I want to thank you! I know this video is old but you helped me with the problem I was having on my Taramps DS440/4. I have a Kenwood that pushes 3 volts out the RCAs, clean all the way to 35. My Smart 3 on the subs has no problems but my mids & highs amp, the DS440, showed massive amounts of distortion on my DD1+ and on my Oscope. Even with the gain all the way down. It was driving me insane enough that I even purchased another one thinking the amp was bad. Same shit even with the new one. After watching this video I went into the Kenwood and lowered the rca gain levels only on the front and rear channels in the crossover menu to -6 and bam! All distortion is gone. I reset the gains on the amp using those new levels and I am super clean and happy. The specs on the Taramps website for this amp say 4 volts ~.250mV but that is wrong. 1.8-9 volts is the sweet spot. Thank you sir! 👍👍
Going thru something similar.. I keep getting shortages in my DS18 EQ. I've bought three of them and keep having the same issue. My pops brought it to my attention that I may have my voltage to high
@@theone148 I reset my head unit and instead of lowering the gains on the front stage I just tuned the radio with volume 32 instead of 35 so I didn’t have to mess with front voltages separately. Now everything setup like normal.
Problem I’m having is that at max volume, knob all the way up, sub level +15, and I’m only getting 2.3 v out of my sub rca and .1 out of my 4 channel rca. This is an Alpine 172bt v4 v headunit. I have to crank the gains when I shouldn’t. I might check the rca before the knob.
By a line driver or seperate parametric EQ it'll ramp the RCA voltage up across all Rcas to 7-15v. It woke my system up because I use an atoto A7 android headunit. Taramps is the only brand I know that don't like RCA voltage high. Every amp other then that runs cooler an better output with the RCA voltage up an won't get premature clipping
Thank you for breaking it down the way you did and sharing your knowledge. I'm gonna take the opportunity to ask a question though lol. My Deaf Bonce AAB-4900 says input of .5v-8v. I have a Alpine 175bt HU, should I be aiming to get closer to that 8v input voltage? I've got a clipping issue and pretty sure it's my settings, but now I know how to test my RCA and can go from there.
@@JerryAintloud thank you! That was the missing piece. I watched a bunch of your vids yesterday, specifically amp set up and I learned the most when you were telling stories about this or that. Finally stuff stuck. Sincerely thank you!
@@JerryAintloud THANK YOU! Finally figured out what was the problem from the beginning. My crossovers were way off, subsonic set to high and not using the -5db test tones. I'm sure it could be fine tuned, but it's better and sounds cleaner then it ever has. No clip light constantly going off. I never messed with this stuff till a few years back and never truly understood it. Today things finally made sense. I appreciate all the knowledge you put out. I've watched hours and hours of vids trying to figure it out and the way you explain things just works.
My set up is different. My head unit only has one pair of RC‘s coming out but I have that one pair going into in AudioControl Matrix plus. And has the radio signal going in one pair and coming out the other side three pair for meds front and rear sub. And all three have their own gains of raisin the voltage going to both amplifiers. My suburb is a Taramps 8K. So are you saying I should make sure that the voltage going in to that amplifier is not too high?
I’ve know this but was told when my head unit was sold to me it was 2v rca output out the gate come to find out last night it’s been a 5v radio this whole time so I guess I’m gonna lower my RCA voltage retune and see if I get more power out of these md12ks
I know it’s an older vid, but I hope you can clarify. The voltage you’re referring to; is that from head unit to amp or from head unit through amp and to sub?
So maybe this is a dumb question but I've always been under the impression that the higher the preamp volt out of the headunit the better. Higher end units have 4 and 5 volt preouts. Is it better to have one with 4 or 2 volt preouts? Thanks
So to confirm, are you saying regardless of the HU/ Amp combo, I should be aiming for a 1.8-1.9 V reading on the RCAs? I’ve always heard that I want to send the highest Volts possible to the amp My combo here is a generic Pioneer HU (rated 2v preout) & a Skar RP2000 (6V-0.2V) Regardless of my setup, I should target 1.8V on the RCAS?
