2v vs 4v

[Crandis16]

Gains aren't set as high with 4v preout as opposed to 2v

Found that out AFTER I blew my sub. Oops

[Bump4life]

makes your amps work less. gain will be turned down more the higher voltage you put to it. it will be cleaner and make everything more efficient and run cooler and cleaner.

[audiofanaticz]

As TeamHT said. not correct.

A properly tuned amp gain will make the system no louder or quieter, or make the amp run cooler or hotter, or give you more or less voltage drop.

Everything will essintially be exactly the same since the gain on an amplifier IS NOT a volume knob, it is there to match the amplifiers input with the headunits output, since headunits come in many different preout voltages the gain is normally adjustable from 0.2 volts to 6-8 volts (depending on amp).

Therefore a headunit with 1 volt preouts and a 1000watt rms amp will be just as loud as a headunit with 5volt preouts and the same 1000watt rms amp.

However, chances are that the nicer headunit that offers the 5volt preouts is going to have a nicer DAC converter, or maybe even a dual 24bit burrbrown dac converter such as some alpines, along with a great built in EQ, and highpass and lowpass crossovers, so the ability to adjust the settings to your taste could make the overall stereo install sound so much better than the cheaper radio with 1volt preouts.

[audiofanaticz]

makes your amps work less. gain will be turned down more the higher voltage you put to it. it will be cleaner and make everything more efficient and run cooler and cleaner.

again.. SO NOT TRUE

this is a myth... a myth told to customers by their local audio shops to get that customer to spend more money at the store....

refer to my above post.

[Bump4life]

makes your amps work less. gain will be turned down more the higher voltage you put to it. it will be cleaner and make everything more efficient and run cooler and cleaner.

again.. SO NOT TRUE

this is a myth... a myth told to customers by their local audio shops to get that customer to spend more money at the store....

refer to my above post.

i see. i guess its just my luck. ahah ever since i added a line booster and turned my amp gain all the way down to minimum (5v), my amp no longer gets hot at all or warm, and the music sounds cleaner. idk just my experience. but what you said does make sense. you get more when you pay more.

[Joe X]

how big of a difference does a 4v output hu and a 2v output hu make?

The 4V Hu will probably be an overall nicer higher end product, so worth it.

[Skullz]

The higher the pre-out voltage the lower the distortion will be which is why most high end units have 8v pre-outs and the best internals that can be put in them.

[audiofanaticz]

i see. i guess its just my luck. ahah ever since i added a line booster and turned my amp gain all the way down to minimum (5v), my amp no longer gets hot at all or warm, and the music sounds cleaner. idk just my experience. but what you said does make sense. you get more when you pay more.

As I stated, a properly tuned amp gain..

Whats to say your amp gain was set correct before the line driver?

Whats to say your amp gain is set correct now with the line driver?

So we know your gain is set lower due to the line driver, but whats to say you dont have your amp making as much power as it was without the line driver..

IE: you had your amp making 2800 watts without a line driver. than you added the line driver and turned the gain down. However your gain is still a bit lower than it should be and your amp is only making 2400 watts.

So than of coarse your amp is running cooler, and not drawing as much amperage from your battery, but at the same time your amp is making 400 watts less power than it was before...

Ive competed for several years, ive installed many systems, worked at a couple shops, and now do this type of work out of my home, and i have used many brands of line drivers, memphis, pac, audiocontrol, mtx, pg, and a few other brands, and when the gain was properly set I could not tell a difference.

Also it is FACT that for a person to hear a gain in their system volume (sub stage wise) you need to gain 2-3 db before your ears can tell the difference, so if your system hit a 150db on a termlab and you wanted to hear an audible louder difference you would now need to hit a 152-153db on the termlab..

And guess what, a line driver alone is not going to do that for you, since the myth that can somewhat hold true to an extent means to get that 2-3 db gain in spl you would have to double your power, so now your looking at 5600 watts, and double your cone area from 2 dd9512s to 4 dd9512s. but this is just a random rule of thumb that varies from vehicle to vehicle, as it has many variables such as box tuning, vehicle size, enclosure efficiency etc etc

Oh and PS: Many line drivers out on the market today, and even many old ones end up clipping the hell out of your rca signal if you go anywhere near the line drivers max output voltage.

Just thought Id throw that out there. And its again a tested and proven fact.

[Bump4life]

i see. i guess its just my luck. ahah ever since i added a line booster and turned my amp gain all the way down to minimum (5v), my amp no longer gets hot at all or warm, and the music sounds cleaner. idk just my experience. but what you said does make sense. you get more when you pay more.

