Powerline CS finally installed

[req 5,000+ posts]

pics dont work //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

 

[Buffalohed 10+ year member]

...Im honestly shocked it sounds as good as it does running passive.

...

Im sure running active these would be even better

...

I don't understand these statements //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

Passive doesn't actually have any effect on the sound quality of the speakers, unless I am failing to understand something??? Should I expect components run passively to not sound as good as active ones?

I mean, I understand that it means you can tune differently when you are active, but what would you change the crossover frequency to if you were running the Powerline CS active that would make them sound better than they do now? Is there some kind of resonance or cabin gain at the xover freq set in the passive xover that distorts the sound or something?

If someone could explain this stuff to me that would be really cool... thanks.

 

[HitManSE 10+ year member]

I don't understand these statements //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif
Passive doesn't actually have any effect on the sound quality of the speakers, unless I am failing to understand something??? Should I expect components run passively to not sound as good as active ones?

I mean, I understand that it means you can tune differently when you are active, but what would you change the crossover frequency to if you were running the Powerline CS active that would make them sound better than they do now? Is there some kind of resonance or cabin gain at the xover freq set in the passive xover that distorts the sound or something?

If someone could explain this stuff to me that would be really cool... thanks.

Look at the dates they were posted.

The setup sounds great as is, however the midbass' dip pretty low in the frequency range. A lot lower then id like them to. I dont have an EQ, and since its running off a passive I cant exactly control that too well either.

In other words, I dont exactly need my front stage dipping down to 30hz. This set does that, and it hinders the ability to turn the volume up more due to distortion. Though its cool that they can dip that low, id much rather have the sub handle anything below 60hz. That would not only sound better since the midbass's wouldnt distort at a lower volume, but allow me to crank up the volume some more without distortion. That is what I was referring to when I said.

Im sure running active these would be even better

Thats the real crutch when it comes to a passive setup IMO, especially this one. Though it sounds great, Id personally prefer running this set active if you really want to see what this comp set could do. I would also add a 4" lotus or something up to par with the set to free up the midbass & tweeter to the frequencies they like as well.

What frequencies, well that would probably take a while to get dead on so id be playing with it for a while. I would start by setting 60hz and under to the sub, 60-250ish to the midbass's, 250-3.0khz for the mids, and 3.0khz on up for the tweeters and work on it from there on.

 

[HitManSE 10+ year member]

pics dont work //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

Old thread. Ill try to get the pics up again tomorrow sometime, if I find them that is //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[Buffalohed 10+ year member]

Look at the dates they were posted.
The setup sounds great as is, however the midbass' dip pretty low in the frequency range. A lot lower then id like them to. I dont have an EQ, and since its running off a passive I cant exactly control that too well either.

In other words, I dont exactly need my front stage dipping down to 30hz. This set does that, and it hinders the ability to turn the volume up more due to distortion. Though its cool that they can dip that low, id much rather have the sub handle anything below 60hz. That would not only sound better since the midbass's wouldnt distort at a lower volume, but allow me to crank up the volume some more without distortion. That is what I was referring to when I said.

Thats the real crutch when it comes to a passive setup IMO, especially this one. Though it sounds great, Id personally prefer running this set active if you really want to see what this comp set could do. I would also add a 4" lotus or something up to par with the set to free up the midbass & tweeter to the frequencies they like as well.

What frequencies, well that would probably take a while to get dead on so id be playing with it for a while. I would start by setting 60hz and under to the sub, 60-250ish to the midbass's, 250-3.0khz for the mids, and 3.0khz on up for the tweeters and work on it from there on.

I realize it was an old thread. But a lot of people had already been posting in it recently so I didn't see a problem.

What you are describing is the lack of a high pass filter. So I am assuming you are sending a full-range signal to the components. Well, that has nothing to do with passive or active... you can just as easily highpass the signal while running passive as you can while running active. If you changed to active and only lowpassed the midrange and highpassed the tweeter, you would have the exact same problem you do now. If you can't highpass it now with your current equipment that means you won't be able to highpass it while active without new equipment.

I know that adding a midrange is an advantage and will make the setup sound better. If by "running active" you simply meant adding a midrange in to make it a 3-way, then obviously that is going to be better. But you made it sound like there was a huge difference between the 2-way passive and 2-way active. Also, you mentioned you don't have an EQ, and that is also going to be as much of, if not more of a problem if you go active.

Not trying to argue with you here man I was just puzzled by why you said some things, but I see now what you were really talking about.

 

[3.5Max6spd 10+ year member]

I realize it was an old thread. But a lot of people had already been posting in it recently so I didn't see a problem.
What you are describing is the lack of a high pass filter. So I am assuming you are sending a full-range signal to the components. Well, that has nothing to do with passive or active... you can just as easily highpass the signal while running passive as you can while running active. If you changed to active and only lowpassed the midrange and highpassed the tweeter, you would have the exact same problem you do now. If you can't highpass it now with your current equipment that means you won't be able to highpass it while active without new equipment.

