what is needed to go active

[beginner]

I know U guys probably think this is a stupid question. There's a lot of people who don't know this including me, I do know , going active eliminates crossovers that come with components and you have to cross it over urself.

. You can say to ur self if you don't know this you shouldn't be going active. That might be true but I've read to many people say active brings ur speakers to life.

.I've seen threads on this but no explanation and the one that does explain things gets to technical.So I challenge someone who has experience to explain whats needed for the sake of beginners.

Im going to be replacing my speakers with something more high end, so in the mean time I wanna get a good idea of how to setup all the settings with what I have.

Here what I have, and you guys tell me what I need for this setup.

Pioneer 1400dvd headunit. ... basic 8 band eq, high/low pass crossover 6 rca ,believe 2v

Rockford punch amp. 4x60 or 225x2 at 4 ohms

infinity perfect 6.1 components with crossover

alpine something on rears

have a 551s Rockford amp for sub...not sub yet

This is what I want to practice on so you guys tell me what else im missing to go active.

My set-up that I will have once im good is

Pioneer p1400pdvd headunit- same

ppi components the new ones, tweeters and mid will be strategically placed in a pillar

my current infinity perfect front woofers will be put in rear doors

ppi 900.4 amp 4x135 for fronts and might keep Rockford 450.4 for rears

Rockford 551s for sub....not sure on sub

All my doors will be deadening and dampened

Click to read more...

 

[trumpet 5,000+ posts]

Eliminating passive crossovers from a component system and replacing those with electronic crossovers does not magically unlock the true potential of your speakers. Passive crossovers should be designed to "correctly" blend a woofer with a tweeter. I put correctly in quotes because that's greatly simplifying this. You did say the other explanations you found got too technical.

And with that said, there is a big risk that "going active" is very likely to a) sound worse and/or b) result in blown speakers. The crossover selection is only one part of making speakers sound good. Gotta run, I may come back to this later.

 

[maylar 10+ year member]

The basic requirements are an amp channel for each driver and the ability to hipass/lowpass each one electronically. That can be done with the filters built into the amps, or from the HU if it has that capability, or with external crossovers, or a combination of these.

But as trumpet said, component speakers are designed with the passive crossovers that blend the drivers as a set. You don't usually get much improvement by eliminating them. People normally go active when they're using "non standard" speakers like audiophile stuff that's not made for car audio.

What is it that you expect to accomplish?

 

[beginner]

The reason I wanna go active is because im not satisfied with the sound quality my components are giving me. It feels like the tweeters, even though turned down on the cross over set are -5, overwhelms the mid. Its just not as clear and crisp as they should be.

If i can manually set the frequencies, combined with a better equalizer im convinced they will sound better.

So with that said, back to my question. With what I have, what will I need. My amp has 3 crossover settings, ap/hp/l.p..

My headunit has h/p but it controls all channels. Will a processor do the trick?

 

[maylar 10+ year member]

You will need an amp for the tweeters with a crossover that covers the 3.5 Khz range, which is where the Kappas are crossed with the passive crossovers. I wouldn't bother using a lowpass for the mids, just the hipass built into whatever amp you use.

You only need maybe 25 watts for the tweeters. No need to go big on that. You could use a PPI 900.4 for the front stage, it has a hipass filter that covers the tweeter range but that would be way overkill.

But... if it were me...

Before going through the effort and expense I would try other things to tame the tweeters. Relocating them or even turning them off axis could help. Sometimes reversing the polarity on one or the other or both can make it better. Be aware that the aluminum Kappa tweeters are notoriously bright and harsh. If you're going to change speakers anyway I would do that first before attempting an active solution.

 

[beginner]

You will need an amp for the tweeters with a crossover that covers the 3.5 Khz range, which is where the Kappas are crossed with the passive crossovers. I wouldn't bother using a lowpass for the mids, just the hipass built into whatever amp you use.
You only need maybe 25 watts for the tweeters. No need to go big on that. You could use a PPI 900.4 for the front stage, it has a hipass filter that covers the tweeter range but that would be way overkill.

But... if it were me...

Before going through the effort and expense I would try other things to tame the tweeters. Relocating them or even turning them off axis could help. Sometimes reversing the polarity on one or the other or both can make it better. Be aware that the aluminum Kappa tweeters are notoriously bright and harsh. If you're going to change speakers anyway I would do that first before attempting an active solution.

I just replaced my headunit with a 7800 mp Pioneer deck and it sounds much better. But still something about the mids isn't rite.

 

[bradl79 10+ year member]

Time alignment works if ur hu has it, it mad a big difference on mine.

 

[beginner]

Im gonna do that next

 

[winkychevelle 10+ year member]

going active while quite interesting and fun can easily harm your speakers as previously noted. some passive crossover have a bi-amp feature that allows you to power the mids and the tweets from separate channels of the amp. buy biamping you dont need any extra cross over controls other than the basic high pass. it allows you to attenuate you tweeter volume separate from you mids and ultimately give you the choice as to how the power is divided. buy bi-amping you can still use the time alignment and eq you have.

and the infinity tweeters are bright my recommendation is to 1) reverse the polarity of the passenger side, 2) aim then away from you but not at the windshield, how much away from you is your choice, and 3) try and cut some of the eq rather than boosting to overcome the bright tweets, this is better on the system anyway as it further mitigates the possibility of adding distortion by over-boosting signals.

going active you have to be really patient and careful and it often take alot of listening time to get it all to sound just right.