Looking for that thump w/o frying the sub

DMM, I'm sure you must have the resources to figure that one out = digital multimeter.  Test tone CDs are readily available retail or you can find plenty of sources online.  Here is a past thread where I believe I might have linked to a test tone source:  https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=75001&PN=1

Since you're on the internet, a good friend to be aquainted with is Mr. Google.  Ask him "test tone" and he will give you answers.  This site's version looks through this forum, and can be found at the top right of this page beside the symbol .

When you play a tone and adjust gain (or volume if it's the deck), the tone will change slightly in pitch and change in its purity.  It will become static-sounding.  That's the tell of a beginning square wave...in other words...clipping.  If you continue to turn the gain up, it gets downright nasty.  That, believe it or not, is what most people listen to when they play their music loud.

I'm with forbidden on this one - your expectations are too high for your current setup. If you do not set the gain correctly, you are asking for nothing but trouble. Bank on it.

The shop you took it to seems to know what they are doing from your explanation. So just don't mess with it. And learn to like it the way it is.

If you can't do that, then you can always buy exactly what your friend has and then you'll have what you want. I think. I guess. Maybe?

haha you guys are hilarious... and I'm sad... because If my amps gain is set at 4.0 (the way I have it now) which is a notch forward from 8.0v .. and then theres a bunch more clicks after that before it reaches 0.1v at which point the amp is turned up to full power where it sounds like crap at volume 32 (max 35) because the bass is so heavy at volume 3-10 that you can't even hear the words from the songs... what I guess I'm trying to say is... if my amp is cea-2006 rated to run 600w rms at 2 ohms and my sub (4ohm dvc) is rated at 500w rms... then running my amp at 4.0v would only be running it at half power of what the amp is capable of running, and only 300w rms are being pumped into 500w rms that my sub says it can handle without voiding a warranty. .....

I want it to run at peak performance and running it at 4.0v like the output of my deck tells me to run it isn't sounding loud like it used to when I had the original type R 12" 2ohm dvc running 400w rms at 4 ohms... with the gain on the amp set to 0.2v and the settings on my deck eqs set to high where it was pushing almost a whole 400w (minus the fact its not really putting 14.4v into the amp) so it wasnt running at 400w rms but lets assume it was... which in turn caused my sub to still not work at peak performance because the whole setup was dummy proof but it sounded loud and clear and deep and beautifully breath taking... and I guess the reason I'm afraid to turn it up now is because I'm still not sure if there really is such a thing as "breaking in a sub" where the coil can handle more after its broken in....

I did an experiment today... I threw in an old bass tester cd...  and put on a repetitive track ... turned up the volume to 24 with all eq's set to 0.... I ran the amp at 2.5v instead this time to see if there would be a difference... I turned off the interior speakers to hear just the sub running... it sounded clean and clear and deep when I started to play with the EQ's.... .. Does setting the EQ's on your deck for example instead of on your AMP increase the power (whatts) going into your sub? which can in turn cause the sub to start clipping if its crossing that limit where it can't handle the power from the amp you control through the deck???? is that why they tell you that 4.0v output on the deck should be set to 4.0v gain on your amp? my friends deck is the same as mine but he's not running his amp at 4.0v hes running it at 1.0v maybe even 0.9 or 0.8v... he said he has it turned up 3/4 ... its a 1000w rms amp running a JL dub 7 meant to handle 750w rms.. so hes running his system at almost peak performance... ofcourse once again minus the fact its only putting 13.5 v into the amp (w/ car started) instead of 14.4 v like its rated to run at.

During my experiment I noticed that at 2.5v with my trunk open looking at the speaker with my eq's set high with bass eq on the amp set to +16db etc... the movement of the sub was always shaking even at high hz tones and expanding farther when the lows hit but it still sounded clear... compared to when I ran it at 4.0v with the same eqs it sounded weaker... but the movement of the sub was smaller.,,, and at high hz tones u didnt really see the speaker moving so much until the lows hit... but it was also weaker... is also normal? that when the power on the amp is turned up the loud speaker is more sensitive to hz outputs?

I JUST WANT IT TO RUN AT PEAK PERFORMANCE WHERE IM ALMOST RUNNING 500W rms

Where the amp handles 600W rms at full power, but me running it at close to 500W rms which i think means just having the gain set to 0.8v... or do E.Q. settings affect the amount of whatts being put into play? for example if I was running 0.1v 600w rms and turned up an eq on the amp or on the deck would that 600w turn into 602w maybe? does eq have an affect on that? ... I want my eq's to be set almost at high with the sub running at almost peak performance like I had it with my old dual 2ohm running 400w at 4ohms with eq's high and amp set to 0.2v... WHERE IT SOUNDED LIKE THERE WAS A CONCERT IN MY TRUNK AND WHERE MY FRONT WINDSHIELD FELT LIKE IT WAS GOING TO BLOW OUT...

and one more question... does having the gain on the amp set higher then the output of the deck in turn cause the interior speakers that are being powered from the headunit to not sound so loud at full volume anymore... since the amp is sucking more juice than the output of the deck is designed to handle? for example... having my amp set to 1.0v and my output on the deck is 4.0v. ............. THANK YOU ALL FOR READING... SORRY FOR THE LONG POST