zapco DC-352 Owner's Manual

Contents

zapco DC-352 Owner's Manual Manual pdf 17 page image

Gain SettingMatching Your Components for Best SoundProper gain setting is one of the most important factors in setting up a stereosystem. At the same time, gain setting is most often done wrong. Turning up thegain of an amp is the very last thing you should ever do to a system.An amplifier is a step up transformer. Period. Any signal you put in is boosted by afixed factor. Music, hiss, or any other noise, it doesn’t matter. A large number ofnoise problems are simply a matter of improper gain settings. The goal of gainsetting is to achieve the maximum amount of musical output from the amplifierwhile getting the least amount of hiss or noise from the system. Your Z-SeriesSeries amplifier accepts an extremely wide range of input levels. As little as . 5volts on the RCAs to as much as 8 volts. The basic gain setting is very simple andrequires no special tools. Whether you have a simple system with a deck and anamp, or a system with a deck, line driver, equalizer, crossover, and amp, theprocedure is always the same. First, hook up the system with all gain controls atminimum (turn the gain pot fully counter-clockwise with a small screwdriver).Then turn on the head unit and turn up the volume. If you achieve clean sound,and, more volume than you want, you don’t need to make any adjustments.However, if you turn up the volume and begin to hear distorted sound before itbecomes loud, you are clipping (distorting) the deck (probably a little over ¾volume). Turn the deck down just enough to hear clean sound again, and thenmove to the next component in your system. With the deck playing at “maximumclean volume” adjust the gain of the next component to its “maximum cleanvolume”. If you adjust your gains this way, always starting at the head unit andworking down the line to the amplifier, you will get the most performance out ofyour amplifier(s) with the least amount of unwanted distortion and noise.PresentingThe Zapco DC-SeriesSound Quality / Integration Amplifiers-17-Keep the amplifier out of the engine compartment and other locations thatmay cause excessive heat or moisture.Make sure your ground point is at the frame or a chassis point with directframe contact. Note: the "quiet metal" on many new cars make bodypanels very bad ground points, so always try to use the frame.Do not mount the amplifier to a subwoofer enclosure or any other placethat may have excessive vibration!