Hey CT do you mind telling me what your knobs are set to on your amp im getting mine in the mail tomororw and i want to install it right away. I know how to set the gain but i think tehres 2 other knobs im not sure of thanks a lot
i'll have to check the xover, i can't remember, but i know for a fact the bb is set around 1.5. i control the bass from the hu, imo best way to do it, less chance of clipping.
OK thanks a lot, just to ake sure were talking about the same stuff right im talking about the three knobs on the front of the amp. Im not really good with car audio. Thanks a lot
if you know how to adjust the gain, that leaves the low pass filter (LPF) and the bass boost. just leave the bass boost at 0.
for the low pass filter, set it to the center, straight up. on that kicker, this will be roughly 80Hz. after listening to some music, if it sounds like the sub is trying to play too high of frequencies, turn the LPF knob down alittle. if it sounds like the sub is cutting out too low and not playing high enough, turn the LPF up alittle. thats it.
and if you decide to turn up the bass boost on the amp at all, you must re-adjust the gain properly afterwards. using any equalization to boost part or all of the signal causes the amplifier to put out more power. if the gain is already set to allow the amp to put out maximum power before clipping, adding any bass boost on top of that will cause it to clip.
the kicker remote knob, on the other hand, will never cause your amp to clip as long as the amp itself is set up properly without it attached. if you plug it in with the knob turned all the way up, nothing happens. it is only used to decrease the entire level.
please, for all of you who are skeptical about the kicker analog remote and not using it, just try plugging it in turned all the way up. nothing will happen... how could it make an amp clip if it cant go up any further...
people's problems lie in setting the gain, attaching the remote, and then adding bass boost on the amp, thinking they can still turn the remote all the way up without clipping.
or from attaching the remote before setting the gain, and without the remote turned all the way up. if the remote was only halfway up when the gain was set (even without any bass boost on the amp), turning the remote anywhere past halfway up will cause it to clip.
thanks a lot man, your a great help i appreciate it. I just wired my subs down to 1-ohm and im going to install the amp tomororw when i get it thanks alot!
"please, for all of you who are skeptical about the kicker analog remote and not using it, just try plugging it in turned all the way up. nothing will happen... how could it make an amp clip if it cant go up any further..."
This isn't always true, even if you adjust the amp without the remote bass level. Even if the gain is correctly adjusted if you add too much of the boosted frequency to the signal, even though the gain isn't rising it will cause the amp to clip. This is why kicker recommends the readjustment of the amplifier gain AFTER the bass boost level is set. Polo..
are we talkingabout the remote bass control? i thought that it was used to reduce the amount of bass. i notice that if i unplug mine then its the same as turning it up all the way.
i just realized i know how to set the gain but i dont know what volt my head unit is because its stock so any suggestions on where to set the gain to be safe?
i'd guess that it is 2v. you can check it with a meter by unplugging it from the amp and putting a 60hz tone throught it and turning the volume all the way up.
amp still not installed lol. My other amp had 5 things, 12 volt, rem, ground, RCA, and speaker terminals and thats all i had to install... This amp has all sorts of things... Comes with wires and all sorts of shiz, so its taking longer lol. Just thought id vent it out here
lets take them one by one. the baggy with the red and black wires coming out of a white plug are if you are using a factory head unit with no rca's. so you don't have to worry about those, or the high level input on your amp. and you're not trying to strap two kx1200.1's together, so you don't have to worry about the amp strapping input/output. and you're not installing a second amp, so you don't have to worry about the rca output. and we've already explained the remote bass know more than i can handle.
so that leaves you with +12v, remote, ground, rca, and speaker terminals. you're all set.
this is going to sound weird. My dad wants to hook it up himself so i have no say now. He said hes not installing the fuse that came with the amp until saturday.. He said tehres already a fuse going to the battery so hes not going to install it until he has enough time saturday. he said the fuse thats already installed from my other amp thats on the battery will be fine. Is that true or is he going to totally F**k up the amp and or subs?
i believe so.... WELLLLL i got it INSTALLED!!! Sounds decent, thought it would hit much harder but its probally how i have the buttons set. My gain is exactly on 2 teh middle knob is half way up and i have the bass boost on like almost 1, i know you guys said to leave it at 0 but it didnt hit hard for some reason. Would it be bad if i turned the boost up a little bit more? Cuz i really like hard hitting bass. Tell me what you guys think
you can turn it up, the way i do it, alot of guys wont agree, but i turn the HU all the way up and set the gain till i hear distortion, yes all the way, alot of guys use 3/4, then turn it down a bit, if thats not good enough for you turn it back down and turn the bb up to abou thalf and do the same with the gain, it probably wont be much different, if you have access to an oscilla scope that would be the best, make sure there is zero disortion... what kind of subs r they?
