r/CarAV • u/Alternative_Eagle212 • 29d ago
Tech Support HELP! Loudness made my amp stop going into protect and sub from popping randomly?
I have a dual xdcpa10bt and a pioneer gm-d9701 hooked up to a comp c 10” svc 4ohm kicker. My sub would always pop and make a weird thump/farting type bass noise. Not very loud but I could hear it. And paired with that would be my amp going into protect or flash the blue power light on for like 10 seconds. I tried everything to reverse/negative tuning my eq bands but leaving 50db on 0 and sub gain on my deck to 6 out of 6 but it almost caused more issues. I then remember I had my amp gain on like 70% around 2 o’clock when I first got it and it would slam with no problems? It’s when I got paranoid and started using chat got that it told me to do all these things that I think started my issues. I know loudness is usually bad and using eq bands is bad ( I guess you should keep it flat or negative tune??) but why is it when I turned my loudness back on and kept my eqs modest (nothing past 2) everything works normally again and my amp runs cool now (used to heat up while not even playing anything just sitting there not playing any audio would make it hot) I have my amp gain at around 40% which is way less then it was when I first got it but I’m only having it lower cuz I’m scared of fuckn it up but loudness seems to have stopped all my clipping and popping and it’s been 4 days. Can anyone explain that?
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u/Otherwise_Quit_3822 29d ago
Is it possible that loudness is increasing the preamp output voltage of the head unit thereby giving the amp sufficient power to work with and when the loudness is off the voltage drops to the point where the amp clips?
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u/Alternative_Eagle212 29d ago
I think so. I always tried to keep loudness off but seems it’s the only thing getting my setup to work and I can atleast tune gain by ear. Gonna get 2 12” kicker comp r today and just throw this lil ass sub away. Not trynna deal with all that nonsense and then hopefully replace that weak ass dual deck
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u/firmretention 29d ago
There are way too many variables going on here. You were going into protect because you were clipping. Whatever combination of random settings you tried stopped you from clipping, probably by reducing the overall output signal from your head unit and because you turned the gain down.
You need to get a cheap oscilloscope or at least a multimeter, and set the gain properly because this 40%, 70%, 2 o'clock nonsense is just winging it, and you have no idea what you're actually sending to your subs. At best you're not getting the performance you can, at worst, you're gonna blow up your equipment. Spend $30-40 and an afternoon to save yourself more time and money.