why do certain songs hit harder than others?

[skittlesRgood]

wtf?? whats that mean? sorry just different areas have different sayings

lol sorry, its from watching discovery channel. "green" like "green horn" the new guy.

[baaudio]

wtf?? whats that mean? sorry just different areas have different sayings

lol sorry, its from watching discovery channel. "green" like "green horn" the new guy.

its all good lol

[casemods]

Just to touch a few things you said. Set your eq flat. Then set your amp gains. This way say some songs have a shitload of bass. You could THEN turn your bass down -1 or -2 and then songs with less bass or whatever you could keep at 0 since that is where you set your gains at. Set everything flat. Set the gains. Then if something needs adjusted go - on the eq. Turning anything up is very likely to cause a clipped signal. And also. Don't turn your radio volume up to 40/40. Try 32/40. Also by doing this. If some songs are a little quieter then other you can go to 33-34 and get a little of the difference back. Once you start cranking stuff stuff doesn't play right and doesn't play for long.

The EQ on the head unit? It only has presets as far as I know. It's at flat, always has been. It's the only one that has decent treble and doesn't boost the bass ridiculously

I've already set my amp gains and they are right where I want them. The idiots at the shop had them turned way too high and it was overpowering the highs.

Nobody read that the phone is at 12/14?? Doesn't that count for something? If I turn the phone to 13 or 14 it DOES distort the highs.

Anyways, toot it and boot it WAS clipping. I opened it up with audacity and it hit the red - btw, does it stay red the whole song if it clipped once? Would it be ok to just walk away, come back in 3 minutes when the song is finished playing and find the red marker there still, indicating the song has clipped at one point or another?

And where can I get an oscilloscope, what does it do, how much are they and how do I use it?

Edited December 7, 2010 by casemods

[baaudio]

velleman oscopes are only about $200 and ive seen some guys on here using them. as oscope produces the sine wave of an audio signal onto a digital screen so you can see a smooth or clipped signal. steve has some great vids about this in the amplifier section.

[casemods]

velleman oscopes are only about $200 and ive seen some guys on here using them. as oscope produces the sine wave of an audio signal onto a digital screen so you can see a smooth or clipped signal. steve has some great vids about this in the amplifier section.

what's the cheapest one I can get that isn't complete garbage?

$50 is about what I would like to pay, maybe $60...

[baaudio]

ive done a lot of searching in that same price range without much luck. i think some companies have an add-on for their multimeters that have an oscope function but im not 100% sure. someone posted this scope but i never followed up if they got it or not.

[Mikesmith0890]

velleman oscopes are only about $200 and ive seen some guys on here using them. as oscope produces the sine wave of an audio signal onto a digital screen so you can see a smooth or clipped signal. steve has some great vids about this in the amplifier section.

what's the cheapest one I can get that isn't complete garbage?

$50 is about what I would like to pay, maybe $60...

good luck trying to find one for that price. and an O-Scope is the only true way to tune your system to know whether you are clipping or not. 12/14 on your phone volume doesn't matter, your head unit will clip after a certain volume level on it, even if your phone is only 12/14.. Just because you don't hear distortion, doesn't mean you're not clipping.

[nCOMP1337]

Just to touch a few things you said. Set your eq flat. Then set your amp gains. This way say some songs have a shitload of bass. You could THEN turn your bass down -1 or -2 and then songs with less bass or whatever you could keep at 0 since that is where you set your gains at. Set everything flat. Set the gains. Then if something needs adjusted go - on the eq. Turning anything up is very likely to cause a clipped signal. And also. Don't turn your radio volume up to 40/40. Try 32/40. Also by doing this. If some songs are a little quieter then other you can go to 33-34 and get a little of the difference back. Once you start cranking stuff stuff doesn't play right and doesn't play for long.

The EQ on the head unit? It only has presets as far as I know. It's at flat, always has been. It's the only one that has decent treble and doesn't boost the bass ridiculously

I've already set my amp gains and they are right where I want them. The idiots at the shop had them turned way too high and it was overpowering the highs.

Nobody read that the phone is at 12/14?? Doesn't that count for something? If I turn the phone to 13 or 14 it DOES distort the highs.

Anyways, toot it and boot it WAS clipping. I opened it up with audacity and it hit the red - btw, does it stay red the whole song if it clipped once? Would it be ok to just walk away, come back in 3 minutes when the song is finished playing and find the red marker there still, indicating the song has clipped at one point or another?

