I just installed 2 8" Kicker SSMB8 midbass speakers in the rear deck of my Sable. I am trying to figure out how to adjust my amp to these speakers because I have bever done midbass before. I have 105 watts RMS going to each, and they recommend 40-175 watts RMS to each. Although the power is within a good range, the speakers pop if the gain is turned up over about half. Shouldn't I be able to give these full power? Or is the power handling different since it is a free-air speaker? Thanks.
i dunno what clipping really sounds like but yeah that might be it becuz the gain isnt a volume control you gotta match it to the output on your head unit.
you just have speaker wires going to the amp then right? if you do then i guess you just set your gain like this.
this is from caraudiobook.com
Level Setting for Beginners
Level or gain setting, done by ear, is more art than science. It can be done using an oscilloscope but since few people have one of those laying around we'll cover doing it by ear. Basically you want to start with the first component in the chain (head unit) and work your way to the last component (amplifier).
1. Start by turning all of the input level adjustment knobs (gain controls) on your components fully counter-clockwise (to their minimum setting). Set the tone controls (bass, treble, loudness) on your head unit to no boost (bass and treble level = 0 and loudness is off). Make sure your fader and balance controls are set to the middle position. If you have more than one RCA pair you will want to set each gain adjustment separately. 2. Next set all of your equalizers settings (if you have an equalizer) to the center (detent) position so they produce no boost or cut. What we want is as pure of a signal as possible. 3. Put in some good quality source material, preferably a CD with strong output and a clean recording. Hard rock would be a bad choice here. Try something cleaner, maybe acoustic, that you're familiar with. 4. Turn the deck's volume up slowly until you begin to hear distortion. When you hear it, stop and back off slightly until you no longer hear it. If you don't hear distortion, even when the volume is all of the way up then you have a quality head unit. That's what we're looking for. 5. Now with your head unit at maximum undistorted volume move on to the next component. Adjust its input gain until you begin to hear distortion. Back off slightly. 6. Continue this process until you have all of the components in the chain at their maximum undistorted level. 7. When you reach the amplifiers you may need to wear earplugs to adjust them to their maximum level. As before, turn up the gain until you hear audible distortion.
That's it. Play some music and verify that everything sounds right. Congratulations! You've just learned to properly adjust the settings on your car audio system.
OK...thanks for that. The problem is that the speakers sound good, and then at a certain point, they just start popping-almost like they are over extending themselves. I guess that doesn't seem like the kind of distortion they are talking about here.