Kicker amp settings

[Bumble Beep]

Hello.
At the recommendation of this forum, I upgraded my factory sub/amp with a Kicker 42PXA2001 amp and 43CWRT671 (1 ohm) sub. I wired the sub dual coils in parallel (0.5 ohm) and connected the amp input to the front speakers (that were supplying the factory amp). Everything is working and sounds great...most of the time! Some bass heavy music is obviously pushing the amp/sub too hard and it sounds bad (clipping?). I have turned the bass boost off, played with the source equalizer settings (head unit and media player on phone) and adjusted the gain. Any tips to "normalize" the bass levels between songs? What low pass filter setting is recommended? Here are the amp settings I have...

 

[Chris]

@skrelnik

 

[LieutenantJohnson]

That amp only supplies 100watts @ 1ohm. Probably not enough power at higher volumes, so it is distorting the sound.

I would think you would want minimum 200 watts for nice clear sounding bass.

Have you upgraded your HEAD unit? If not, that would be the first upgrade BEFORE anything. preferably with a Subwoofer control and amp remote wire. Tying this into the OEM head unit is not ideal.

 

[Bumble Beep]

Have not upgraded the head unit, but sounds good enough for me. Supposed to output 200 W at 0.5 ohm, hence why I wired the DVCs in parallel, but that's peak and not RMS. Just wanted to tweak the settings in order to narrow the range of bass output between different tracks - if that makes sense?

 

[skrelnik]

Hello.
At the recommendation of this forum, I upgraded my factory sub/amp with a Kicker 42PXA2001 amp and 43CWRT671 (1 ohm) sub. I wired the sub dual coils in parallel (0.5 ohm) and connected the amp input to the front speakers (that were supplying the factory amp). Everything is working and sounds great...most of the time! Some bass heavy music is obviously pushing the amp/sub too hard and it sounds bad (clipping?). I have turned the bass boost off, played with the source equalizer settings (head unit and media player on phone) and adjusted the gain. Any tips to "normalize" the bass levels between songs? What low pass filter setting is recommended? Here are the amp settings I have...

View attachment 235497

A couple questions:

1) Are you running RCA cables or speaker wires from your head unit to the amplifier.

2) Have you adjusted the input gain? If not, turn your head unit up to 75% volume ( my head unit goes to 35 so I would use 27), and then slowly turn the input gain clockwise until it sounds crappy/distorted/clipping. Then turn it counter clockwise a tad until there is no distortion. Then, if you max out volume, see how it sounds, if it distorts again then turn the input gain down a tiny bit more.

 

[Bumble Beep]

Speaker level input.
Yes, adjusted gain as you mentioned.
Any thoughts on the best low pass filter setting?

 

[Hopper]

I say low pass for that sub at 100-120

 

[skrelnik]

Speaker level input.
Yes, adjusted gain as you mentioned.
Any thoughts on the best low pass filter setting?

I would use the 100Hz setting on that setup.

 

[skrelnik]

I say low pass for that sub at 100-120

Ha! Two of the options are 100Hz or 120Hz, so you have to choose one or the other. I went with 100Hz.

 

[Bumble Beep]

Okay, set the LPF to 100 Hz, flattened the equalizer (media player and head unit) and adjusted gain - much better! Punchier bass, with less variation between tracks. Thanks @skrelnik !!

 

[skrelnik]

Okay, set the LPF to 100 Hz, flattened the equalizer (media player and head unit) and adjusted gain - much better! Punchier bass, with less variation between tracks. Thanks @skrelnik !!

Awesome! Glad to hear! The input gain is pesky, but once dialed in you should not have to touch again.

 

[Kid Mechanic]

Awesome! Glad to hear! The input gain is pesky, but once dialed in you should not have to touch again.

It’s always great to have a resident stereo expert on call.
Maybe @Chris can make a special moniker under your name. Something official sounding.

 

[skrelnik]

It’s always great to have a resident stereo expert on call.
Maybe @Chris can make a special moniker under your name. Something official sounding.

Thank you for the kind words! I wish I were an expert, just more of an experienced user of audio equipment. Thanks though!

 

[ShawnFL]

Hello.
At the recommendation of this forum, I upgraded my factory sub/amp with a Kicker 42PXA2001 amp and 43CWRT671 (1 ohm) sub. I wired the sub dual coils in parallel (0.5 ohm) and connected the amp input to the front speakers (that were supplying the factory amp). Everything is working and sounds great...most of the time! Some bass heavy music is obviously pushing the amp/sub too hard and it sounds bad (clipping?). I have turned the bass boost off, played with the source equalizer settings (head unit and media player on phone) and adjusted the gain. Any tips to "normalize" the bass levels between songs? What low pass filter setting is recommended? Here are the amp settings I have...

View attachment 235497

Hi, I am also looking to retain the factory head unit (I love the look of it and want to keep it original), add an amplifier, and upgrade my four speaker setup (no sub, 6.5s in the sound bar and 5.25s in the dash). Could you please tell me what setup you utilized to connect an amp to the factory head unit?

 

[MutantNinjaTJ]

Good timing on resurrecting this thread, I was just going to tackle this issue with my Kicker sub woofer.

 

[ShawnFL]

Good timing on resurrecting this thread, I was just going to tackle this issue with my Kicker sub woofer.

I just spent some time on the phone with Crutchfield customer service. They were extremely helpful and walked me through everything. What customer service was like 20 years ago.

 

[Bumble Beep]

Hi, I am also looking to retain the factory head unit (I love the look of it and want to keep it original), add an amplifier, and upgrade my four speaker setup (no sub, 6.5s in the sound bar and 5.25s in the dash). Could you please tell me what setup you utilized to connect an amp to the factory head unit?

Hello,
The Kicker amp has two connection options; RCA (low) and speaker (high). Since the factory head unit doesn't have RCA out, I connected it to the speaker cables supplying the factory amp/sub combo that came with my Jeep. I used the left and right front speaker cables...