"T" good post,

I know on my system I tuned the amps at 43/50 XAV AX100 (older model) with the DD1. I have not turned my system up past 32 and that is on a (lower DB track) most of the time I sit around 19-22 riding normal, well normal for me.

Juice

 

That is kind of what I'm throwing out there from the technical HU inner working aspect. Since u never go above 32, would u be better flattening out that volume slope so ur realistic max is 38?

Take that to the extreme where dudes often say "man my shix is sooooo loud at 7 I never need to exceed 10 out of 17 at 70 mph? Or 20 out of 40? Or?

What is the basic engineering in that HU for optimum performance. Does ur car run best in the first half of the RPM band or the last 2/3 before the red shix?

T

 

IMHO, clean signal is all that matters. I set my gains at max clean hu volume. Setting your gains to max output at half volume only sets you up for a bad situation. If someone else runs the volume or you get a case of whiskey thumb you could blow **** up.
Also, just because a DD1 says the signal is ok doesn’t mean it is. I’ve seen some questionable waves on the scope pass a dd1.

 

I have much to learn about tuning. So disappointed I will not have my 6x9's for the M&G - blew them both out. However, I still hope to learn a lot about it.

 

This conversation is quite interesting to me. When I first set the gains on my Amp (MMats MD4110) I did it completely by ear and I was very happy with the sound, but I thought maybe I was leaving some volume off the table. At highway speeds I had enough volume to hear my tunes just fine but I was running the volume at the top of my max tuned volume (Sony 5000 tuned at 44 out of 50). I went back and tried to tune via DMM and I found that with the volume at 44 and the gains set to a DMM reading that equaled to 110 Watts (somewhere around 22 V), I had a significant amount of audible distortion. I ended up turning the gains back down to about where they were in the first place (quite a bit lower) to get good clean sound. Maybe I should pick up a DD1 and try again.

 

I like that y'all are mentioning the point of gains being set higher than necessary. I have seen handlebar volume buttons stick in the up position before. If your maximum undistorted volume level is at only 1/2 or 3/4 of the maximum volume of the head unit and the volume gets set wide open speakers might get unhappy if the amps don't go into shutdown mode first.

 

Now, at what volume level (distortion free) does the volume/out put go up exponentially? Is it at the 50% mark or higher and how steep is it. I am sure each deck is different. IDK, just putting more thoughts out there.

I agree with Jim, I tuned my amps at max clean power/output on my deck 43/50.

But, as Tailwind said I never get near my max clean volume level. I am way more than half of it though.

I have seen guys with the XAV 5000 get into the 40+ range. I do not know how they tuned their amp, by ear, or DMM. Mine was tuned with a DD1

Juice

 

You guys are making setting gains and headunit volume much more complicated than it needs to be. It’s voltage.

 

To me - much more of a novice than you guys - the gains and volume, etc. we're the easiest part to understand.

For my for setup I tuned by ear following instructions by the gurus here. Sounded great, was easy to hear, but again that was only a two-channel amp and fairing coax speakers.

Adding the lowers and changing the amp to a 4-channel and I tuned again by ear. It was loud and clear again..

BUT when I added the speaker lids and the DD's with the bridged amp then things got harder. I noticed imbalances between the lowers and fairings and also between the DDs in the lids.

CPBedor helped me with setting the gains using a DMM and it was only then I realized that the two gain settings can be off from one another at the same output. Also I was well under my max gain settings on each amp tuning by ear.

So I think both ways to do it are useful and certainly -from a novice perspective - knowing how to set it with a DMM assists you in setting it or finalizing the settings by ear

For me the part that I find the most difficult or intricate is setting the crossover and slope. Especially when there are HU settings AND amp settings. It seems as if there is a lot of recommendations about where to start and then from there it's experiment until you get the sound you like.

I find it difficult to know exactly the sound I should be looking for for. Especially after hearing some of the bikes at the sound contests. My expectations became unrealistic for a system.that is normally going to be heard riding at 40+ mph.

 

Is anyone here messing with time alignment?