Car Stereos: amp, legacy amp, rear speakers

Question
i have a 400 watt legacy amp an it has a clipping light on it first time i ever seen one on a amp but it keeps blinking the more i turn my gain or bass boost up it blinks more i have one 12"woofer do u have any clue what that light means

Answer
Hi Bill,

The clipping indicator is telling you that the amplifier has reached the limits of its' output power.  When an amplifier is clipping, it's producing a distorted output because it doesn't have enough reserve power to reproduce the audio signal accurately.  As you drive the amplifier further past its maximum power level, the output will become more distorted.

The purpose of the clipping indicator is to allow you to set the amplifier's gain control accurately.  To do this, start by turning off any bass boost in the head unit, and adjust the head unit's EQ/tone controls so there's no extra bass.  Turn the amplifier bass boost all the way down.  Put in a CD, and turn the volume up to the loudest point where the front and rear speakers still sound clean and undistorted.

Turn up the amplifier's gain control until you're just seeing very brief flashes from the clipping indicator, on the musical peaks.  After this, you can adjust the amp's bass boost if you like, but you'll probably need to turn down the gain control to compensate.  

Hope this helps!

Brian