I don't even know how to title this question (crossover related) (long read)

[Staynlean 10+ year member]

Friend currently has a set of Mem audio tweeters in his dash. They have a passive crossover that is only for tweeters, (so that's my understanding.) He is adding a set of Pioneer d1720 6&3/4 components. Currently they are just ran off HU power.

Here's where it gets tricky. He likes the look of the Mem tweeters, he has them flush mounted in the grill of the factory tweeter location. Also, he does not like the look of his new pioneer tweeters and additionally if we were to swap over to the Pioneer tweets we would have to do a little work to get the fit right.

Alright, so as of now we have the new woofers in the front doors (I made my second set of beautiful baffles) and new Pioneer crossovers installed. We wired everything as normal, my only concern is running Mem tweets (different brand) off the Pioneer crossovers.

Amp is installed (nothing has been powered up yet for some other engine problems) so we we are expecting 50 watts to go to the set and 150 if we bridge this 4 channel Amp.

Can, and is it even ok to do this using mixed brands? Also, and I'm just thinking out of my arse, can we omit the tweeter hook up on the pioneer crossover (do not use at all) and run the Mem audio crossover wires from the input of the pioneer crossover? So, using both crossovers. And, would we see a 2 ohm load if this was achieved.

I've written this to sound more complicated than it is, I think* it is possible.

Any questions or if anybody needs more explanation let me know I will try to clear it up. I'm still new and learning myself.

All speakers are currently 4ohm. And when I say run the Mem crossover to the Pioneer crossover, I'm not referring to running it out of the tweeter outputs, I'm talking about hooking the wires straight into the amp input terminals, therefore achieving a 2 ohm load, right?

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[neo_styles 10+ year member]

Friend currently has a set of Mem audio tweeters in his dash. They have a passive crossover that is only for tweeters, (so that's my understanding.) He is adding a set of Pioneer d1720 6&3/4 components. Currently they are just ran off HU power.
Here's where it gets tricky. He likes the look of the Mem tweeters, he has them flush mounted in the grill of the factory tweeter location. Also, he does not like the look of his new pioneer tweeters and additionally if we were to swap over to the Pioneer tweets we would have to do a little work to get the fit right.

Alright, so as of now we have the new woofers in the front doors (I made my second set of beautiful baffles) and new Pioneer crossovers installed. We wired everything as normal, my only concern is running Mem tweets (different brand) off the Pioneer crossovers.

Amp is installed (nothing has been powered up yet for some other engine problems) so we we are expecting 50 watts to go to the set and 150 if we bridge this 4 channel Amp.

Can, and is it even ok to do this using mixed brands? Also, and I'm just thinking out of my arse, can we omit the tweeter hook up on the pioneer crossover (do not use at all) and run the Mem audio crossover wires from the input of the pioneer crossover? So, using both crossovers. And, would we see a 2 ohm load if this was achieved.

I've written this to sound more complicated than it is, I think* it is possible.

Any questions or if anybody needs more explanation let me know I will try to clear it up. I'm still new and learning myself.

Can it work? Absolutely, but it might not be the best solution. I think your friend might need to let go of his reservations about swapping the tweeters out, but you're more than welcome to try them in as installed. Things get hairy, though, when sensitivities don't match, so you could end up with screaming tweeters and mellowed out mids. This is why some people tend to go active and have full control over output levels and crossover points of both.

 

[neo_styles 10+ year member]

dbl

 

[Staynlean 10+ year member]

Hey I edited the end of my original post, read my last part again and see what you think about my final ohm load.

 

[Staynlean 10+ year member]

Bump

 

[neo_styles 10+ year member]

Hey I edited the end of my original post, read my last part again and see what you think about my final ohm load.

Do that and you will smoke your equipment. I'm 99 percent sure of that. Tell your friend he needs to make a compromise. Tweeters are bought because of how they SOUND, not LOOK. Do your best to convince him to swap out the tweet for the Pioneer. That or get an amplifier with active-capable crossover points, of which the PPI P900.4 or Zed Mikro IV will probably be the lowest-cost option. And I only say this because then you actually have that choice.

But please, for the love of God, don't try to run those components at 2 ohms. It won't be pretty.

 

[Staynlean 10+ year member]

Do that and you will smoke your equipment. I'm 99 percent sure of that. Tell your friend he needs to make a compromise. Tweeters are bought because of how they SOUND, not LOOK. Do your best to convince him to swap out the tweet for the Pioneer. That or get an amplifier with active-capable crossover points, of which the PPI P900.4 or Zed Mikro IV will probably be the lowest-cost option. And I only say this because then you actually have that choice.
But please, for the love of God, don't try to run those components at 2 ohms. It won't be pretty.

I respect your answer, tell me the reasoning behind this. Like I said I'm still new and learning. So my mind set is like on subs, and say running a dvc 4 ohm at 2 ohms, there's no harm.
I couldn't agree with you more, I just want to know the physics behind it.

 

[neo_styles 10+ year member]

I respect your answer, tell me the reasoning behind this. Like I said I'm still new and learning. So my mind set is like on subs, and say running a dvc 4 ohm at 2 ohms, there's no harm.
I couldn't agree with you more, I just want to know the physics behind it.

No physics necessary, but your front stage speakers only have one coil, so there's only one wiring option. So if your component set is a 4 ohm set, it can only be run at 4 ohms. Otherwise you're going to cause a nightmare for the electrical components, things will over heat, cats and dogs living together...you catch my drift?

 

[Staynlean 10+ year member]

Absolutely catch your drift, that's what I had in mind. Appreciate that. Guess we will see how it sounds with mix matched tweets and go from there.

 

[Staynlean 10+ year member]

Bump, @KHA if you're here give me your input please sir.

 

[neo_styles 10+ year member]

@keep_hope_alive ;

 

[Staynlean 10+ year member]

[quote name='neo_styles']@keep_hope_alive ;[/QUOTE]Thanks, I screwed that up I see lol. Thanks again man. You've been more than helpful.

 

[neo_styles 10+ year member]

Thanks, I screwed that up I see lol. Thanks again man.

It's what I'm here for

 

[bbeljefe]

There is nothing wrong or dangerous about using one brand of tweeter with another brand of crossover... electrons can't read the labels on a plastic box. While it's true that the tweets he has may not sound good on the Pioneer crossovers, that has absolutely nothing to do with brands and everything to do with crossover points/driver characteristics. If the tweets he has are comparable to the tweets he doesn't want to use, they should sound fine on the Pioneer crossovers. If they don't, that's the time to worry about changing them.

You don't need two passive crossovers (as in the one that came with the tweets and the one for the new components) but you absolutely must have some sort of crossover whether it be passive or active. If the crossover is passive, the amplifier doesn't see the impedance of the drivers, it sees the impedance of the crossover. So if your passive crossover is a 4Ω crossover, that's what the amp will see, regardless of what you do on the driver side of the crossover.

If you run active crossovers, then you can run the mids and tweets on separate amplifier channels with each speaker directly connected to the amp but, you have to make sure (as was mentioned above) that the amp has the ability to crossover high enough for the tweeters.

 

[Staynlean 10+ year member]

Alright, I now understand that passive crossovers filter frequency, not power. Or in other words it's not like running parallel and seeing power into a 2 ohm amp load.

His amp is the, I think Prime* it's the lowest end of RF amps. So whatever those are named. It's the 300/4, are those capable of running active? Just asking for chits and giggles, I doubt they are. However he does have a good head unit but how do I know if the HU is capable of running active? It's a Kenwood ddx370. It's ok I guess.