Best PC/Amp settings - please help!

badass101 · 04-16-2005, 10:29 AM

Hi all,

I need a bit of advice.
I've got a power amp that that my car pc plugs into - and I need to get the volumes set up correctly.

Originally the amp was up at quite a high gain, and the pc was set very low on the wave and master volumes. This was fine, but the pop when turning on and off the PC was nasty, and you could slightly hear the noise of things like the break lights, etc. as the amp was cranked up loud enough to amplify these small sounds.

So, I turned the gain on the amp right down, set the master volume to be adjustable in Frodoplayer, and set the wave volume to about 40%.
This stopped the pop's and other problems with the amp being up so loud, but introduced slight distortion into the high frequencies from the tweeters.

I then notched the wave volume down to about 10% and the distortion appears to be gone.

My question is (after all that) - what is the optimal setting to ensure no clipping on the amp or on the preamp(sound card)
Should the amp be set higher and the wave/master adjusted together, or the wave high/master low, etc?

I'm no expert on amps, etc. hence the question.
You help is appreciated! :-)

boomintrac · 04-16-2005, 10:23 PM

the best thing to do is to get an occilioscope and set the amps up that way if the siginal comes up square it is clipping if the siginal is sent in a wave patteren it is good. another option is using a multi meter you can call the manufacture and ask them if they know what output voltage the amp starts to clip at set the multi meter to ac and match your gains to that this technique isnt as reliable as the first. also when doing this you should use a test track that is recorded a +/- 0db with all loudness, bbe, or other like features turned off and volume set roughly 3/4 way up. just remember to unplug the speaker wires from the amp. hope I was of some assistance
Aron

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