Okay, I finally got the freekin thing installed. My Kicker ZX460 is now running all 4 of my Polk DX7's. Sound is waaaaay better than when I ran the Polks directly off the Rockford HU. Question to all you audiophiles out there. What's the proper procedure to set the gain, etc. on an amp nowadays. This thing has a "built-in 24dB/octave active high-pass crossover with chip-selectable crossover point on two of its four channels" ... that's a direct quote from the Kicker website (I'm not even sure what the hell it means). It also has seperate gain controls (front and back) as well as "a ZRX 12dB/octave active crossover installed in the Module Docking Port". The last time I played with car stereos, they were very simple, no crossover chips, etc. Now it's a whole different story. I'd hate to install my system and not have it perform at its best. Suggestions would be most appreciated.

BTW, I'm also thinking of getting a good crossover (Audio Control) and would like some opinions on that as well.

Thanks in advance guys!


Aloha From Hawaii

 

how I always setup my amps and speakers gains:

Turn up the radio to a level where you think would be about the maxx you intend to play it at, while having all the gains turned down. Once you have the volume up, start turning the gains up one at a time until the speaker being output too, starts to "clip" and then crank the gain down just a bit. Repeat this process for all the speakers and voila.

As far as a crossover, wait and see how it sounds when you have it gained correct, and then if you think it should be cleaner, or clearer, or just different in the sound, look at a crossover. Just dont go out and buy one first... you could save that money if it sounds ok without it.

These are all just how I do things and my ideas, hope it helps.