Amp putting out its full potential?.. I hope not HELP

[Jd377 6]

Alright so I just got my Sundown SAX 1200 in the mail friday and I was going to wait for my Kinetik battery to get here ( this friday a week later ) before hooking it up at all.. But today I was just dying to hear it because its so hard to wait.. So I went ahead and hooked it up using the old wires that were in from my old crappy sony 1000w max 500wrms walmart amp, Well when I hooked it up and I put the gain at maybe 3/4 or a little under and was listening to it, I turned the little bass knob up and once it got to about half way up, anything above half on the bass knob didn't even make it louder, almost like it is at its limit.. but can it be at its limit at 3/4 on amp and 1/2 of that on the knob?..

I'm hoping that I will surely get more out of it once its got the extra battery and new wiring?.. but will it? Right now it sounds basically just as loud as the stupid walmart amp got and it sucked.

Currently when i ran it, it was hooked up with 8 awg wire from stock walmart starting battery back to the amp with my stock alt ( honda civic around 70amp) and the big 3 done..

Will it give out more power once I wire up the second battery in back near the amp and also 4 awg wire ran from front to back instead of the 8 awg that is in there now? It has to get louder..?......

[thebiggmann12 14]

run 0 gauge and get the battery in, it will get louder

and the bass knobs on sundown amps (at least my 1500) have a huge difference from like 2 clicks up but then it doesn't really get that much louder as u turn it up higher.

Edited October 7, 2010 by Brandon Daily

[ShagggDiesel 25]

Do you have all the crossovers and whatnot tuned right? Just turning the gain knob won't always make it louder. Also, the gain isn't a volume knob. Don't use it as one. You will blow something.

[slim2fattycake 85]

get a DMM and check your voltage drop with out load and then check voltage drop with load.

[skittlesRgood 3]

ya the knobs are weird. not much of a difference after half way up.

what do you have the subs wired to? 1ohm, 2ohm, 4ohm?

[Jd377 6]

I set the ssf and everything already and I know it isn't a volume knob, I was just expecting it to be louder, I was just testing it until I get my batt. in. I was just watchin my voltage and turning it up until it got close to 12.6 then turned it back down but noticed it was gettin too loud really vs. my previous amps which did 500-600rms.. So i was just wondering if its doin low volume since the power its getting is restricted by small 8awg power/ground wires plus only 1 little batt up front that runs the whole car.

Edit: Wired to 1ohm and.. I tried our dmm but I don't think it was working.. Idk I could try it again. we didn't try it on the amp we tested it inside the house first to see if it worked as it had not been used in ages and didn't seem to be working right.

Edited October 7, 2010 by Jd377

[emh9009 199]

run 0 gauge and get the battery in, it will get louder

and the bass knobs on sundown amps (at least my 1500) have a huge difference from like 2 clicks up but then it doesn't really get that much louder as u turn it up higher.

X2 on the knobs. while using CDs the max i go is 3 clicks, any more and there is no more output. with my mp3 player i have to go up to around 6 to get some decent output. I've got an idea why, but who knows. (i tuned my gains with the knob turned all the way up)

[Jd377 6]

Question, Since The dmm didn't work, I obviously didn't tune my amp really yet, so just wondering, when you guys tune your amps about how far is the gain knob? approximately. I know it is different for everyone but I'm just wondering about how far up it usually is after you guys tune them. 1/2.. 3/4 almost all the way up? estimate of the knob for gain lol.

[Robert.Metzel 4]

Alright so I just got my Sundown SAX 1200 in the mail friday and I was going to wait for my Kinetik battery to get here ( this friday a week later ) before hooking it up at all.. But today I was just dying to hear it because its so hard to wait.. So I went ahead and hooked it up using the old wires that were in from my old crappy sony 1000w max 500wrms walmart amp, Well when I hooked it up and I put the gain at maybe 3/4 or a little under and was listening to it, I turned the little bass knob up and once it got to about half way up, anything above half on the bass knob didn't even make it louder, almost like it is at its limit.. but can it be at its limit at 3/4 on amp and 1/2 of that on the knob?..

I'm hoping that I will surely get more out of it once its got the extra battery and new wiring?.. but will it? Right now it sounds basically just as loud as the stupid walmart amp got and it sucked.

Currently when i ran it, it was hooked up with 8 awg wire from stock walmart starting battery back to the amp with my stock alt ( honda civic around 70amp) and the big 3 done..

Will it give out more power once I wire up the second battery in back near the amp and also 4 awg wire ran from front to back instead of the 8 awg that is in there now? It has to get louder..?......

The knob doesn't seem to do anything after a few clicks, but it does. If you play a tone while the dmm is hooked up you will see the voltage increase or decrease depending on how you turn it. It maxes at what the amps gain voltage is set at. I think mine goes from like 14 volts at min to 44 volts at max, Which of course is where I set the gain at for max voltage. Im thinking its not as audible do to sensory overload. I can hear a difference in mine but only on certain songs.

Edited October 7, 2010 by Teampapi79

[Jd377 6]

btw, you put the dmm in the speaker terminals correct?

