Honestly, unless you have a keen understanding of audio, a lot of time and skills for installation, and some good equipment not only for amps/HU but also for measurement of freq response so you can really tweak your EQ's and x-over points, i'd go with a 2 way passive setup. A good passive network is quite adequate, and you get the (very real) benefit of havingg tweeter protection circuits so you don't accidentally blow your tweets. Rainbow has good crossovers; most are switchable between 2 different x-over points/slopes, and some can even have their crossover points changed for the woofers independently from the tweeters, allowing you to overlap or underlap them as needed in your car. They also have multiple levels of tweeter attenuation which really helps with getting a balanced sound in not quite optimal mounting positions. With the multiple x-over slopes/points and tweeter attenuation available on the nicer passive sets from rainbow, the only major benefits you see from going active are the ability to independently EQ your woofers + tweeters, and being able to independently time-align each tweet and woofer individually. Time alignment would be kinda nice, but honestly, passive powewr line cs's sound good without having to go active, and you save money in amp cost and in installation complexity by going with a 2-way setup.
If you're looking at between 700$ and 2k$, i'd look at the rainbow power line CS as they are beefy ass drivers that get nice and loud, and can be crossed over very low if you prefer a quieter quality based system. For example, with a single 12 on ~500w, i crossed my PL CS @ 50 or 63hz...now that i've got 2 on ~1000w, i moved the x-over point up to around 80 so they can get even louder. Only down side is the woofers mounting depth; just under 3.8 inches. This is because they use the same motor/baskets from the rainbow vanadium subwoofer 7" woofers.
That said, the only speakers I would consider replacing my current Rainbow setup with would be Dynaudio...or a nicer set of Rainbows. And the next step up for either one is about double the price of what I paid. Dynaudio makes superb equipment. If you can get a large discount on a dyn set, that would probably be what i'd try.
Considering the Power Line CS 275's get loud enough to hurt my ears and keep up with my 2 12's without any problem at all, while sounding crystal clear...i don't think it'd be worth the extra cost //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif
Also, don't forget that rainbow makes nice subs too. The vanadium 12 is a very musical sub, though it's not designed for extreme SPL configurations. I'd compare it to the JL 12W6... I like the overall sound of the vanadium better, but it's max volume falls somewhere between the 12w6v1 and 12w6v2...(that's why i got 2 //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif) Of special note is that the vanadium 12" subs sound excellent in sealed enclosures of (ideal volume) 1cf and even smaller if needed (rainbow specs all the way down to .5CF for the 12!) , and are only 6 inches deep, which is important for a truck setup with limited available space. If you went with 10's, those are under 5.5 inches deep, and can be happy in only .3cf. Remember, these aren't extreme SPL subs - but a pair of sealed Vanadium 12's can tickle my ears in my trunk car; they'd be uncomfortably loud in a truck cab.
If you're looking at between 700$ and 2k$, i'd look at the rainbow power line CS as they are beefy ass drivers that get nice and loud, and can be crossed over very low if you prefer a quieter quality based system. For example, with a single 12 on ~500w, i crossed my PL CS @ 50 or 63hz...now that i've got 2 on ~1000w, i moved the x-over point up to around 80 so they can get even louder. Only down side is the woofers mounting depth; just under 3.8 inches. This is because they use the same motor/baskets from the rainbow vanadium subwoofer 7" woofers.
That said, the only speakers I would consider replacing my current Rainbow setup with would be Dynaudio...or a nicer set of Rainbows. And the next step up for either one is about double the price of what I paid. Dynaudio makes superb equipment. If you can get a large discount on a dyn set, that would probably be what i'd try.
Considering the Power Line CS 275's get loud enough to hurt my ears and keep up with my 2 12's without any problem at all, while sounding crystal clear...i don't think it'd be worth the extra cost //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif
Also, don't forget that rainbow makes nice subs too. The vanadium 12 is a very musical sub, though it's not designed for extreme SPL configurations. I'd compare it to the JL 12W6... I like the overall sound of the vanadium better, but it's max volume falls somewhere between the 12w6v1 and 12w6v2...(that's why i got 2 //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif) Of special note is that the vanadium 12" subs sound excellent in sealed enclosures of (ideal volume) 1cf and even smaller if needed (rainbow specs all the way down to .5CF for the 12!) , and are only 6 inches deep, which is important for a truck setup with limited available space. If you went with 10's, those are under 5.5 inches deep, and can be happy in only .3cf. Remember, these aren't extreme SPL subs - but a pair of sealed Vanadium 12's can tickle my ears in my trunk car; they'd be uncomfortably loud in a truck cab.
