another question for macleod.

[shawn earnheart]

hey mac. i have 2 mm2084 8" subs powered by mrp-m450 alpine amp(400x1 rms) i was wondering high i should set my gain it hits really hard with the gain set at nominal and i dont hear any distortion but the cones are really moving.with me being new to all of this i'm not sure what sub distortion sounds like. i just dont want to blow my speakers up.

[MacLeod]

Youll know distortion when you hear it. If the subs are being overpowered and being driven beyond their suspension limits, youll hear it. Itll sound like a thud and you wont be able to mistake it for anything else. If the amp is running out of clean power youll be able to tell that too. Its not as noticeable on subs but you can tell it.

With the gain set to nominal, I doubt youre clipping the amp and that amp isnt big enough to overpower a pair of MM2084's so Id say youre ok.

If youre still not sure or worried about it, no harm in backing the gain back down.

Remember, the gain is not a volume control. All it does is matches the input of the amp with the output of the HU so that the amp isnt at 90% when the HU is at 30%. Pushing the amp into the 101% range is bad mkay? Doing that causes the amp to clip which in turn sends out a virtually pure distorted signal at up to and beyond double the amps RMS power and that overpowering can blow speakers.

[shawn earnheart]

what in your opinion would be enough rms to damage those speakers?

[MacLeod]

Hard to say. If you listen at a "musical" level and not cranking out ghetto rap for hours on end you could listen to a ton more than rated and be fine.

Still, its best to stick with the manufacturers guidelines.

[shawn earnheart]

sounds good, i feel better. thanks for the help.