Many questions! Help! PLZ!!!

[ArcaneParadise 10+ year member]

Please help me anyone... I had a few questions I have been losing sleep over:

1. What is a crossover? Is it a unit or is it included with an amplifier? Please tell me as much as you can about this.

2. I heard that it is possible to send about 1100 Watts RMS to an Infinity Perfect 12 (350 RMS recommended) without blowing them. I told them they were stupid but they said that so long as you have "The Gains Turned Down Low" and "Good voltage flow" then they will be very loud and not blow. #1 Are they right? #2 How do I know how low to keep it if I want to send it a lot of power?

#3 How do I know if I have enough voltage flow and what is a good amount of volts?

3. My current amp (RF Punch 800.2) has no little gain knobs although there is a little hole with where I would think they should be. However, I have one of those accesory knobs where I turn it and the subs go louder. Would that just override the gains so I would not need them anyway or: #1 Should I not trust the dealer because he might have taken them off. #2 Did it just come like that? #3 Should I ask about it?

4. A loud "WHINE" comes out of all speakers when I turn on my car and when I put my foot on the gas pedal. I took it into the dealer and he said he would fix it. So I waited 15 minutes and he said it was done. Then when I turned the car on my tweeters had the gain all the way down and the mid gain was all the way up and the whine was still there and actually louder (it seemed). So I turned up the gain on the tweeters and then a really really WHINE-y sound came out like when you put a microphone really close to a speaker or something except much worse. So since I had to leave I just kept the tweeter's gain down and went on my way with the whine continuing. If there is anything I can do what should I do?

5. #1 Is a Kicker Comp VR 10" capable of better SPL than an Infinity Perf 10"? #2 Is a Kicker Comp VR 10" capable of better SQ than an Infinity Perf 10"?

THANK YOU TO WHOEVER RESPOND!!! AND GOD BLESS YOU!!!. If I can get these questions answered I will be a much much much happier person and I might actually get a good night's sleep. THANK YOU AGAIN!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! ANY RESPONSES ARE WELCOME AND THANK YOU AGAIN!!!

Click to read more...

 

[mrray13 10+ year member]

a crossover can either be a self-contained unit or built in an amp. a crossovers job is to cut out unwanted freq's to particular speakers in a system:ie; lowpass for subs, mid lvel 4 mids, and highpass for tweets.

that the only one i can answer,sorry

 

[gregj9 10+ year member]

the whine you hear is some kind of engine noise .....as you surely know. The problem is they are a ***** to get rid of sometimes. I can recommend this. First, make sure the power wire isn't running down the same side of the car as the rca (signal) wires. Try moving the amp ground to another location. Where is it grounded now? I may have more options.

It is possible to run a good deal more power than it can "handle" the only thing is be sure your have a good output "voltage" over the rca's. Nowadays it seems 7 amps of preamp voltage is almost avg. Some of the less expensive decks have 1 or 2 volts (which can cause noise!!). 4 to 8 is the norm and is good.

As far as your speaker question, when you get into good woofers (both you listed are), they are all very similar and I don't care what anyone says they probably can't hear a difference between two woofer brands. They may be able to hear a difference between what the enclosures make a woofer do but not what the speaker is doing. I must say though Infinity is usually a better sq speaker. While kicker is a great all around speaker. I placed second and third in a usac sq competition with kicker so I know they are capable of good sq .....the RTA meter doesn't lie.

 

[HCCAfan]

the only thing gain does is tell your amp at what deck volume to get its full power, so if you have it turned down to the max, it doesnt reach full power, then is it seeing the true 1100 watts?

or even if you have it turned half way but turn the deck up to compensate for the loss of volume, have you gained anything?

gain is meant to be set at a deck volume that produces no clipping or distortion, so if your deck sounds the best and loudest at 24 on your factory speakers, set your gains on your bass amp till it sounds good and loud but not distorted. thats all that gains do my friend, dont fall into the misbelief that you can go to a comp and turn up the gain to get that extra amound of power needed to win, your amp is only gonna put out so much power total, and your gain just tells it when to get to that level