As I stated, a properly tuned amp gain..

Whats to say your amp gain was set correct before the line driver?

Whats to say your amp gain is set correct now with the line driver?

So we know your gain is set lower due to the line driver, but whats to say you dont have your amp making as much power as it was without the line driver..

IE: you had your amp making 2800 watts without a line driver. than you added the line driver and turned the gain down. However your gain is still a bit lower than it should be and your amp is only making 2400 watts.

So than of coarse your amp is running cooler, and not drawing as much amperage from your battery, but at the same time your amp is making 400 watts less power than it was before...

Ive competed for several years, ive installed many systems, worked at a couple shops, and now do this type of work out of my home, and i have used many brands of line drivers, memphis, pac, audiocontrol, mtx, pg, and a few other brands, and when the gain was properly set I could not tell a difference.

Also it is FACT that for a person to hear a gain in their system volume (sub stage wise) you need to gain 2-3 db before your ears can tell the difference, so if your system hit a 150db on a termlab and you wanted to hear an audible louder difference you would now need to hit a 152-153db on the termlab..

And guess what, a line driver alone is not going to do that for you, since the myth that can somewhat hold true to an extent means to get that 2-3 db gain in spl you would have to double your power, so now your looking at 5600 watts, and double your cone area from 2 dd9512s to 4 dd9512s. but this is just a random rule of thumb that varies from vehicle to vehicle, as it has many variables such as box tuning, vehicle size, enclosure efficiency etc etc

Oh and PS: Many line drivers out on the market today, and even many old ones end up clipping the hell out of your rca signal if you go anywhere near the line drivers max output voltage.

Just thought Id throw that out there. And its again a tested and proven fact.

my amp gain is set correctly right now. it may have been a little high before but only for the worse (more clipping) which mosty likely caused the heat i had, my line driver is not even close to max. it is actually almost on minimum (5v)

i dont see why you are going off on this long explanation man. im not retarded. i know a line driver isnt gunna make me double loud? i never said that? double cone area double power, yea i know. your taking this response too far and it is rather insulting to me.

i see what your saying and how you have done all these tests, thanks for the insight. i agree with all of what you say except when you say to hear an audible difference you must be 2-3 db louder. from my experience it is closer to 1db. less than 1 db your mind is playing tricks on you. but 1 db in my opinion is audibly different in some applications, not all. im not here to argue with you but you are assuming i don't know jack and saying things i never asked and already know the answer to.

[audiofanaticz]

my amp gain is set correctly right now. it may have been a little high before but only for the worse (more clipping) which mosty likely caused the heat i had.

i dont see why you are going off on this long explanation man. im not retarded. i know a line driver isnt gunna make me double loud? i never said that? double cone area double power, yea i know. your taking this response too far and it is rather insulting to me.

i see what your saying and how you have done all these tests, thanks for the insight. i agree with all of what you say except when you say to hear an audible difference you must be 2-3 db louder. from my experience it is closer to 1db. less than 1 db your mind is playing tricks on you. but 1 db in my opinion is audibly different in some applications, not all. im not here to argue with you but you are assuming i don't know jack and saying things i never asked and already know the answer to.

Im not going off on you.. Far from going off.. Im using you as an example sure thing...

But from what you posted in your reply which I requoted below

makes your amps work less. gain will be turned down more the higher voltage you put to it. it will be cleaner and make everything more efficient and run cooler and cleaner.

You made it out to seem that the line driver made such a big difference in your setup, and I based my reply off what you said. Now that you added the truth to your reply, in saying how you where clipping pre line driver, of coarse things will be better now, than before..

Bottom line this thread is not about you, nor have I ever said that you are retarded, or that you dont know jack, or that Im insulting you with knowledge, Your just putting words in my mouth now, even tho it was your own doing when you failed on your part to leave key things out of your original post...

Misleading posts, or advice from members that may not know right from wrong is not needed. So Im going to do my best to insure that I can educate the original poster who started this thread, as well as the few that where told/taught wrong..

We dont need people blowing there stereos up because someone who didnt know gave a person bad advice to follow, and now that guy is stuck with a blown stereo that he has to fix at his expense because we all know the person that gave the bad advice wont step up and help him out and warranty his bad advice giving. LOL

So maybe I posted way more than I needed, or posted what you already knew, so what? Just because you knew it doesnt mean that the thread starter knew it, or the other members posting in this topic knew it.

But guess what, now they do know it.

I guess I am in the wrong for giving correct information................