I can't believe I'm just now seeing this video. I thought Ive seen them all. Buuuuut since I'm running a stock head unit and it don't have sub level but I'm running a Lc7i would that be done the same way?
Most lower Amps up to 5k ish say 220mv for voltage. Is that a minimum or the maximum it should see? Im running a LOC and its really easy to send massive amounts of voltage through Rcas. Ive never had a problem until working on the dodge charger. Seems as if i cant get the amp to do its job properly.
So Jerry i have a crecendo bass clef 4k on 2 skar vxfs wired to 1ohm.Im thinking of the md 8k but worried about my head unit putting out 4v on the pres.So if i understand turn the subwoofer level down to reduce rca voltage to about 1.8?I didnt know i could lower the pre out voltage.Love the bass clef but want more lol.2 100amh agms and a 320 alternator on 2 runs of 1 gauge if that will power the taramps.Thanks Jerry.Oh and i have a occiliscope and multi meter.Thanks again.
This is why those amps run so hot.. ideally you want the highest voltage everywhere in the system you can achieve for head room and quality of the signal.. it’s like a bucket with mud in the bottom (noise) and couple gallons of water (signal) the more water (voltage) in the bucket the further you are from picking up and sending that noise through the amp.. Now you can dip down and get clean signal at those lower levels but you have to reach deeper into that bucket to pull out the water (signal) with less room for error to not grab mud (noise) hence headroom.. reaching deeper for the signal means working harder for the same signal with less headroom which results in the amp having to work harder to amplify the signal and thus generating more heat.. It’s simple math.. say you’re pushing 40v out the amp.. the amp has to do less work to increase the signal from 1.9v to 40v then say if you were sending it 6.5-7v.. this is a logarithmic not linear scale so it’s magnified many times over.. so 1v to 4v isn’t 4x is more like 36x the work.. This is also a very commonly overlooked part of picking your amplifier and signal sending unit.. I personally don’t use the output from my headunits.. I go with a tried and tested LOC where I can fine tune the voltage to as high as possible wo distortion or clipping.. usually around 6.5-7.8v depending on which name brand LOC you’re using.. lot of those Amazon specials for $20 are .9v before clipping on a good day just fyi.. But this is all worthless if you have an amp that isn’t capable of using the higher signal to start with.. I’ll also note of all the headunits I’ve tested with 5-6-8v preamps I’ve yet to see one that does much more then 2-4v clean.. this is why you run a dsp.. you can send a 2c signal from the headunits to the dsp then amp up to 6-7v coming out the dsp to the amp.. even still you’d be surprised how many quality name brand dsp units still can’t achieve more then 4-5v clean voltage.. off as it is.. the higher end loc units are the best on the market for getting the most voltage out of your rcas as possible.. idk why I can buy a $49 kicker loc and get 6.9v clean in the size of a miniature candy bar but they can’t put the same unit inside a head unit or dsp device lol.. makes no sense to me at all.. Last thing of note.. all the old school name brand units rated at 2v preamps do provide a very clean 1.9v out..
I know exactly which kicker LOC is talking about.. I had an still use it for.its remote.trigger using phantom power from the speaker wires! Gotta love.kicker! I upgraded my headunit an I did exactly that. I sent as best clean signal from my HU to my American bass Parametric EQ which ramps it up to 6.3v clean. To my SLAPZ audio 5k. Taramps is only amp I know that's weird like that. Any real amp will love it an run better an cooler with higher RCA voltage hence lower gain setting to achieve same power.
For taramps should I run the RCA from the sub output on the head unit? I'm currently running the RCA'S from the front and rear speaker outputs to the Taramps 2.6PRO DSP then to the Bass knob then to the amp. Is there a better way to run it?
I jave the same set up as you that is fine how tou set it up. Jerrys video was about setting the voltage inputs to amp . Some bass knobs have a setting scree on the back side . Then follow his instructions on the video. By check voltage inputs , kust look for all. Input setting controls so they can matched ,to GAIN CONTROL.