[Robert.Metzel 4]

Question, Since The dmm didn't work, I obviously didn't tune my amp really yet, so just wondering, when you guys tune your amps about how far is the gain knob? approximately. I know it is different for everyone but I'm just wondering about how far up it usually is after you guys tune them. 1/2.. 3/4 almost all the way up? estimate of the knob for gain lol.

You use the dmm to set the gains by turning them to the voltage you are looking for. See this: Setting gains

[Jd377 6]

Yeah i was planning on tuning it to 34 volts but I couldn't get the dmm to work tonight. I think 34 is right 34x34= like 1,156.

1200x1ohm = 1200

[Robert.Metzel 4]

yup. 1200 rms would be sqrt of 1200. sqrt (1200rms x 1 ohm) = 34.64

your dmm should read to xx.xx though. so you can nail 1200 on the head if you want. You don't have to run 1200 though. your sub is rated at 800 rms.

Edited October 7, 2010 by Teampapi79

[skittlesRgood 3]

use a -6db tone. songs almost never equal a 0db tone.

where the gain is will depend on the voltage output of the HU. mine is half way, one friend's is almost all the way up, another had the gain all the way down and it still clipped because he had an 8v preout.

[KU40 173]

Here's something you need to wrap your head around- an amplifier can put out its full power even with the gain all the way down. Gain position by itself has absolutely nothing to do with power output. You can't arbitrarily say 1/2 or 3/4 isn't high enough, when in fact, if the input signal voltage from the head unit is high enough, 1/4 gain might be enough to send the amp into clilpping.

You answered your own question about everyone's gain location. It's different for everyone. So any answers they give are not relevant to your situation at all.

[altoncustomtech 773]

Eight gauge wire and a one ohm load sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. The amp has BIG power wire terminals for a reason, and you simply cannot transfer the current required to make 1200 watts of power on a 12vdc system through 8 gauge wire. You should probably stop playing it at all until you can upgrade the power and ground wires. You're going to fry the amp allowing the input voltage to drop like we're all sure it's doing, and I'm surprised it's not shutting off on you. I believe the SAX1200 only has 4 gauge wire inputs, unlike the SAE's before it which had 1/0. You should get you some good quality 4 gauge wire such as one of the Knukonceptz Kolossus Fleks kits. Don't use any of the CCA (copper clad aluminum) for this application, you don't want to starve anything any worse than it already is. The amp is unable to output full power because it is being choked by that 8 gauge wire, and if it's a Wal-Mart 8 gauge wire kit chances are high it's really closer to 10 gauge.

[Kanaworm$ 292]

If you can find someone with an O-Scope that would be the best way to set the gain!

[klee7013 10]

ya i tuned with a dmm at 40 or so volts for mine and then o-scoped it and it didnt clip till about 55 i was like

[Jd377 6]

It's a Rockford 8 awg kit from my old system, and I never let it go below 12.8v when testing it last night. I already have all my 4 awg wire and it's the real deal all copper copper and more copper I am just waitin for my kinetik battery to get here tomorrow before installing the wire and all 3 of my 150 amp fuses and all the goods.

[altoncustomtech 773]

Is that 12.8v on a gauge on the dash, or with the DMM at the power terminals. If it's on the car's gauge then that is not a true representation of the voltage at the amp. If it's the DMM on the amp then, well, it's amazing it's staying that stable.

[Jd377 6]

Oooo yeah I didn't think about that, yeah it was at the dash.

[Shogen 325]

yea check your volts at the amp... doubt it would sit at the same volts under your hood... def should have gotten 0 gauge for the second battery to the amplifier. At least that is what seems to be the best idea.

[altoncustomtech 773]

If it's dipping to 12.8 on the gauge at the dash, the voltage at the amp is probably below 11v. If you've already got your 4 gauge, battery here soon, and ready to do everything then you should be good to go when it's done. I would still limit my playing with it until it's done though. To maintain power output when voltage drops, current rises, thus creating heat. Between the heat and the current being choked voltage drops more, then current rises more along with more heat. It's a vicious cycle that can, and has, burned up many an amplifier and if you're not careful it can ruin yours as well.

[ShagggDiesel 25]

If you really want to be safe, you could run 0 gauge from the front battery to the back, and use a distrubution block with a 4g output to run to the amp for a short distance, then do the same with the ground from the amp. Or, if anything, 0 to 4g reducers

Edited October 7, 2010 by Shag

[Jd377 6]

yea check your volts at the amp... doubt it would sit at the same volts under your hood... def should have gotten 0 gauge for the second battery to the amplifier. At least that is what seems to be the best idea.

I had planned on running 0 Gauge wire, but the amp only accepts up to 4 awg. So.. Yeah I got 4 awg lol. I already have like 30ft of 4awg now. Also I asked multiple people and audio shops and car shops about running a second battery. All said that 4 awg can handle around 150amp current at the length of wire I am running and said that since the amp only has 120amp worth fuses that as long as the wire is above that of the amps draw then I should be fine. Many also said they use 4 awg for almost every single install they have done with second/third batteries. They said 4 awg is almost always enough unless maybe with a HO alt then they go with the 0.