I know that adding a midrange is an advantage and will make the setup sound better. If by "running active" you simply meant adding a midrange in to make it a 3-way, then obviously that is going to be better. But you made it sound like there was a huge difference between the 2-way passive and 2-way active. Also, you mentioned you don't have an EQ, and that is also going to be as much of, if not more of a problem if you go active.

Not trying to argue with you here man I was just puzzled by why you said some things, but I see now what you were really talking about.

Its not unreasonanable to infer that, since by going active you have the control to make ones stock location work for you- whether at the crossover point(and how they are affected so by their location in terms of resonance, reflections, diffraction..), individual gain control for optimal level matching, individual time alignment, phasing....etc.

 

[Buffalohed 10+ year member]

Right. When considering the fact that you need more equipment for active, it makes sense that you will have access to things like time-alignment and phase because of the increased amount of equipment, but personally I see no reason that you couldn't have the same features available to you while running your setup passive, assuming you have the right equipment (minus level matching which I don't think is possible with passive).

But really it's not an indictment of the SQ of passive systems, it's simply a matter of what gear you have, which is a factor regardless of how your speakers are run.

 

[HitManSE 10+ year member]

I realize it was an old thread. But a lot of people had already been posting in it recently so I didn't see a problem.
What you are describing is the lack of a high pass filter. So I am assuming you are sending a full-range signal to the components. Well, that has nothing to do with passive or active... you can just as easily highpass the signal while running passive as you can while running active. If you changed to active and only lowpassed the midrange and highpassed the tweeter, you would have the exact same problem you do now. If you can't highpass it now with your current equipment that means you won't be able to highpass it while active without new equipment.

The high pass is set at a 24db slow at about 80hz. The mids still play a down to the 30hz range. I have the HU set to send the sub anything under 80, the mids still like to play deep.

Heres a pic (both the same, 1 with and 1 w/o flash) of where everything is currently set at on the amp:

Perhaps I need to crank it up the high pass to a higher frequency, im still messing with it.

I know that adding a midrange is an advantage and will make the setup sound better. If by "running active" you simply meant adding a midrange in to make it a 3-way, then obviously that is going to be better. But you made it sound like there was a huge difference between the 2-way passive and 2-way active. Also, you mentioned you don't have an EQ, and that is also going to be as much of, if not more of a problem if you go active.

By running active, I meant just that, active. No passovers, just what the amp(s) have. Manny already pointed out some of the reasons, the only downside is it makes things a lot harder to tune correctly, but thats not too big an issue IMO.

Adding another driver to the setup is only to spread the freq range covered on the speakers currently there. I dont think I need to explain the benefit of that.

Not trying to argue with you here man I was just puzzled by why you said some things, but I see now what you were really talking about.

Understandable, I wasnt taking it the wrong way.

 

[DejaWiz 5,000+ posts]

Nice comps HitManSE! I'd kill for a set of those.

me = jealous

 

[alphakenny1 10+ year member]

Lotus midrange would be ******* with that comp set. I have a pair of my own and i love them //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[DejaWiz 5,000+ posts]

I have a pair of my own and i love them //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

Of Lotus mids or *******? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/eyebrow.gif.fe2c18d8720fe8c7eaed347b21ea05a5.gif//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

 

[3.5Max6spd 10+ year member]

Of Lotus mids or *******? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/eyebrow.gif.fe2c18d8720fe8c7eaed347b21ea05a5.gif//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

both...//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/blackeye.gif.66a1670f5aaf7f406e783a63e3387dc5.gif

 

[HitManSE 10+ year member]

Nice comps HitManSE! I'd kill for a set of those.
me = jealous

Thanks.

Lotus midrange would be ******* with that comp set. I have a pair of my own and i love them //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

Im sure they would, if it wasnt for the magnesium ones being 8ohm, id go fpr those but the RM110s would be my choice.

QUOTE=DejaWiz;2962629]Of Lotus mids or *******? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/eyebrow.gif.fe2c18d8720fe8c7eaed347b21ea05a5.gif//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

atm, just ******* //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/naughty.gif.94359f346c0f1259df8038d60b41863e.gif

both...//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/blackeye.gif.66a1670f5aaf7f406e783a63e3387dc5.gif

^ I like how this man thinks //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Ill have to see what id do next. Id love to get another Arc SE amp (I think Don just cracked a smile //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif ) but after messing with my 2300's //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/verymad.gif.3f39c5c2fd57527b671fad3efdfac756.gif Lets just say its the kind of amp where you dont install 100% until you're done tuning. I lost one of those small screws in the front cover today. I swear they are the smallest **** screws ive seen on any amp.

Don, send me like 20 more of them!!!

 

[trunks9_us 10+ year member]

i wanna see these pics of the deadening.

 

[HitManSE 10+ year member]

i wanna see these pics of the deadening.

Ill have to dig those up when I get back, they are on my work computer and im out of town for at least 12 days.