No Distortion with Gain at full tilt...

[scooter99]

Steve I have a thought on why his amp is heating up the way it is.

If he's only running that head unit at half the potential volume, and he has the gain on that map maxed, or a quarter less that maxed, isn't he taxing that amp more than if he had a clean signal at full voltage out of the head unit and the amp gain at much less? Which would then cause the amp to work less to put out cleaner higher power, thus also feeding the sub that which would then put less stress on the sub even if it was louder?

Not sure if that made sense, if anyone get's what I'm saying please help me out here.

[meade916]

And you're sure it wasn't the songs you were playing that were clipped? Gains could be set clean as a whistle but if you start with a dirty song that clipping just gets amplified.

And I really don't see the problem with him making sure his signal is clean from his deck with a 0db tone at 25 volume

Then setting his amp gain when the deck is set to 25 volume and set it with a -5 dB tone.

If someone can tell me how this would lead to distortion I would love to learn because I've set my friends system like this since his stock speakers couldn't handle >30 volume out of 38. And I definitely don't want him to blow his shit and blame me.

if your deck goes up to 47 out of 50 (for example) and you think its good to have your reference point "25".....then sure, you can do that. The thing is, now you have go turn the gains on the amps up higher to make up for that loss of voltage. More gain = more noise. I would rather feed my amps as much clean voltage as possible, and have my gains barely notched up a hair, then have them up 3/4 of the way (or more) to make up for it.

also, you setting someones system at a reference of 25, out of 50, will work fine (a bit noisy possibly), but what is going to happen as soon as your boy decides a song isn't bumpin hard enough for him one night while riding with the lady's? he is gonna turn that shit up to 35. Well instead of 35 being well within the limits, now it is full blown distortion. Not good. Make sense yet?

[Pro7]

Steve I have a thought on why his amp is heating up the way it is.

If he's only running that head unit at half the potential volume, and he has the gain on that map maxed, or a quarter less that maxed, isn't he taxing that amp more than if he had a clean signal at full voltage out of the head unit and the amp gain at much less? Which would then cause the amp to work less to put out cleaner higher power, thus also feeding the sub that which would then put less stress on the sub even if it was louder?

Not sure if that made sense, if anyone get's what I'm saying please help me out here.

You are halfway right, a higher preout voltage would make it easier on the amp. But it is literally the amps job to take a low voltage input and step that up so it shouldn't heat way up if it is not being pushed into clipping or being fed distortion even with an extremely low input rca voltage

That is as long as it has a good ground and proper electrical. And again if I am wrong anywhere please someone knock me off my high horse but I think I am right on this one

[b0r]

Shit, I didn't realize the BOSS replied to this thread. User error man! I've always said nothing but good things about the DD-1 and have used it CORRECTLY on 3 vehicles, but this one was specific and wanted it louder so I altered the steps thinking I was correct in doing so. As to the clipped tracks, I ONLY use 320kbps tracks in my car, so unless the music comes from the producer being dirty then it shouldn't be in my car.

[Pro7]

And you're sure it wasn't the songs you were playing that were clipped? Gains could be set clean as a whistle but if you start with a dirty song that clipping just

if your deck goes up to 47 out of 50 (for example) and you think its good to have your reference point "25".....then sure, you can do that. The thing is, now you have go turn the gains on the amps up higher to make up for that loss of voltage. More gain = more noise. I would rather feed my amps as much clean voltage as possible, and have my gains barely notched up a hair, then have them up 3/4 of the way (or more) to make up for it.

also, you setting someones system at a reference of 25, out of 50, will work fine (a bit noisy possibly), but what is going to happen as soon as your boy decides a song isn't bumpin hard enough for him one night while riding with the lady's? he is gonna turn that shit up to 35. Well instead of 35 being well within the limits, now it is full blown distortion. Not good. Make sense yet?

Yeah I feel you with not having to turn the gain up too much on the amp but that's its job. If it can't do it properly I'll upgrade to one that can handle it.

