question on preamp..

Postby **Chiney** » July 26th, 2007, 11:02 pm

thw power acoustik pwm 19 ..

theres a cd input gain L & R
and a radio input gain L & R

i gonna use the cd input for my HU input..
but !...

how high to set that gain ?? cuz i see that it alrdy has a volume control in front that controls the voltage..so the booklet says..

help?

3stagevtec · Postby **3stagevtec** » July 26th, 2007, 11:43 pm

that gain is like a sensitivity setting for your preamp..

i had set mines it around the 3/4 mark... imo, it's not that important, just make sure and set the L & R evenly..

if set too low, you will have to turn up alot of volume on your deck to get max output from the preamp.. if set to high, the slightest volume increase on your deck will drastically affect the preamp's output level..

understand what i just said?? (from my experience, it is better to set that gain higher other than lower in this case, try it :wink:

)

pimptacular · Postby **pimptacular** » July 27th, 2007, 12:47 am

when i get my system tuned i set the volume at the higest volume without distortion of any kind and i use the pre amp volume to adujust my volume to suit but thaz just me

Postby **Chiney** » July 27th, 2007, 1:11 am

understand what i just said??

more than...lol..

i just never used this pre amp b4..

i actually hate preamps...

its jus a cheap solution for now.. till i get a processor..

lookin at the RF i see my friend have..
i`ll get model jus now..

front that controls the voltage..so the booklet says..

u eh tell me if the gains controls the voltage as well..but from the booklet it says that the knob infront does....
lol

the gains are actually at the top of the unit..so if i install it..chances of me readjusting it back to suit will make me have to take it outta my dash all over...or i can tune b4 fittin back up.. :lol:

i now thought of that..hahahah

Postby **Chiney** » July 27th, 2007, 1:56 am

i also liked some specs on it..
the 7vrms output..

sub control goes to 30hz and has a 50hz cut off... the total harmonic distrortion(THD) is good as well.. S/N seems great as well !

seems like a good buy for the price i said..new...

3stagevtec · Postby **3stagevtec** » July 27th, 2007, 2:14 am

u eh tell me if the gains controls the voltage as well..but from the booklet it says that the knob infront does....

the gain will kinda affect overall output / voltage.. to get the max voltage out of the preamp, it will need a certain voltage input..

say for e.g. 1V input from deck to get the 7V max output from preamp..

if the gain is set low, you will have to raise the volume on your deck high for the preamp to sense the 1V input..

if the gain is set high, that 1V will be reached quicker.. hence you will get max output quicker without having to turn the volume up very high on your deck.. (all that regardless of where the volume on the preamp is set)

try what pimptacular said and turn both L & R gains to the highest setting.. that way, you are sure both L & R are balanced evenly...

the gains are actually at the top of the unit..so if i install it..chances of me readjusting it back to suit will make me have to take it outta my dash all over...or i can tune b4 fittin back up..

i had a soundstream preamp designed the same way.. (same company :fadein:

) once the gains are set, all other adjustments will be made via the preamp volume control (or the headunit)

Postby **Chiney** » July 27th, 2007, 2:56 am

the gain will kinda affect overall output / voltage.. to get the max voltage out of the preamp, it will need a certain voltage input..

say for e.g. 1V input from deck to get the 7V max output from preamp..

if the gain is set low, you will have to raise the volume on your deck high for the preamp to sense the 1V input..

if the gain is set high, that 1V will be reached quicker.. hence you will get max output quicker without having to turn the volume up very high on your deck.. (all that regardless of where the volume on the preamp is set)

lol..
bro i kno all that..

wat i asked waz wat exactly it is for... lol ..

but someone in there u did answer it by sayin that its the input gains.....

but cool scene..i get where u comin from..
thanks man !

i`ll try wat pimp said...if not that or 3/4 way :wink:

Postby **Chiney** » July 27th, 2007, 2:58 am

one more thing !!

make sure the gains on your head unit ( bass...treable..and mine has mid ) as well as that shitty loud feature..anyone kno deals with car audio will kno that "loudness" is the worth of worth to use..its really contributes to distortion..

i have all mine set as -8 .. the minimum...the mid and treable sometimes i might wanna turn it to -5..but with this pre.. all gonna stay -8.........

casper · Postby **casper** » July 27th, 2007, 10:55 am

pimptacular wrote:when i get my system tuned i set the volume at the higest volume without distortion of any kind and i use the pre amp volume to adujust my volume to suit but thaz just me

this is actually the correct way to do it chiney.....what pimp said here is the best method.....raise the volume in ure deck to the highest level before distortion (eg. 24 out of 30) and then just use the master volume on ure pre as the volume knob to control everything...

this way u'll get the benefit of the maximum output voltage from ure deck itself AS WELL AS ure pre....it should sound cleaner because this way you may not need to raise the gains in ure pre too much as to cause engine noise as ure deck's output is almost maxed...so instead of going up to 3/4 gain as 3stagevtec has....u'll only need to go like 1/3rd

jeff · Postby **jeff** » July 27th, 2007, 11:23 am

once you volume on your deck maxes out early that means your gains are set Very wrongly

people mistake preamps for linedrivers
this is a 4 band eq ..thats all

this will not 'make' your volts go to 8volts
depending on your head unit this may not be necessary and may reduce quality in your system.

SnipeR · Postby **SnipeR** » July 27th, 2007, 11:42 am

well i was actually wondering about this. cuz i know there aint any replacement for a weak signal from the HU, really.

Postby **Chiney** » July 27th, 2007, 2:07 pm

^^ thats wat i`m thinking..but i installed this and theres a huge difference....

but now that i have this..

i can actually get a bass processor now....

thing is..the lil 7vrms is workin nice..installed it this morning and there is A NOTICE in difference of sound and quality ..the bass is even smoother than i expect...works nice..

i did wat casper said as well...

overall is sounds great for the timing..

its either a bass processor..
next or a line driver....

leaning towards the bass processor..

in time i`ll decide...

thanks guys !