DIGGIDY
Member
Registered: 15th Apr 03
Location: Bristol
User status: Offline
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Level setting, done by ear, is more art than science. Basically you want to start with the first component in the chain (head unit) and work your way to the last component (amplifier).
Start by turning all of the input level adjustment knobs (gain controls) on your components fully counter-clockwise (to their minimum setting). Set the tone controls (bass, treble, loudness) on your head unit to no boost (bass and treble level = 0 and loudness is off). Make sure your fader and balance controls are set to the middle position. If you have more than one RCA pair you will want to set each gain adjustment separately.
Next set all of your equalizers settings (if you have an equalizer) to the center (detent) position so they produce no boost or cut. What we want is as pure a signal as possible.
Put in some good quality source material, preferably a CD with strong output and a clean recording. Hard rock would be a bad choice here. Try something cleaner, maybe acoustic, that you're familiar with.
Turn the headunit's volume up slowly until you begin to hear distortion. When you hear it, stop and back off slightly until you no longer hear it. If you don't hear distortion, even when the volume is all of the way up then you have a quality head unit. That's what we're looking for.
Now with your head unit at maximum undistorted volume move on to the next component.
When you reach the amplifiers you may need to wear earplugs to adjust them to their maximum level. As before, turn up the gain until you hear audible distortion.
That's it. Play some music and verify that everything sounds right. Congratulations! You've just learned to properly adjust the settings on your car audio system.
One thing i forgot to mention is to leave the bass till last as this will mask the lower frequency from the comps and allow distortion to be introduced.
best to disconnect the sub untill it's needed.
Hope this help people.. 
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DIGGIDY
Member
Registered: 15th Apr 03
Location: Bristol
User status: Offline
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Hopefully someone will pin this post, as it's a very common problem which has be repeated over and over..
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TOMAS
Member
Registered: 7th Aug 02
Location: Nottinghamshire
User status: Offline
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Earplugs  Yeah someone pin it, all though people should try dedicated ICE forums - all this stuff is allready there
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langey
Member
Registered: 7th Sep 03
Location: Wigan
User status: Offline
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nice one diggdy
i'm getting my amp and sub 2morrow, and getting it in at the weekend, and now i know how to set it up . 
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DIGGIDY
Member
Registered: 15th Apr 03
Location: Bristol
User status: Offline
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!! STILL NOT PINNED !! 
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ChazSXi
Member
Registered: 26th Jan 03
Location: Waterlooville, Hampshire
User status: Offline
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email tim or ian and they will do it! thats what i did!
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DIGGIDY
Member
Registered: 15th Apr 03
Location: Bristol
User status: Offline
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Will do... cheer's m8.
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Trotty
Member
Registered: 22nd Feb 01
Location: Bristol
User status: Offline
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I'll add it to the Tutorials & FAQ's later on - thanks very much DIGGIDY
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