How to Tune a Car Amplifier | Car Audio

Car amplifiers have a lot of switches and dials on the side. And a lot of the time when we see do-it-yourself installations, we see all these dials and knobs turned all the way up. This is not the proper way to tune a car amplifier. The proper way, is to first turn the gain down, turn all of the filters to off. Then, turn up the car stereo 'til it starts distorting, then back it down a little bit. Then, turn on your high pass filter, adjust it, and then go back and repeat the process. This seems to work for me, gives clear sound, makes sure the gain's at the proper level. If you turn the gain to the wrong level, you can introduce all sorts of noise to your car stereo system. We have people who come in and they step on the gas pedal and there's a whirring sound out of their engine from the speaker. That usually happens when either the amplifier is not grounded properly or when the gain is just turned up way too high. Now the way you adjust the amplifier is gonna vary depending on what type of amplifier you're using, what type of speakers you're using and what type of stereo you're connecting it to. But generally, if you use that same method, you're gonna achieve good sound in the end. Depending on your combination of amplifiers and head units, tuning the amplifier is gonna be slightly different. Some stereos you're gonna have to turn the gain up a lot. Some stereos you're not gonna have to turn the gain up more. Remember that more gain doesn't necessarily mean more volume.

[dr_skipwith]

Never would've thought the guy that taught me how to fix my mountain bike would also be teaching me how not to blow up my subwoofer. Seth is a gift from above.

[WaleedWahidi]

Wtf. 5 minutes ago I was watching Seth shred down whistler on his mountain bike and now I'm getting lessons on setting the gain on my amplifier.

[johnandhollyburgesonii]

excellent video for those of us who don't need step by step hand held to the point and helpful, thank you sir.

[daltonpennington]

It's Seth from sets bike hacks. Dude I'm subscribed to you. I didn't know you did audio. You're in my two favorite things

[rbreeze]

i just installed my 2 10” subs in my camaro im blown away by the quality of sound this was my first audio project it was a SOB dont get me wrong but in the end it feels sooo good ;)

[Campingelitsit]

I like this dude. I been looking for a way to understand how to do this thru multiple videos and this guy is the only one that helped me understand how to do it. Thanks my guy.

[CulturedWhiteBoy]

My girl surprised me by putting a system in my car and it was at this place. How funny! I had no idea this was the video I would look at.

[Gixxer]

1:I always setup head unit just before it starts to clip. Use 40hz 0db mp3 for subs.
2: then i look at my sub if its 300W sub i adjust my amp to only output 300W rms
I do it with math and multimeter set on ACv ..300w x 4ohm = √1200 = 34.64V
So now we have output that the amplifier needs to send to the amp at maximum before it starts to clip.
Now i connect the multimeter to the bridged terminals of the amp ( where you connect the woofer to) and adjust the gain until the mutimeter says 34V .
And youre done . Oh btw make sure you set to LPF range on a sub. This method has never burned out any amps or subs for me, and its the correct way.

[nihil]

This is really high quality for a 10 year old video

[tomherron]

Great job Seth! Almost as good as a bike video!

[kylehoward]

When u wanna change your amp settings then, open a video to Seth. Like Oh it's HIM lmao can't escape this man

[DaytonCarCare]

If your amp is "shutting off", that could be caused by one of the speakers either shorting to ground or wired with reverse polarity. Check all your (+) (-) speaker leads. If you can see the speaker, just connect a 9v battery to the leads. (+) to (+), (-) to (-). If the speaker cone pushes out the polarity is correct, if it goes in then it's wrong.

[roger]

Or just leave it like that and be an og with the distortion

[matthewanderson]

All about that clean power for the big bass… I definitely remember turning my first amp gain all the way up and the frequency levels 😂👌

[KurtisPape]

Dude, Seth bike hacks?? WTF?? I've met him in Whistler and I'm from Australia! Small world, now I've just installed a sub and watched this..

[oKacz]

Ground the rca cables to take away the whining noise when driving. Perfectly fixed my problem today:)

[Tonnyskalvik]

How to tune your amplifier:
1. If you have no clue of what you are doing...let pros do it.
2. Set all settings to 0/off on amplifier.
3. Set stereo volume as explained.
4. CALCULATE your wanted output (V = I x R).
5. Use voltmeter along with whitenoise to set proper gain for each channel.

This is the correct way to know your exact output, not risking to ruin your speakers.

[spookyduzit]

Finally I can understand with out all them fancy words and gadgets

[MinuteAutoQuote]

The problem is not the "Fusion branded product " my mids/highs amp was 7+ yrs old, had been in 3 different cars, and one of the cars was totaled .. But yet it still worked for 3 years more. That amp was had a useful life .. Who are you to judge what product is better that another ?? I did replace that amp with a MB Quart .. Sounds great for price, . So I did the voltage. Tune to both amps, I picked up 1.3db from the last SPL contest ! Great video :)

[derekthomasgriffin]

🙋‍♂️
Question: How do I stop my tweeters (hi’s) from going into protect mode (without pulling capacitor)?
I’m running an amp to power my mids and hi’s and with crossovers. My tweeters seem to be getting too much power way before my mids have reached their full potential.
How can I we equalize these mids and hi’s?
Thank you so much,