Stereo Clipping

[Oscar0421]

Hey guys I have a five channel Kenwood amp, Kenwood headunit, 6 polk db651 and 10inch JL sub. When I turn the volume past 28 the stereo clips and it turns down to 15. I believe if it was the speaker wiring the amp would clip and not the stereo. I have read that it may be an issue with the ground to the stereo. They said not to use boat ground but to run new wire to battery ground. Can anyone chime in? Thanks!

 

[seanmclean]

I ran my stereo ground to the same distribution block that my amps were on. I didn't have a clipping issues, but it did help a bunch of things, most notably FM reception.

 

[ralphsmithiii]

If you unplug the amp and turn the stereo up past 28 does it still clip?

 

[Oscar0421]

If you unplug the amp and turn the stereo up past 28 does it still clip?

Does it matter that I have all the speakers connected to the amp? I dont have any speakers connected to deck.

 

[ralphsmithiii]

If you saw the headunit is clipping at 28+ AND automatically turns the volume down to 15 then I dont think it should matter. You can test the headunits clipping without any speakers attached at all. As long as you have something feeding music/test tones, etc through it, it should still clip without any speakers and amp connected.

I was going to recommend getting your hands on a DDR-1 to set the clipping on the stereo headunit first then amp but figured this would be a cheaper place to start =).

 

[Oscar0421]

The issue is with a bluetooth volume limiter. When I connect phone via usb no issue at all. I turned volume up to 33 with no issues. I turned the amp back up with no issue as well.

 

[Mainah]

Most headunits will clip the rca signal to the amps at the their highest levels. The point at which they will clip will vary by source. Even a phone or tablet providing the source over wired or wireless connection can clip or attenuate the signal. Proper tuning starts by testing the source device and working through the entire signal path to the speakers. FWIW iphones have great usb audio quality but changing apps does impact attenuation. Amazon music and Apple music both have lower attenuation than Spotify.

I settled on BT from my phone as the source and has it has no clipping. I then tuned my head unit (a polk) to the pre clip point based on that source (meaning I won’t turn it past the clipping point). I then tuned my dedicated DSP input side for the headunit. I set the output limit for my DSP just below the input limit of my amps. Finally I tuned and balanced the amps by using a combination of the DSP settings and amp gains. Most folks are not going to that level but point is everything needs to be tuned, not just the amps. If you don’t know how to do this or don’t have the proper tools going to a pro is what I recommend.

Sounds like the kenwood HU the OP has is equipped with internal clipping protection or thermal protection. This is a good thing. It is preventing damage to the amps or speakers.