Went out to my truck and followed the directions verbatim. Set my multimeter to read AC voltage, threw the 50hz tone up on the deck, and checked the voltage at the speaker terminals on my amp.

I got nowhere near 30v, only 5.6v to start. Mind you, the gain level was at 3/4 at this point. What am I doing wrong?

Went out to my truck and followed the directions verbatim. Set my multimeter to read AC voltage, threw the 50hz tone up on the deck, and checked the voltage at the speaker terminals on my amp.

I got nowhere near 30v, only 5.6v to start. Mind you, the gain level was at 3/4 at this point. What am I doing wrong?

i had this same problem, where is your bass level at on your deck? i was told to leave that where you normally have it before adjusting the gain on the amp. i turned my bass level all the way to negative 15 and only got up to about 12v on the multimeter. after i fired up my car the bass sounded real weak until i turned the bass level back up to zero, im assuming this is where the lack of voltage is stemming from. im gonna go back out this weekend to see if that was why.

edit: my deck has a seperate subwoofer gain control on it besides the whole EQ. i think what most people mean when they say turn all your settings to zero is the eq. but someoen can correct me if im wrong

Edited March 3, 201015 yr by Third Eye Vision

for starters set you bass on the h/u to 75%-100% (so if it goes to +10 set it to +7)

then unplug the sub (both + and - ) from the amp, put the 2 terminals from the dmm into the terminals and then play the 50hz tone at 3/4 the full volume then turn up to the number you are looking for.

alternatively if you still only get a max of say 12v set the gain according to your h/u preout voltage!

also make sure EQ setting are on 0 aka bass boost and put the eq on flat. and sub controls are the ones you turn up!

Went out to my truck and followed the directions verbatim. Set my multimeter to read AC voltage, threw the 50hz tone up on the deck, and checked the voltage at the speaker terminals on my amp.

I got nowhere near 30v, only 5.6v to start. Mind you, the gain level was at 3/4 at this point. What am I doing wrong?

i had this same problem, where is your bass level at on your deck? i was told to leave that where you normally have it before adjusting the gain on the amp. i turned my bass level all the way to negative 15 and only got up to about 12v on the multimeter. after i fired up my car the bass sounded real weak until i turned the bass level back up to zero, im assuming this is where the lack of voltage is stemming from. im gonna go back out this weekend to see if that was why.

Maxed out at 15. It's an Alpine CDE103BT

for starters set you bass on the h/u to 75%-100% (so if it goes to +10 set it to +7)

then unplug the sub (both + and - ) from the amp, put the 2 terminals from the dmm into the terminals and then play the 50hz tone at 3/4 the full volume then turn up to the number you are looking for.

alternatively if you still only get a max of say 12v set the gain according to your h/u preout voltage!

also make sure EQ setting are on 0 aka bass boost and put the eq on flat. and sub controls are the ones you turn up!

Yeah I figured it seemed like I was seeing the HU pre voltages instead. I turned the gain down from 5.6 to around 4.2v.

for starters set you bass on the h/u to 75%-100% (so if it goes to +10 set it to +7)

then unplug the sub (both + and - ) from the amp, put the 2 terminals from the dmm into the terminals and then play the 50hz tone at 3/4 the full volume then turn up to the number you are looking for.

alternatively if you still only get a max of say 12v set the gain according to your h/u preout voltage!

also make sure EQ setting are on 0 aka bass boost and put the eq on flat. and sub controls are the ones you turn up!

Do NOT do this on high powered amps! I've been told by a manufacturer of car audio equipment that some larger powered amps require a load to set them up, otherwise they can get damaged that way.

High power? Do you mean anything over 1k rms or ?

no, higher than that. I used to use 2500w amps and i used to set them up with no load on them... I then moved up even higher and was told not to do it on amps that high.

It might not be all amps in the general high power classes... i'm not an amp tech so i dont know.. just referring information.

I wish someone like db-r or someone else who would know for sure could comment on why because all i was told was the broad side version of it.... nothing precise.

no, higher than that. I used to use 2500w amps and i used to set them up with no load on them... I then moved up even higher and was told not to do it on amps that high.

It might not be all amps in the general high power classes... i'm not an amp tech so i dont know.. just referring information.

I wish someone like db-r or someone else who would know for sure could comment on why because all i was told was the broad side version of it.... nothing precise.

Maybe we could get Chris to jump in here and give us a piece of his wisdom.

Got it to work this time. Grabbed a different multimeter that actually had a 200V setting and it gave me the proper readouts.

Went out to my truck and followed the directions verbatim. Set my multimeter to read AC voltage, threw the 50hz tone up on the deck, and checked the voltage at the speaker terminals on my amp.

I got nowhere near 30v, only 5.6v to start. Mind you, the gain level was at 3/4 at this point. What am I doing wrong?

i had this same problem, where is your bass level at on your deck? i was told to leave that where you normally have it before adjusting the gain on the amp. i turned my bass level all the way to negative 15 and only got up to about 12v on the multimeter. after i fired up my car the bass sounded real weak until i turned the bass level back up to zero, im assuming this is where the lack of voltage is stemming from. im gonna go back out this weekend to see if that was why.

edit: my deck has a seperate subwoofer gain control on it besides the whole EQ. i think what most people mean when they say turn all your settings to zero is the eq. but someoen can correct me if im wrong

-15 on the sub output would be all the way DOWN. You'd want to set the gain with it at 0, as that is all the way up. That's why you had low voltage at the amp's outputs- input voltage from the head unit was low.

I always set my gains near max, but I used this method to make sure all of my 40.1's were set equally and did not have any problems.

Would like to hear what kind of amps have a problem with being turned up with no load on them. . .I will stay away from them.

I have the same problem, but I'm sure it's a bad DMM !!!

I lost a few euros with this cheap DMM, and I don't want to buy a bad one again. So far, I adjust my amps by ear : I try to avoid clipping with just my ears !!!

Maybe I'll try a strong DMM someday!

I have the same problem, but I'm sure it's a bad DMM !!!

I lost a few euros with this cheap DMM, and I don't want to buy a bad one again. So far, I adjust my amps by ear : I try to avoid clipping with just my ears !!!

Maybe I'll try a strong DMM someday!

That's how I've always done it. Works fine by me.

Went out to my truck and followed the directions verbatim. Set my multimeter to read AC voltage, threw the 50hz tone up on the deck, and checked the voltage at the speaker terminals on my amp.

I got nowhere near 30v, only 5.6v to start. Mind you, the gain level was at 3/4 at this point. What am I doing wrong?

i had this same problem, where is your bass level at on your deck? i was told to leave that where you normally have it before adjusting the gain on the amp. i turned my bass level all the way to negative 15 and only got up to about 12v on the multimeter. after i fired up my car the bass sounded real weak until i turned the bass level back up to zero, im assuming this is where the lack of voltage is stemming from. im gonna go back out this weekend to see if that was why.

edit: my deck has a seperate subwoofer gain control on it besides the whole EQ. i think what most people mean when they say turn all your settings to zero is the eq. but someoen can correct me if im wrong

-15 on the sub output would be all the way DOWN. You'd want to set the gain with it at 0, as that is all the way up. That's why you had low voltage at the amp's outputs- input voltage from the head unit was low.

my bad i should have clarified that when i first did the dmm test i had read that i was supposed to have all the gain/bass levels at zero, which i took as all the way down. it was only after i gave up that i read online that they should be at the normal listening level.

Edited March 9, 201015 yr by Third Eye Vision