Active or Passive crossover Question..

[CJKinney]

Hi, newbie here.. I believe I posted in head unitrs by mistake. Let's try this again..

I have an Alpine MRV-F345 4 channel amp with crossovers built in. I also have 4 Boston Acoustics SL60 component speakers that I will be driving with this amp. These speakers have passive crossovers that came with them for both the tweeters and the 6.5's. I cannot find the crossover frequency for the mid-bass crossover, but I believe it is 45hz. My question is, do I use the passive crossovers from Boston Acoustics (obviously I will use the tweeter crossover) or do I remove it and use the active from the Alpine amp? Thanks for your help.

Click to read more...

 

[azbass 5,000+ posts]

id run em passive for now, untill you read up more on running active properly.

 

[headless 10+ year member]

You will not only use the crossover on your amp, but ALSO use the crossovers that came with your speakers. The reason why is because that crossover that came with your speakers actually is 2 crossovers - one LOW PASSES the midwoofers (probably around 2.5-4khz) and the other HIGH PASSES the tweeters around the same frequency... you need not only the passive x-over for those two purposes, but also an additional high-pass crossover on your amp set to ~80hz to keep the lowest frequencies from your midbass drivers.

 

[CJKinney]

Thanks,

Now there are two separate crossovers - one for the tweeters and one for the midbass. You are saying that I should use the passive because it is a high pass and a low pass to match the tweeter crossover frequency?

 

[headless 10+ year member]

I just looked up your SL60 specs and it appears that BA has split up the standard crossover into 2 separately mountable x-overs. Most companies have a single crossover box with inputs + outputs for both the woofers & the tweeters. Use both passive crossovers (low pass mids and high pass tweets) AND the high pass @ 80hz on your amp.

 

[CJKinney]

Thanks for the advice!