How To Change Car Amplifier Settings For Best Sound

A car amplifier is installed into a car audio system to provide extra power to speakers or a subwoofer, or in some cases both. Getting the best sound doesn't always mean you have to have the best most expensive car audio stuff out there. No most of the time its down to how its setup up, you can make a cheap crappy sound system that has a good box sound good if you have the right setting on your car amplifier for the best possible sound. We are going to help you adjust your car amplifier settings and explain what each does and how to tune it.

1) Gain. This is not a volume control like most people think, its designed to help the car amp match the voltage lines that are coming from the car stereo via the RCA cables. Turning it all the way up will not make your system play any louder, all it does it creates distortion. Tuning the gain control on your car amp is simple. Turn up the volume on the car stereo before clipping distortion point and then slowly turn the gain higher dial, backing down when you hear any kind of distortion coming from your speakers or subwoofer.

2) LPF - (Used For Subwoofers) This filters out any vocals going the subwoofer so that it only plays bass. Sending a full range signal to a subwoofer can decrease its efficiency when playing, so turn on your LPF filter. In most cases its adjustable, we recommend around 80HZ but if you want less boom and more rumble then turn it down to 60 HZ.

3) HPF - (Used For Mids and Highs) If you are not powering your car door speakers using your car stereo and through an external amplifier, you will need to turn on the HPF. This does the opposite to the LPF and instead blocks the bass going to the car door speakers. This makes them sound better due to less distortion being played as subwoofers can only handle low frequencies are not small speakers. The best setting for a HPF filter is 80 HZ, this will stop any deep bass sounds below it that go into the sub region.

4) Bass Boost. Although this is not recommended, we only suggest it on a good quality amp. Cheap amps from companies like audiopipe and boss with bass boost only seem to increase noise and not sound quality. Your subwoofer will be sounding like an old fart. JL audio amps and Alpine use this feature to allow users to get a boost in +DB at around 40-50 HZ. Use with caution and do not go past distortion point or you will damage your subwoofer or your amp in the long term.

5) Subsonic filter. This only applies to ported vented subwoofer enclosure and not with sealed. Since, ported can only around tuning frequency, anything below it will cause the subwoofer to free air and get damaged. For example, if your box is tuned to 35HZ, anything around 25 HZ the sub will feel like its not in a box. Therefore, you need to turn on the subsonic filter on your car amplifier to stop low frequencies damaging the sub box. You don't need to worry about this if you have a low tuned sub box at 30HZ or below, or you have a sealed box.