Amplifier Crossover Settings

Set your gains one at a time or expect to have problems. If you don't want to take it to a shop, follow this routine. Turn all gains down all the way, they are happiest there. Set the bass / mid / treble control on your cd to center, not up or down. Find yourself yur favorite heaviest bass cd. Play the same song over and over, the song that never ends. Start with your front speakers, unplug all other rca cables from the amps so only the front speakers are playing. Remember that gains are designed to be turned down  - not up. Don not use any bass boost switches on the amp. Start by turning the volume on the cd player up to about 85%. Expect that at this point is where the outputs of your cd player will clip. If you hear your speakers distorting, raise the crossover frequency and / or lower the volume level. If all goes well then play with the gain until you hear the speakers distort, turn the gain down. Now there is a tradeoff here, if you want midbass from your speakers you cannot have (generally speaking) lots of gain, play with this, turn your crossover all the up and you will see that you can increase your gain, turn the crossover down and you will have to turn down the gain. Adjust this to how you like it to sound. Now do the same for the rear speakers, don't forget to unplug the front rca's. After you have set both front and rear gains, listen to both playing together (still with the same song), if you hear too much sound coming from the back of the car, turn the gain down, you want front stage - rear fill, not the other way around. Finally disconnect the front and rear rca's and adjust the sub amp in the same fashion. Max the sub level control (volume level at 85%) start with the gain all the way down. Adjust the gain and crossover until you like how it sounds, hopefully devoid of all audible distortion, plug in the front and rear rca's again. If you have way too much bass, the safe bet is to turn the sub gain down, the other is to turn the sub level down on the cd. Hopefully your cd has a dedicated sub pre-out.

Let us know how you make out.