I am going to help my buddy with his amp and speakers. He wants me to use my meter to set his gains. His amp is a RZ4-2000D . The specs for that are 4 ohms speakers max 160 watts. The speakers he has are Polk MM652's and MPX 165.3's. They both have a max 200 and constant 100 watts specs. With those figures I believe I should set the voltages at 28.28 based on 200 watts at 3/4 volume? Is that correct? Basically the gains would be maxed. And I have been told and read the specs on the amp almost always fall short. Thoughts? Thanks.

 

I dunno if anyone would want to START with gains maxed unless they have previous experience with the equipment in question.

A lot of folks will tell you to use your ears to set them and allow headroom. Me personally I set them to where I could turn the volume all the way up without the amp distorting heavily. I figured if I set it for 3/4 what happens if the volume **** sticks (it does happen) and it runs the volume up all the way? Stuff will probably break. Also that is making an assumption that the head unit will distort after 3/4 volume. Not all of them do. My HK with low level outputs does not start clipping (which is distortion basically) until the last notch. Some other head units may distort sooner. There are some that are engineered to run out of volume adjustment before they clip for safety. If you are using speaker level outputs then it will clip sooner than low level most likely.

So after all that BS maybe try it by ear with a margin of safety. It's better to leave a little volume on the table than smoke in your eyes.

If you can list the make and model of head unit there is a very good chance someone here had used that exact amp/head unit combo and can tell you a good starting point from their experience.

 

Hoyt 1911A1. Thanks. His equipment..

HU-Bluetooth Harley-Davidson Stereo AQ-MP-5BT-H

AMP---------------------- RZ4-2000D
Front speakers--------Polk MM652's
Rear speakers---------Hertz speakers MPX 165.3
2012 Ultra Limited

Thanks again

 

I would set them at 24.4 volts for all 4 speakers radio set to flat 3/4 volume of the head unit should be to good to go!

 

Thanks. Will post back when done in a few days.

 

Its hard to believe though that....that amp is truly putting out 160 watts to each speaker @ 4ohms? My Arc Audio 600.4 puts out a true 150 watts @ 4ohms to all 4 of my speakers that I know!

 

I don't believe that it is. But those are the specs for the amp. My belief is they are inflated for sales purposes. IMO.. When I researched bench test for that amp. Seems to be closer to 140W at 4 ohm

 

Then if that's the case I would set the Voltage even a little lower then not to risk blowing the speakers!

 

That amp does not do the specified exaggerated watts. Will be much closer to 100 watts at 4ohms.

As shown in the amp bench test by AAWAV.

 

So maybe more like 18-20 volts on the meter is more like it?