in line voltage vs gain voltage?

[soundstream15]

if you have high in line voltage let's say you got +15 on sub level and your gain is lower VS turning that to 0 and having the gain up a little more. I heard gain voltage is better then in line. idk if people actually tested this. I guess what I'm trying to say is it all comes down to the clipping aspect of this.

sorry if that sounds kinda dumb

[Jessica]

Voltage is cool and all, source quality is more impotant.

[soundstream15]

I was told I would gain bc I got a kenwood and sub lvl is +15 so if I turned that to 0 and turned gain up more. everything set with dd1 I would gain.

[Jessica]

Find out where your not sub output distorts with a 0db tone, match the sub out to that then set gains

[hdorre]

A Higher rca input voltage leads to a lower noise floor. However, too much isn't good. Many Koreans are rated for a max of 6v. Hell, on my NS1, the wave on my scope got weird with more than 4.5v.

[soundstream15]

Yeah that I do know mine is 4v but I know ppl say to turn the suv level all the way up on those and Alpine decks then set gains. why I'm saying all this is bc my teammate has a kenwood and he set everything to 0 and then did his gains bc before it was like mine and he gained almost 2db. I didn't believe it either but he sure did lol

[MrSkippyJ]

There is really no reason to limit the source output (clean output) so the amplifier can do the rest of the work. Nothing is going to get better because you make the input stage of the amplifier do more work. It may not be noticeably worse either though. If he gained 2db by setting everything to 0 then it was probably because the signal was so dirty coming out of the headunit that it hurt the speaker output. The only real difference between a clean 2v output and a clean 4v output (assuming you don't a shit ton of amplifiers) is the noise floor and it's a minimal difference at best.

Edit: You could argue that you set the sub level output a bit lower (say 13 out of 15) to give yourself some head room for quiet songs. But I don't think that is what you are referring to with your question.