Going Active, not so easy after all..

[gstokes]

Active is really not that hard and if you have a dd1 and a cc1 its really easy.

Steve Meade is what i consider the top of the food chain in car audio knowledge, and the man don't take no **** either //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[T3mpest 10+ year member]

Steve Meade is what i consider the top of the food chain in car audio knowledge, and the man don't take no **** either //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Even with two functioning legs I find tuning off the amp for an active setup to be a complete PITA.. You can't hear what your changing when you change it which makes it much harder. Plus you don't know exactly where you are in terms of frequency at any given time, your flying blind. If you just keep playing with slopes and frequencies in discrete amounts while it's playing and your in the drivers seat off the headunit, its WAY easier.. If switching out the hu isn't an option, I'd say you made the right choice to go with a component set.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

If your sound stage was out of whack because of driver placement, running passive crossovers won't help. For that, you need time alignment.

Exactly. TA or better locations for drivers are the answer, not a passive crossover.

 

[Popwarhomie 5,000+ posts]

Steve Meade is what i consider the top of the food chain in car audio knowledge, and the man don't take no **** either //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Lol...

 

[T3mpest 10+ year member]

Exactly. TA or better locations for drivers are the answer, not a passive crossover.

Using the wrong crossover points having too much overlap or underlap or the wrong slope can make speaker locations MUCH more noticeable. I think that's what he was referring to, time alignment won't fix everything. Proper locations and proper crossover points for those locations can make a good difference as well.

 

[bbeljefe]

Using the wrong crossover points having too much overlap or underlap or the wrong slope can make speaker locations MUCH more noticeable. I think that's what he was referring to, time alignment won't fix everything. Proper locations and proper crossover points for those locations can make a good difference as well.

There's a lot of truth to that, as evidenced by the fact that there are a good many passive, unprocessed component sets in use that don't sound bad.

So what else is there to consider? Proper deadening/midbass installation & proper tweeter location are also important. Deadener is pretty important for good sounding midbass in the doors and the midbass driver needs to be sealed at the back and the front of the door panel. The latter is SELDOM addressed by casual enthusiasts but it makes a lot of difference. Also, tweeter placement is critical.

It may sound counterintuitive but following the lead of the factory is the quickest and easiest way to build a clean sounding simple system. You'll notice that they always use some sort of bracket for the door speaker (often built into the speaker itself) that seals it off on the front and rear. Don't ignore that gasketing when installing aftermarket drivers... even if you have to fabricate a mounting baffle and a seal for the front of the driver. As for tweeter location, if there was a factory tweeter, re use that location. Manufacturers like to use the cheapest drivers possible and the only way to make them sound good is proper time alignment and axis. Ergo, they spend some extra time/money finding the correct locations for the tweets in relationship to the mids so that they don't have to spend more on the thousands of speakers they have to buy. And if possible, look at the cap on the factory tweeter and find out what the crossover point is. It won't need to be the same with aftermarket speakers that are seeing more power but, it's a good starting point.

In the end, if you aren't prepared/capable of doing that due diligence and work (and I understand completely if you aren't) then you're probably better off sticking with coaxials. Although, even a coaxial midbass driver needs to be properly installed and deadened.

 

[gstokes]

Perhaps a simple active crossover before the amplifier would clean up most of the mess, there doesn't seem to be enough adjustments on the amplifier itself.

I would most surely mount the active crossover up high where i can reach it without having to get out of my chair, that would greatly simplify adjustments.

I still got the tweeters wired up and the 6.5" woofers will be here tomorrow, will try one more time to make it work before i pull the trigger on a passive component set.

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

Perhaps a simple active crossover before the amplifier would clean up most of the mess, there doesn't seem to be enough adjustments on the amplifier itself.I would most surely mount the active crossover up high where i can reach it without having to get out of my chair, that would greatly simplify adjustments.

I still got the tweeters wired up and the 6.5" woofers will be here tomorrow, will try one more time to make it work before i pull the trigger on a passive component set.

Download a program called audacity its free. Click on generate and use a tone of your choice like 3500hz or 5000hz or whatever you want to cross your mids and highs at, have it set for a couple of minutes, save the tone into an mp3. Put it on a disk, usb, ipod, phone or whatever your source is. Let it run then start turning the crossover knob until the speakers cuts out, you'll get a much more accurate crossover setting then random guesstimate.

 

[gstokes]

thanks Jeff, i have been using a test tone CD and it works okay, i will know by the weekend if active is for me and i will get some second opinions on the SQ and see if it sounds good to other people..

 

[smgreen20 10+ year member]

Replacing the perfectly working head unit is not an option. Thing is, i was pretty happy with some Pioneer Coaxials until i heard a nice component set and was leaning that way but then i thought i could use home audio drivers for my mobile system and go active, it just went downhill from there. A new head unit with time alignment and most likely some DSP features would fix everything except for my stupidity, but what makes it even harder is the fact i am disabled veteran with no legs below the knees and use wheelchair and this car audio work i am doing to the van is a little too hard on me, having to get down on the floor and rewire the amp and adjust the amp and adjust the radio and get up in the seat and listen and make more adjustments and listen some more.. Screw that nonsense.. A component set with passive crossover is going in and then i am DONE with it, have other things i need to be concentrating on like discrete lighting and some other cosmetic mods..

If you live anywhere near Lafayette, Indiana, bring it over, I'll do the work for you free of charge

In response to a post before this one, using the clarion 360 with the 702 is not needed unless you're after a 4way setup.

 

[gstokes]

Figured it out today and it sounds FANTASTIC, there is a mode switch that got bumped into the wrong position and was hidden from view by a cable and after selecting 5-channel mode the system came alive and sounds VERY nice, the tweeters are no longer "bright" but lively and musical, the subs no longer dominate and there is plenty of highs present whereas before the subs would drown out the highs, now the highs want to drown out the subs, incredible difference in sound quality going from cheap coaxials to fully active with component drivers, it's easier than i had thought and was only giving me trouble because of operator error.. Thank you to everyone for your help, advice and patience of course.. I will stay active, it's very loud and very clear and cost me just over $80 in component drivers.. Bargain Basement SQ !

 

[gstokes]

Now i have to get the amp up off the floor, it is resting sideways against the side wall and makes it very challenging to read upside down and backwards when making adjustments..

 

[mlstrass 5,000+ posts]

Glad to hear that it all worked out for you....

 

[phemps 10+ year member]

Doesnt It always seems to be something so simple and easy to overlook when youre rattling your brain over something giving you tons of trouble? I know for me thats usually the case. good to hear you figured it out though

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

dont sweat it, same exact thing happened to me a while ago. Sounded like **** for a month until I saw that it was in 2 channel stereo mode instead of 4 channel. Glad you made the system work without having to spend any more money.