Confused Girl

I've been on the internet forever trying to find some way to figure out how to get my settings right for my amp & subs.  I'm an extremely confused girl that really doesn't know much about car electronics so any help would be appreciated. I have the following in a 99 Grand Am:

240W Stereo Amplifier, Alpine CD Player, and 12" subs

I don't know what to set all the freqency & boost levels to... Please guys! Any Help!

I wouldn't even know if I had a filter on my amp.  I had it installed for me at the place I bought it.  The amp is Acoustic 241 SE... The subs are "Concept"... The box one big closed one & I listen to rap & rock generally. 

Ok, on the side of the amp there should be settings. More than likely there will be a filter setting (LPF and HPF and FULL) for settings, and there will be a setting called gain. I would not recommend having that all the way up. i would have that set to about 1/2 the way up. Secondly, i dont normally use the bass boost, but if you like the way it sounds with it on, experiment and see what sounds good. If there is a frequency setting, have it set to play music under 60-70 hz. This will be the outer range of most rap songs. The Filter should be set at LPF to filter out all the vocals and higher ranges requenceies.

Thank you so much but one more thing!  What do I do about my settings on my CD player.  The bandwidth for bass and treble?  And what frequency do I set the treble at?

Thanks!

Alpine CDA-9807 if that means anything?

Well on that model there is a subwoofer level. That is like a gain for the subs, sort of like the one on the amp itself. You can adjust that. I believe it goes from 0-15, i'd keep it around 10. The midrange should be anywhere from 70 hz to 2 k.hz. The treble should be anything about 2k.hz. Idont know if any of that helps, but theres what i have to offer.

icu400 wrote:

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gain means input sensitivity, so yes sens is what that is

it is probably in volts as well, going from like .5 to 6 or so

The way to set that is to turn the radio volume up to a maximum that you would listen to it (remember that number, thats your new max volume) and then adjust the dial upwards until you hear some distortion, then turn it back down until it goes away and sounds good, then you are there. 1/2 way up is a good rule of thumb though, as long as it does not sound distorted (popping sounds or other bad noises can indicate distortion). The way I set this on my amp was by using a song that had a continuous bass tone; i would have used some rap but usually it is more of a beat and I found it harder to tell the difference while I was setting the gain.

The "gain" is not a volume control though, it simply adjusts the amp to meet the signal strength of from the cd player.

Hope that helped, peace.

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Exactly right. Also don't use the bass boost heavily because it can also make the amp go into clipping and then your subs will distort and if the distortion is bad enough your subs can eventually blow. I would set your bass to 0 or -1 and then put the sub control on about 10. Then, set the gain on the amp like icu400 said.

I wouldnt start out at half way on the gain.  I have mine at maybe an 1/8 or a 1/4 turn from the lowest setting.  But then again, all amps are different.  I suggest starting at the lowest, then go up. 

I like sound quality , so i have mine turned down pretty low to reduce the rumble on some songs.  Then if i want more bass, i turn my sub settings up on the source- which yours has.