Another noob question...

I turned down the sensitivity on my subwoofer amp all the way to the minimum setting which is 8v. The result was much tighter bass, so with this i'm real happy and i'm keepin it that way. At first, at this volume level, the bass was almost inaudible, but then i turned down the sensitivity on the interior speaker amp to about 6v, and the balance is good when i turn it up the mids and highs are clear, and the bass is tight and loud. It would seem that i've done something good, but i'm not absolutely positive. Can you guys explain exactly what i've done?

settings: -sony xplod (temp sub amp) is set at 8v, and can be set all the way up to 0.4 v
-nakamichi amp set at 6v, can be set anywhere from 7.5v, to .2v

please let me know, if possible, what the optimal settings are. i like what i've done, b/c now the volume on my headunit (pre-amp eclipse) can be turned all the way up as opposed to only a little bit more than half way. oh, if it makes any difference, the eclipse hu is an 8v preamp.

 

God, the last thing you want is to get this group talking about setting gains: )

e_lectro has recommended this gain tutorial: http://www.jlaudio.com/tutorials/# (pick the right one). I like it

There is a max setting for each of your amps which can be derived theoretically, and as long as you don't exceed that setting, the rest of the adjustment is done by ear. If you set both amps to their max setting based on the signal level from the HU, that's probably NOT the setting where the two amp sound levels match each other. You will need to turn down from there based on sound.

 

thank you

 

I would play it by ear. The primary reason I say this is people have different opinions on what kind of bass sounds good to them.

The effect of the gains will also vary based on what kind of hu/amp/components you have, so unless someone has an exactly identical setup it would be hard for them to just tell you where to set it at. There are so many variables that goe into a system with muliple components such as yours that just simply turning the gain to a certain setting will not guarantee a good sound.

The way I tuned my system was to set my factory HU at 0 bass, 0 treble and then adjust my gains/crossovers/etc based on that. Maybe you could start off by doing that. As a general rule, I try to make sure I don't have certain components working harder than others. Basically I make sure not to max out any of the settings on either the amp or HU.

I'm not sure if this helps, but I hope it does. Good luck man!

 

I never said anything about good sound. Why did his bass sound different when he lowered the setting? Only because he was above the theoretical level defined by the tutorial, or he was above the practical limit of the woofer. The fact is that if he is below the theoretical max setting, the only reason that sound quality will improve when the gain is lowered is if he was overdriving the speakers initially, and now he's not.

Other than determining that theoretical ceiling, the tutorial's instructions have nothing to do with sound quality. Bass won't sound different in quality below those settings... it's only when you enter a nonlinear area of the speaker or the amp that you should hear an SQ change.

Hey, I adjust mine by ear too... but I've learned that lots of people don't seem to hear when things start to lose it, and besides, he asked...: )

 

to give you a good general rule in your case it sounds like you are successfull in determining the input sensivity setting on the amp. if you know the output voltage of the HU then the correct setting would be to set the gain at or below that setting. however, unless you plan to use the full volume range of the HU i usually set my gains a little high. i do this because i usually never go past 3/4 volume.
sometimes some cd's arent recorded with a very good level. using this setting you can turn the HU all the way up if needed to compensate for the lower level recordings.

although the gains are not intended to be a volume control it would be ok if you over gain for this reason a little. other amps that might be too loud can be turned down a little to balance the system. as a general rule of thumb you dont want to grossly exceed the input sensivitity setting on the amp with respect to the output voltage of the HU