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having a problem with clipping on the subwoofer... very random...sometimes it is at 54/80 (volume setting on headunit) and sometimes at 57/80

the crazy thing is.. I thought it was caused by overpowering the sub at first, because it tends to happen on similar notes on certain songs... but if I turn it up (60/80)...it doesnt seem to happen.

I have checked all the wires for grounding issues, and speaker wires, etc... all look good. can someone tell me how to isolate either the HU, sub amp, or the sub?

also, sub amp was turned up 3/4 of the way... I ran this system for one week with no issues...clipping started last night and today I turned the amp down to 1/2 and it is still clipping.

 
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you said that you checked all your wires for grounding issues and it "looked good." Now did you just look at it or did you actually test it??

 
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what kind of music causes the clipping?

also, overpowering a sub wont cause clipping. feeding an amplifier a dirty signal causes clipping

 
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mostly hard rock..the cd's I have been using are Breaking Benjamin - We are not alone...tracks 1 and 5 usually cause at least one or two clips...

I had a problem with speaker hum and engine noise only on one set of my rca's...so I ran it through a ground loop isolator and it fixed the problem...

there is still some white noise in the background...and I am not sure if it is the headunit or the other set of rca's

 
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I would try all the basics first. You can try another ground location, and make sure you scratch all the paint off the metal. Another thing is that to make sure you are running your RCA on the opposite side from the power wire.

What sub/amp are you running?

 
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first off, List the equipment, (ie a kicker CVR 12 dual 4 or whatever, Amp and Head unit too)

Second off list all of the settings, (ie Bass +20 or Loud on or Sub +6db whatever)

then double and triple check all you wires.

 
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is the noise still present with a high quality recording?

 
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http://www.7thgencivic.com/forums/sh...hlight=msi1337

there is a link to my install with all the specs on my equipment...

so I think I figured out part of the problem anyway...when I reverse the RCA's coming from the HU into the Titan amp the subwoofer clipping is much more rare...listening to the same cd for an hour produced only one clip...

I am seriously thinking the HU is to blame for the noise on the RCA's...and that it is sending a dirty signal to the amps, which are just reproducing the sound... The power and rca's are run on seperate sides of the car, and when I had my old system hooked up there was no line noise whatsoever... I had a different HU, and my speakers were not amped...since adding the 2nd set of rca's..the wires for the speakers, and the Titan amp is when the problem started...

 
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If you are experiencing clipping at say 54 volume on the HU, then there is no way that is is clipping any less at a higher volume for the same song at the same volume. It will actually just keep the subwoofer clipped longer.

Anyone here other than me even truly understand how an amplifier works and what clipping really is (from an electrical engineering standpoint)?

 
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clippings when the equipment cant produce the ac signal so in effect it produces a DC signal until the level returns to the range of the equipment?

guess thats good enough for halfway between diy'er and EE

 
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yeah pretty much you get a square wave when you clip enough. Thats just really bad for speakers haha