Tuning my new setup and have some questions.

I’ve been doing car audio for a long time, but I’ve never used a dmm to set my gains before. I’ve always used my ear. Today I set my gains with the dmm and test tones. After I had them set, I hooked the speakers back up and...holy shit! I barely had to turn the volume knob up and it was very loud. There is no way that it could have been right. Right? 3/4 volume would have been insane and we’re only dealing with 500 watts to sub and 50 per channel to the fronts.

So I did it by ear. My amps are accessed from inside the car. Sub in trunk, facing rearward. I listen to a variety of music. I started with rock & blues rock. My sub sounded incredible! Great impact, plenty of low end, just great.

Then I tried something a bit more bass heavy. I like hip hop and some edm. I played Steve Aoki- Rage the Night Away (Flosstradamus remix). This song had some nice, sweeping, intense electronic bass. In the car, it was again incredible.

When I opened the trunk to inspect the sub, I noticed that this song caused my sub to sound bad in a few spots. It sounded like it bottomed out a bit. I was using my phone for music, so I immediately turned the volume down and turned the gain down. Sub didn’t make that nasty sound again, but it sounds a bit less incredible.

I’ve always set my sub this way. Listened for shitty sound, turned gain down until it stops. Then I got to thinking...is it sounding shitty because the trunk is open? Could I have left the gain alone and it would have been fine? Have I been screwing myself out of bass all these years?! I couldn’t hear the rattle from inside the car. I’d hate to kill a brand new sub, and it still sounds really good, but I was wondering if it could be even better?







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time for eq/dsp :)

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Originally Posted by nadams5755

time for eq/dsp :)

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This. It's not going to help with gain setting, but itll take your car audio system to a whole new level

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no, but once the gains are set, level adjusting and tuning in the dsp can tame the big peaks.

Yep, like everyone has suggested, DSP all the way. I would probably look for a nice used Helix DSP.