two s10l7s kickers, i noticed when i put the gain over the head unit volts it hit harder. (which was 2 volts). So when i get my premier in and i put the gain at 4 will that hit harder or be the same
a lil louder but yeah it gets louder cuz its getting more power but its clpped power, and with L7s you wont tell the differance anyway but yeah just dont clip
ok cool, the head unit is going to be worth it anyway, i cant wait to get rid of my stock one. Im going to get that professionaly done unlike the amp. And tell the guys there to set the knobs correctly... What kind of system do you have troy
well, my real system is 2 memphis m3s(300 rms, 500max) and a memphis 1100d( which put out 1300 rms at 1.5 ohms) , i never blew em, im pretty sure its because i didnt use bass boost and i didnt clip em too much, right now im running 2 RF p1's at 300rms for the pair and im not clipping them at all
"two s10l7s kickers, i noticed when i put the gain over the head unit volts it hit harder. (which was 2 volts). So when i get my premier in and i put the gain at 4 will that hit harder or be the same"
this sounds like your under the impression that since your hu has 2v preouts that you should turn the gain up to the second hash mark? and if your hu has 4v preouts you should turn the gain to the fouth hash mark?
this is not so
your amp accepts basically 0-5v. if you hu has 2v preouts, you must turn the gain higher, probably past halfway. if your hu has stronger preouts, like 4v, the gain doesn't need to be turned up as much to compensate for a weaker signal, so the gain would be set lower than halfway. and if you have 5v preouts, the gain would barely be turned up at all past 0.
with a properly set gain, you shouldn't be able to hear an audible difference between 2v, 4v, or 5v preouts. thats why the gain exists.
"this sounds like your under the impression that since your hu has 2v preouts that you should turn the gain up to the second hash mark?"
Thats exactly what i thought, thats what i been told many times...... Im getting my premier tomorrow (gf bought it for me) and im getting it installed tuesday, im jus gonna tell teh guys their to set the knobs right.
ur supposed to set the gain TO the pre-out voltage, not lower or much higher. i havent read the rest of the thread, but that comment seems too wrong. and you will notice a difference between a 2v HU than a 5v one. Take a kenwood deck (2v preout) and a nice premier or eclipse deck, and you will def hear a huge difference
"I don't mean this in a derogatory way - but it's easy to spot the young guys in the crowd.
I bought a Sony Mobile ES head unit (you probably don't remember Sony's high end line, that was legendary back then) somewhere around '96 or '97, and that premium model had a line output voltage somewhere in the territory of 1/2v to 1v.
Why would this be inferior? That's the real question here.
Here's the real concern - "what really matters" is that you have a deck that provides a preamp voltage that is: 1) compatible with your amplifier's gain range (the min/max on your gain knob) 2) your gain knob on your amplifier is adjusted properly to match that input voltage.
Realistically, higher gain voltages are not of any benefit at all, other than to provide some semblence of "band aid" if you have a noise problem in your car... but that's actually pretty ghetto, when you think about it, isn't it?
...in other words, if there's noise being induced into your RCA's, or an electrical ground loop that has been created, or poor ground connections, you could increase the volume of the signal (your RCA voltage), and change the "signal to noise" ratio (sounds impressive, doesn't it? )
But here's the issue: It's the car audio equivalent to shouting to talk over a noisy room, rather than stepping outside to somewhere more appropriate to conversation. And that's far from "high end".
The high-end solution isn't to 'brute force' it with a high voltage level... The high-end solution is to actually fix the noise issue, and make the noise go away. A little troubleshooting, and this is a cheap and often easy fix. (and NONE of this matters, if you don't HAVE a noise problem in your car to begin with )
In fact, having a deck with 8v (or higher) preamp voltage signal level could actually CREATE distortion, if the amplifier can't take an input signal that high - in that case, you could have your gain adjustment set all the way down (adjusted to the maximum input voltage), and actually you would be guaranteeing that you could clip your amplifier at loud volumes... the higher the voltage, the worse the potential "unavoidable clipping" problem.
In other words - the last thing I worry about in a high end deck is my RCA voltage level, since it doesn't benefit me at all - and today, because head unit marketing departments started little wars that have everyone thinking "higher voltage is better" - there's just about zero chance that you'll find a head unit with an RCA voltage that's less than even 2v. They've ALL got high RCA voltage these days."
i know they do. all i am saying is that if you dont set ur gain right, you have a HIGHER chance of sending a square wave to the subwoofer. It is meant to be adjusted to it, and then if you have your bass boost up, you have to account for that, really meaning you need to set it correctly with a DMM.
I am not talking about noise in the car, because if anyone has even decent sheilded RCA's, there will not be any noise happenin inside ur car, even if you run it 20 RCA's along with the power wire.
The ground is an obvious problem...
its simple basics of car audio, set ur gain to the output voltage of the HU, and ur good
