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Hello everyone I'm pretty new to car audio so I would like to learn. Thank you very much for your time reading this and helping if you can I have read a lot of forums about setting the gains and a lot of them says to tune by ear , but I don't feel like I can tell the difference and I'm afraid to not damage the speakers if set incorrectly. I don't have an o-scope , only a DMM . I know how to set the gains with a DMM but I've heard this is not the right way... So I have a 5 channel amp , 1 ch to each door , and a sub. The speakers are 100w rms, 4 ohm each , and the amp can put out the same power for each ch. The sub is 500w rms 4ohm , again the amp can do the same. So I have set the gains using a DMM , HU on 75% then adjust the gain until I've reached the correct voltage (20v for each ch and 44v for sub ) . I set them with test tones of 0db... now i've read that this is not right...( AGAIN ) , and should use a -5db or even -10db test tone. I've been running this setup for 1 year , and I feel like it's not powerful enough , i think even my small pc subwoofer of 60watts sounds louder . So I started raising question marks and found this forum , read some old threads , and found out I'm doing everything wrong.. Can someone please shed some light.. I appreciate it

So I saw the manual that said use -10 for loud setting. So what is the -15 used for? Wouldn't that be used for louder sound? I did some research and found music these days whether it be pop or hip hop use a range between -12 to -14 on their recordings.

Ok probably a dumb question but ima ask neway i set my gains on the hu, fr amp, and sub amp with the disc as im supposed to and all is good. and for shits and giggles i played music and tested my amps with the dd1 and get a solid distort light light on my full range amp and a flashing on the subwoofer amp. Is this normal??? everything sounds fine just dont want too damage my equipment... Question 2, I have a Kenwood kdc-hd548u and it has a sub level -15-+15 adj as of now I have it set at 0 but after researching some say crank it up then set gains and some say keep it flat then set gains. so idk wich is better level high gain low or level flat and gain high????THANKZ

hello I recently purchased a distortion detector and the problem is I have a BMW 3 series and it does not show the volume level, How would I use this properly without knowing the acutally volume level that its at?, it's the navigation headunit type, Plus if I remove the subwoofer speaker wire from the amp, the door speakers still play loud from the Cd tracks is that normal ? becuase in YouTube videos i see online i dont hear any sound while they set their gains. 2 Amps: Mrv500, do I set the LP filter back to 80hrz after its tuned? 2 subwoofers: Pioneer TS-W309D4 12" Champion Series Subwoofer with Dual 4 Voice Coil