Where's the Active X-over sticky?

[DBz Hertz 10+ year member]

This site needs an active X-over sticky. Before anyone yells at me saying,"we already have one.. here loser, non searching, moron," I'd like to point out that the linked thread only describes the differences between the two.

Great, I already know what the difference is. If someone knows where I can find a HOW TO, I'd be much obliged. I searched this forum and have found NOTHING.

So basically, I AM A NEWB AT ACTIVE CROSSOVER TUNING. N-E-W-B. I need lay-mans definitions, and answers to basic questions, such as:

How do I know what frequency to set my mids and tweets? (adapt to 2-way or 3-way)

How should I set my gains? User preference? Same voltage as my pre-outs?

Do I need an oscilloscope to properly set my gains?

Can my tweeter handle the 100 watts my woofer can? (newb.. 'member??)

DO I REALLY NEED TO PROTECT MY TWEETERS WITH A CAPACITOR? (big one for me right now), although someone did give me SOME info, I couldn't decipher it too well. (newb)

I want to do this, BUT I can't get any CLEAR answers about ANYTHING! I can't learn how to do this if all the information I find is useless.

THANK YOU EVERYONE! Please, someone sticky a HOW-TO on this, I see a lot of people asking questions about active crossovers.

Click to read more...

 

[DBz Hertz 10+ year member]

Tall order?

 

[A-hole]

try looking in this site. They are more sound quality oriented.

DIYMA.com - Car Audio Forum & 12 volt Community Board

 

[Louisiana_CRX 5,000+ posts]

I have several nice Active Crossovers...just sayin'

 

[DBz Hertz 10+ year member]

Thanks A Hole, I'll check them out!

Louisiana.. I'm happy for you.

 

[ramos 5,000+ posts]

This site needs an active X-over sticky. Before anyone yells at me saying,"we already have one.. here loser, non searching, moron," I'd like to point out that the linked thread only describes the differences between the two.
Great, I already know what the difference is. If someone knows where I can find a HOW TO, I'd be much obliged. I searched this forum and have found NOTHING.

So basically, I AM A NEWB AT ACTIVE CROSSOVER TUNING. N-E-W-B. I need lay-mans definitions, and answers to basic questions, such as:

How do I know what frequency to set my mids and tweets? (adapt to 2-way or 3-way)

How should I set my gains? User preference? Same voltage as my pre-outs?

Do I need an oscilloscope to properly set my gains?

Can my tweeter handle the 100 watts my woofer can? (newb.. 'member??)

DO I REALLY NEED TO PROTECT MY TWEETERS WITH A CAPACITOR? (big one for me right now), although someone did give me SOME info, I couldn't decipher it too well. (newb)

I want to do this, BUT I can't get any CLEAR answers about ANYTHING! I can't learn how to do this if all the information I find is useless.

THANK YOU EVERYONE! Please, someone sticky a HOW-TO on this, I see a lot of people asking questions about active crossovers.

See the thing with active crossovers is that nothng is really set in stone as far as what xover pointsand slopes work for what....

Lets start with your questions

1. What frequency ? depends on what your speakers can handle in the enviroment they are installed in. If these are passives your going active with a good place to start is with the xover points on the passives.

2. Gains on what ? Set your amp gain structure first before you start tweaking xover settings

3. O scope helps get it perfect, but it's not a have to have thing.

4. Depends on the tweeter. if your feeding said tweeter 100w rms. It will not be seeing the entire 100w . If and when it does it will be only for milliseconds at a time.

5. If your worried about blowing tweets, Go for it. Better to be safe than sorry

I know I'm not very descriptive, ask some more questions lol //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[DBz Hertz 10+ year member]

See the thing with active crossovers is that nothng is really set in stone as far as what xover pointsand slopes work for what....
Lets start with your questions

1. What frequency ? depends on what your speakers can handle in the enviroment they are installed in. If these are passives your going active with a good place to start is with the xover points on the passives.

2. Gains on what ? Set your amp gain structure first before you start tweaking xover settings

3. O scope helps get it perfect, but it's not a have to have thing.

4. Depends on the tweeter. if your feeding said tweeter 100w rms. It will not be seeing the entire 100w . If and when it does it will be only for milliseconds at a time.

5. If your worried about blowing tweets, Go for it. Better to be safe than sorry

I know I'm not very descriptive, ask some more questions lol //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Cool, thanks for the reply. I guess I'll just have to listen for my preferred crossover point, although, I've decided to use Alpines IMPRINT manager to calibrate my sound for me. I am wondering if it will determine crossover points for me. I have the active crossovers on the IMPRINT, but my amp also has an active crossover option.

The drivers I purchased don't come with a passive x-over per-say. The instructions describe a capacitor inline with the tweeter that blocks full range frequencies. All I have to do is disconnect the leads from the woofer. Slopes are something I just can't grasp yet... I'm working on it.

By gains, I just meant my amps channel levels. An O scope would be nice, but I guess I'll just have to play it by ear. I have been reading recently that your PRE OUTS play a big part in where your gains are set. I'm under the impression that you would set your gains to the same voltage as your preouts.. for example mine are 4v, so I'd set my gains to 4v so they could get the full volume range before distorting... not sure about this one though.

I was never worried about my tweets until I read that some people prefer to protect them, however, I've read about numerous people not protecting them, and having no issues whatsoever, so I'm really unsure about this, and probably won't protect them.

