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I am a newb at subs and amps. I recently got installed two kicker 12's cvr's with a 750.1 zx kicker amp. On it there are three dials, bass boost, gain , and frequency. I listen to rap and am wondering what the best place to put these controls at. Also there is a button for input high and low. Please tell me what you recomend I do to get the most out of my system thanks.
GK-
First off, on the end of the amp your input setting should probably be set to LOW. If you have an RCA cable coming from an RCA streo pair on the back of the amp, this is the correct setting.
The other thing to check is the AUTO TURN ON switch. If you have a blue wire coming out of the back of yoyur radio and it is going to the turn-on lead on the amp, you want the AUTO TURN ON switch set to +12V, or its left-most position.
For your controls, with that amp and a pair of CVR122's you want to start with the bass boost no higher than about 9:00 o'clock as shown on a clock dial. Bass boost is not there to be turned way up.
Set the FREQUENCY control to somewhere between 80 Hz and 120 Hz... There is a right way, and a wrong way, and then a way it sounds best to you. The "best to you" sound is often somewhere in between. The FREQUENCY knob controls the crossover, specifically the crossover frequency that the subs play. Set it higher, and the subs will play a broader range of low-frequency material. Set it lower and it will only play lower sounds.
The best FREQUENCY setting will depend on where you have the full range in-boat speakers set. Are they on an amp, and if so what is that crossover frequency? If you can tell us what amp if any, and its settings we can give you a more precise answer. We do not want the subwoofers playing so high as to interfere with the in-boat speakers. Conversely, we want to limit the low-frequency material for the in-boats and let the sub do the lows.
The GAIN control is there to match the amp to the head unit, and to any other amps, for best non-clipping performance, and for best volume control from the head unit. You want the GAIN setting to be as low as possible to avoid noise problems, yet high enough to get full power from the amp. Ideally, your gain(s) will be set so that the amp just goes into clipping at about the same time your head unit goes into clipping.
In general, and very briefly, start with the amp(s) GAIN(s) turned down low. Turn the head unit up until you hear the head unit distorting; on many head units this is about at 3/4 volume. Then turn the head unit down until the distortion goes away. Then turn the GAIN(s) on the amp(s) up until you hear the woofers distorting, then turn the GAIN(s) back down just a little. If you can hear distortion, and can discern the difference between dostorted and non-distorted sounds, this will get you real close to the desired settings.
This is a very quick explanation, as we need to know a lot more... Do you have an amp on your in-boat speakers? How are the woofers mounted? What head unit are you using, etc...
Give us a little more and we can help you out further.
Phil
Kicker