I talked with a guy that install car sound for 30 years, and I said that the correct way to set gains is with a Osciloscope and he said to me that he does that by ear and it's the best way. When I measured the voltages that he adjusted by ear, they are much higer than the correct ones, so one thing that happens is that if your player have a max volume level of 40, on volume 27 it's already be much louder. I see that there's a lot of people that don't want to change, and maybe are adjusting amps wrong for a long time.
Unfortunately this is a common occurrence. It is a fact that it's almost impossible to set gains properly, especially on subwoofers, by listening for distortion. There's been quite a few times where I've had someone brag that their amp is so powerful it blows subs or complain that their speakers keep blowing and ask for a recommendation on stronger speakers....for giggles i had a few people let me check their gains and then piss them off because I show them with my o-scope that whoever set the level had the gain turned up so high that their speakers were getting almost nothing but a distorted signal. it's cool that you get louder sooner on the volume knob...but at what cost?
When I set my gain on my amp I used a multi meter because the kicker volt sheet that comes with my amp says for 1 ohm 400watts the volts should be 20.00v. I do have a o scope but I used it to find out when my oem radio clips so i send a clean signal to my LC2i pro
That's the perfect application of the Oscope 👍🏻 I would still use it on the amp output to verify that it's a clean waveform. There's absolutely nothing wrong with setting gain with a multimeter but keep in mind that the lower the impedance an amp sees from a speaker, the lower its damping factor (control over the speaker). This makes it very important to have a clean signal
Thanks for the reply yeah I'm new to this and it gets confusing to me. I actually think I'm under powering my subs also. They hit hard I'm running two skar 10s 200w rms each and my amp is a kicker 400.1 when doing my math I didn't add both speaker rms. If I do 400 squared times 4 for dvc 4ohm I should be around 40.00hz I'm only at 20 so I may have to up the amp to a 1200 watt and I'd probably run them at 2ohm to get more bass control what you mentioned. Ugh help! Lol
@@Mr.Towboater87 you kinda lost me a bit on your math....you can't determine a frequency based on a voltage/impedance equation. 40Hz, though is generally the most "powerful" frequency even with the Bass Boost off. The 400w you have right now would be fine but if you can get an amo that can deliver the same wattage at a higher impedance it would, imo, be better
@Billy Goat , I'm trying to set the gains on a pioneer gm dx871 and I have a 600$ 2 channel oscilli scope that goes to my 4k$ matco scanner and while setting the gain @50hz 0 db signal it's not clipping past 49+ volts ( scope complains about being over 50 volts )and it's got me so confused. so I'm currently running @ 32.5 volts and the sine wave is nice and clean . What are your thoughts? As far as just purely setting it by a non clipping waveform, i mean can i justify running higher voltages cause the waveform is clean and not clipping at lets say 42 volts @2 ohm should have this amp pushing 900 rms frm a 500 rms rated amp and this is what's confusing me is the clean waveform until just about 48- 49 starts developing spikes just before and after the peaks so i know that it's starting to clip but dam near 50 volts.
Personally i'd say run it as high as you feel comfortable as long as your sub can handle the higher power. If your sub is "cheap" enough, have fun, but if you're going way above RMS i'd model your sub in WinISD and make a box that can protect your sub from going over Xmech excursion where damage happens. Or: if you have a bass knob, then max the amp (cleanly), turn the knob to max and plug it in. This way you can control gain.without going into clipping territory
When your doing a 4 ch amp bridge to two. Do you set the gain each channel or by total . Example the front is 200rms and the rear is 100rms do I do square root to 300 and set the gain for both sides or do each channel
It depends how the bridging is set up on your amp. GENERALLY SPEAKING (caps for liability purposes, read your manual) if the amp is in "4/2 bridged mode" the Front L/R gain would control the entire output for the respective channels. You shouldn't need to set gain for each channel first. THIS IS NOT A GUARANTEE FOR ALL AMPS. READ YOUR MANUAL. NOT MY FAULT IF YOUR AMP BLOWS.
I don't run a head unit. I also kinda cheat because the DSP has an input clip light in the program so i can spot clipping without needing to measure. You can make your own rca adapter using speaker wire or amazon multimeter wires and solder on a female rca end. Then you can watch for clip on one channel from source and then check the other to see if it's clipping too
That's not always the case. There have been some cases i've heard of where the light was flashing way below clip or even didn't start flashing until deep clipping and a maxed amp gain. With a scope you get to see the signal you're working with and, keep in mind, clip lights don't show if your signal is heavily distorted 👍🏻
The gain control knob is exactly what a gain control is by allowing more or less input voltage! both knob and dial on AMP do the exact same thing.. which is exactly what the volume control does at the head unit what else is going on!?? .nothing.. .
