JL amp settings, help pls.

I have 2 audiobahn 12's, 400 watt RMS each, and a JL audio 500/1 amp. Since the RMS on my amp is higher than the RMS on my subs should I even use the BOOST (DB) on the amp? Subs make a weird noise when the boost is up and I turn the volume up. Also when the boost is up the subs are hitting hard even when the volume is barely up. I turned the boost down to 1 and I can turn the volume up until my other speakers start to distort and the bass sounds nice. And could somone better explain to me what the Q, Infrasonic filter, and the center freqency settings on this amp do? I've read the book on it, and the information on JL's site, but it doesn't really make since to me.

I know a little about amps and sub so i'll put my 2 cents in. First of all you have a amp made for a single sub. I'm guessing you're running the subs in seires or parallel. The distortion you hear is called clipping. You really dont want clipping. When a speaker clips, it cuts off the top of the sine wave the cone is creating. I dont think it's very good for the speaker. The Q value is the input sensitivity. You need to turn it down to reduce the clipping. JL Audio does have awesome tutorials on how to adjust the amps. Here is the link:
http://www.jlaudio.com/amps/amp_pdfs.html

I would recommend buying a 2 channel amp that will put out 400-500W per channel. If your subs have DVC (duel voice coils) how do you have them set up? It can be either in series or parallel. After you figure that out, is each sub running at 1, 2, 4, or 6 ohms? Whatever ohms each sub runs at you need to find a amp that is stable at that ohm rating.
For example: Lets say both your subs you run the DVC in parallel and they are at 2 ohms each. That means you need to find a amp that puts out 400W x 2 @ 2 ohms. Or you can get 2 different amps that put out 400W x 1 @ 2 ohms.
Reread the information on the JL Audio site. I'm thinking the amp you have isnt powerful enough.

Well, actually I am the complete oposite. That amp IS made for subs. They aren't designed for ONE sub. It's the ohm rating you need to look for. Also, never run an amp 2ch. stereo on subs. You just won't get what you need out of them that way.

Now, what you hear may indeed be clipping but we need to figure out from what? I feel it's from the subs themselves. 'Bahn is very over rated and I think with the boost, you are hitting the mechanical limitations. That amp you have is a HUGE amp to be running those subs.

As for the settings you talked about, those are just fancy words for crossover. You do have a little more control on those over most other amps though.

Yes they have DVC, and Im running them series/paraelle dual 2 ohms. I was a big audiobah fan until I purchase these subs, replaced 3 because of manufacture defects within 2 weeks. And blew one when I got the vented sub box and my gain was at +13 DB's lol. I don't really understand what the crossover and stuff does, been trying to read the information from this http://www.jlaudio.com/amps/amp_pdfs.html, but for some reason it won't load for me now.

just go to www.jlaudio.com and then go to the link that way. also i used to sell jl audio amps that amp has what they call a regulated power supply meaning it will down the same amount of power no matter what the impendence or voltage is. this is a pretty cool feature, most amp need to have either a 4,2,or 1 ohm load and also depending on if you have 12,14,or16 volts would dictate how much power your amp will put out this amp doesn't care. also this amp is stable to 1.5 ohms they did that because the w7 subs are 3 ohm subs so when you strap (parrell) 2 of them together you get a 1.5 ohm load thats why they did it.i hope this helps you. :smokin: