Woofer Clipping? Casues? Help!?

[Guest]

But the amps im using are sending less power then then RMS/ Peak can handle, 2000 peak 1000 RMS woofers, amps are sending 1500 Peak 600RMS... so in this case it would be songs right?

doesnt matter if the amp power is less than the power handling of the speaker. thats generally an easy way to clip an amp.

what ive heard it being described as is, when your trying to get more power out of the amp than it was made to handle. like trying to get 500rms out of a 400rms amp, your forcing the amp to give out 100w more than it was built to do, so the extra 100w is distortion.

when the top and bottom of the wave are chopped off, the same effect happens to the speaker, the sub is moving, and when it gets to the top or bottom of the wave, it stops for a short period of time (you cannot see this with the human eye).

its not the songs, its your amp settings thats causing the heat up of the subs.

[SubSonic]

Ahhh, so i shold back off the gain on the amps,

[jsmoke222000]

You need to properly set the gain on your amp.

This is how I have always set the gain on my amps without a oscope:

Most audio equipment dies for one simple reason. Most people push their equipment beyond its limits. Whether it is the amplifier, subwoofer or full range speakers, clipping is the number one cause of failure. To prevent clipping, use this tutorial.

To figure out what voltage you should set the gains to, multiply the RMS power of the amplifiers output by the impedance of the speaker, then find the square root of that number. If you are using an amplifier that has an RMS rating of more than your speaker(s) can handle/rated for, then use the RMS rating of the speaker (instead of the RMS of the amplifier) to determine the voltage to set your amp to. This is also referred to as gaining down.

Gain Setting Equation

Voltage of the output = sqrt(RMS Power of amp X impedance of the speaker)

Example

Say the amp provides 2700WRMS into a 2 ohm speaker: (zx2500.1 & solo x 2 ohm load)

Voltage = sqrt(2700W X 2 ohms)

Voltage = sqrt(5400W)

Voltage = 73.5V

Again, that was only an example for this zx 2500.1, use the ratings of your amp to figure that out.

Setting the Gain(s)

To set the gain(s), you need two things:

1. A DMM (digital multi-meter) that is capable of measuring AC voltage (needs to be able to measure up to a range of 200V).

2. A test tone CD to use to set the gains at the correct setting.

Now, to set the gain(s):

1. Start the vehicle, and pop the test tone CD in the head unit.

2. DO NOT hook up the sub(s) or speaker(s) to the amplifier while doing this, just leave the outputs unused (unhook your speaker wires) at this time.

3. Now, time to set up the head unit.

a. Turn your radio up to the loudest setting that you will be playing it @, set your bass boost, loudness, ect. on your radio, use those settings. NEVER turn the headunit above 3/4 of the maximum volume.

b. Remember to have the car turned on.

c. If you want to use bass boost on a sub amp, set it prior to setting the gains on the amp and use the center frequency of the bass boost (45 Hz for most amps) as your test tone.

d. Please remember that if you have a subwoofer volume control on the headunit and/or a bass knob for the amplifier, set it to the maximum before you set the gains on the sub amp.

4. Take the leads from the DMM and but them on the speaker outputs from the amp.

5. Set the gain so that the outputs of the amplifier equal the voltage you found above. This is pretty important. If you set your gain higher than the voltage you calculated, you will be sending a clipped signal to your speakers.

This should get you very close to your clipping point of your amp. If you have access to an oscope you can get it perfect because you will be able to see the sine wave of the test tone note.

I added a Gain Settings calculator to my audio calculations spreadsheet. You will need to have microsoft office installed on your computer to use it because it is in microsoft Excel. http://www.3rdcoastcustoms.net/files/3rd_C...Spreadsheet.xls

Here are some free test tones you can download & burn to cd. http://www.ronelmm.com/tones/ There is also a link to these tones in the above spreadsheet I made.

Edited May 13, 2009 by jsmoke222000

[SubSonic]

ok cool thanks, ill try that.. and i no ALOT OF ppl and local audio shops that DEF do not come close to setting amps like that..

[BrownRice]

hey jsmoke, mind fixing that link?

[jsmoke222000]

Setting your gains properly is even more important if you have a high end radio with high preout voltage. The higher the voltage on your rca's the lower your gain will need to be set @.

[Guest]

ok cool thanks, ill try that.. and i no ALOT OF ppl and local audio shops that DEF do not come close to setting amps like that..

i dont see why they dont. it only honestly took me about 30 minutes to an hour to fine tune the gains and settings.

[jsmoke222000]

hey jsmoke, mind fixing that link?

Fixed

[dwz]

Clipping on my subs sound like a thick rattling... the bass starts getting messy on faster beats. It's very apparent once you've heard them with more voltage than the amp or sub is rated for.

[BrownRice]

Fixed

thanks man, 'much obliged'