What do these controls on my amp do? Pic included

16g-95GSX · Jan 12, 2003

Ok, I'm a newbie and just fully installed my audio setup (infinity reference 6.5" seperates, Kappa 3 way 6x9's, Pioneer DEH-P6400, and an Alpine MRV-F340 55x4 amp), and after searching aroudn on the internet I realize that my amp has controls on it hidden under a panel (sorry if I seriously sound like such a moron for knowing it had them before hand) but anyway, what exactly do these controls do, as I'm sure I could tweak a little more sound out of them. Please give me some advise as well as to what to dial things in and what to look for when dialing them in. Here is a pic of the controls I will link to off of an ebay auction.

Hope that pic comes up. Thanks for any advise you can give.

Kanadian_kev · Jan 12, 2003

Nice setup, I love infinity and have it myself. I'm no pro but since my setup is similar to yours except my amp runs a sub, here's my explanation. The top row controls channels 1 and 2, as you can see, and the bottom row controls channels 3 and 4. That is, if you're using each channel individually, 1 speaker per channel.

The "Gain" knob, alot of people think it's some sort of bass boost but it actually adjusts how much power goes up per the amount of power the head unit gives out. You have to set it differently for each head unit. If it's set all the way low, it will take more volume on the cd player to get the power from the amp, if it's set high it's the opposite, careful with this though, I'd set it really low, turn your volume up to a decent spot and then start raising the gain untill it sounds decent but no distorting.

The next is the "filter switch" and it filters out unwanted noise. HP = High Pass filter and will cancel out really really high notes, LP = Low Pass Filter and will cancel out all the really low notes. Or you can turn it off and get all the notes, see what sounds good.

The "Crossover" sets the frequency you want the speakers to be at, each speaker is designed for a certain frequency, look in the manual that came with yours and find out. The lower the Hz the lower the sound, on a subwoofer you'd have it LOW, like 70 or so but you want yours high, it looks like yours is 400 at the highest though, you SHOULD be able to turn this control right off and get ALL the sound, are there any other switches or buttons?

The "Input Channel" I think depends on how you've got it set up, 4 speakers to the 4 channels I think the left setting is right, if you're only using the 3rd and 4th channel the middle one is right, and if you're only using the 1st and 2nd channel the one on the right is for you. My switch like this is different, so I don't know about that one.

docta doom · Jan 12, 2003

i think low pass is for subs and high pass for normal speakers cuz on my amp i have the low pass filter so that voice and the rest of the high frequencies dont go to my subs, and my crossover knob adjusts at what frequency i want my low pass filter to start kicking in (i.e. setting it to 150hz lets everything below that go through). i have a boss amp(that sucks but was inexpensive) so maybe it's different.

tekky_98_TSi · Jan 13, 2003

Kanadian_kev said:
...The next is the "filter switch" and it filters out unwanted noise. HP = High Pass filter and will cancel out really really high notes, LP = Low Pass Filter and will cancel out all the really low notes. Or you can turn it off and get all the notes, see what sounds good.....

Kinda but not quite...

cross overs or filters have fairly straight forward names....

high pass, will pass high frequencies... ie let them through and block low frequencies BELOW the setting on your crossover knob.

low pass like inversely will pass low freqs and block highs... ala sub woofer sound, the filter will block all freqs ABOVE your crossover knob setting for this filter...

ohh and band pass since we're on the subject will pass a range of freqs above and below 2 cut-offs, so if you' dhave 2 crossover knobs to adjust for that setting... ie for mid bass 90hz-180hz or something like that... would be what the filter would pass...

HTH

(and isnt confusing)

ps. Docta you're right in your comments thats how things work

acidikjuice · Jan 15, 2003

i think the best way someone has tolds me to adjust the gain is

1. turn the gain all the way down
2.turn the cd player (headunit) to about 90-95% volume (ie if the volume on the cd player goes 1-100, set it to 90 or if it goes 1-50 set it at 45).
3.Slowly turn up the gain. listen to the speakers for any clipping or distortion. one you start to get these turn the gain just a bit down. you only do this at 95% volume is because at a certin levels most headunits will be causing distortion of their own, and you weant to keep that out to trst to see when the amp distorts. if in doubt just be conservitive, and your speakers will have longer life. you can deffinitly kill speakers with this one.

thats the gain and the crossovers are in the other posts. the last 2 dials simply allows your amp to distribute the audio signal. you have 2 inputs, these 2 dials will assign them to the 4 output channels ( 1 2 3 4).

correct at will

16g-95GSX · Jan 15, 2003

Ahh ok, that is exactly the info I was looking for. I completely understand how the dials work now, and now I know how to completely "tune" the amp

. Thanks alot guys.

SeatownGST · Jan 16, 2003

Good posts, good pic.

Good thread. Appreciated on MULTIPLE levels.

jjrock5 · Jan 7, 2009

acidikjuice said:
i think the best way someone has tolds me to adjust the gain is

1. turn the gain all the way down
2.turn the cd player (headunit) to about 90-95% volume (ie if the volume on the cd player goes 1-100, set it to 90 or if it goes 1-50 set it at 45).
3.Slowly turn up the gain. listen to the speakers for any clipping or distortion. one you start to get these turn the gain just a bit down. you only do this at 95% volume is because at a certin levels most headunits will be causing distortion of their own, and you weant to keep that out to trst to see when the amp distorts. if in doubt just be conservitive, and your speakers will have longer life. you can deffinitly kill speakers with this one.

thats the gain and the crossovers are in the other posts. the last 2 dials simply allows your amp to distribute the audio signal. you have 2 inputs, these 2 dials will assign them to the 4 output channels ( 1 2 3 4).

correct at will

Ok so this is how I thought you set gain but I have a quick question for you guys. I just bought a Clarion 460W 4ch amp. It has 2 gain knobs, one for the front channels and one for the rear channels. So when setting the gain, for example, do you unhook the front channel and do the above procedure to set the gain on the rear channel, then plug the front channels back in and unhook the rears and set the gain for the fronts using the above procedure??? Thats what I was thinking of doing but now Im not sure. This amp is going to power up the 4 speakers in the car. Thanks guys.

evoir · Jan 7, 2009

Yeah I remember '03...good times.

jjrock5 · Jan 7, 2009

evoir said:
Yeah I remember '03...good times.

So you're saying that I AM correct in this procedure?

stumm729 · Jan 7, 2009

I think he meant you resurrected a 6 year old thread. Sorry I can't help you out.

jjrock5 · Jan 7, 2009

Come on guys I know somebody knows the proper way to tune the gain.

blue91 · Jan 8, 2009

The post you quoted pretty much covers it. As for doing the F/R seperatley, I would just use the fader on your head unit to cancel out the fronts while you set the gain for the rear, and vise-versa.

Anyone feel free to elaborate on this or correct me.

jjrock5 · Jan 8, 2009

blue91 said:
The post you quoted pretty much covers it. As for doing the F/R seperatley, I would just use the fader on your head unit to cancel out the fronts while you set the gain for the rear, and vise-versa.

Anyone feel free to elaborate on this or correct me.

Ok cool, that's even easier than unplugging and RCA wires and THEN setting the gain. Thanks.

What do these controls on my amp do? Pic included

16g-95GSX

Kanadian_kev

docta doom

tekky_98_TSi

acidikjuice

16g-95GSX

SeatownGST

jjrock5

evoir

jjrock5

stumm729

jjrock5

blue91

jjrock5

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