Alpine CDR 180-RM Volume

[Antoni Čović]

Hello, I have alpine headunit and jbl amplifier for front speakers.. and i tuned amp gain that when is headunit volume knob on max (35) there is like very little distortion so when someone is driving with me and when turn volume on max there is no chance of overdistortion.. Now i have question will i get better sound if i turn amp gain up to get all of good sound at like 28-30 volume? is it worth setting it like that?

[Skullz]

The only way to know is to use either an o-scope or a DD-1 to find the point where you start getting distortion or clipping.

[Antoni Čović]

The only way to know is to use either an o-scope or a DD-1 to find the point where you start getting distortion or clipping.

Ye but mostly headunits have distortion on max or not? when using additional amp

[reedal]

Not all head units or other electronics are created equal. So to say that your head unit is distortion free at max volume isn't true until you have measured the output signal for distortion, even though you might have a friend who's HU is distortion free at max volume.

You have to use a tool that shows you distortion of the signal in order to know what volume you distort at, and same goes for your am pliers gain.

[headshothills]

Its a trade off... take a read on my Alpine 149BT thread... If you lower your max volume, and up your gains, depending on where you are at, your sound floor raises with higher gains, so you have to find the right balance IMO. On the newest 149 I got, My happy medium was max vol 30, and set everything from there. On the previous 2 I went through trying to find the highest volume and cleanest signal, the other 2 only went to 21, then distorted at 22 for the Front/Rear RCA's, sub channel was clean all the way to max vol.. So I tried to set my new Max volume to 25-26. This forced me to push my gains really high, as a result, the sound floor was not appealing.