Hey guys, I have a Rockford Fosgate R500X1D and a Kicker 300 4 Channel amplifiers that i am wanting to get tuned correctly because my first time around i blew 2 of 4 door speakers and subwoofer the first 3 days of use and now with my second try i have them tuned not to max but to a point where i know they are not clipping. 

My question is where can i get a good quality oscilloscope or some distortion detector for $100 or less so i can have these running at their max. I would like to buy the smddd1 but im already 900 deep in this system and cant put any more into it so im trying to find cheaper options.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

The smd is the biggest waste of money you could possible have.

First step is to teach yourself what distortion sounds like.  Pretty sure you are used to liking it.  Have to get beyond that first and then it is rather simple to set the gains.  Just put them in a spot where they don't distort.

Tune with your ears.

Don't play your equipment wide open to impress others. Enjoy your music and learn your equipment's limits.

Ill try doing that again. Just dont want to blow everything like i did the first time. Couple questiones tho.

First of all for my rockford amp there is a bass knob, punch eq knob(db), and a gain knob. Do i turn the bass know 100% then gain then punch eq till distortion or how do i go about that?

Second question, i have rockford p1650 and 1675 on a kicker 300 4 channel. I was told to only adjust the gain on that amp and not touch the 12db increase however i hardly get any bass at all out of the speakers and it makes a nasty buffer because the sub plays 80hz and below but the door speakers make almost no bass. Should i adjust this or leave it alone.

And as for the hu, its an alpine cde-xm145bt and the max volume is 35. Im tuning my amps with the volume at 26 but should i turn this up until it distorts?

All help is greatly appreciated!

Edited October 15, 20186 yr by Jacob11531

You have an application problem.  I'd venture to say you may have a phasing issue as well.  Make certain the front and rear waves of the speakers never meet.  Make sure the drivers are sealed as best they can be.    Do NOT use the EQs on the amplifiers at all.   FIx the application issues, and then adjust your amplifiers,

Front and rear waves of speakers? Kinda confused on what u mean. I know that all speakers are in phase and as of right know they all sound decent but i dont want to risk clipping them by trying to tune them to be louder by ear. Ill give it a shot since its all i can do. Sub driver is sealed as well. If i dont use the punch eq on the sub amp there is hardly no punch/bass ever. What do i do since i should not touch the eq? Does this also apply to the bass knob?

Thanks again

Edited October 15, 20186 yr by Jacob11531

I was reading old post where i said the speakers and sub had a sort of buffer. I think i worded it wrong making you think thats my problem but in other words the sub can put out a lot of bass 80hz and below obviously but when it comes time for the speakers to play bass it is not as loud and doesnt seem to flow with the system well. The speaker amp is slightly underpowered btw. 

Overall the entire system is ok but i came to the forum to find out how i can tune my amps to the max which the awnswer is by ear. My only concern is i dont want to clip my system again. 

Hopefully this cleared up any possible confusion with my wording. 

22 hours ago, Jacob11531 said:

 Hopefully this cleared up any possible confusion with my wording. 

There is no easy peasy trick to tuning a system. You have to work at it. Plain and Simple

My Avalanche has two stereo amplifiers running somewhere around 150 watts per channel. My gains are WAY low and making more than adequate power.

If you set your gains to maximum output without distortion and still doesn't give you the output desired, save up for an upgrade.

It's been said millions of times on every forum that gains are NOT a volume control knob. It's a gain matching device to your source unit. nothing more.