I guess the main thing I am worried about, is that IMPRINT won't realize my tweets aren't supposed to receive full range, but then again that's why there's a 3-way switch on the module I guess. I just don't wanna screw this up.

This post seems to be more-so me talking to myself eh? Well thanks for listening!!

 

[ramos 5,000+ posts]

slopes are the one part that is pretty straight forward.

Crossover slope describes the rate which the audio level increases or decreases per octave as the frequency increases or decreases. Most of the time it is represented by a number (6, 12, 18, 24...) of dB per octave. This means that every time the audio frequency is changed by a factor of 2 (one octave), the level of the audio signal will change by 12dB.

here are a couple links for your reading pleasure lol First one is an explanation of crossover slopes. second is a link to hints and tips threads dealing with the imprint //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Crossover Slope

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/how-articles-provided-our-members/50129-imprint-tuning-hints-tips.html

 

[DBz Hertz 10+ year member]

slopes are the one part that is pretty straight forward. Crossover slope describes the rate which the audio level increases or decreases per octave as the frequency increases or decreases. Most of the time it is represented by a number (6, 12, 18, 24...) of dB per octave. This means that every time the audio frequency is changed by a factor of 2 (one octave), the level of the audio signal will change by 12dB.

here are a couple links for your reading pleasure lol First one is an explanation of crossover slopes. second is a link to hints and tips threads dealing with the imprint //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Crossover Slope

Imprint tuning hints and tips - DIYMA.com

Holy crap dude.. that is exactly what I need. I'm glad someone has some searching skills. Thanks a lot!! I will study up for sure.

 

[SmartAsss 10+ year member]

diyma should be your forum of choice since your into sq. too many spl guys here.

One thing I found out when I went active (well halfway at the time) with my set was,

If your going to use the passive crossover for one of your filters, but are disconnecting the tweeter or mid from it. you need to put a dummy load on the empty terminals, other wise you risk destroying it. the inductor coils will start resonating without one. The mids can run full-range, if you don't have a bandpass filter yet, they might be a little barky though.

a .99 cent cap on the tweet is good insurance. 20 to 40 microfarads is enough to protect them from turn on pops, and low enough to be out of your active crossover range.

o-scopes are not needed, especially considering they cost hundreds of dollars. money would be better spent on a RTA setup.

your gains should be set by ear with music, the markings on the amp dial is not reliable and chances are the head unit will not actually put out the full 4v.

the headunit should be at 3/4 vol when setting them, unless you know that you particular unit does not clip or introduce distortion at max vol, another benefit from the 3/4 rule is to allow for quieter recordings to be turned up some.

Read up on "acoustic phase" I found this to help a lot when setting my speakers before I bought the ms-8. I found that flipping the polarity of my drivers side mid centered the sound image and helped the mid bass in my truck.

 

[DBz Hertz 10+ year member]

diyma should be your forum of choice since your into sq. too many spl guys here.
One thing I found out when I went active (well halfway at the time) with my set was,

If your going to use the passive crossover for one of your filters, but are disconnecting the tweeter or mid from it. you need to put a dummy load on the empty terminals, other wise you risk destroying it. the inductor coils will start resonating without one. The mids can run full-range, if you don't have a bandpass filter yet, they might be a little barky though.

a .99 cent cap on the tweet is good insurance. 20 to 40 microfarads is enough to protect them from turn on pops, and low enough to be out of your active crossover range.

o-scopes are not needed, especially considering they cost hundreds of dollars. money would be better spent on a RTA setup.

your gains should be set by ear with music, the markings on the amp dial is not reliable and chances are the head unit will not actually put out the full 4v.

the headunit should be at 3/4 vol when setting them, unless you know that you particular unit does not clip or introduce distortion at max vol, another benefit from the 3/4 rule is to allow for quieter recordings to be turned up some.

Read up on "acoustic phase" I found this to help a lot when setting my speakers before I bought the ms-8. I found that flipping the polarity of my drivers side mid centered the sound image and helped the mid bass in my truck.

Great info, thanks a lot SmartAsss. I will definitely check out DIYMA. With the info you guys have given me, I should be good to go. One thing I'm unsure about is the capacitor for the tweeters. The main reason is that from what I've read, I need to pick a capacitor for a certain frequency I am trying to achieve. Is this correct? This is the equation I am given to calculate the capacitor I need:

C = 1/2 (Pi) fZ

C is the “safety” capacitor value in Farads (1 Farad = 1,000,000 mfd).

f = one-half the tweeter crossover frequency

Z = tweeter impedance at the crossover point

But, this makes NO SENSE. This puts me at 9420 mfd..

What's up with the equation? Am I missing something? Does it matter what capacitor I choose as long as it's between 20 and 40 mfd?

Would this work? http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=027-716

 

[SmartAsss 10+ year member]

You just want to protect it right?

Here is a chart that should help.

Speaker Crossover Chart and Capacitance vs. Frequency Calculator(High-pass)

Would this work? http://www.parts-express.com/pe/show...number=027-716

I would only use something like that for a highend passive crossover.If you just want to protect the tweet then just buy the cheapest one you can find, you won't hear it anyways.

you just want to pick a cap that will prevent damage. you do not want it to be anywhere in the crossover range or it will cause a phase shift. the cap size I recommended will work no matter ohm the tweeter is. .33 is fine. just don't spend $7 for a cap, no need to unless your building a passive crossover. radioshack sells them for 99cents