@@JerryAintloud I picked up a Kenwood single din media player I’m running a taramps 12k 80ah lithium 400amp alt but I’m still seeing clipping with subwoofer setting and -5 and the amp not even at a quarter of a way
I have a 2014 durango. I have a pac audio 41. I'm getting 5v pre out put with it. I have 2 audiopipe 1800 watt amps Bridge together I have two zvx 12-in subwoofers. The amp only takes a 5 Volt or lower aux input voltage. So for what I'm getting on and pre output from the head unit / pac audio unit. I don't need to turn the gain up on the amp. if I do it starts to clip. but when I turn my radio up I'm barely getting Bass from the subwoofers why????
I believe you have already got the information you needed, but you measure the voltage on the rca with a multimeter, and as you raise the volume on the head unit you will see the voltage go up you stop where you want it to be and then adjust from the amps.
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I want to thank you! I know this video is old but you helped me with the problem I was having on my Taramps DS440/4. I have a Kenwood that pushes 3 volts out the RCAs, clean all the way to 35. My Smart 3 on the subs has no problems but my mids & highs amp, the DS440, showed massive amounts of distortion on my DD1+ and on my Oscope. Even with the gain all the way down. It was driving me insane enough that I even purchased another one thinking the amp was bad. Same shit even with the new one. After watching this video I went into the Kenwood and lowered the rca gain levels only on the front and rear channels in the crossover menu to -6 and bam! All distortion is gone. I reset the gains on the amp using those new levels and I am super clean and happy. The specs on the Taramps website for this amp say 4 volts ~.250mV but that is wrong. 1.8-9 volts is the sweet spot. Thank you sir! 👍👍
Going thru something similar.. I keep getting shortages in my DS18 EQ. I've bought three of them and keep having the same issue. My pops brought it to my attention that I may have my voltage to high
@@theone148 I reset my head unit and instead of lowering the gains on the front stage I just tuned the radio with volume 32 instead of 35 so I didn’t have to mess with front voltages separately. Now everything setup like normal.
Learn something new every day, didnt even know this was such a thing!
Thank you again. Came back for a reference. Only one channel to each amp is putting out voltage. Found out it was my cables.
Super easy to understand, thanks 🙏
Problem I’m having is that at max volume, knob all the way up, sub level +15, and I’m only getting 2.3 v out of my sub rca and .1 out of my 4 channel rca. This is an Alpine 172bt v4 v headunit. I have to crank the gains when I shouldn’t. I might check the rca before the knob.
By a line driver or seperate parametric EQ it'll ramp the RCA voltage up across all Rcas to 7-15v. It woke my system up because I use an atoto A7 android headunit. Taramps is the only brand I know that don't like RCA voltage high. Every amp other then that runs cooler an better output with the RCA voltage up an won't get premature clipping
Thank you for breaking it down the way you did and sharing your knowledge. I'm gonna take the opportunity to ask a question though lol. My Deaf Bonce AAB-4900 says input of .5v-8v. I have a Alpine 175bt HU, should I be aiming to get closer to that 8v input voltage? I've got a clipping issue and pretty sure it's my settings, but now I know how to test my RCA and can go from there.
no don't try to get to 8 volts. the gain is just to match the input your head unit is putting out.. my HU has been set at 1.8v since I had taramps.
@@JerryAintloud thank you! That was the missing piece. I watched a bunch of your vids yesterday, specifically amp set up and I learned the most when you were telling stories about this or that. Finally stuff stuck. Sincerely thank you!
@@JerryAintloud THANK YOU! Finally figured out what was the problem from the beginning. My crossovers were way off, subsonic set to high and not using the -5db test tones. I'm sure it could be fine tuned, but it's better and sounds cleaner then it ever has. No clip light constantly going off. I never messed with this stuff till a few years back and never truly understood it. Today things finally made sense. I appreciate all the knowledge you put out. I've watched hours and hours of vids trying to figure it out and the way you explain things just works.
Love your videos man, badazz stuff
My set up is different. My head unit only has one pair of RC‘s coming out but I have that one pair going into in AudioControl Matrix plus. And has the radio signal going in one pair and coming out the other side three pair for meds front and rear sub. And all three have their own gains of raisin the voltage going to both amplifiers. My suburb is a Taramps 8K. So are you saying I should make sure that the voltage going in to that amplifier is not too high?
