Tuning Amp and Speakers
 

Setup:

2003 Cavalier
Alpine Type-R 6.5" Components (in doors) SPR-17S
Peak Power Capacity: 330W
Max RMS Power Capacity: 110W
Kenwood KAC-7203 Amp
(170Watts RMS x2 at 4ohms - max power: 1000W)
Alpine CDA-9856 Unit (50W)


Details:
Crossover gains are at 0
Head unit amplifier off, all optional settings are off
Amp's bass boost is off


What Ive been doing:
Input sensitivity on amp set at 0
Then playing a 1khz (I think?) track and increasing the volume on the head unit until I hear clipping. Drop the volume down 2 notches. Then I slowly increase the amp's input sensitivity. When it clips, I have to turn the dial down quite a bit before it stops clipping. I can then go up to a point just before it clips, but if I go past that point, I have to drop it down a lot to get it to stop. Is that normal?

As it sits right now, I can only get my volume up to 22 on the head unit. It's not loud at all.

Are there any other ways to set the amp? I know I'm doing something wrong here.

doing a step too many, turn your deck to 3/4 volume or a little higher with the amp gain down, play the test tone, turn the amp gain up until you hear clipping then back it off slightly...done.

...but I assume that since you dont know the frequency of the test tone that you probably don't know if the tone was attenuated.....find a test tone at the frequency of around the middle of the frequency range of the speaker its being played on and make sure the tone is at 0db

Thanks MTT!

I'm going to find a 46Hz test tone right now. How do I ensure that it is at 0 db? Just make sure my crossover gains are still at 0?

you have to make sure the test tone was created at 0db, best bet is to go on downloads.com or wherever and find a "test tone generator" and make your own, make several tones of about a minute long each of each frequency that you have EQ bands at, then play them on repeat.....just make sure they are created at 0db of gain, you'll see that option if you download a generator.

Right, that makes sense. I just opened up Adobe Audition and am going to make a 3 minute test tone at 46Hz. I'm assuming 1 channel is ok. I also am unsure about what sample rate to create the track at. Going to try for 192000 and see what that does.

Well, I made the test tone at 46Hz.
Set the volume to 26 (3/4 of 35). Played the song and then cranked up the amp gain. There was no clipping. I turned the amp iput sensitivity down about 1/4 away from the top and left it at that. Sounds so much better. Would like a little more bass, but I can likely use the bass boost on the amp, and/or the HU.

Thanks again for the help.

Glad it helped, even if it was only a little.

I think you have to make sure the test tone was created at 0db, best bet is to go on downloads.com or wherever and find a "test tone generator" .

...way to read a complete post before replying :)