rolex

Hi folks.

A quick background:

About 6 months ago I had a JL Audio 12w7 in JL Audio High Output box installed into my 2005 Acura MDX, and bought a JL Audio HD750/1 amp to go with it, with the JL Audio high gauge wiring kit and everything.

Here are the products, for reference

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-5Ev3P4h...HO112R-W7.html

and

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_136HD75...hd750&skipvs=T


I had them installed at KHF Audio in Markham by Alan who has been helpful but busy so far.


Anyways, so all was great with my setup until early last month the amp started flashing green & red and I was getting no bass at all. JL Audio classifies this as a general hardware fault, so I had to bring the amp back to KHF and my new exchange came in today.

So they hooked up the new amp quickly as they were busy and I drove away, but it wasn't until I almost got home that I started listening to my music again and testing it.

There is a shocking decrease in bass from how it used to be now. I used to only turn my deck up to around Volume 12 before there was loads of bass, now I have to turn it up into the 20's just to get adequate bass but the speakers at this point are WAY too loud and tinny (since I don't have the worlds best speakers.. Just the BOSE ones that came with the truck)

What the hell happened?

I have the gains on the deck set to SubWoofer +15 (which I would have NEVER done with the old amp, it used to sit around +5 or +7), I've tried setting the Bass levels on the deck to +2 or more as well.

Is there some kind of adjustment levels on the actual amp hardware box itself? I am a novice user with no car audio expertise really. I just can't for the life of me figure out why a brand new amp, same brand and model, is producing so much less bass. I have not touched the actual amp itself as I'm usually one that doesn't want to mess with something and screw it up, so I'm unaware if there are any volume adjustments or dials on it?

Any help or advice would be great here folks, I hate to keep calling this poor guy at KHF all the time so if there's any preliminary checks or adjustments I can make on this end before bothering him, I'd like to do that

Thanks for reading this long post, I really appreciate any help or suggestions in advance

Cheers!

ancorp

iTrader: (1)

Perhaps they just set the gain lower then the last one? Personally I would put the settings on your deck back to the way before, and then increase the gain accordingly. But if you are truly a novice, best go back to where you had it installed and have them set it for you.

evildude88

I agree with ancorp. Especially since they were rushed, it's most likely that they didn't tune the system to make sure there was an adequate amount of bass. If anything, they would have turned it down to make sure that nothing would go wrong.

rolex

Hi there - I can easily put the deck settings back to how they were before, but where is the gain you guys are talking about?

Is this on the hardware amp box itself? How is it adjusted? As mentioned, I am a novice who has never fiddled with anything before.

They were rushed and pretty sure they did nothing on the amp itself except re-attach the wires. If they made alterations to the amp levels the first time around, they definitely did not this time..

Thanks for the info guys!

Cheers

evildude88

Hey rolex,

Yes the setting we are talking about (the gain) is on the amplifier itself - it adjusts the voltage.

Here is what I would do if you feel comfortable in adjusting it yourself.

1) Locate the subwoofer amplifier
2) With the HD series amp I believe it has a metal cover which you'll need to use an allen key to get off
3) From here you should be able to get at all the internal amplifier settings. The HD series has a lot to adjust, but for now all you are really concerned with is the Gain or the Voltage.
4) To set your gain properly, first set everything bass-related to zero. The gains on the amplifier, the bass boost on your deck, so on and so forth. Turn on your car and turn the stereo on. Find a song you know has a good amount of bass or something you know you like to listen to in the car. Set the volume to 3/4 on the deck, and then start adjusting the gain up slowly until you feel it is where it should be. Definitely be careful here as you don't want to overpower the sub (which is easy in the W7 high output box, I've worked with them before). Also if you have to set your gains anywhere past 3/4, that means you could be setting it too high and you may be pushing distortion to your subwoofer.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

That's it! You should now have the amount of bass you want.

rolex

Thanks so much for the detailed reply.

I'm going to try and find an allen key today (I just realized KHF didn't give me back the friggin HD 750/1 box which has all the allen wrenches in it... aargh) and then see what's going on in the control panel for it. I'm really hoping he never made an adjustments to the amp already yesterday and I'm pretty sure he didn't. Otherwise what other reason would I be experiencing a severe lack of bass for...

I'll post back shortly I'm sure with more questions or comments but just wanted to say thanks again..

If anybody is in the west GTA and wants to troubleshoot the system & amp for me , I'd gladly throw you a bit of cash or a bit of dope for your trouble haha.. If anyone's interested let me know, but otherwise I'll try by myself I guess

Cheers man

genericmoniker

Just don't go crazy on turning the gain up. That does sound like it's your problem though.

420guy

iTrader: (5)

Yup sounds to me like this is exactly your problem. Just sent you a PM.

rolex

Hey man

Sorry for the delay in writing back, had a busy week

I took the panel off and looked at the gain(?) (Which they don't call gain but Input Sens. ??) and it was already at the perfect 12'oclock mark which I'm assuming is 50%. So I only turned it to the 3'oclock position under the impression that that is 3/4ths of the way? You told me above to never go past 3/4ths so I had to stop at that. I would have liked to have keep going because although the bass is definitely better now it STILL isn't what it used to be.. I still have noticed on my deck that the volume has to be turned up alot higher before the bass starts getting good, it never used to be like that.

I notice there is another dial right beside it for Hz , the default is the position in the screenshot below, in the 60's I think by default but was wondering if maybe adjusting this would make a difference too?

I listen primarily to drum & bass music, maybe I could do with some adjusting of that too?

There are also some other ***** and gadgets I'm not sure about so here is a screenshot:



Other than the Input Sens. which is vertical in the screenshot, I now turned it to the right so it's horizontal assuming that its 3/4ths, but all other settings are the same.

Anything else pop out at you that might be worth trying?


Also thanks for your PM -- I'm in Brampton too, right around Steeles & McLaughlin roughly, maybe I could pass by when you've got free time if the offer still stands and we can't figure it out from the picture

Thanks again for all the help man!

Cheers

420guy

iTrader: (5)

Everything looks okay on the amp. For sure will be around tomorrow and Sunday if you want to head over.
Nick