also, if youre not even listening at max volume why do you need a bigger amp?
So that would give you 1156 at a perfect 1 ohm load. When the subs start playing your impedance will go up, people call this impedance rise, or "box rise". So what that means is your subs are actually getting much less power than what you measure at the speaker terminals with a dmm. The good news about that is you can go to a bigger amp without having to worry too much about giving your subs too much power. But you've gotta keep in mind that it takes power to make power, so if youre going to upgrade your amp you need to make sure your electrical system can support it.
But like I asked before, if youre keeping the bass knob at 40% that means youre not using your current amp at its full potential, so what makes you want to upgrade it?
It's a little overkill but hey...
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