I just put a complete new sound system in my truck and still have alot of adjustments to do. The only problem i ran into is the 4 amped speakers and 12" sub arent as loud as they should be. I havent messed with any adjustments on the 4 ch amp yet (JL audio j2 320.4) but the 1 ch amp (MTX JH600) i turned the power basically all the way up. Basically my system sounds half as loud as before when i had the stock speakers in. So i have to turn it to 30 volume to get it to sound like 15 volume when i had my stock system, but i've had the same deck for a while though. Im thinking it might be an adjustment on the deck. I have an alpine cda-105. I plugged the remote power wires from both amps into the same remote wire on the deck..i dunno if that has something to do with it.
Your h/u has 2 volt preouts,that could be it.The remote wire has nothing to do with your problem,but what is the size of your amp wires(gauge).You have to spend big bucks to get high preout voltage in the alpine lineup.
where are the 2 volt preouts? im using 4g wire for the amp power wires, and the RCAs that run to the amps are 8-10g i think. I doubt it has anything to do with the wires.
The higher the preout voltage,the lower your gain is on your amp to get cleaner power.A line driver would help things out as well.
your right about the 2v pre outs. does this mean i should increase the gain on my amps? do i need to get a line driver? what will a line driver do? Are my RCA cables thick enough? they are kicker cables that came in the amp power kits they make.
The line driver increases RCA voltage so you can turn the gain on your amp down instead of up. Your RCA's are fine.
im just curious of how your rcas have any thing to do with the gain? sems like if you send cleaner signal you could turn the gain up cause if its cleaner you wouldnt cause clipping as bad... im new to this one plz explain IN english (8th grade english) lol
rcas and clipping This is what your amp does it amplifies the imput signal (rcas) say your amp is 2000 watts if you turn the gain up say one quarter of the way and the amp is putting out 2k if you turn the gain past the point it reaches 2k it starts sending a dc signal the more dc voltage the more your clipping the cleaner the signal the less you clip the louder it gets cleanly. some amps like kicker amps have a switch that says low voltage imput or high voltage imput this means I might be mistaking But low voltage is 2 or below and high volatge is 2or above. Another thing when you had your headunit running your speakers it was at a crappy power and they were probably clipping pretty bad at its 22 watts rms adjust the frequency on your amps to your listening level the hgher the frequency on the 4 channel the louder it gets on voices but this decreases the bass also if you had stock speakers vs aftermarket they miht have been a lower ohm load which will make them louder then the after market.Without going into exact details of the full system we can't tell what the changes are and how to correct them. Info like impedance of old interiors Adjustments on the headunit does your headunit have a highpass filter is it on
or you can measure it with a meter pull one rca out of the amp turn it up til right before it distorts Measure from the inner pin to the out shield in ac voltage what ever voltage its putting out is what your amp is seeing do this on a test tone.
that output voltage is most likely at near maximum volume. FYI. that is why gain matching is a good idea. some can do it by ear, some should not try. have you ever been in an SQ car? they can turn the volume ALL the way up and it not distort. it might not get as loud as YOU like but it sounds awesome. im getting side tracked here,lol....... my point is, you need to properly gain match to get the best distortion free sound out of your system. my PG amp only needs 2v to get it to full power, and i have the gain set at its lowest setting of 2v. my deck however sends out 5v to the amp. my deck has 3 level adjustments for each output. front, rear and sub. i have to run my front at -9 and the rear at -6. my deck goes to 63 on the volume but i have it set to play its loudest at 53ish before the signal distorts. but i rarley have to go to 45 on the volume. if i set my outputs on the head to 0 for the front and rear. i would reach full volume output on my amp at 20 on the volume. but my sub amp wouldn't get enough signal to power my sub properly. it took me a while to gain match my system to where it is now. so to the OP. fiddle with your gains on the 4ch first. then the sub amp. it takes time but its well worth it.
so the gain is the volume/power adjustment on the amp that has min/max under the knob? Theres a remote that plugs into my 1 ch that has a power adjustment and i have that almost all the way up. the sub sounds good. I turned the volume/power adjustment up on my 4 ch and the speakers got louder but it made my sub sound bad. So i can see why it needs to be equaled out. But it seems like all the speakers and sub arent getting enough power regardless. I know how loud my speakers were without an amp. With 60 w powering each speaker with my amp, i was expecting it to be waaaaay louder. and the sub needs to keep up too
the gain is not a volume adjustment. it is a level matching adjustment. ok lets say your head puts out the 2v at 80% volume. YOU would have to turn your gain up to match it. it might be half way or 3/4 of the way. its all amp specific. so you may need to turn your gain on the sub amp a little bit higher, or turn the gain on the 4ch lower.
