Did the installer set my amp up properly?

That headunit has 4v preouts so the gains should be set to no more than the 9 o clock position. The speakers and subs are most likely clipping and they will fail very soon. Take it to another shop, where someone knows what they are doing.

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Thanks for the reply. You are correct the headunit does have 4 volt preouts. The more volts the better right? Speaking of which they tried to get me to buy a line driver. Are you sure we are on the same page for these gain settings? I don't think they are at the 9 o clock position. The sub is set to a little past the half way mark... say 7 o clock I believe. The front gain is set to slightly under the half way mark. If that was a clock wouldn't it be about 5:30 or 5:45? Maybe you are talking about the frequency settings? He has both the front and sub frequency settings turned clear to the counter clockwise position. I don't hear any clipping. The headunits volume goes up to 40 max. Most material I can get to the 30-35 range and some even to 40 with no distortion.

MANY audio shops set amps by ear.

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Right, but from what I was told this wasn't even done. As I said I was told the amp was on the bench with no audio, no power to it, and he set the gains with a screwdriver to a spot he felt was right and then he and installed it. He didn't do any "tuning" after that. The head units Audio settings were what I had them at before the amp was installed.

Most gains start in the 6-7 o clock area and turn clockwise until 2-3ish. If you say they are at 7 oclock then it sounds like it might actually be set properly. When I hear people say "half way" I think of 12 o clock, so I was thinking the gains were set around that level, which would be very incorrect.

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Hmm I didn't know that. I assumed all gain controls basically went from 1 to 12 clockwise. I must be missing something... if you had an amp that started at 6-7 o clock and you turned it clockwise as you said wouldn't you hit 12 (the spot you said is way too much gain) before you hit 2-3?

RTFM.
Look up the manual for your amp and it will tell you about where all these adjustments should be set

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Thanks. Been done... just very basic info there. The "manual" should end all amp gain questions. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Depending on the amp itself, there should be voltages displayed around the gain knob. Starting high at like say 10 going down to .5 or around at max. If you dont set it with a dvm set at just slightly below where 4 volts would be around the knob. That would be pretty close to where it should be.That allows you to run your hu where you want and not have to worry about turning the sub setting up, as it would be 4 volt preouts at max sub output. at 0 would most likely be half if its a linear curve. The amp should be set to lp, low pass crossover for the subs so they only get bass frequencies/, the fronts could be set to full or hp, high pass crossover or full sound. the crossover frequencie should be able to be set on the hu itself, but if not you can use hp, high pass crossover to set the frequency on the amp at which the front speakers will start to play. usually 50-80hz. The sub should be set to the same as the fronts, ie if the fronts are set to 80hz, the sub should be as well to properly blend the music.

It sounds like you are a novice at this time, so i tried to break it down for you a bit, but its no rocket science, trust me. Do a bit of research and in no time, you will have the knowledge to set all your own equipment all the time.

Cheers

Kevin

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Thanks for the reply! It's nice to get a constructive/helpful post. Much appreciated! Yes I am a novice, an old novice. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif Some of this I didn't know like the voltages. So the #'s around the gain dials on the amp are voltage indicator #'s? Since my HU is 4 volt that's about where both the front and rear gains should be set at? I'm just trying to understand this more. My amp gains go from 1 to 11. Right now the front gain is at about 5.5 and the The rear for sub (2 channels bridged) is at 7 or almost 7. The headunits volume goes up to 40 max. Most material I can get to the 30-35 range and some even to 40 with no distortion with these settings. I will lower them some and see how that is. The amp front channel is set to HP and the rear to LP. Both the front and rear frequency settings on the amp are at one extreme. Without being in front of it if I remember correctly the best I can tell you is if I take the fronts from that current setting and start to turn it to the other extreme the bass fades from the fronts. For the sub if I remember correctly if I take it and turn it the other way the bass gets stronger. My head unit does have adjustments. They are as follows...

Loudness: OFF

Sub: ON

Sub level: 0

Sub Frequency: 80Hz

Bass Booster: 0

High Pass Filter: 80Hz

Source Level: 0

So both the HU and the amp have duplicate settings? Does that mess things up? Maybe that is why the frequency settings in the amp are both at one extreme... so there's no fighting between the amp settings and the HU settings? Thank you very much for the help. I'm trying. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif