whats the best way to tune ur amp

whats the best way to tune your amp any and all opinions and responses greatly appreciated

What do you mean by "tune" it? Setting gains?

http://forums.caraudio.com/vb/showthread.php?t=63933&highlight=Gain+Setting

Woot, should answer your questions...if not...feel free to ask. peace

NG

I always set my front speakers and components before I set my subs. with my subs off I turn the lows/bass down on the deck a pretty good ways in order to get a little more volume out of my speakers and tweets and then I turn my sub on and set the hz and bass boost (with the amp at about a 1/4 volume and the deck at the volume that sounded best in the front speakers/components) until I get a nice medium and then I turn the volume/gain up slowly making sure the sound quality does'nt deminish as it raises.if it changes I stop and adjust the hz and boost again until I get it back to where it sounds good "to me" again and go back to turning up the volume again.
But if you have to open your trunk to get to the amp(s) I've found that you do alot of jumping back and fourth because the trunk lid being open usualy changes the way your subs sound inside the vehicle. unless you drive around with your trunk wide open all the time. I always mount my amps and crossovers so that i dont have to get out of the car to adjust them.

Unless any of the any of the others agree with me I would'nt rest too sure on all of what Ive said. I'm pretty good with this stuff but not a pro by far. If anybody has any tips for me I'm always ready to learn new things.

it depends on what you're trying to tune

gain?
boost?
crossover?
phase?

What I do is turn off the subs and set everything to either "0" or neutral. For componets, I turn up the head unit to where it is as loud as it needs to be. Then, I adjust gains on the amps. It depends on what the preout amounts are on the deck(like 2v, 4v, 8v, ect). I then adjust crossover points as needed. When that sounds loud and clear without clipping from too much bass, I am done. Depending on the componet set, usually you'll want the cut off being around 80 htz on down. Now I unplug the mids/highs and plug the sub amp(s) back in.

Sub amps, I turn up the gains usually to about half or 3/4(this is real general because it depends on the system) then I adjust the crossovers. I like to adjust the subs by playing something with vocals(rock music is usually best) in it. I adjust the crossovers to where you just start to hear some of the higher pitched sounds. Once that is done, I back it off a hair. That way there is a great blend from the subs to the mids and highs. This is crucial in SQ systems. If you try to compete with a miss adjusted system, it will sound like crap when the systems hits a dead spot. If any of you have heard this you'll know what I mean. It's hard to describe. It's almost like someone had turn the music down at a particular spot then turned it back up once it is past that frequency.

Once I have separately adjust each area of the system, I plug each one back in and play it loud and play all kinds of different music. I may do some fine adjusting as need but try to keep it simple. Usually if I think it needs a little more tweaking, I'll do it on the head unit.

Obviously, this isn't anything too complicated. It's all done by hearing it. Also, everyone tends to adjust it their own way.

to set for basic sound quality

The first thing is to set all of the tome controls, balance, EQ etc ... to center or neutral and appx what you think you're crossover settings should be.

Then I level match every component down the line, starting with the head unit. The amp gets some extra boost .... for a little extra volume

next, I plug in just one speaker set/amp at a time. I play with the crossover settings - you can tell the upper and lower limits on the spectrum analyzer, they start looking real raggedy

Once all that is done, I use a track that has pink noise on just one channel at a time. I EQ the left side, then the right. Then tune the bass with both channels on.

After all that is done, you can apply stuff like time delays. if you have them. It can take a while, but it's the only way to optimize your system.