hpf of 180hz? that seems high to me, but maybe it sounds good. i would think 60 - 100 would be better on average. it would give more bass in the front.

other then that i dont know.....

MORE POWERRRRRR!!!!

 

Well, yeah I think more power would do something, but there is another issue, with the current amp I am getting distortion at 50% gain setting and volume up to 45 (which collectively is not really a lot!) and at this volume I am still getting distortion and have to turn the volume down a bit for some tracks. I have already played around with the EQ and crossovers but the speakers just dont seem to be able to handle more power (?), especially the rear ones.
My question is, the rear ones are rated at 110w RMS power handling and I am currently sending a signal of only 50W RMS through the external amp. If with 50% gain and volume at 80% I am STILL getting distortion, what different would it make to add more power??? it would still distort at this level...right?

Senior members, experienced guys, some help here please?? I wanted a clean, real accurate and true-fi SQ at decent volume, and even with an amp it does not seem to give me the volume distortion free...what am I doing wrong??

 

Seeing as how the output of the headunit is 5V and the P4004 amp is at 4V max, you should have you gains all the way down. That's the first thing. I used to have that amp, and it gives out a fair amount more that what it's rated at. Anyways, mine did. Gave 84W @ 4ohms, 1% THD.

Next, as stated before the highpass is WAY too high for your fronts. 100hz should be around the maximum for your hpf. How, the amp itself is giving around 4 times the power of your current headunit. That should translate into a potential bump of 6db. It's still decent, providing your speakers can handle the power.

Anyways, you're on the right track for something decent as far as SQ goes. But, set your headunit in advanced mode and tweak the sound to your liking as much as possible. In standard mode, you're not exploiting it's full potential.

Also, have you given sound deadening a try yet ? It will help a lot for better midbass as I have said before.

Keep us posted with your progress !

 

Thanks

Well, the problem is when i set the HPF at about 120 Hz for the front components (RVF210 MBQUART), it starts to give me significante distortion at moderate volume levels, especially for pop tracks with digital bass in them. Yes, I started the setting of input gain when the amp installed from Zero, setting the HU at 45 voume level and internal amp off. Then i tweaked the HPF and Gain to get the best compromise at that volume between loudness and bass, but still this does not seem to be enough....because the MB quarts have a power handling capability of 40-90 watts and I am giving it 50W going through 50% gain setting (effectively halving that??), and still with a frequency response as low as 80Hz it gives me distortion at even 150Hz!!!

What can be wrong here? I must add that the treble detail is absolutely awesome coming from the tweeters..so the issue of these speakers being faulty is not possible..

 

Thanks for the reply A couple of questions:
1. How did you relate the sound dB to the amp wattage? that is cool, I wanna know how to do that so I can measure the dB level in my car without using a dB meter
2. Using my HU i advanced mode will give me more flexibility on the HPF and LPF settings, right? I already have that through the amp...is there any other benefit I could get from it?

Thanks bro

 

one thing you have to understand about amplifier gain. gain adds more noise (signal), not more power(watts).

so even if u put 50 watts to the speaker, amp up the gain, its still getting 50 watts, but its just getting more signal, but with more signal also = more noise of all types, music and electical.

 

Learning to understand gain will help you alot when building an SQ system.

 

im proud to say that the tweeters and mid ranges do not have any gain at all on my amps. however the mid-bass does have a slight amount. and of course the subs do as well. but up top. 0 gain!

 

Can you please elaborate on gain? dont understand what you mean...

 

doublexl pretty much summed it up in as simple of terms as possible for you.

At a certain point when you turn up the volume, your deck puts out x amount of volts before it starts to clip(distort). Your amp can only accept voltage (through the RCA's) within a specific range, give it too much voltage and the amp clips.....not enough voltage and you are wasting amplifier power on noise and hiss with little actual volume output. Properly matched up and you are amplifying program material with as little noise and hiss as possible.....turn the gain up beyond this point and the amp clips.
The gain on your amp is not a volume ****, it is there so you can properly match it to the voltage of your deck for the amp to provide full noise free power, remember, turning it up past this point only increases distortion. All decks don't put out the same voltage so the amp gain has to be adjustable to be able to match properly.