You are about 1/4 right in entirely the wrong way. The bass knob (which is what I assume you mean) is a voltage regulator aka "gain knob" of sorts BUT it is not the PRIMARY gain control....I don't really care whether it shows the voltage or is just a knob. You NEVER use the bass knob to set gains because if you bump it you'll start overpowering and blowing things. The gain control on the amp is used to set max output voltage to protect against clipped signal to the speaker. You note the max volume on the HU/source device to prevent sending a clipped signal to the amp. IN NO WAY SHAPE OR FORM IS A GAIN CONTROL EQUAL TO A VOLUME DEVICE. Kindly keep that malarky to yourself.
@@BillyGoatAudioInstalls the gain control on the amp sets the base level of gain !!!! Please get in contact with reality sir. The bass remote level knob biases the difference between input voltage and base level, Head unit volume control increases or decreases input voltage all three are Gains whether you like it or not.. .
@@bobadingo From Google: No, the bass knob on an amp does not change the gain. The bass knob controls the mix level of lower frequencies in the audio spectrum. It adds bass boost and clips the signal. Turning the bass knob down changes the relationship between the bass and treble frequencies. Gain refers to the loudness of an input. It controls how much of the output from an instrument reaches the preamp section of the amplifier
@@bobadingoVolume is the perceived loudness of the music you hear. Gain is how much a signal is increased / decreased by an amplifier www.reddit.com/r/audiophile/comments/ptgwdz/help_understanding_gain_vs_volume/
I talked with a guy that install car sound for 30 years, and I said that the correct way to set gains is with a Osciloscope and he said to me that he does that by ear and it's the best way. When I measured the voltages that he adjusted by ear, they are much higer than the correct ones, so one thing that happens is that if your player have a max volume level of 40, on volume 27 it's already be much louder.
I see that there's a lot of people that don't want to change, and maybe are adjusting amps wrong for a long time.
Unfortunately this is a common occurrence. It is a fact that it's almost impossible to set gains properly, especially on subwoofers, by listening for distortion.
There's been quite a few times where I've had someone brag that their amp is so powerful it blows subs or complain that their speakers keep blowing and ask for a recommendation on stronger speakers....for giggles i had a few people let me check their gains and then piss them off because I show them with my o-scope that whoever set the level had the gain turned up so high that their speakers were getting almost nothing but a distorted signal.
it's cool that you get louder sooner on the volume knob...but at what cost?
Hello! I ordered osciloscope. I will do it, as you say :)
When I set my gain on my amp I used a multi meter because the kicker volt sheet that comes with my amp says for 1 ohm 400watts the volts should be 20.00v. I do have a o scope but I used it to find out when my oem radio clips so i send a clean signal to my LC2i pro
That's the perfect application of the Oscope 👍🏻
I would still use it on the amp output to verify that it's a clean waveform. There's absolutely nothing wrong with setting gain with a multimeter but keep in mind that the lower the impedance an amp sees from a speaker, the lower its damping factor (control over the speaker).
This makes it very important to have a clean signal
Thanks for the reply yeah I'm new to this and it gets confusing to me. I actually think I'm under powering my subs also. They hit hard I'm running two skar 10s 200w rms each and my amp is a kicker 400.1 when doing my math I didn't add both speaker rms. If I do 400 squared times 4 for dvc 4ohm I should be around 40.00hz I'm only at 20 so I may have to up the amp to a 1200 watt and I'd probably run them at 2ohm to get more bass control what you mentioned. Ugh help! Lol
@@Mr.Towboater87 you kinda lost me a bit on your math....you can't determine a frequency based on a voltage/impedance equation.
40Hz, though is generally the most "powerful" frequency even with the Bass Boost off.
The 400w you have right now would be fine but if you can get an amo that can deliver the same wattage at a higher impedance it would, imo, be better
Bassin 413 here !!
Welcome to the party, my dude!
