g'day guys, i've got a clarion system that has 180w 3-ways in the front, 200w 2-ways on the shelf, and a 12-inch pro audio sub in the boot. the speakers are runnint on a 400w 4channel amp and the sub on a 200w 2 channel amp. the problem is that the sub seems to be louder at lower volumes than at higher ones and the speaker sound dull even when play around with the gain and frequency. i could use some help with this as a know little about tuning my system! thanks.

First of all, find out what the front speakers are in watts RMS instead of peak. (Very rare to find a 200watt-ish rms speaker for the front). Now, to avoid blonde error, make sure there isn't a little gain knob on the quieter amp, and that you've got the speakers connected to the correct channels on the amp for the power specified. Another thing to try would be to go thru the options on your head unit and turn down the sub output gain - should equalise the volumes more. If all of this fails, then try checking your cabling with a multimeter - sometimes it can short out to the car chassis if the cables have been compromised. If not, then i suggest you put up with the bass - after all, isn't that what music's all about?

yeah mate i have the same thing. When i put the volume to about 22 out of 35 the sub and speakers are in perfect balance with each other. Crank it more and i find the speakers become louder faster than the sub and sort of kill it in a way so to speak.

If you could tell us the watts in rms we would be able to give you a better indication of what to do. Like i used to run my sub which was 170wrms off a 100wrms channel and had to be very careful about using more gain and the volume i put it to because i did not want to damage the sub. But now i run an amp that also puts out 170wrms so my thinking now with volume in my car is "GO FOR GOLD". lol

Cheers mate.

i think the fronts are 180w peak and 40-45 rms. the rears are 200w peak and 45w rms. and the sub is 600w peak and 300w rms. does this help?