is it better to buy a more powerful amp and turn the gain down or just buy what you need and turn up the gain? dosnt gain produce clippiing? how many watts extra would i have to get in order to put out the correct wattage without clipping?if i have alot of extra power with the gain way down or if i have just a little extra power withthe gain turned down just a little, whats going to sound better?
Best bet is to get something where the gains can be set to match the output of the HU...but it would be better to have too much power and the gains turned down as opposed to too little power and the gains turned up.
"""is it better to buy a more powerful amp and turn the gain down or just buy what you need and turn up the gain"
well IMO dont worry about gain that much - if ur buying a monoblock amp 4 ur bass then u can buy 1 thats a little just over what u need like if ur subs r rated @1000wrms then a 1200wrms amp will do . Reason is that the amp doesnt need 2 work @ max 2 put out & will run cooler
amp 4 speakers/components - i suggest u match them cause unlike subs these cannot handle much overpowering which can damage them especially on bass heavy songs ....
input sensitivity isn't a volume or power control dial. it's simply there to match the input voltage from the had unit to the input stage of the amplifier to get a clean signal. Buy a bigger amp if you like, just be cautious with the volume knob.
glasswolf, it wouldnt hurt to have the gain set too low though would it? you just dont want to turn the gain up over where it should be according to the HU, right?
if it is set to your HU then it wont be set to high. Like Glass said if you buy a amp that is overpowering your subs just remember and have control with the volume.
ok so how do i figure out what voltage my head unit puts out? and how do i know when the gain is set at that level? Should i set the gain so that when the volume is max the HU voltage is equal to the gain? im using my stock Chrysler 300M 4 disc changer if anyone knows any of this from experience.
you won't hurt anything with the gain too low, but what ya do get is a worse SNR, because you're just using more amplifier juice to amplify a weak input signal, with a higher noise floor. see the problem? any noise at line level is amplified along with the actual signal, so the more noise you can eliminate, the better the resulting output of the amp. thus ya set the gain properly and be judicious with the volume knob for the best SQ results. if you hear the speakers bottom out, turn it down a little. that simple.
Ok well i have two amps for one sub and they have been configured to put the exact amount of power to each VC. The gain is obviously the same right. But i just got a new HU with a High voltage. So on the amps do i just put the Voltage on the amps up to the same number as the HU? Would they still be putting out the exact same power to each VC or would i have to configure something else as well.
james, what i was saying is lets say if the gain is set to the head unit for a set of subs, qand your interior speakers are not amped, it would over power the speakers. hence the need to turn your gain down.
i think he means the sup will be much louder than the interior speakers. so there is no way i can set my gains so that when i turn up my system up all the way i dont blow my subs?