Why turn down all bass boost and crossovers when setting gain??

[sdmtnbiker420 10+ year member]

Question -

I am about to go set gain on my subwoofer...

WHy does everyone recommend turning down all microprocessors like EQ, bass boost, crossovers, etc?

Do they mean people shouldnt use those at all, or just turn em down to set gain and turn em right back up/on?

Because I have a Pioneer 6900UB and I use the Bass boost (loudness) as well as EQ and crossovers... wondering how I should do this...

When setting gain by ear, shouldnt I have all the features that I plan on using turned on?

Click to read more...

 

[cdimic25 10+ year member]

I have a pioneer premier and I set all the eqs to 0 but leave crossovers and I set subwoofer at +6 to get the most out of my headunit.

Also leave loud, bassboost and eq low at 0 unless you wanna send clipped signals.

 

[Proximity 10+ year member]

Leave them off because you should be setting the gain at ~3/4 of the full volume (not normal listening levels) and so when you ARE at normal listen levels you can turns the settings up or down a bit based on the song.

That's my reasoning anyway.

Plus there isn't a point really. If you're going to set it at some point with the bass boost turned up or something (and you always leave it on), may as well set the gain with those off and get to that same point.

 

[SRim23 5,000+ posts]

you realy shouldnt use bass boost at all.

 

[95BlackGA 5,000+ posts]

I say leave them on while setting gain. Once you adjust them after wards you're not guaranteed to not send clipped signals. If you have them on already, you can hear the clipping occur while setting it, (Some people can hear it) so then you can back off of the gain.

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

Bass boost gives an artificial boost ina relatively narrow width of frequencies. This means when applied, you will either 1) clip the bass prematurely, or 2) if you listen and keep the volume below bass clipping levels, you are also artificially limiting the rest of the system. Bass boost should be turned off, and left off.

Setting the bass at +6 on your deck will give basically the same effect as i described above for bass boost. Your deck should not require adjusting the EQ functions higher in order to achieve maximum signal output. And even if it doesnt, you dont need to eek out those tenths of a db in headroom anyway, you wont hear it I promise. Another adjustment, much like the bass boost, that has a lot of downsides, and no real upside.

Now that we've established you will turn your bass boost off, yes any proper preamp settings like EQ adjustments should be left on when adjusting gains.

 

[arizona 10+ year member]

I used loudness when i had my old setup....because it wasn't loud enough without. Now that I have a real substage I feel no need for it.

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

I used loudness when i had my old setup....because it wasn't loud enough without. Now that I have a real substage I feel no need for it.

If your system, at full tilt, allowed you to run loudness without clipping your amplifier, you had your gains set too low. If you had your gains set correctly, you were either clipping your amp nicely in that freq range, or you were running your front stage speakers artificially low and exaggerating the overpowering rear substage even more. Neither is a recipe for good sound imho.

 

[sdmtnbiker420 10+ year member]

Great advice, audioholic.

What do you recommend on the Pionner "LOUDNESS" feature? I have been running mine at Medium...

 

[skittlesRgood 10+ year member]

Bass boost gives an artificial boost ina relatively narrow width of frequencies. This means when applied, you will either 1) clip the bass prematurely, or 2) if you listen and keep the volume below bass clipping levels, you are also artificially limiting the rest of the system. Bass boost should be turned off, and left off.
Setting the bass at +6 on your deck will give basically the same effect as i described above for bass boost. Your deck should not require adjusting the EQ functions higher in order to achieve maximum signal output. And even if it doesnt, you dont need to eek out those tenths of a db in headroom anyway, you wont hear it I promise. Another adjustment, much like the bass boost, that has a lot of downsides, and no real upside.

Now that we've established you will turn your bass boost off, yes any proper preamp settings like EQ adjustments should be left on when adjusting gains.

lol everyone gives a little advice then audioholic comes in like a scientist and does it rite. if i ever run down to pismo im making you look at my system lol.

 

[95Prober 10+ year member]

Bass boost gives an artificial boost ina relatively narrow width of frequencies. This means when applied, you will either 1) clip the bass prematurely, or 2) if you listen and keep the volume below bass clipping levels, you are also artificially limiting the rest of the system. Bass boost should be turned off, and left off.
Setting the bass at +6 on your deck will give basically the same effect as i described above for bass boost. Your deck should not require adjusting the EQ functions higher in order to achieve maximum signal output. And even if it doesnt, you dont need to eek out those tenths of a db in headroom anyway, you wont hear it I promise. Another adjustment, much like the bass boost, that has a lot of downsides, and no real upside.

Now that we've established you will turn your bass boost off, yes any proper preamp settings like EQ adjustments should be left on when adjusting gains.

So the "BASS" setting should be set at ZERO, but the "SUB OUT" setting on the deck should be set to MAX. ??

 

[ProgMtl 10+ year member]

In all reality the music you'll be listening to WILL have LOWER output than a test tone...so when setting the gains you have everything set to "zero" (except the sub output because MOST headunits will only put out the full voltage with this setting turned all the way up)...then after setting the gains you can use a little bass boost or loudness or whatever and you still should not clip because your music is not putting out a constant signal...my theory anyway and I'm not clipping setting it this way (although I never use the loudness feature and have the bass boost about 10% of the way up is all just to get a little more bottom end, but not much).

 

[BassmentJack 10+ year member]

you realy shouldnt use bass boost at all.

I think using the Bass Boost is something like f#cking the fat girl that all your friends would make fun of you for...You know if no one was around you'd hit it and deny it if you ever got caught. The same thing applies to the bass boost on here. Most of the ppl who say don't use it, are probably using it to some degree, but denying the **** outta it....just don't get caught.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

 

[ProgMtl 10+ year member]

I don't have a problem using it (or admitting I do) on occasion...I mean an AC/DC compact disc from 1979 has nowhere near the bass output of a Dream Theater compact disc from 2007 and thus needs a little help in sounding better.

 

[PaulD 10+ year member]

I use the remote gain knob all the time but I don't listen at anywhere near full volume, so I guess it doesn't really matter.