DDuds2k

ha. No, im more of a hip hop guy, but i listen to alternative also...just not Tool. And Occasionally some R&B or somethign like Jack Johnson.

radfox

>Sounds like you have it all figured out then... you can just retune the system every time a new song starts... why didn't I think of that...

Ya, its called the volume control. Haha.

>Call me crazy, but I prefer just to tune the system correctly so you can listen to anything at a very high volume...

Sounds like a good plan. I'm sure your system sounds good, but you said you could turn your HU all the way up without any distortion. And now I know your listening tastes are varied so that only leaves three possibilities.

1) You perceive 'LOUD' different than me.
2) Your amp gain is turned down to low.
3) Your ears don't perceive the distortion that I would.

Again, I'm not trying to argue with you. I think these speakers are pretty decent. They're probably better than most 6.5's on the market and they are definitely more than enough for 99% of the people out there. But I was looking for something better without having to add two-three sets of these speakers to get the SPL I'm looking for.

DDuds2k

get focal 2k's....if you want something that crisp. theyll run you 500 bucks...but then you probably wont have to complain anymore. Actually I think theres a member selling them here.

achtung6

Focals or not. Running the gains on the amp too high with a weak signal coming form the HU equals DISTORTION.

DDuds2k

so...i guess what ive taken from this is....long story short- get a deck with high pre-volt output? Correct?
Otherwise youre spending a lot more time tuning the amps, and getting more distortion?

achtung6

DDuds2k. Higher pre-amp voltages are certainly more favorable. The gain control on your amps is like a valve. The more you open it, the more chance of extraenous noise getting fed into the amplifier. You will also be amplifying a weak and distorted signal. This is because the signal coming from the HU is clipped (maxed out) and you are trying to amplify it further with the gain control.

Ideally, you want the gains set as low as possible while still obtaining adequate volume. What most people do is turn the HU volume at 90% or so while the gain on the amp is at 0. Then, the gain on the amp is slowly raised while listening for distortion. You stop when distortion is heard and back if off somewhat from that point. This is the old fashioned way and is quite unprecise. This allows many mistakes to be made (read: blown speakers)

JL has a great way of setting this. You play a sine wave from a test CD and with the speakers disconnected from the amp, you set the volume of the HU at 75% capacity and then read the voltage at the speaker outputs of the amp. Then you tweak the gains until you see a certain volt reading.

This is by far the most scientific way of setting the gains. All you get afterwards is a beautiful, clean and powerful sound that does not distort (i.e. kill your speakers). This will make your system play as loud as all the components will allow without damaging anything.

The old way described above will allow the user to get "more volume" but with distortion and at the expense of speaker life.

Distortion occurs when the ampflifier can no longer control the movements of the speaker voice coil. The speaker is a motor, the amp controls it. When the amp loses control of the voice coil due to over driving the system, the speaker is damaged.

In short, distortion kills speakers. You can over power a speaker by a very large amount and if the power is clean and you are not asking the speaker to reproduce frequencies that it was not designed to handle at the volume levels you wish to achieve, you will NOT hurt it.

Take an expensive speaker and drive it with a cheap amp or with a clipped (over exerted) signal coming from the HU or both and you will fry it in short order.

This is the reason that for quality sound you need a quality HU, quality amp and quality speakers. Some will tell you that just one or two are enough when the opposite is true.