Active tweeter rms?

[pimpnyou204 10+ year member]

I have the rainbow slc set and I'm finally able to go active on it and I'm using an arc audio ks 300.4. The manual here...

http://rainbow-audio.pl/docs/SLC_21025-23025-26525.pdf

It says the tweeters and mids both can do 100 rms is this true based off a 1k test tone? If not what should I set them to power wise.

Click to read more...

 

[wenn_du_weinst 10+ year member]

you set them to where they blend with mids, the mids need more power then the tweeters. Set your mids at 100rms then tune the tweeters.

 

[pimpnyou204 10+ year member]

you set them to where they blend with mids, the mids need more power then the tweeters. Set your mids at 100rms then tune the tweeters.

I understand that but if their only ment to handle 50-60 rms I don't wanna turn them up that much. Their currently passive and one of the reasons in going active is to give me a little more voice then what im getting now since I'll have a little more power in the sub. And I know the tweeter they use is a 22mm so it's a smaller type tweeter.

 

[wenn_du_weinst 10+ year member]

maybe 15-20rms I know that's what cdt's tweeters are and they are similar

 

[pimpnyou204 10+ year member]

My headunit is a eclipse avn 726e and multiple sources say its 5v at full unclipped power and my test it's 5.5v at 1k hz. Now that being said my amp arc audio ks 300.4 is 4v and I currently have it set to hit full power (90rms) at 4v how would I tone down the tweeter rms with this amp?

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

Attenuate it at the crossover. Remember that the power your tweets can handle is based off of factory crossover settings, so if you run a lower Xover point you're running the risk of damaging them mechanically.

Personally, if all you're going active for is to get more "voice", I wouldn't bother...

 

[pimpnyou204 10+ year member]

I wasn't trying to get more voice I have about 1k in sub watts and in order to keep my sound level even across the board I need to raise my sound stage some to even it out. I'm trying to get away from the passive crossover and go active and hopefully that'll give me some more room to raise my sub level.

 

[BnGRacing 10+ year member]

Active tweeter power handling, realistically, is 2-5w.

Speakers are very poor at turning electrical energy into mechanical energy. Figure they're 1-2% efficient and if you think of RMS as 'continual' power, well, go grab a 60w lightbulb with your hand. Hot isn't it? Do you honestly think a tweeter has the cooling capability or surface area to deal with that kinda heat? Hell no. The figures you see is taking into consideration you're going to be listening to music, which is dynamic & not continuous, you'll be using their passive crossovers, and that people think a 100w sticker on the box is better than a 50w sticker.

I wouldn't pay much attention to RMS figures.

After you tune the system so that the tweeters & mids stay linear and EQ out any/all resonances & spikes; does it really matter if you're sending a tweeter 5w or 50w? No, it doesn't matter as far as SQ is concerned.

 

[disturbed471985 5,000+ posts]

my tweets crossed at 3.15k are getting around 160+ per set.. If I drop them lower say 2.5k then I would need to reduce the power or risk them going up in smoke.

 

[pimpnyou204 10+ year member]

Active tweeter power handling, realistically, is 2-5w.
Speakers are very poor at turning electrical energy into mechanical energy. Figure they're 1-2% efficient and if you think of RMS as 'continual' power, well, go grab a 60w lightbulb with your hand. Hot isn't it? Do you honestly think a tweeter has the cooling capability or surface area to deal with that kinda heat? Hell no. The figures you see is taking into consideration you're going to be listening to music, which is dynamic & not continuous, you'll be using their passive crossovers, and that people think a 100w sticker on the box is better than a 50w sticker.

I wouldn't pay much attention to RMS figures.

After you tune the system so that the tweeters & mids stay linear and EQ out any/all resonances & spikes; does it really matter if you're sending a tweeter 5w or 50w? No, it doesn't matter as far as SQ is concerned.

I get what your saying is but I currently used a 1k test tone and set my amp to 90 watts rms since that's what my amp does at 4 ohms and the Passover can do 100. Now once I go active how would I set my gain on the amp for the tweeter channels? Just leave it the same? Because currently my is all the way up at the maximum 4v doing it's rated power.

 

[disturbed471985 5,000+ posts]

A 1k test tone will wrk but be sure to unhook the speakers or make the mistake I did and forget they were still connected and zap they were dead in about.0000000001 sec's

 

[zako 10+ year member]

My HAT Imagine speakers are running active. Sometimes I turn off woofers just to hear what the tweeters are playing. It's not much (HAT tweeters use very high crossover points). I have then running off 60watt channels, but I'd be surprised if they use more than 10watts of power. Of course, a tweeter playing with authority down to like 2KHz, could use a little more power.

 

[pimpnyou204 10+ year member]

Well my tweeters get crossed about 3900 with the crossover an I was thinking of going slightly higher but I don't wanna cut into vocals. All I wanted to know was how to send the correct amount of rms these with a dmm so I didn't over feed them.

 

[BnGRacing 10+ year member]

Well my tweeters get crossed about 3900 with the crossover an I was thinking of going slightly higher but I don't wanna cut into vocals. All I wanted to know was how to send the correct amount of rms these with a dmm so I didn't over feed them.

Use your ears and not a DMM; problem solved. There's really no such thing as 'correct amount of RMS' but there is such a thing as sounding bad. Worry about the latter and not the former.

It'll also be a good idea to toss a cap, aka: bass-blocker, in-line as a precaution to safeguard against a turn on pop.

 

[trumpet 5,000+ posts]

A few quick(if possible) points:

1. Small speakers are only capable of so much output before it's impossible to match levels with a strong sub stage. You may need to get more speakers up front or get better speakers that a) have larger cone surface area b) handle more power c) have greater excursion

2. You may need to turn the subs down. This is what you do when you're level matching for SQ.

3. A 1" tweeter is not going to sound good crossed over at 2 kHz and also get loud. Let the mids play that range.

4. A tutorial on gain setting and amplifier power usage - DIYMA.com - Scientific Car Audio - Truth in Sound Quality