bass fine tuning

I am  in the process of fine tunning the amp that drives my sub.  Unlike the component set I put in I'm having a hard time identifying bass distortion?  Can anyone lend some advice for setting gains on a sub?   I currently have it about 1/2 way up and the bass boost at about half and it sounds pretty good (to me) but I'm concerned that I may not be giving it enough power or too much power.

Steelcity,

There is a process for setting gains correctly that is important to prevent damage to your equipment. It's not something you want to "ballpark".

Try a search on this site for setting gains or go to JlAudio.com and use their gain setting tutorial. It's a great tool that is easy to follow and doesn't take long. You'll need a digital multimeter if you don't have one; they're available at places such as Home Depot and are fairly inexpensive (mine was about $30). You will also need an appropriate test tone signal to play while setting the gain. You can go to www.nch.com.au/tonegen/ and download a 50Hz signal. Good luck.

Yes, the directions are really easy to follow. They explain the process step by step and don't allow any chance for user error.

One thing, though: when you are setting up your test tone to download, make sure it's long enough in duration. You'll have a tone generator that allows you to pick the test tone and it's duration. I believe they're measured in milliseconds; I chose one that was about two minutes in length (120,000ms). You want it long enough that you can adjust and reach your target voltage while it's playing. After you choose the tone and duration, click on "File", save it as a Wav. file and burn it to disk. That's it! Good luck.
     

Ya its a pretty good tutorial, but what brand is your MM man i payed 200 dollars for mine.

I just tried to access this tutorial from another computer and it would not download there either.

I have a $20 crafstmen meter that can test caps and transistors, it is as accurate as the flukes at work. THe only difference is it only goes down to .001 volt, while those go down to .000000something.

Mobile electronics people DO NOT NEED expensive Flukes!

Don't feel badly about it, they make a nice meter and it will last years to come.

You could have bought a pocket Oscilloscope for $200 and actually see the wave form. Still, a $200 fluke is good to have around. I'm an electronics technician and I don't think I own a single piece of test equipment worth more than $20!