How to Set the Gain on a Car Amplifier

Setting the gain properly on your car amplifier is an essential step in ensuring the best performance and sound quality for your car audio system.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Car amplifier
• CD or other source of music
• Screwdriver (optional)

How

1. Set the gain control on your amp to the minimum setting. Be sure that the adjustments for your CD player are flat--no extra treble, bass or bass boost. Some amplifiers have more than one gain control, depending on the number of channels. Set them all to the minimum.

2. Put your CD into the player. It's best to choose a well-recorded disc with a clean sound.

3. Set the CD player volume to about 3/4 of the way up the volume scale and then slowly start increasing the gain setting. If the sound becomes distorted, back off the gain setting until the distortion disappears.

4. Repeat the process for any other channels you have to set.

Tips & Warnings

• Head units with higher preamp output voltages will do a better job sending signals to the amplifier. They're a worthwhile investment when you're building a system.