Amp Set-Up...HELP

[pennywisegt]

alright check it out. I have to set up the input sensitivity on my amp in my car (JL 500/5 amp). The manual says I need a sine wave recorded at 0 dB at 50Hz for the sub and 1kHz for my midrange speakers.

1. Now, what the hell is a kHz? I think it's 1000Hz, but I can't find a sine wave of 1000Hz, what's going on?
2. My rear speakers - are they considered midrange?

 

[RickSvt]

Your rear speakers are putting out midrange/sub sound only. Your factory tweets put out the highs. 1khz=1000hz. You would be better off buying an aftermarket deck and using the RCA outputs. Both sets of 5x7's are powered from the 2 amps under the rear deck, the tweets are powered from the factory 6 disk

rick

 

[pennywisegt]

i already gutted the 460 and it's all jl now, but good guys blows at installing so I gotta redo it myself, i swear....honest work doesn't exhist anymore

 

[RickSvt]

Are you using the stock deck though?

rick

 

[pennywisegt]

no, everything in my car is either alpine or jl

 

[alanw6]

You can set up the gain structure of your car without the test tones if you cant find a disc with them. Go to a store that sells a lot of music and ask if they have any test CDs. A lot of those bass CDs (for the car audio guys) have test tracks on them. Without proper equipment, like a Real Time Analyzer, the tones won't help you much. Try this:

Set the gains on the amps to the lowest possible setting, all the way down.

Then turn your radio to 3/4 volume and find some music with a nice balance of all frequencies (not rap or anything with overly exaggerated bass or treble).

Adjust the gains of the amp so the system is playing at a pretty healthy volume. You don't want this 3/4 level to be maxing out your speakers, but it should be pretty loud.

Once you have found this point, you will have a little more "oomph" in that last 1/4 of volume level, and the amps will be well within their safe levels of operation.

Tweak it by ear after that.

Good luck on the install. Too bad you aren't in Memphis, as we have a nice audio RTA in our shop and could dial it in sweet for you.

Alan

 

[ALA G8R]

A nice feature of these Alpine Hu's is that their preout voltage limits at the max value and does not clip. I verified this feature while setting up my system using an oscilloscope. So you can just set the EQ to flat, crank the volume to max, and set the amp sensitivity from there.

 

[RickSvt]

On the alpine decks that I put in, I tune them at volume 27. On some of the older decks they start to clip at 31.

rick

 

[pennywisegt]

well alag8r helped me tune mine, but I can't hook it all up till tomorrow (friday) so I'll let you guys know how it sounds when its actually tuned right