Fine tuning my stereo

What up all,

First of all, a huge thanks to everyone on this board who have answered my numerous questions over the past couple of weeks. I finally got my system working last night. It was friggin awesome. Me and a couple of buddies who helped just sat in lawn chairs 100 feet behind the boat having a few beers and enjoying the sounds. I can't wait to try it out this weekend.

Anyways, I'm not sure exactly what I should be doing to fine tune/get the most out of my setup. I was following the directions from my amp, and the speakers started to clip at like 1/4 to 1/3 gain. So, I figured I'd ask you wonderful people. First off, here's my setup...

Older Sony cd deck (prolly gonna get changed out tonight)
Kicker ZX550.2 amp (205 watts per side @ 4 ohms)
Wet Sounds pro 80

The amp instruction manual said to turn the head unit up to about 3/4 volume with the amp gain all the way down. Start turning up the gain until you hear noticeable distortion, then turn it back down until it goes away. I wasn't getting distortion as much as I was getting clipping. And that was at VERY low gain. Still loud as hell though. I just feel like I can get more out of it if it is properly set up. Suggestions of a method to try? Crossover settings? Low pass settings?

Thanks in advance. This forum is truly a phenomenal community of people who really help each other out. I hope some day I can be as helpful to someone else as all you have been to me.

Keith

Have an oscilloscope?

Keith,

Don't worry so much about the location of the gain. A gain is not a volume knob or a knob that makes the amp put out more power. It is used to set the system up matching it to the other amplifiers in the system. And as long as the source is putting out good signal in terms of voltage. The amp will produce it's power rating. Wherever the "unity" gain setting is. It could be 1/4 on the gain or less etc...It all depends on the system.

As for the PR0 80's. Set the high pass on 80 HZ. Start there. Also, when tuning the system and setting the gains. Do it with the head unit flat and any eq settings off. Also, make sure the bass boost on the amp is off if it has one.

Set the gains. Once you get it set then you can fine tune the crossover and eq settings etc..You can cross them over higher to gain more volume at the sacrifice or some mid bass etc...So it is up to you depending what sound you prefer.

Hope that helps. So as long as you get the system to the sound you like. Don't worry about the locations of the gains etc...

Tim
Wet Sounds