ready to go active>?

[nickeveready 0]

I thought that headunit had high and low pass crossovers built in to it? I know mine does and it's the P-5900ib

It does, if you want to use passively crossed speakers, for this application however, it won't work... well, it will, but he'll have to use the amp crossovers.

honestly dude, if rap is all you truly listen to then I wouldn't even bother. i probably would just get a nice comp set and the midbass and call it a day.

Nothing wrong with wanting to sound better. And tbh, there is no passive comp set that will be better than running active.

At least.. without spending $1k on a set of Dynaudio 360's.

Edited September 23, 2008 by nickeveready

[95Honda 486]

If you can't name a decent comp set

but a Vifa ring radiator and midbass are a lot less expensive at Madisound and you don't get passive Xovers that'll be useless to you.

I completely agree.

I have been putting together component sets for car audio maybe for, I dunno, at least 15 years. I spent the 1st 10 years designing really, really nice passive crossovers, but it took alot of work. But, they always sounded much better than anything you could by at several times the price. I remember putting many sets of components that used the 90K Focal Kevlar tweeters when they were $40 a pop at Zalytron and mating them with Focal or Scan Speak mids.... For a few hundred bucksthey were awesome... I probably designed 20 or 30 sets over the years....

About 5 or 6 years ago I started playing alot more with active setups, mostly because decent 4 channel amps have gotten alot easier to find and pay for. Really like outboard crossovers that have exact frequency selection, like the older Audio Control stuff with plug in modules, I mean I could find these for $25-$50 used on e-bay. I know there are a ton of outboard processors out there, just look for decent filter control, not just a dial with a vague idea of where it actually is set. I would really shy away from using any built in crossovers inside the amp unless you are using it as a highpass for the midbass low-cut.

As for drivers, you would be amazed what you can get for the money, I say it often, but the hands down some of the best drivers you can get for this application are the Parts Express Dayton reference 4ohm drivers. These sound, and measure better, than almost anything at 3-4X thier price. They are pretty cheap, only around $40 each. Mate these with a decent tweeter like one of Ring-radiators Jim talked about and you would have a serious kick-ass set of components.

The last set I put together was in my Dad's F-150 and this used a set of the 6" Dayton references combined with the 1" Vifa Neodium tweeters. He is running a 2XS and an older 100wx4 Rockford Punch Power series amps, it absolutely screams, sounds really, really good and was fairly easy to set up right. He lets it eat, and I mean LOUD, on a daily basis and they have stood up no problem over the last year.

The really nice thing about active is you don't have to worry about driver impedance/filter network interaction. This is a HUGE help. No Zobels, no traps, no EQ, no L-pads.... It really makes things nice, especially if you are a novice with this stuff.

I really think you would be very, very happy with an amp like a 100.4 you are looking at and a set of decent midbasses and tweeters like Jim and I are reccomending.

I would be happy to help off line with driver selection and frequency selection.

-Mike

[///M5 2,833]

Pioneer all the way.....at least in terms of midbass + tweets

And you have experience with these? Perhaps in your backpack?

honestly dude, if rap is all you truly listen to then I wouldn't even bother. i probably would just get a nice comp set and the midbass and call it a day.

well show me what you think will work please. i look alot but i have never heard nor seen any for my self.

maybe someone can chime in about the comps..the only comp set that i've had was the alpine type x 5.25's. sounded decent but i know it's better out there. try looking toward cdt, pg, or boston. the last time i heard a boston comp set it sounded good to my ears but that was awhile ago and i don't know if they are still on top of their game.

edit:forget cdt i forgot about the $300 budget

If you can't name a decent comp set why do you think it would be better than say the CA18RNX I recommended? On top of that the X 5.25's would be terrible for the application, and the CDT's are way overpriced junk.

While there is more hassle with an active setup, in his budget even with just the amp crossovers (which are FAR from ideal) the HDS/CA18 combination will compete with passive sets costing 5x as much. Your comments recommending otherwise are not based on any real experience

m5, your recommendation is fine as a matter of fact that's the route i would go. but he clearly stated that the only music he listens to is rap nothing else, and on top of that he didn't want to spend any additional money on processing, that it why i made the recommendation i did.

He has processing albeit simple. As long as he shies away from drivers with nasty breakups and ones without other anomalies in the frequency response everything should be fine. Exactly why I recommended a simple paper driver (which is a beast btw) in the CA18 and a really flexible tweeter in the HDS.