I’ve know this but was told when my head unit was sold to me it was 2v rca output out the gate come to find out last night it’s been a 5v radio this whole time so I guess I’m gonna lower my RCA voltage retune and see if I get more power out of these md12ks
Yep I’m now convinced my multimeter won’t read below 5V
Most head units have 4v rca outputs, I don't think you can change that even with volume adjustments.
you can change the out put voltage with the sub level, and my kenwood has a gain for front and rear out puts.
I know it’s an older vid, but I hope you can clarify. The voltage you’re referring to; is that from head unit to amp or from head unit through amp and to sub?
So maybe this is a dumb question but I've always been under the impression that the higher the preamp volt out of the headunit the better. Higher end units have 4 and 5 volt preouts. Is it better to have one with 4 or 2 volt preouts? Thanks
Depends on your amp’s input sensitivity rating. Some go up to 8v or higher. My taramps says only 220mv which is crazy low
Just what I needed. Thanks man. I was wondering what to set my taramps smart 5 at. I heard somewhere to set taramps at 2 or below 2 volts ac
Set around 3 something
So to confirm, are you saying regardless of the HU/ Amp combo, I should be aiming for a 1.8-1.9 V reading on the RCAs? I’ve always heard that I want to send the highest Volts possible to the amp
My combo here is a generic Pioneer HU (rated 2v preout) & a Skar RP2000 (6V-0.2V)
Regardless of my setup, I should target 1.8V on the RCAS?
I can't believe I'm just now seeing this video. I thought Ive seen them all. Buuuuut since I'm running a stock head unit and it don't have sub level but I'm running a Lc7i would that be done the same way?
Most lower Amps up to 5k ish say 220mv for voltage. Is that a minimum or the maximum it should see? Im running a LOC and its really easy to send massive amounts of voltage through Rcas. Ive never had a problem until working on the dodge charger. Seems as if i cant get the amp to do its job properly.
So Jerry i have a crecendo bass clef 4k on 2 skar vxfs wired to 1ohm.Im thinking of the md 8k but worried about my head unit putting out 4v on the pres.So if i understand turn the subwoofer level down to reduce rca voltage to about 1.8?I didnt know i could lower the pre out voltage.Love the bass clef but want more lol.2 100amh agms and a 320 alternator on 2 runs of 1 gauge if that will power the taramps.Thanks Jerry.Oh and i have a occiliscope and multi meter.Thanks again.
Great Video!
That volt meter thing , what’s the name of it , is it on amazon
This is why those amps run so hot.. ideally you want the highest voltage everywhere in the system you can achieve for head room and quality of the signal.. it’s like a bucket with mud in the bottom (noise) and couple gallons of water (signal) the more water (voltage) in the bucket the further you are from picking up and sending that noise through the amp..
Now you can dip down and get clean signal at those lower levels but you have to reach deeper into that bucket to pull out the water (signal) with less room for error to not grab mud (noise) hence headroom.. reaching deeper for the signal means working harder for the same signal with less headroom which results in the amp having to work harder to amplify the signal and thus generating more heat..
It’s simple math.. say you’re pushing 40v out the amp.. the amp has to do less work to increase the signal from 1.9v to 40v then say if you were sending it 6.5-7v.. this is a logarithmic not linear scale so it’s magnified many times over.. so 1v to 4v isn’t 4x is more like 36x the work..
This is also a very commonly overlooked part of picking your amplifier and signal sending unit..
I personally don’t use the output from my headunits.. I go with a tried and tested LOC where I can fine tune the voltage to as high as possible wo distortion or clipping.. usually around 6.5-7.8v depending on which name brand LOC you’re using.. lot of those Amazon specials for $20 are .9v before clipping on a good day just fyi..
But this is all worthless if you have an amp that isn’t capable of using the higher signal to start with..