@Billy Goat , I'm trying to set the gains on a pioneer gm dx871 and I have a 600$ 2 channel oscilli scope that goes to my 4k$ matco scanner and while setting the gain @50hz 0 db signal it's not clipping past 49+ volts ( scope complains about being over 50 volts )and it's got me so confused. so I'm currently running @ 32.5 volts and the sine wave is nice and clean . What are your thoughts? As far as just purely setting it by a non clipping waveform, i mean can i justify running higher voltages cause the waveform is clean and not clipping at lets say 42 volts @2 ohm should have this amp pushing 900 rms frm a 500 rms rated amp and this is what's confusing me is the clean waveform until just about 48- 49 starts developing spikes just before and after the peaks so i know that it's starting to clip but dam near 50 volts.
Personally i'd say run it as high as you feel comfortable as long as your sub can handle the higher power. If your sub is "cheap" enough, have fun, but if you're going way above RMS i'd model your sub in WinISD and make a box that can protect your sub from going over Xmech excursion where damage happens.
Or: if you have a bass knob, then max the amp (cleanly), turn the knob to max and plug it in. This way you can control gain.without going into clipping territory
When your doing a 4 ch amp bridge to two. Do you set the gain each channel or by total . Example the front is 200rms and the rear is 100rms do I do square root to 300 and set the gain for both sides or do each channel
It depends how the bridging is set up on your amp.
GENERALLY SPEAKING (caps for liability purposes, read your manual) if the amp is in "4/2 bridged mode" the Front L/R gain would control the entire output for the respective channels. You shouldn't need to set gain for each channel first.
THIS IS NOT A GUARANTEE FOR ALL AMPS. READ YOUR MANUAL. NOT MY FAULT IF YOUR AMP BLOWS.
So your setting the gain to match on the Bluetooth module not head unit?
I don't run a head unit. I also kinda cheat because the DSP has an input clip light in the program so i can spot clipping without needing to measure.
You can make your own rca adapter using speaker wire or amazon multimeter wires and solder on a female rca end. Then you can watch for clip on one channel from source and then check the other to see if it's clipping too
The voice coil does not get stuck or move like that lol.
Long story short, you'll cook your VC playing tones. Might not have described it exactly in the proper scientific way but the gist is there
How’s that any different from using the clip light cuz the light was on point with the o scope
That's not always the case. There have been some cases i've heard of where the light was flashing way below clip or even didn't start flashing until deep clipping and a maxed amp gain.
With a scope you get to see the signal you're working with and, keep in mind, clip lights don't show if your signal is heavily distorted 👍🏻
Is dat 1556 rms or max watts??
RMS output from the amp, without load. "Max" wattage is a bunch of fake numbers from manufacturers
👍
The gain control knob is exactly what a gain control is by allowing more or less input voltage! both knob and dial on AMP do the exact same thing.. which is exactly what the volume control does at the head unit what else is going on!?? .nothing.. .
You are about 1/4 right in entirely the wrong way.
The bass knob (which is what I assume you mean) is a voltage regulator aka "gain knob" of sorts BUT it is not the PRIMARY gain control....I don't really care whether it shows the voltage or is just a knob.
You NEVER use the bass knob to set gains because if you bump it you'll start overpowering and blowing things.
The gain control on the amp is used to set max output voltage to protect against clipped signal to the speaker. You note the max volume on the HU/source device to prevent sending a clipped signal to the amp.
IN NO WAY SHAPE OR FORM IS A GAIN CONTROL EQUAL TO A VOLUME DEVICE.
Kindly keep that malarky to yourself.
Not at all. The volume knob is a boost knob, not a gain knob. Since I'm running a DSP I don't use the amp knob. Just set the gains on the amp itself.
@@BillyGoatAudioInstalls the gain control on the amp sets the base level of gain !!!! Please get in contact with reality sir. The bass remote level knob biases the difference between input voltage and base level,
Head unit volume control increases or decreases input voltage all three are Gains whether you like it or not.. .
@@bobadingo From Google:
No, the bass knob on an amp does not change the gain. The bass knob controls the mix level of lower frequencies in the audio spectrum. It adds bass boost and clips the signal. Turning the bass knob down changes the relationship between the bass and treble frequencies.
Gain refers to the loudness
of an input. It controls how much of the output from an instrument reaches the preamp
section of the amplifier
@@bobadingoVolume is the perceived loudness of the music you hear. Gain is how much a signal is increased / decreased by an amplifier
www.reddit.com/r/audiophile/comments/ptgwdz/help_understanding_gain_vs_volume/