Going active with my new US Amps AX 5600 5ch...little help?

[LaserRed38 10+ year member]

Ok this is going to be my first active setup. Just have a few questions. I'm not going to do everything for a couple weeks, but I want to plan everything out so it goes smooth. I am going to upgrade all my wiring first, all new Knu Konceptz (Big 3, batt to amp, RCAs, speaker wire). Here is a pic of the amp:

Some sort of newbish questions, but please bare with me.

So I will need 4ch RCAs for the mids and tweets, and 2ch for the sub correct? I will run the tweets off the rear channels, and mids off the front channels. Exige recommended the tweets to be X-ed over at 3k and up, mids 60-3k, and sub 60 and down. I thought 60 would be a pretty low Xover point for mids, no? He recommended 18db slope for tweets-mids, and 12db for mids-sub. How does this sound? Also, I have a 9835 so I will be using the X-overs built-in. What do I set everything on the amp to then?

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[Qbenjamin 10+ year member]

Use the crossovers from the amp.

 

[darkist240sx 10+ year member]

dont know if you already have your mids but if not i have 3 brand new SEAS

ER18RNX's.(planned to go active before but never got around to it) now im looking for just a passive set. willing to trade for one actually.

 

[James Bang 5,000+ posts]

the tweets should be the 'fronts'

mids should be 'rears'

reason is because the bandpass filter is set to the rear input.

 

[LaserRed38 10+ year member]

You sure? It doesn't have a LP filter on the front channels, just the rear...or so it appears. I was told to use the Xovers on the 9835 and not the amp...by other people on here before.

 

[James Bang 5,000+ posts]

You sure? It doesn't have a LP filter on the front channels, just the rear...or so it appears. I was told to use the Xovers on the 9835 and not the amp...by other people on here before.

ah.. I didn't catch that you had a 9835. in that case, yes, use the x-over filters on the HU.

the settings on the amp should be 'full pass'.

if you're using the x-over on the HU, the x-over on the amp should be bypassed (not needed).

 

[WrenchGuy 10+ year member]

You know some of this is driver dependent also. This being two way you want a mid bass/midrange driver. A driver that produces from 60-2500hz. A 7" would be sweet (hint)

A tweet that gets down to 2000hz is harder to get than one at 4000hz.

diymobileaudio.com will really help you in this also.

 

[LaserRed38 10+ year member]

Yeah I know that^. I want to try active with what I have first. I know how relatively cheap piecing together a speaker set would be. I just want to try it out with what I have to figure out tuning and such. I will pick up my amp from home tonight, so I haven't seen it yet. Anyone know how to "bypass" the filters on the amp? I know on my Alpine amps the filters have a switch for "off", but I don't see it on this one in the pics that the seller gave me.

Also, is it recommended to Xover the mids/tweets at the same point and adjust the slopes, or extend the mid say...500z into the tweets low-end, and the tweets 500hz into the mids top-end?

 

[tcguy85 10+ year member]

in my active system it sounds much better with a good size underlap between the mids and tweeters. i have my mids from 80hz/12db playing up to 2500hz/24db, tweeters from 4k/24db and up, and sub at 63hz/12db. this, after A LOT of tuning and listening sounds best to me with my current drivers.

all i can say is try different crossover points and slops, and see what you like best. the only real thing you need to be careful of is damaging any of the drivers from over excursion. meaning don't cross the mids or tweeters to low.

most tweeters should be ok with a 3k crossover point at a 24db slope, or a 4k crossover point with a 12db slope. most 6.5" mids will be ok down to about 60hz/24db or 80hz/12db. i even ran my current mids down to 50hz/24db and they sounded ok, just sounds clearer at high volumes at 80hz/12db.

 

[LaserRed38 10+ year member]

Ok cool. Thanks for the help. I think I will try Exige's recommendations to start with then. One last question...my tweets came with speaker wire already soldered on to them. I've never wired tweets up before, so do I have to cut this off and solder on the new wire? Or can I just strip the ends that go into the passive Xovers, solder the new wire to that, then cover them up with electrical tape (obviously a temp install until I get new mids/tweets).

 

[tcguy85 10+ year member]

Ok cool. Thanks for the help. I think I will try Exige's recommendations to start with then. One last question...my tweets came with speaker wire already soldered on to them. I've never wired tweets up before, so do I have to cut this off and solder on the new wire? Or can I just strip the ends that go into the passive Xovers, solder the new wire to that, then cover them up with electrical tape (obviously a temp install until I get new mids/tweets).

just strip the wire back and add wire to it if needed.

if you have the crossovers at the same point, then usually you'll have a peak at that frequency. it seems as underlaping is pretty common.

 

[LaserRed38 10+ year member]

That makes sense to me about crossing over at the same point. I will try underlapping. Thanks for your all your help. I will have pics of the amp up in a hour or two...

 

[exige 10+ year member]

the guidelines i gave you are simply starting points. just work around and find what sounds best to your ears. those aren't numbers set in stone. if i can be of anymore help, feel free to PM me.

 

[LaserRed38 10+ year member]

Oh yeah for sure, I knew that. I'm definitely going to play around with it. Pics are coming soon...

 

[LaserRed38 10+ year member]

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