Amplifying tweets AND mids?

[gckless 5,000+ posts]

If you remove the crossover, you will need a processor, or headunit, that can provide you with a signal that is both below(for the mids) and above(for the tweeters) the crossover point desired for each.

You can also run full range out of a head unit and cross them at the amp, if the amp is capable.

 

[NASTY08IMPALA 5,000+ posts]

You can also run full range out of a head unit and cross them at the amp, if the amp is capable.

this is what im doin..set ur hu to through and let the amp do the work

 

[av83 10+ year member]

You can also run full range out of a head unit and cross them at the amp, if the amp is capable.

That's what i do, but it's difficult to do correctly without crossover calibrator.

 

[gckless 5,000+ posts]

this is what im doin..set ur hu to through and let the amp do the work

Cheapest way sometimes. Just harder to accurately set crossover points usually. But there are definitely ways to do it.

 

[av83 10+ year member]

Cheapest way sometimes. Just harder to accurately set crossover points usually. But there are definitely ways to do it.

people can say what they want about Meade, but the CC-1 works absolutely perfectly for this.

 

[PapaGeno21 10+ year member]

SO basically let me get this straight.

I have my setup like this.

Deck - Amp - Crossover - Speakers

That is passive. I am currently passive on all 4 doors using my 4 channel amp. That is what I am using right now, and am perfectly happy.

To get louder, I can either

A: Get way more powerful passive components and a more powerful amp

B: More powerful 4 channel, Tweets on channel 1/2, Front and rear doors using channel 3/4 wired together in series or parallel depending on ohm load. (I presume this is active) Would set the crossovers with the amp and let the deck have no control

C: More powerful 4 channel, Tweets on channel 1/2, Front door mids on channel 3/4 and rear doors off head unit, crossovers set on amp as well and just let the rear doors see everything above 80hz and let their passive crossover deal with it.

My amp is capable of doing high and low pass crossovers, and I have the CC1 right now and just setup my high pass with it actually.

Currently, my deck is on a 80HZ crossover. The sub amp sees 80 and below, and the interior sees 80 and up. With the CC1 I set the high pass on my interior amp to 100HZ and then for the sub I set it at 80 HZ. I really like how this sounds right now.

SO I do understand the active and passive crap now, but I fail to see how active is "so much harder to tune" as wouldn't you just send the Mids like 100-3500/4k ish and then the tweets get the rest?

Out of A - B - C what do you think my best option is? I am thinking B. The only issue with B is that I lose the ability to fade front to rear, but I don't do that anyways. Option B still gives me stereo from left to right so that is better than using a 2 channel amp and trying to make all that work.

Am I right?

 

[PapaGeno21 10+ year member]

Also because my amps all have their own crossovers that have been properly set, should I just let the headunit play through without the deck crossovers?

 

[gckless 5,000+ posts]

Also because my amps all have their own crossovers that have been properly set, should I just let the headunit play through without the deck crossovers?

Dude, I'm so confused by what you have going on. You say you have crossovers set on the amps, but you also have passive crossovers before the speakers? Do you also have crossovers set on your HU? If so, list what settings you have on both HU and amp.

And your above options, looking at your equipment that you have now, I'd go passive, especially if you want rears. Get a set of JBL MS-62C's for the front and an amp to properly power them. Rears don't really matter, throw whatever speakers you want back there. If you don't need rears, bridge the amp you have to those JBL's, and you're set.

 

[The Squeakquel 10+ year member]

people can say what they want about Meade, but the CC-1 works absolutely perfectly for this.

Completely unnecessary.....you can do the same thing with a DMM and calculator and put the $150 towards a better use.

Also, setting to an exact xover frequency is honestly not important. All that matters is the resultant sound, not the specific frequency. So even the DMM + calculator method is completely unnecessary.

 

[The Squeakquel 10+ year member]

SO basically let me get this straight.
I have my setup like this.

Deck - Amp - Crossover - Speakers

That is passive. I am currently passive on all 4 doors using my 4 channel amp. That is what I am using right now, and am perfectly happy.

To get louder, I can either

A: Get way more powerful passive components and a more powerful amp

B: More powerful 4 channel, Tweets on channel 1/2, Front and rear doors using channel 3/4 wired together in series or parallel depending on ohm load. (I presume this is active) Would set the crossovers with the amp and let the deck have no control

C: More powerful 4 channel, Tweets on channel 1/2, Front door mids on channel 3/4 and rear doors off head unit, crossovers set on amp as well and just let the rear doors see everything above 80hz and let their passive crossover deal with it.

My amp is capable of doing high and low pass crossovers, and I have the CC1 right now and just setup my high pass with it actually.

Currently, my deck is on a 80HZ crossover. The sub amp sees 80 and below, and the interior sees 80 and up. With the CC1 I set the high pass on my interior amp to 100HZ and then for the sub I set it at 80 HZ. I really like how this sounds right now.

SO I do understand the active and passive crap now, but I fail to see how active is "so much harder to tune" as wouldn't you just send the Mids like 100-3500/4k ish and then the tweets get the rest?

Out of A - B - C what do you think my best option is? I am thinking B. The only issue with B is that I lose the ability to fade front to rear, but I don't do that anyways. Option B still gives me stereo from left to right so that is better than using a 2 channel amp and trying to make all that work.

Am I right?

Honestly your best option is to stay passive. You don't have enough knowledge to properly pull off an active setup right now. I'm not trying to be rude with that statement, just an accurate assessment.

The goal of active is to achieve better performance than passive allows for due to the increased flexibility and additional processing that becomes available when running active with a decent processor. Could you simply toss a dart at a dartboard to pick a crossover frequency and call it done? Sure, but the results are not going to be optimal and chances are good a decent passive setup would sound 10x better than your active setup.....which sort of defeats the purpose, eh?

It takes decent knowledge and a lot of time to properly (key word) tune an active setup. If my options were active with nothing but the basic crossovers in an amplifier and a novice at the controls or a decent passive setup....I'd highly suggest the passive route until your knowledge, understanding and equipment improves. The real benefit to active is realized with an outboard processor or advanced headunit.

 

[MutantDreams 10+ year member]

Now i didnt neccesarly read most of the thread, but couldn't he run fr+rr mids on ch 1 fl+rl mids on ch 2, fr+rr tweets on ch 3 and fl+rl tweets on ch 4?

 

[fasfocus00 5,000+ posts]

i have an Audiocontrol 2XS that'll do what you want. 2XS high pass to channel 1 and 2, low pass to channel 3 and 4. front tweeter to channel 1 on amp, rear tweeter to channel 2 on amp. front mids to channel 3 and rear mids to channel 4. and to set the crossover points just change the resistors according to the formula that AC has and done.

HU>2XS>Amp done.

 

[gckless 5,000+ posts]

Now i didnt neccesarly read most of the thread, but couldn't he run fr+rr mids on ch 1 fl+rl mids on ch 2, fr+rr tweets on ch 3 and fl+rl tweets on ch 4?

No. Not if you want any kind of SQ.

 

[MutantDreams 10+ year member]

Why would it affect sound quality? Im not getting smart or anything, i just honestly dont know.

 

[gckless 5,000+ posts]

Why would it affect sound quality? Im not getting smart or anything, i just honestly dont know.

Usually people have comps in the front and coaxials in the back, so crossover points should be different here. You will not be able to time align or EQ them any different, which is big. You will also lose any fade/volume control.