Leaderboard

100 watts clipped to hell is still just 100 watts. clipping doesn't kill subs, too much power does.

Call me crazy, but I'd rather have a "Made in the USA" built amplifier any day of the week. Just Saying

When you do, could you post up a vid? I know the audio may not do them justice but a little demo would be cool!

I am quite pleased so far. I have not had the time for a solid tuning session yet.

That's a badass description for the evil 6.5. Props.. I'm in for a pair now that you mentioned this.

I hope everyone understands, the Evil6.5 is not a rebadge/copy or a basic car audio or PA style driver. They are MY approach to a sound quality mid that is flexible for both home and car, that can hang with drivers double the price.

use your ears to set it. using test tones is typically way too conservative and leaves output on the table. if you hear distortion or smell glue melting then turn it down. its that simple. the numbers are irrelevant. I wouldn't rely on some protection circuit to save anything.

gain alone is half the equation, you need to understand what the input is. high gain is appropriate when the signal voltage is low, for example. It doesn't cause the amp to produce more power (its not a volume knob), the function of gain is to level match to the input voltage.

If the amp is distorting due to clipping you can easily hear it. If the sub is reaching thermal or mechanical limit, you can easily hear or smell that as well. No need to get out the calculators here.

reread my post, 100 watts of clipped signal is just that, 100 watts. It doesn't matter what the signal looks like, whether its a perfect sine wave or a square wave, if the power received over a period of time exceeds the thermal capability of the woofer then it dies. Setting gain on the amp will always result in some level of distortion unless you're super conservative (which you should never be).

Just setting the gain at some arbitrary number is the wrong way to go about doing it if you are trying to reset. The gain is used to match the amp to the signal it is seeing from the source(head unit, processor, phone, tablet, etc.) Think of it like a garden hose with on of those adjustable squeeze handle nozzles on the end. The spigot the hose is connected to is the source and the nozzle is the amp. You turn on the spigot and go to squeeze the handle and just get a mist(gain is too low). You then adjust the nozzle until you get that perfect pressure stream you are looking for(correct gain setting). Have you ever opened that nozzle all the way? That perfect jet stream turns in to a splattering mess and then too much water is flowing through(clipping/overdriving). It's a very rough and general analogy, but hopefully it helps.

Just turning the gain all the way up is generally not a good idea, unless you have really poor signal voltage to the amp. Use your ears, and sometimes your nose. If you can smell your sub, that's a sign you're getting careless. If you turn the volume up and up then the sound starts to change, that's a sign of distortion(not necessarily clipping). When we are new at this, it is harder to detect distortion. Best way I can think of to try and hear the difference would be as follows. Listen to a familiar song multiple times at a moderate volume level with everything balanced out(not bass heavy, etc.). Just loud enough so you get the full spectrum of the song. Then, once you feel you can listen to the song and predict the little nuances and details start turning it up slowly. Once you start to hear things change(lose small details, tones change, lose clarity) it's time to back off a tad. If you start getting too crazy you end up hearing screeching, buzzing, rattling, etc. from the speakers themselves when you hit their mechanical limits and break things for sure.

No crap! For the love of......

Glad you cleared that up for me.

And...another one bites the dust! The off-topic section needs a "silly banter" thread for people to go post all this nonsense elsewhere.