# Gain control



## Andro (Nov 13, 2002)

I have a Pioneer HU that comes with a 2V pre-out (from what I read). Do you guys have like a formula to follow when setting up your amp? My gain level for the sub is turned 3/4. Everything sounds okay but I just wanna make sure I'm not clipping the sub. BTW, subs is a Blaupunkt 10" with 480-watts max and the amp feeds around 400 watts RMS (bridged).


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## sr20dem0n (Mar 19, 2003)

the proper way to set your gain:

1 - turn off all filters, tuning, bass boost, etc and if your speakers are being overpowered then rewire them so you receive less power. One example of this is since your amp puts out 400rms bridged, it probably puts out 100rms into each channel when in stereo mode. So just wire your sub up to one channel to set the gain so you don't have to worry about thermalling the sub.
2 - turn the volume down and turn the gain all the way down, then play a 0dB test tone (if you need one just let me know) somewhere around 50-100Hz for a sub, or around 1000Hz for normal speakers
3 - turn the volume on your headunit up until you hear it clip, it should be a very distinctive sound and should happen around 3/4 volume or a little higher (mine clips at exactly 55 out of 62)
4 - turn the volume just under clipping and then do the same for the gain on the amp, slowly turn it up until you hear clipping, then back it off a bit
5 - rewire your speakers normally, and then you're set


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## Andro (Nov 13, 2002)

wow, can you send me that test tone? [email protected]. Thanks!


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## sr20dem0n (Mar 19, 2003)

http://www.ihearyou.com/testtones/

there ya go
some of the links on there are broken, but you only need 2 really to set your gain. Just get one ~50-70hz for a sub amp, or one ~1000hz for a front stage amp. The actual frequency doesn't really matter, you just want something that's high enough to hear the clipping (the lower the frequency the harder it is to hear clipping) and low enough so the sub can still play it well (don't use a 1000hz tone for your sub because you won't even be able to hear it at all).


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## Andro (Nov 13, 2002)

thanks.


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