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proper way to set your gains


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spilot 
Copper - Posts: 90
Copper spacespace
Joined: January 26, 2005
Location: United States
Posted: February 11, 2005 at 4:08 PM / IP Logged  
i remember seeing a post (maybe on here, maybe somewhere else), but i can not seem to find it. anything is appreciated.
Francious70 
Silver - Posts: 629
Silver spacespace
Joined: July 26, 2004
Location: United States
Posted: February 11, 2005 at 5:00 PM / IP Logged  
Turn gains on amp to min. Turn HU up until you hear distortion. Back HU down a little until distortion goes away. Turn amp gains up until you hear distortion. Back amp gains off a little until distortion goes away. Sit back and enjoy.
Paul
newtone 
Copper - Posts: 62
Copper spacespace
Joined: February 09, 2005
Posted: February 11, 2005 at 6:09 PM / IP Logged  
simple way i use to set gains on sub systems properly is to use a Digital MultiMeter.  first find you a cd that has sine waves on it, like some of the dj majic mike,or usaci sq/spl cds.  find a track that plays in the heart of the bass region, like 40 hz.  put cd player on repeat, set all eqs to flat and turn volume up until you can find the peak ac voltage being produced by the rcas.(put one lead of the dmm in the rca and the other lead ground to the outside metal ring) then turn volume back down a little.  hook rcas to amp with gains all the way down and check output at speaker terminals with no speakers hooked up using DC voltage.  when you get DC voltage to .1 that is about 1 %thd.  you can also use the DC setting on the rca outs of the radio.  then you can switch the dmm to read AC voltage on the speaker outputs of the amplifier to figure out approx how much power you are making with approx 1% thd.  remember ac voltage x ac voltage / speaker impedance=watts. so if your getting 50volts ac @ 4 ohms your amp is producing 625 watts .  50*50=2500/4=625.  this little trick will get you in the ballpark on setting gains without having to invest in an oscilliscope and keep your subs from getting to much dc voltage in the voice coil which=fried stinky woofer.
newtone 
Copper - Posts: 62
Copper spacespace
Joined: February 09, 2005
Posted: February 11, 2005 at 6:17 PM / IP Logged  
ooops forgot to clarify that you are adjusting the gains on the amps when you attach dmm to amp speaker outputsproper way to set your gains -- posted image.
spilot 
Copper - Posts: 90
Copper spacespace
Joined: January 26, 2005
Location: United States
Posted: February 12, 2005 at 12:54 AM / IP Logged  
i'm stoned as a mofo right now, and the last one sounds pretty f**king crazy, yet, you have a feeling that you simply can not go wrong with that sort of testing. i might try Francious70's method for the time being.
newtone 
Copper - Posts: 62
Copper spacespace
Joined: February 09, 2005
Posted: February 12, 2005 at 12:56 AM / IP Logged  
good ideaproper way to set your gains -- posted image.
stevdart 
Platinum - Posts: 5,816
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Joined: January 24, 2004
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Posted: February 12, 2005 at 12:42 PM / IP Logged  

newtone wrote:
when you get DC voltage to .1 that is about 1 %thd.

Just wanted to double check with you on that reading.  (I don't want 10 times the distortion I should be looking for if you missed that by a decimal point  proper way to set your gains -- posted image. )

Wesley444 
Member - Posts: 3
Member spacespace
Joined: February 01, 2005
Location: Canada
Posted: February 12, 2005 at 7:37 PM / IP Logged  
would you recommend that way for setting up amps for the mid and tweets?
newtone 
Copper - Posts: 62
Copper spacespace
Joined: February 09, 2005
Posted: February 12, 2005 at 7:51 PM / IP Logged  

stevdart--it is going to vary by the settings available on your dmm, go to the lowest setting that will let you read .1 v dc and that should be the one. 

wesley 444--it is hard to accomplish this on mids/tweets because you will have to find a sine wave generating program for the higher freqs and send signal to your car via laptop or some musical material that will play the freq you want constantly.  with some patience you can do it by repeating tracks of your fav songs, if you choose that route, make sure you have a remote for your deck or a friend who likes to push cd 'skip back' alot

good luck fellas!

Wesley444 
Member - Posts: 3
Member spacespace
Joined: February 01, 2005
Location: Canada
Posted: February 12, 2005 at 7:58 PM / IP Logged  
what freq would you recommend setting the amps to.... I'm running type x 6.5 components, front and rear
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