Running tweeters off the head unit in an active setup

[ScottGS400 10+ year member]

I'm running a set of Dynaudio 240 GT's right now, both the mids and tweeters are mounted in the factory locations on my doors. I'm not happy with the sound stage and would like to move my tweeters to either the A-pillars or my dash. Since I'm not running any rear fill I thought I'd try running them active and ditch the passive crossovers. With my Alpine 9835 I can run active straight off the head unit (it can bandpass the mids) and I also get time correction to each driver.

Anyways, right now I'm just running one 4 channel amp. I've got the 240 GT's running off two channels and the other two bridged to my sub. I don't really want to add another amp... I don't have a good spot for it and I'd like to keep the weight down since this is for my STI. The 9835 claims to put out 20 or 25 watts RMS using the on-board amp so I was thinking about running the tweeters off the on-board amp and the mids off my external amp. I don't listen to my music blaringly loud and I think 20 watts will probably be enough for my tweeters. Am I totally wrong here or is there some reason I shouldn't be doing this?

I can always pick up a 6-channel amp (maybe an old Phoenix Gold XS6600) but if running the tweeters off the HU will work then why bother...

thanks, Scott

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[JAZN 5,000+ posts]

at low volumes you'll be fine. however, the lack of power matching with the mids you'll notice at higher volumes. you'll probably run into some HU clipping too.

try it out. dont like it, get a 6ch.

 

[Slaugh 10+ year member]

at low volumes you'll be fine. however, the lack of power matching with the mids you'll notice at higher volumes. you'll probably run into some HU clipping too.try it out. dont like it, get a 6ch.

well seriously, what's wrong with it? i run both my tweeters and mids through the headunit on bi-amplification... on 3way mode the front out is the high pass and the rear out is the mid-pass... i have an active crossover for each speaker...

what's the problem with it? i find it incredibly better than using the passive crossovers of my component speakers

 

[ScottGS400 10+ year member]

I switched to the active setup this weekend and the 9835 provides more than enough power to the tweeters at this point, I actually had to attenuate them. I'm pleased with the way it sounds and with a little tuning I think will sound much better than where I had them mounted in the doors. I'm impressed by the crossover on the 9835 as well, very flexible.

 

[Raven 10+ year member]

Tweeters are the most efficient kind of driver available, it's no wonder you can get crazy loud off 20 watts apiece.

Makes me wish my 9807 had a crossover network. =\