proper way to set your gains

i remember seeing a post (maybe on here, maybe somewhere else), but i can not seem to find it. anything is appreciated.

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

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.

ooops forgot to clarify that you are adjusting the gains on the amps when you attach dmm to amp speaker outputs

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.

good idea

would you recommend that way for setting up amps for the mid and tweets?

what freq would you recommend setting the amps to.... I'm running type x 6.5 components, front and rear