Soundblaster not pushing my subs...

**XxAndyxX** · 11-20-2005, 11:36 PM

If you trust your ears then you can do it how I tuned my amps.

First I played a heavy rock song (which is mainly what I listen to) and set my gains to the maximum volume without clipping to that rock song. Obviously, if I play a song with bass it will clip my amps; so I then played a heavy bass song and watched the DMM to see how fair I can increase my bass knob till it clips my amps.

So for my usual rock music I have my bass knob turned all the way up and no clipping occurs, but if a song has alot of bass, I will turn it to the spot that I know that won't clip. I hope that made sense...

Here is the formula to see what voltage your amp to put out without clipping:
Volts = sqrt(wrms*ohms)

Also, just because you don't hear clipping doesn't mean it isn't occuring. I have 2 Avalanche 12's (pretty much same motor as RE's XXX and Adire's Brahma's) and you could be clipping the hell out of that sub and not hear it.

**fonseca** · 11-21-2005, 01:07 AM

Originally Posted by 3onDubs

If I add a DSP like the Panasonic CY-AC300 to replace my soundcard and use the optical out on my via M10K, will this improve my sound?

The difference is night and day. I can't say enough good things about digital output. You won't regret it, and it's a much better choice than a line driver.

The M10k has coaxial out, not optical. Both are SPDIF formats, but you will need an inexpensive coax-optical converter to connect to the Panasonic CY-AC300.

**StrataG** · 11-21-2005, 04:27 AM

Originally Posted by XxAndyxX

Also, just because you don't hear clipping doesn't mean it isn't occuring. I have 2 Avalanche 12's (pretty much same motor as RE's XXX and Adire's Brahma's) and you could be clipping the hell out of that sub and not hear it.

As I stated, out of the countless different systems I've had in various cars, I've never blown anything. I've also tested 75% of them with multimeters. The first two for my own relief, and the rest have been for others' disbelief. Out of the 7-8 times I tested it, I never once was over the "safe" level. In fact the times I tried putting it the level the mm would have me believe, it did not have the clarity I wanted. Maybe because I'm plan my setup properly and know what kind of sound I want. I always overpower my system in the sense that I make sure my system will handle more than I will ever throw at it. I rarely put my system up past 50% and it still screams and thumps. Even when I am showing the setup to friends I never put it past 80% and even at 80% I don't leave it there for long.

I can easily see some young kid tuning his gains and really trying to push them to near breaking point. Even the responsible ones will most likely lower it just enough so they "think" they won't blow their speakers. For those reading this who are looking to tune their gains, it can definately be done by ear, but you cannot be greedy. Do not try to squeeze every last watt out of your amp, that is how you end up blowing components of your sound system. If you want more power, get more power. If you constantly find yourself listening to your music at near full volume, then obviously taking multimeter readings would be a good idea to double check yourself.