And where can I get an oscilloscope, what does it do, how much are they and how do I use it?

im pretty sure flat is a preset but since you said your treble is +5/+7 i assume that changes the flat preset, flat the way i understand sets everything to 0, which is where you want it to set your gains

someone confirm or deny, im noob so probably shoudlnt give advice, lol

[casemods]

ive done a lot of searching in that same price range without much luck. i think some companies have an add-on for their multimeters that have an oscope function but im not 100% sure. someone posted this scope but i never followed up if they got it or not.

Hmm I might get that.

velleman oscopes are only about $200 and ive seen some guys on here using them. as oscope produces the sine wave of an audio signal onto a digital screen so you can see a smooth or clipped signal. steve has some great vids about this in the amplifier section.

what's the cheapest one I can get that isn't complete garbage?

$50 is about what I would like to pay, maybe $60...

good luck trying to find one for that price. and an O-Scope is the only true way to tune your system to know whether you are clipping or not. 12/14 on your phone volume doesn't matter, your head unit will clip after a certain volume level on it, even if your phone is only 12/14.. Just because you don't hear distortion, doesn't mean you're not clipping.

Well the only way to tell is to get an oscope :\

Just to touch a few things you said. Set your eq flat. Then set your amp gains. This way say some songs have a shitload of bass. You could THEN turn your bass down -1 or -2 and then songs with less bass or whatever you could keep at 0 since that is where you set your gains at. Set everything flat. Set the gains. Then if something needs adjusted go - on the eq. Turning anything up is very likely to cause a clipped signal. And also. Don't turn your radio volume up to 40/40. Try 32/40. Also by doing this. If some songs are a little quieter then other you can go to 33-34 and get a little of the difference back. Once you start cranking stuff stuff doesn't play right and doesn't play for long.

The EQ on the head unit? It only has presets as far as I know. It's at flat, always has been. It's the only one that has decent treble and doesn't boost the bass ridiculously

I've already set my amp gains and they are right where I want them. The idiots at the shop had them turned way too high and it was overpowering the highs.

Nobody read that the phone is at 12/14?? Doesn't that count for something? If I turn the phone to 13 or 14 it DOES distort the highs.

Anyways, toot it and boot it WAS clipping. I opened it up with audacity and it hit the red - btw, does it stay red the whole song if it clipped once? Would it be ok to just walk away, come back in 3 minutes when the song is finished playing and find the red marker there still, indicating the song has clipped at one point or another?

And where can I get an oscilloscope, what does it do, how much are they and how do I use it?

im pretty sure flat is a preset but since you said your treble is +5/+7 i assume that changes the flat preset, flat the way i understand sets everything to 0, which is where you want it to set your gains

someone confirm or deny, im noob so probably shoudlnt give advice, lol

Yeah but I turned the bass down to -7 so the highs don't distort...

[Torres]

velleman oscopes are only about $200 and ive seen some guys on here using them. as oscope produces the sine wave of an audio signal onto a digital screen so you can see a smooth or clipped signal. steve has some great vids about this in the amplifier section.

what's the cheapest one I can get that isn't complete garbage?

$50 is about what I would like to pay, maybe $60...

good luck trying to find one for that price. and an O-Scope is the only true way to tune your system to know whether you are clipping or not. 12/14 on your phone volume doesn't matter, your head unit will clip after a certain volume level on it, even if your phone is only 12/14.. Just because you don't hear distortion, doesn't mean you're not clipping.

thank you for saying this. i was going to say the same thing. volume or gain 'position' has nothing to do with output. just because a gain is turned 'half up' does not mean it's 'half as loud' or could be twice as loud if turned more or whatever. preout voltage determines gain position. higher pre out voltage from the head unit equals less gain, and less pre out voltage equals more gain. results are the same however regardless of position. if your phone is on 12 out of 14 on volume, and when it's any higher you can actually hear distortion, then chances are you're distorting at your 12/14 volume, you just can't hear it. only way to tell is with an o-scope. and 200 dollars is cheap for an o-scope, so good luck on getting one for 60 bucks that actually does decent readings. the base o-scope is good enough for audio (the $200 kind). they can get as pricey as several thousands of dollars.