adjusting my amp...

[jwpb00]

I just had my front component speakers (Alpine type Rs) installed yesterday along with a 75W X 4 Alpine (F345) amp. I also have an alpine head unit installed.

After the installation, I was not happy with the way it sounded at all. The plan was to complete this upgrade and than add a sub with the open channels (3 & 4) left on my amp.

I started messing with the amp settings and realized that the shop had my crossover frequencys turned all the way up. It sounded terrible! I adjusted it to 60hz and I'm a lot happier with how it sounds. I think the shop was just trying to get me to buy a sub b/c there was zero bass and the music sounded very flat!

I'm really looking for clarification about what each setting on my amp does. Also, is there a way to match your amp settings with your specific speakers, or is it really just based on your own personal preference?

The settings I specifically want to no more about are...

Crossover frequency - Its at 60hz now and has a range of 30 to 400 hz. What exactly does this change in the music?

Gain - I know you have to be careful with this setting. I can adjust it from .2 to 4 on my amp and I currently have it set at 1.6 (which seems to work pretty well). What should I consider when setting the gain?

Also, thanks to everyones advice on the forum I decided to just leave my factory speakers in the rear and have the head unit power them. I have the sounded faded to the front components (set at a 8 on a 1 to 14 range) and just use the factory speakers for fill in the rear.

I'm prett happy with how it sounds right now and I'm hoping that the addition of a 10" sub is the icing on the cake.

Any help on the amp settings would be much appreciated! Thanks.

 

[Poseur]

numbers on gain mean nothing. essentially the gain is a way of adjusting your amplifier to the output level of your HU. If you've got satisfactory volume especialyl without a sub and you don't hear any strange sounds when cranking it, I'd leave it alone for the most part.

AS far as crossover, teh general rule of thumb is to have a sub takeover form around 80hz and lower. 80 is considered the magical number where sound become s non-directional meaning that if you had a random speaker in a room playing at 80hz and you had a blindfold on, you would not be able to point to where the speaker was. higher than that and your ears could "see" the speaker. If you're running usbless then yea 60's a decent point to run at as long as you don't crank it toomuch, but be careful if you hear ANYTHING non-normal and turn it down. Once you get a sub, I'd try setting your highpass at 80 upfront and for your sub go around 60 lowpass. (they both slowly slope down and mee tint he middle so you do want a bit of seperation)