Well, if you think about it, they've got to arbitrarily limit the volume somewhere. Why not 0db?

Actually, there's a good reason for it. Empeg guys, jump in here if I state something wrong...

You're right that not all amps are created equal. But all good amps should at least have an input gain adjustment. A properly set-up car amplifier system should have the input gains to the amplifiers tuned so that 0db on the head unit is the maximum volume you want the system to play. The technique to do this is described here.

A side-benefit of tuning your amps this way is that overall noise floor is also reduced, and the notorius problem with the Mark 1's system noise is taken care of.

One of my three amplifiers doesn't have an input level control, so I went to the trouble of making one of my own (Radio Shack parts: a stereo volume potentiometer, a small project box, and some RCA jacks) just so I could tune that amp with the rest of them.

Now I'm very happy with the overall sound and levels of the system, and now 0db is the maximum volume I want out of the Empeg. It sounds great.



-- Tony Fabris -- Empeg #144 --
Caution: Do not look into laser with remaining good eye.