Well I finnaly got sub and amp hooked up and working, I am running a single 12" Kicker CompVR (12CVR05) off of a Hifonics Brutus BXi-606 Mono Amp, I am still using a stock HU so I am using one of these to get RCA outputs to the amp: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/SCION...spagenameZWDVW.

One thing I noticed that it was loud but I was not getting good clean bass response so I was playing around with the RCAs and noticed that the system sounds much better with only 1 of the 2 RCAs plugged into the Amp. At first I thought one of the cables was bad, but I tried all different combinations, and noticed that as long as only 1 RCA is plugged in (doesn't matter which cable or which port on the amp), the sub sounds great. Is this normal for a mono amp? (It sounds like it makes sense for a mono amp to only need 1 RCA, since its one channel, and I only have 1 sub. But why would they have 2 RCA inputs then if only 1 is needed) Its almost as if the two RCA signals cancel eachother out when I have both plugged in.

Sorry for the noob question but this is my first amp/sub.

 

I'm not 100% sure on vehicles, but many home theater systems are like that... a single (mono) subwoofer signal. Often it's the signal from the right (white cable).

 

How did you go about setting your gain on your amp?? If you have both RCA's plugged in and you turn the gain down, is there any difference in the quality(not loudness)???

 

Gain is all the way up right now (it goes from 11 to .2, I have it at .2) . Turning the gain down just seems to lower the volume, not quality. Its actually not only clearer but much louder too with a single RCA than when having both plugged in.

 

ok, having it at .2 is probably causing some clipping... the gain measurement is supposed to match - or be close to - the voltage of the RCA's so your amplifier knows to what extent it needs to amplify the signal coming from the rca's.... turn the gain all the way down to 11 and keep the 1 RCA plugged in.... play some bass heavy music and turn your HU up untill the regular speakers start to distort, and back it off a notch or 2.... then start turning your gain on the amp up untill the subs start distorting and then back it off a smidge... take note of the volume level on the HU as this will be the highest you should turn up your system...you've successfully set your gains correctly

 

Should I have my Bass boost all the way down (on the amp and the remote) when I do this?

 

Yes, turn everything all the way down.

Then slowly turn up the gain.

I can almost guarantee that having it at .2 is sending a dirty, DIRTY signal to the sub. It gets better when one RCA is pulled because the input gets cut in 1/2...closer to the whole .2 V your amp is looking for.

 

What should I have my crossover set at when setting the gain? I got lowpass and subsonic on my amp.

 

lowpass set at 60-70Hz, subsonic at 17-20Hz

 

Awesome, thanks guys! Im going to give it a try later today and see how it goes.