I’ll also note of all the headunits I’ve tested with 5-6-8v preamps I’ve yet to see one that does much more then 2-4v clean.. this is why you run a dsp.. you can send a 2c signal from the headunits to the dsp then amp up to 6-7v coming out the dsp to the amp.. even still you’d be surprised how many quality name brand dsp units still can’t achieve more then 4-5v clean voltage.. off as it is.. the higher end loc units are the best on the market for getting the most voltage out of your rcas as possible.. idk why I can buy a $49 kicker loc and get 6.9v clean in the size of a miniature candy bar but they can’t put the same unit inside a head unit or dsp device lol.. makes no sense to me at all..
Last thing of note.. all the old school name brand units rated at 2v preamps do provide a very clean 1.9v out..
taramps recommend to stay under 2v and they make more power under 1.9v of RCA voltage.. but that's Brazilian amplifier. different than korean
I know exactly which kicker LOC is talking about.. I had an still use it for.its remote.trigger using phantom power from the speaker wires! Gotta love.kicker! I upgraded my headunit an I did exactly that. I sent as best clean signal from my HU to my American bass Parametric EQ which ramps it up to 6.3v clean. To my SLAPZ audio 5k. Taramps is only amp I know that's weird like that. Any real amp will love it an run better an cooler with higher RCA voltage hence lower gain setting to achieve same power.
So if your running multiple amps do u increase the voltage higher than 1.9 or no matter what 1.9
No because it doesn’t drop when you split the signal. Sundown did a video on it
Very helpful thanks
Thx Jerry!
For taramps should I run the RCA from the sub output on the head unit? I'm currently running the RCA'S from the front and rear speaker outputs to the Taramps 2.6PRO DSP then to the Bass knob then to the amp. Is there a better way to run it?
I jave the same set up as you that is fine how tou set it up. Jerrys video was about setting the voltage inputs to amp . Some bass knobs have a setting scree on the back side . Then follow his instructions on the video. By check voltage inputs , kust look for all. Input setting controls so they can matched ,to GAIN CONTROL.
is there anything i need to do to run 2 alts one is a mechman and other is a stock 200 amp
What head unit do you recommend
me personally, I always get media players (no CD player) and I really like Kenwood.
@@JerryAintloud I picked up a Kenwood single din media player I’m running a taramps 12k 80ah lithium 400amp alt but I’m still seeing clipping with subwoofer setting and -5 and the amp not even at a quarter of a way
I have a 2014 durango. I have a pac audio 41. I'm getting 5v pre out put with it. I have 2 audiopipe 1800 watt amps Bridge together I have two zvx 12-in subwoofers. The amp only takes a 5 Volt or lower aux input voltage. So for what I'm getting on and pre output from the head unit / pac audio unit. I don't need to turn the gain up on the amp. if I do it starts to clip. but when I turn my radio up I'm barely getting Bass from the subwoofers why????
Yeah I have the same issue with my kenwood 705 5v sub out. With jp23 my sub barely moves
I got a problem on my bravo Amps the rca keep going out I do have 4volt radio pioneer with a split and is that to much between two amps
Does anyone know the recommended RCA voltage for the smart 3 bass? Is it under 1.9 like the MD? Thanks
they are fine up to 4v
@@JerryAintloud thank you brother
I have a taramps 3k and bass 5k. I was told they need to be between 2 to 4v. Is that correct?
they don't have to be, I always ran Taramps RCA voltage at 1.8
What about a head unit that has a 5v pre amp output how would that fair with a Taramps amplifier?
I believe you have already got the information you needed, but you measure the voltage on the rca with a multimeter, and as you raise the volume on the head unit you will see the voltage go up you stop where you want it to be and then adjust from the amps.
What is vodig???
taramp 1200.1 rca voltage
Wait isn’t DC voltage?
No AC
@@JerryAintloud its ac on the rcas ? so set my MM to ac to set gain i have a dd+1 dont think it works to good but might be me
@@jtsgarage2999 yes AC voltage
Why AC voltage?? Isn't it DC?
Your amp your head unit everything uses DC to work but sound is frequency measured in Heartz that's why you set you multimeter to AC voltage