Car audio amplifiers make all your music sound better--stronger, richer, and with more detail. How you adjust the settings of the amplifier will have a lot to do with how good your car audio system sounds. By following a few simple principles, you can have sound in your car that's clean, accurate and well-balanced.
Instructions
1. Adjust the gain control. Turn the gain control (sometimes called "level") on your amp all the way to the left, or 0. Put a CD into your car stereo (or use another audio source, if necessary). Set the volume of the stereo to about 75 percent. Slowly turn the gain control up until you detect distortion in the music at loud volumes. Slowly back down the gain control until the distortion disappears.
2. Adjust the high-pass filter. High-pass filters take out low frequencies. This is useful if you have a subwoofer in your vehicle. In a system like this, the subwoofer plays the low frequencies, while the other speakers in your system handle the mids and highs. If you don't have a subwoofer, set the high-pass filter to "off" or its lowest setting. If you have a subwoofer, turn the filter on, and while listening to music gradually move the setting up by turning the dial to the right. Continue until there's a seamless blend between the tones produced by the subwoofer and the music being played by the other speakers in your system.
3. Adjust the low-pass filter. Low-pass filters take out high frequencies. This is also useful if you have a subwoofer in your vehicle. You'll use the low-pass filter to eliminate high notes from being played by the subwoofer, so the speaker can concentrate on playing bass only. If you have a subwoofer, turn the filter on, and while listening to music gradually move the setting up by turning the dial to the right. Continue until there's a good blend between the subwoofer and the other speakers, and the subwoofer is not reproducing any of the midrange frequencies.
4. Set the bass boost. A bass boost adds extra amplification to low frequencies being sent to a subwoofer by the amplifier. If you want extra lows in your music, switch the bass boost on, and increase the setting until you get the amount of bass you want.
Tags: have subwoofer, gain control, bass boost, other speakers, being played
