Me and my friend just installed 2 subs and an amp into his crown vic. He has a kenwood head unit that only has a bass adjustment, it doesnt have a separate subwoofer adjustment so you can only adjust the bass on the whole system not the speakers and sub separately. It sounds kind of weak, but I know the amp and subs could be a lot louder without getting distorted because we plugged my alpine head unit into them that has a separate subwoofer control and it was like 10x louder and still clear. So my question is, is there any way we could boost the signal to the subs, tell them to be louder, without him having to buy a new head unit? Some kind of signal booster or something? Thanks in advance for any help.
Most Amps have a gain adjustment that allows you to boost the signal or decrease it. And all the amps I have owned have had some type of bass boost dial or low frequency boost. Maybe its time to trade in that sparkomatic amp? I remember back in the early 90's there was a device that went between your head unit and amp that suppossedly recovered "phantom bass", in other words allowed you to boost bass signals from old cd's or tapes played via the head unit. I have no idea if they even make it anymore. I would invest in a Mono Bass Amp. Good Luck!
his amp is actually pretty good... it's a lot better than mine but its still way quieter when used with his head unit. he has a pioneer GM-5300T amp with 2 alpine type e's. we have all the settings on the amp turned all the way up and we messed with all of them and even at the best settings its still quiter than it should be. it seems like the head unit isnt giving the amp enough of a signal or somehing because when we used my head unit they were way louder and still sounded clear.
The problem that he has is that most non-excellon Kenwood decks have really low output voltage on the RCAs, and the Alpine decks that have sub control are better. There are really two options that he has. The first is to get a line driver. They are usually about $75.00 for a good one, and this will give you adjustability of the input voltage to the amp. The second option is a Audio Control Epicenter. This is the device that you reffered to. This is basically a bass boost module, and I don't care what anyone tells you, it doesn't "find" lost bass, it's just an adjustable bass eq. Line Driver: http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=18458 Epicenter: http://www.mobileaudiocontrol.com/product.asp?Product_id=14165#
just get one of these, retail for about $30 bucks The Turbo 1 increases the preamp level being delivered to the amplifiers. Increasing pre-amp level signal helps to better balance your system and allows you to get more 'juice' out of your amplifiers. • S/N ratio of 96 dB for high quality sound • Average draw is less than 15 milliamps • The Turbo 1 is adjustable from 0.1 to a 15dB increase • As many as 10 amps can be driven off one Turbo 1.
Some head units have crossovers built in to the pre outs. Be sure the pre outs connected to his sub amp from the Kenwood aren't set to high pass. This could cause precisely what you are describing. If this is the case this is making any low pass filter on the amp useless. If the HU is only passing high frequencies to the amp then there are no low frequencies to amplify. And if it is amplifying high frequencies and passing them to a sub that's a lost cause. And while the Kenwood may have a low voltage pre out, even if it's one of their 1.8V models, it should still drive the amp to its rated power easily. The input sensitivity on any decent amp is adjustable enough to compensate. You do not have to have a HU with 4, 5 or 8V pre outs to drive an amp to its rated power. Bloomy316's Dad
Wiring your Subs There are different wiring methods between an amp and subwoofer. If it is a 2channel amp and not stable at 2ohms, it should be wired simple stereo to the two subs. This is assuming both subs are the typical 4ohm. If it is a high end bridgeable amp you can run the wires parallel to both subs. While this method is going to get the most out of the amp, it is only recommended on high end amps stable at 1ohm. What else could be your problem? Well the box that the subwoofers are in can make a huge difference. What brand are the woofers? What type of enclosure?
