# quick question.. bass boost and gain setting...



## stanza (Sep 22, 2011)

hey guys so everytime i set my gains i have everything on my HU set to 0 and my amps bass boost knob turned off (at 0).. now ive been reading posts and tutorials and some say to not have the bass boost on the amp on and others say to have it at max when setting ur gains.. can anybody shed some light on this? is it better to have ur amps bass boost knob maxed or off when setting gains?

And if it is better to have it maxed then do u leave it maxed? or turn it down or wat? im confused about this lol. I dont see why u would want to do that.


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## schmiddr2 (Aug 10, 2009)

What HU, amp and speakers? Links to the amp manual plz.


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## ZAKOH (Nov 26, 2010)

Almost certainly you do not need to set bass boost on the amplifier. The amplifier bass boost almost certainly gives a boost that's centered at around 40-45Hz. You can test yourself with the test tones that in a car, this is probably the _last_ bass frequency of all possible that you'd want to boost. With cabin gain of a typical car, it sounds like an earthquake already. If you want more bass, then simply turn up the subwoofer gain on the amplifier or on the head unit.


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## spl152db (Dec 20, 2007)

i set mine with 0db tracks with HU subwoofer output turned all the way up and bass boost off. I never set the bass boost, as most of the time it causes a huge bump where I don't want it and causes clipping. if the amp has enough power to drive the speakers using bass boost after setting gains will put you into clipping territory.


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## minbari (Mar 3, 2011)

just my personal feelings. if you set the gains with all the bassboost off then you are not setting them realistically. cause as soon as you boost the bass you will clip the amp. I set em just like I set normal HU gains. 3/4 up. this gives you room to boost for softer bass music and it will allow you to turn it down for bass heavy stuff.

its kinda like tuning a car, then adding a turbo. you are gonna exceed your amplifiers if you tune em with everything flat then add eq


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## 60ndown (Feb 8, 2007)

while tuning, 

with a well recorded cd playing at about 1/2 volume, 

all settings to 0 or flat.

adjust amp/s gain/s to sound about right.

ignore the dmm, trust your ears/brain.

add a little bass/treble (if needed) after amp/s level/s are good.


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## SoundChaser (Apr 3, 2009)

Assuming the “bass boost knob” is an external gain control I would set it halfway when tuning. This gives you the ability to swing both ways equally when listening to music.

If it’s just a pot / knob on the amp itself it probably just boosts certain frequencies. Then the question is are you going to have it engaged in your final setup? If yes, set gains with it on. If no, set gains with it off.


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## stanza (Sep 22, 2011)

thanks for all the feedback guys..

I never use my amps bass boost. I find that when i do turn it up it just makes my subs sound muddy and not accurate. But the reason i ask is becuase i haveheard people say that if u tune ur gains with the bass boost off, ur amp is not running at its full potential and i didnt agree with that. So you guys are saying to only set my gains with the bass boost on if i plan on using the bass boost on my amp right? Normally i set my gain with a 50Hz tune, I have my HUs EQs/bass boost set to zero, amp bass set to 0 and i turn the gain up to my desired voltage then i turn it back a hair to allow room to play with EQs. does that sound righ tto u guys?


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## sqshoestring (Jun 19, 2007)

A real amp 'boost' knob is like an EQ slider at 40Hz or whatever the amp has it set at. The idea is many small boxes roll off down there and the boost can hold up the bottom end. Like posted many are centered too high to get the low bass for SQ use and lean more towards spl and sound poor....it depends on the amp and your box. Anyway, treat it like an EQ adjustment. You should tune that in for sound then set the gains IMO, then use the HU level/EQ to do final tuning. Fudge the amp gain a little if you need to when you get it dialed in. You can set gains a lot of different ways I just keep moving them until I get the system to max out clean on an old CD, then I can't turn it all the way up on new music that is compressed its around 50 out of 60 or whatever my HU ends at.

Since it is a bass EQ sure the boost will change the power output of the sub amp quite a bit. I suppose if you have a remote boost control you will be cranking on, then you might set gains with it way up otherwise I would set gain with it where you will leave it. Should be able to do final adjustments with HU level. I tend to run HU levels I might change for tuning at 75-80% so I have a little room. You want the HU levels somewhat high to keep your RCa voltage up and lower the noise floor, long as you are not into clipping in the HU. My HU does not clip some do and some like mine will if you get greedy with the HU EQ and boost a lot.


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## 87pontiac (Apr 30, 2013)

Along the same lines, I noticed that when setting gains on my amp, my Pioneer deck DEH 6300 UB has subwoofer controls for; Normal, Reverse and OFF also 50hz-63hz-80hz-100hz-125hz which you can adjust the db for each selection, High pass filter with same figures as just mentioned and a Bass Boost up to 6db. When setting the gain, what would be best for setting these parameters,( I was assuming all set to 0). Also the amp itself has a Bass Boost feature but I noticed that when this Bass Boost is set to its lowest value 50hz, turning the gain to the desired Voltage sets the gain potentiometer, at about 3/4 turned up....seems a little high (Dual XPA4100), also I noticed that in order to achieve the Voltage requirement on the second Dual xpa4100 (I have 2) the gain needs to be turned all the way to the end and then the bass boost turned slightly to achieve the desired Volts. So what I did is set both amps with bass off to 25 then turned the bass boost up until the voltage was 30.Did this on both amps. The amps put out 150wx2 @ 4 ohms in bridged mode. I apologize if it seems like im stealing this thread, but we are kinda asking the same thing.......again sorry.


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