Should I use my Amp or internal crossover on my HU?

[Louisiana_CRX 5,000+ posts]

Good little bit of info. Those dB slopes always kind of confused me. I'll try setting the front to 63hz with a - 12 slope. I'm not trying to get bass heavy with the front stage but a little bit is nice for now. Doors are are slightly deadened but I need to go back in and do the inner door metal, seal the holes, put some overkill on some of the ratty plastic bits. Having alot of inner vibration and rattle from the plastic. Annoying af.

Slopes are sorta like a wall for your frequencies .. the steeper the slope the stronger the wall .. a 48db slope for instance is almost solid stop of frequencies above at say LP 80 hz where a 12db will roll off in the upper frequencies .
When you use your deck say 80hz and you think your amp might be 80hz but is really maybe 93hz to the variable frequency adjustment your amp may have a 24db slope and your deck might be 12db ..you start to see a jumbled mess of slopes and crazy crossed up frequencies...
That's why it's best to just use the deck... with your deck you can go active and get more crossover settings .. runningbactive you can have a seperate amp on tweeters and mids or use deck power .. and of course the sub amp ... and do away with useless rear speakers ..

 

[ItsHammer]

Definitely thinking about the active option. But I believe I need a different Amp, right? One with a multiplier? Or should I be okay with my xover settings on my HU. Was looking at an nvx 4ch, and definitely a different set of components. The audio bug has its teeth in me already and I've only had this installed for two days. Should have just dropped more money on a better set of fronts. These highs in this set are horrid at higher volumes. Mid to low high volume is OK tho

 

[2RZ-FE 10+ year member]

I'm in the same boat. I just have a basic Pioneer 8604 4 ch and a Pioneer with network mode. Not sure if you need a 10x multiplier on the amp or not since it will be set to full pass? I will let the active pros chime in on this.

 

[fithwheel]

Looks like the pioneer is able to run active. Key feature you need is a high pass and low pass for the mids. If this is the case forget about worrying about amplifier crossover and passive crossovers for the speakers and let the hu send the signal to the amplifiers. Tweeters to the front channels coming out of the front channels on the hu to the front channels on the amp to the tweeters . Rear will be the mids.. Set the mono amps xover as high as it’ll go and adjust the xover in the hu for the sub channel.
You’ll need to know what the manufacturer recommends as the lowest xover point/slope for the tweeters so you know not to go any lower. Or if you know the fs of the tweeters a safe setting would be double the fs.
I would sound treat your doors for the mids (if not already done)set your gains right and that should do it.

 

[ItsHammer]

I'm in the same boat. I just have a basic Pioneer 8604 4 ch and a Pioneer with network mode. Not sure if you need a 10x multiplier on the amp or not since it will be set to full pass? I will let the active pros chime in on this.

I'm almost positive I can run active with my current amp and HU without a multiplier just need to put the tweeters on rear channel with a high cut off. Also looking at an audio control dq for down the road

 

[ItsHammer]

Looks like the pioneer is able to run active. Key feature you need is a high pass and low pass for the mids. If this is the case forget about worrying about amplifier crossover and passive crossovers for the speakers and let the hu send the signal to the amplifiers. Tweeters to the front channels coming out of the front channels on the hu to the front channels on the amp to the tweeters . Rear will be the mids.. Set the mono amps xover as high as it’ll go and adjust the xover in the hu for the sub channel.
You’ll need to know what the manufacturer recommends as the lowest xover point/slope for the tweeters so you know not to go any lower. Or if you know the fs of the tweeters a safe setting would be double the fs.
I would sound treat your doors for the mids (if not already done)set your gains right and that should do it.

Minor deadening has been done but it could definitely use more. I just picked up some extra deadener and a foam basket for the mids I'll put those in tomorrow

 

[2RZ-FE 10+ year member]

Not sure if network mode does a bandpass crossover does it?

Do you need to run a rca cable on the front and rear channels or just the front? Some amps have a 2ch/4ch switch.

 

[fithwheel]

I'm almost positive I can run active with my current amp and HU without a multiplier just need to put the tweeters on rear channel with a high cut off. Also looking at an audio control dq for down the road

Why would you put the tweeters on the rear channels do you have rear speakers? Most head units that can be ran active run off the front outputs but I guess it doesn’t matter what channels you run off the amp if that’s what you mean. Amp just needs to be set to all pass. If you have rears I wouldn’t use them. You’ll have a better sound stage if you just do 2 way in the front. set your time alignment to put the the sound center dash or right in front of you. Most do center dash
Rear fill will only pull the sound towards the rear. some people like rears.I used to till I realized how much better and easier it was to tune without rears.
dayton 408 dsp is a better deal than the audio control dq. Easy to use with the Bluetooth dongle and the app. All pass hu to dsp set crossover,eq ,levels and time delay through the dsp. Lot more adjustability with a Dayton dsp than just the hu or the ac dq for that matter.

 

[tommydh 10+ year member]

Multi-channel amps seem to have that FLAT or FULL option but mono amps seem to lack that feature. Why is that?

Because mono amps generally are sub amps and usually have a lpf and subsonic filter

 

[Ridinhi 5,000+ posts]

These are the type of threads I like, Informative and helpful!

 

[ItsHammer]

Why would you put the tweeters on the rear channels do you have rear speakers? Most head units that can be ran active run off the front outputs but I guess it doesn’t matter what channels you run off the amp if that’s what you mean. Amp just needs to be set to all pass. If you have rears I wouldn’t use them. You’ll have a better sound stage if you just do 2 way in the front. set your time alignment to put the the sound center dash or right in front of you. Most do center dash
Rear fill will only pull the sound towards the rear. some people like rears.I used to till I realized how much better and easier it was to tune without rears.
dayton 408 dsp is a better deal than the audio control dq. Easy to use with the Bluetooth dongle and the app. All pass hu to dsp set crossover,eq ,levels and time delay through the dsp. Lot more adjustability with a Dayton dsp than just the hu or the ac dq for that matter.

Yeah, sorry. I actually meant channel 3/4 when I said rear. Don't know why I said rear lol