Simple Car stereo question (1 Viewer)

[Marcus D]

I have two 10" subs w/ amp and an Alpine head unit. I wanted to know the best way about getting the best quality sound/bass from this setup. Do I turn the levels up more on my amp and turn the bass levels down to virtually zero on my head unit? What do any of you recommend for a good quality sound setup? Any and all input will be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Thomas_A]

without using any measurement tools do this. Isolate sub- volume wise...wich means nothing else should be playing. Turn your gain to "0".Turn your radio to 3/4 volume. turn your gain on the amp up till your subs start sounding distorted...or such. Back off the the gain just a tad till it goes away.
Very basic way of doing it...but its set up now. Just dont go over 3/4 volume...wich most pre-amps will start too clip anyway! Be sure to use music with decent bass track and moderate level. We all know some cd's are louer then others.

HOpe that helps... there are other ways to do it...using pink noise, signal generator etc...

 

[eddie-M]

The best way is with a multi meter and 60Hz test tone disc.

Like Thomas said disconnect the other speaks, disconnect the sub, connect the multi meter to your speaker outputs, if running bridged, connect one channel only. Set your HU to at least 75% volume (my hu doesnt clip till max volume, it depends on your HU), run the test tone on repeat, with gain set to min and meter set to AC voltage, start turning the gain up until you get the correct reading based on this formula. rms pwr x resistance squared=ac voltage. So say your amp does 400 watts at 4 ohms bridged. so if you multiply 400 (rms) x 4 ohms (resistance)=you get 1600 the square root of 1600 is 40AC Volts. Since you have the mulitmeter hooked up to only one channel it will be half of 40, so 20AC volts. Turn up the gain until it reads 20V, your gains are set properly to achieve optimal power and sound quality.