Okay To Turn Gains Up And Down On Deck Often?
 

So I'm using a Kenwood deck and one of the benefits is that I can control the sub from -15 to 0 to +15, moving by 2 (15, 13, 11, etc).

I move it around often. I'll have the sub off and start at -15. Then, as it warms up (in my mind), I'll move it slowly closer to 0. Then when I'm in the mood or I like a particular song, I'll put it +7. In that same song, I might put it back to 0.
While driving, I often change from +7 to 0 ... maybe at a stop light for instance.

Is this putting unnecessary strain on my amp? Am I causing harm? Or am what I'm doing is alright and I can continue down my happy path?

i believe it just controls the amount of votage being sent thru the RCA cable. so with 5V preout, 0 sends lets say 2.5V and the highest sends 5V and the lowest send like 0.1V

i could every easily be wrong by saying this

Well I'll tell you what I hear ...

-15 is little to no bass from the sub ...
0 there's a significant difference ...
+7 is a strong bass sound from the sub
+15 is through the roof and I generally don't put it here in fear that I'm killing my amp (or something of the sort).

When I push the knob in (for anyone that has used or uses Kenwood decks), this would be the first option that comes up.

yeah its just like on my alpine deck. its the subwoofer level. i adjusted my gains with it @ level 15. some people adjust them when its at level 10. i think its just used to change the iinput of voltage being sent through the RCA cable

So would this "just" be alright? As in I can change it all the damn time if I want ...

Because really as I mentioned, I'd rather turn down the sub power of volume of the sub (as I refer to it) as opposed to turning down the actual volume ... and as I mentioned, I use this particular setting between songs, sometimes within the same song.
So I'm just wondering if I'm doing some harm here.

So any other opinions or ideas? I'm alright playing around with this?

Quite a few sub amps come with a remote gain control and I would have to think they wouldnt include it if it hurt the amp or sub in any way (other than obvious user error gain crankers).

John

yeah, i can't see anything wrong with it as long as you're not turning it up too loud. i use mine all the time. i find it somewhat essential for music coming off the interwebs because it all seems to be mastered in different levels of volume and bass. some songs are loud and bassy, some are quiet and need a bunch of bass boost.

my new pioneer deck also has a feature to turn off the sub amp with 2 button pushes, so i turn it off before i get close to my house or other places where i park my car. its a lot less likely to go missing that way.

Excellent, I appreciate all the feedback. This was something I was worried about. I guess as somebody who doesn't know what's actually at work, it could be a complete mystery so that's why I put up the question.

Thanks again everyone.

Having used Kenwood Excelon decks for years maybe I can shed some light on this.....wish I'd seen this thread earlier.......:dunno:

Anyways......one thing I really like about KW decks is the fact that when the internal amp is shut off, the output voltage on the RCAs benefits with more headroom and no clipping. How you ask??....they limit the output voltages to what the unit can deliver without clipping....period.

I am really curious why you are using the entire range of adjustment on the sub outs....even allowing for different kinds of music and the quality of the recordings themselves doesn't add up to me.....:dunno:

To answer your question, you will do no harm to your amp or sub as long as the input voltage doesn't overload the input transistors or drive the outputs into clipping by having the gain set too high.

If you are using this method to keep the woofer alive thru the cold temperatures we are having these days, props to you.....:smilie_da

AFAIK, once the system is setup properly you shouldn't need to do this constantly....a tweak once in a while for some songs is one thing, using it like this is something else....maybe it's time for a tune-up?

HTH