[gord]

Hey everyone quick questions here,
I heard that your subwoofer should be double the amount of watts as the rest of your system? Is this true? If my kappas are 35watts rms, if I get a 65watt x 4 rms amp, how much should I set the gain at? Also, If the 12W3 can handle 250, and I give it about 400watts, would it sound allright if I got two? Or would it be playing under its potential?
Thanks

 

[jakerooni]

Hey everyone quick questions here,
I heard that your subwoofer should be double the amount of watts as the rest of your system? Is this true? If my kappas are 35watts rms, if I get a 65watt x 4 rms amp, how much should I set the gain at? Also, If the 12W3 can handle 250, and I give it about 400watts, would it sound allright if I got two? Or would it be playing under its potential?
Thanks

Umm Gonna go out on a limb here and assume your talking about an SQ set up over a SPL set up. If that's the case I can say I've heard rule of thumb before stating for the best sound quality your subs can be about double the Mids and Highs. Now I'm not sure if it's true or not. I've never really tested the theroy myself. Maybe Raven or Dave can help on this one their both SQ people. For SPL you probably want your subs pretty much as maxed out as possible.

As far as the Gain question never set your gain any more than 3/4 Perfeably 1/2 And if you give a W3 rated at 250 watts rms a 400 watt shot rms it probably won't last long. Now a 400 watt burst here and there probably won't hurt it much though.

 

[gord]

Yeah definetally a SQ setup in mind.
I read that 200watts is optimal for a 12W3, so Im a correct in thinking two 12W3s from a 400watt amp would put 200 watts to each?

If im putting 60 watts rms to 35rms speakers and turn the gain about half, would that still damage them?

 

[tiny1877]

To properly set the gain:

turn your deck to 3/4 volume.
turn the gain up until you hear distortion
turn gain back about 1/8th turn
repeat for any other amps

You can't just set it at a random point. Perhaps at 3/4 gain on your amp, the distortion is bad? Maybe even at 1/2 gain? You can't just guess at the gain, you have to set it properly.

 

[gord]

The deck to 3/4 of its max volume? Or 3/4 of what I usally listen to it at? And is the distortion just the point at which the amp exceeds the wattage of the speakers?

 

[mrjackson2000]

The deck to 3/4 of its max volume? Or 3/4 of what I usally listen to it at? And is the distortion just the point at which the amp exceeds the wattage of the speakers?

the distortion is caused by the amp not putting out a clean signal

 

[smallblock]

Distortion is where the Deck <we'll call it> can no longer put out a clean single and to set this what I found that works is turn all you amps down on the gain control so you can hardly hear it if you can at all and then start cranking up the volume on you deck you'll find that it is still quiet but if you listen carefully you notice that as you get higher on the on the volume that you will hear cackles and stuff then what you need to do is after that is turn it back down until you hear it nice and clear it will be quite though but as you turn your gain up in you amps you will notice that the sound Will get very loud very quick do this until you here distortion again and then turn you amps down from their until it is clear once you have set all the gains to the right level you can fine tune by either playing with the deck controls or by turning Gian up and down on amps to get a balance in you car done a bunch of setups before and every decks different on distortion my Sony I can get about 82% volume but my Friends kenwood is only about 75% just something you have to take you time and go from their and you gain control is for you preout level <in volts> so if you deck is 2.2 volts out thats where you want to try to hit your gain control is to 2 2.2 volts out any other questions let me know

 

[black94rs]

Follow Tiny's advice, turn thedeck up 3/4 of it's MAX volume. Not what you listen to it at. When you set it up this way you'll have to turn the deck volume louder because it'll be set up right.

 

[The_Boss]

So much misinformation! Tiny has said it best.