Input voltage too high for amp?

[Bluefusion10]

2010 Ford fusion sport w/ sony premium sound system; audiocontrol LC2I getting signal from factory subwoofer leads (subwoofers removed); giving signal to Kappa One mono block amp; pushing 2 JBL P1022's in sealed box wired to 2 ohm final impedance at terminals; using dd-1 to set gains.

Playing 0db 40hz track to find max volume of head unit, distortion light comes on steady at 28 out of 35 "clicks" at signal leads BEFORE LC2I (where factory subs would be). Keeping head unit at 27, and using 0db track, I put dd-1 on output of LC2I and set output gain. Now, when I hook the dd-1 up to output terminals of amp and play 0db track, the distortion led lights steady at 22 clicks, not 28. I am assuming this is because the output voltage of LC2I is higher than the acceptable input voltage of amp (LC2I says 9.5vrms out, and amplifier I believe is 5v in max). Is this thought correct? Is that what is happening? What I did to compensate was leave the dd-1 hooked up to terminals of amp, turn HU to 27 clicks on 0db track (distortion light was lit), then I turned the output gain of LC2I down until distortion light went out, then switched to -5 db track and set amplifier gain as normal procedure. Was this the correct/ most effective way of tuning my amplifier? Any suggestions? Tips? Thoughts? Anything is much appreciated, thanks all.

[Chris Hammer]

Yes that is why. Is there a way to turn down the output voltage on the lc2.? If not you are pretty much screwed..you cannot turn down the gain on the amplifier enough.

[_paralyzed_]

You need to dial in the lc2i. It has a normal gain for the bass (output level) and a bass eq that needs to be set. You need to set the gain on the lc2i before setting the gain on the amp. If bass is still lacking, you may need to turn up the bass eq on the lc2i, but of course that means re checking the levels of the lc2i.

Just in case you don't know- many factory systems reduce the bass levels at high volume, to keep people from blowing speakers. We want our bass to rise in a linear fashion with our mids and highs, so we don't want that factory bass reduction. The "bass eq" on the lc2i restores that.

Either your output level or your eq were set too high on the lc2i, and that's why you saw distortion at 22 instead of 28. Put both lc2i controls (bass level and bass eq) to 0 and start over.

Edit- read your manual, it tells you how to properly set the eq. If you don't have the manual here's one- http://content.abt.com/documents/44282/LC2i_manual.pdf

[Bluefusion10]

Thank you for confirming that for me, I guess I could have just measured the voltage going out of the LC2I and that would have told me, but I don't have much free time in my schedule so I just thought I would ask. Yes, there is an output gain on the LC2I and I used it to turn down the voltage going to the amp.

[_paralyzed_]

That bass eq is a little tricky too, it has it's own gain (the threshold). Def read the manual and set up the eq accordingly. Good luck.

[slowfkncar]

Wait, correct me if I'm wrong but isnt 0db 40hz too high for a car with a high level output?

[MrSkippyJ]

Wait, correct me if I'm wrong but isnt 0db 40hz too high for a car with a high level output?

what do you mean by too high?

[slowfkncar]

Wait, correct me if I'm wrong but isnt 0db 40hz too high for a car with a high level output?

what do you mean by too high?

If he set his LOC/AMP gain with a 0db 40hz track, wouldn't that bring down the maximum source volume before source clipping? ( example, FM radio distorts at vol 24 rather then vol 28? Probably just confused because I have never installed any newer audiocontrol stuff.