my eclipse headunit has a 5 volt preout... not much but it will do. when setting up my amps i can set the desired voltage that my headunit is suppose to put out. what would be the best choice?

the instructions on the amp say to set the preout voltage/gain on the amp as high as possible to what the output on the headunit would be. the amp is only adjustable by two so the closest i get set it is 4. however the speakers are twice as loud when i set the gain at 2.

i do not want to hurt my speakers/headunit/amp but it sounds so much nicer at 2 and even better at 0???

what to do?

 

The gain on the amp is set by a toggle switch or something? Set it to what sounds best and doesnt distort at 7/8th volume.

 

the amps are the sx line of kicker so all the adjustment is digital and on a display menu on the amp. you can set the pre-out voltage that the headunit is capable of from 0-16 volts. my single din eclipse was a 8volt preout, my avn 5495 is only 5 volt but the amp only adjusts by 2. it says to go as close to your hu's preout voltage without passing it that you can with no distortion but it's not making sense as the closer i get the quieter it gets.

as i said 4 is the closest i can get as the next setting is 6 and that's over 5 obviously. at 4 volts it's much quieter then at 2 or 0.

what is the main point of the preout voltage regulation? if i leave it at 0 what could happen?

 

With the gain set at 0 you're more likely to get distortion. At 0 you amp is at max gain, think like 0db of attenuation. It works like this, forget 0 at this point. If a HU says that it has 2V pre-outs, it’s saying that with the volume all the way up, the signal at the pre-amp outs is 2Vp-p. If you're amp is set at 2, you'll get what they (the amp maker) says is full power out with a 2Vp-p signal into the RCAs. Now your HU with 5V pre-amp outputs should have a 5Vp-p signal at max volume. So setting the amp at 4V (so it makes it’s max power with a 4Vp-p signal) means that IN THEROY you’re amp is making it’s max power at 4/5ths full volume on the HU. But don’t worry, none of this REALLY means anything. You see, just because your HU says it has a 5V pre-amp output doesn’t mean it’s a full 5V, or a clean 5V, or even not more then 5V. It just a ‘there abouts’ kinda thing. And just because the amp is telling you that it will make full power with a 4V pre-amp input doesn’t really mean its not making more or less or could be making more. Even though I know you have good/quality equipment, doesn’t mean the numbers will mean all that much more. Things could be more or less. The key is you don’t want distortion. If you’re not certain you’ll be able to hear the distortion, you could always put a storage o-scope on it.

 

what is a storage-o-scope???

 

the amp and radio both have digital readouts that give how much voltage exactly is being read at any given moment. however with anything i'm sure it could be off. it sounds just fine at 4 and that's what the directions say, but it sounds even better at 0. i guess i'll just leave it at 4, thanks.

 

As long as it isn't distorting you should be fine. And wile I have not tested you’re equipment, I have checked with a good number of units. They are usually way off. They’ll be off with in the same model. I know the numbers I was getting where right. I do side work at a repair and calibration shop. That stuff is dead-on. My VOM has a NIST traceable calibration (three steps out). Like I said, I haven’t looked at your stuff, and some of the stuff I did look at was close. If any where on, it would by your stuff. And like I said, as long as it’s not distorted and you’re not going over the thermal limits of the speaker you should be fine. If all is good at two and it sounds good, leave it at 2, same for 0. This was more about how little numbers mean in this game sometimes.