And yeah I made it clean to him to never go over that mark, it sounds like shit over that anyways so I hope he's not trying to impress anyone with that! lol

[b0r]

And you're sure it wasn't the songs you were playing that were clipped? Gains could be set clean as a whistle but if you start with a dirty song that clipping just gets amplified.

And I really don't see the problem with him making sure his signal is clean from his deck with a 0db tone at 25 volume

Then setting his amp gain when the deck is set to 25 volume and set it with a -5 dB tone.

If someone can tell me how this would lead to distortion I would love to learn because I've set my friends system like this since his stock speakers couldn't handle >30 volume out of 38. And I definitely don't want him to blow his shit and blame me.

if your deck goes up to 47 out of 50 (for example) and you think its good to have your reference point "25".....then sure, you can do that. The thing is, now you have go turn the gains on the amps up higher to make up for that loss of voltage. More gain = more noise. I would rather feed my amps as much clean voltage as possible, and have my gains barely notched up a hair, then have them up 3/4 of the way (or more) to make up for it.

also, you setting someones system at a reference of 25, out of 50, will work fine (a bit noisy possibly), but what is going to happen as soon as your boy decides a song isn't bumpin hard enough for him one night while riding with the lady's? he is gonna turn that shit up to 35. Well instead of 35 being well within the limits, now it is full blown distortion. Not good. Make sense yet?

Steve, I set his amp with the DD-1 with the volume at 25 on track 7, which is the -15db 40hz tone. After about 30 minutes of listening at 23, the amp was so hot I could've cooked an egg on it, but it never went into protect or anything. His ground is super solid, and zero gauge throughout the car even though it's only a 1300 watt amp. I'm pretty sure the gain up 3/4 or more was causing this, plus whatever song we were playing. The thing was SLAMMING and was crystal clear, louder than I had ever heard it, but the amp was taking a beating.

[meade916]

if your gain is up 3/4 or even ALL THE WAY (because you didn't see distortion, because you weren't feeding it enough input voltage), then you are going to have floor noise (hiss) from an early stage in the volume. For example, you set the reference at 25 out of 50 when you could have used volume 47. Well now, by volume 10, you get hiss. Why? because the gains are higher then they need to be.

why do you think they make line drivers and decks that brag about 5v pre-outs? so you can use LESS GAIN. If you set it at 25/50, you are feeding your amps 2.2 volts (for example) and not a solid 5. Now your gain has to make up for that. More gain, more floor noise. Bad.

this is why i tell people, don't use a F'n DMM to set your gains. If you don't know the decks max clean output (or anything else in between the deck and amps), you will never get it right. You also can't do gain overlaps with a DMM which makes it even more worthless (for that).

[Pro7]

, so unless the music comes from the producer being dirty then it shouldn't be in my car.

This happens more than you would expect, check your music sometime on audacity or wmp

[meade916]

Steve I have a thought on why his amp is heating up the way it is.

If he's only running that head unit at half the potential volume, and he has the gain on that map maxed, or a quarter less that maxed, isn't he taxing that amp more than if he had a clean signal at full voltage out of the head unit and the amp gain at much less? Which would then cause the amp to work less to put out cleaner higher power, thus also feeding the sub that which would then put less stress on the sub even if it was louder?

Not sure if that made sense, if anyone get's what I'm saying please help me out here.

You are halfway right, a higher preout voltage would make it easier on the amp. But it is literally the amps job to take a low voltage input and step that up so it shouldn't heat way up if it is not being pushed into clipping or being fed distortion even with an extremely low input rca voltage

That is as long as it has a good ground and proper electrical. And again if I am wrong anywhere please someone knock me off my high horse but I think I am right on this one

sure, its the amps job to "make up for it" if you don't have enough input voltage - but like i said a few times...more gain = more floor noise. If i want to hear my system hissing at volume 5 out of 50, ill play a pink noise track.

[scooter99]

Glad I came across this, I had lots of theory's about this stuff, and i'm finding out correct and incorrect info I thought I knew. Thanks for chiming in on this Steve.