Active crossover?

[eus090474 10+ year member]

I think that I am confused. I keep hearing about active crossovers. Do you run this by getting a separate crossover and an amp for woofers and an amp for tweeters and bypassing the crossover that comes with the comps? This is what I made of the searching that I have done and I just wanted to make sure that I was understanding it. Also, how much difference does it make in sound? I know that different people have different opinions of sq so I am just kind of looking for the general consensus.

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[power-fanatic07 5,000+ posts]

Basicly you have more control of the sound produced running active.

 

[Louisiana_CRX 5,000+ posts]

you get a lot cleaner sound //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

 

[Stephen_c 10+ year member]

you get a lot cleaner sound //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

lies, passive FTW

 

[Heide264 10+ year member]

I was just reading through here and I thought I'd drop my $.02 on it.

I wouldn't say you necessarily get cleaner or muckier sound. Depends on your system. Passive crossovers are set in one place; which is good at times say if you buy your speaker from pioneer or whatnot that includes crossovers 'pre-tuned' for your specific speaker. As for me, I have a set of 20 some year old JBL woofers in my door that didn't come with any form of filter or passive crossover. I used a high pass filter from the amp (active crossover if you want to call it that, just not a dedicated one i guess) so that way the sub was filtered out. It made a huge difference. Much cleaner sounding mids than running full spectrum to the mid woofers (as obvious as that sounds). But at the same time, I have them wired in parallel with tweeters, so I put in a passive low pass on the jbl mids to filter out some of the real high sounds from them.

I really think its more of a convenience and sometimes control thing than anything. Both work and do the same thing, just depends on what you want. Adjustable or set in stone.

 

[oldschool4me 10+ year member]

there are ways around it like you mention to get ya close but you cant beat a processor. passives will create some power loss(heat= power) and i have noticed alot of them create a clicky type sound on the drum hits in the speakers, more noticable in the tweets. i ran active since shortly after i got into the hobby in about 1991. decided to try passive again in one of my cars and well soon as im done with the install in a different one of my cars the passive set up in that one will become an active one also.

 

[oldschool4me 10+ year member]

I think that I am confused. I keep hearing about active crossovers. Do you run this by getting a separate crossover and an amp for woofers and an amp for tweeters and bypassing the crossover that comes with the comps? This is what I made of the searching that I have done and I just wanted to make sure that I was understanding it. Also, how much difference does it make in sound? I know that different people have different opinions of sq so I am just kind of looking for the general consensus.

in a sence yes its another crossover. a standard powered crossover will not get you the full effect like a processor will. processors will allow you to control not only the low or high cut off frequency but will allow you to control both on each output if your following me lol. for instance a standard crossover will allow your high pass filter to be cut off for example you set it at 60hz which allows anything above that to pass through. in a processor you can adjust a single output on a mid to for example the low cut off at 60hz but also the high side at 800hz so the mid will only play between those frequencies.

 

[AlterEgo99 5,000+ posts]

So when someone says they use active crossovers, are they saying they are simply running the mids off of one amp and the tweets off another amp or is there is a signal processor sitting between the amp and the components? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif I've always used passive but I am interested in getting some finer control so there is more bass in the mids and the tweets aren't so harsh.

 

[AlterEgo99 5,000+ posts]

Did some Googling and think I understand the active crossover a little more...

"By using active networks, many of the problems associated with passive networks can be eliminated. Unlike passive networks, active networks are comprised of solid state electronics that divide the audio spectrum BEFORE amplification. Since these networks contain active components such as transistors and integrated circuits, they are sometimes referred to as "electronic crossovers".

Performance is just one of the many key features realized by using an electronic crossover. Since the filtering process takes place prior to amplification, there is no insertion loss. Also, since the amplifier is connected directly to the load, there will be a significant improvement in damping. Distortion will also be reduced since the load that the amplifier "sees" will be less reactive. Isolation is another benefit active systems provide. What this signifies, is that changing the impedance of the load will have no effect on the crossover. This is not the case in passive systems where the crossover itself is designed around drivers with specific impedances. If these impedances change, crossover points as well as filter Q and thus response shape and damping will change.

Perhaps the most attractive feature offered by an electronic crossover is it's flexibility. Almost all units of this type allow for the continuous selection of crossover points. Some even go as far as permitting the user to select the desired slope and "Q" of the network. These adjustments can usually be made quickly and conveniently with the twist of a knob or the replacement of a module."

 

[Crownvicon28s 10+ year member]

so what is require of a headunit for it to be called an active headunit?