active crossover?

[Lucky 76 5]

I have 2 sets of re xxx 6.5 components ... i was thinking about going active but i do not know what the benefits would be and if it would be worth me spending the extra money for another amp ... would these speakers do well with an active setup? they are rated at 150 rms each (mid+twwet combined) ... how much power should i put to each mid and each tweeter? the ohm rating on the set is 2 ohm but will that change each speakers impedence?

[KU40 173]

Each of the mid and tweet are 2 ohms, and each should be able to handle 150 watts (unless the passive filter that comes with the set has some sort of attenuation on the tweeter).

Since the mid and tweeter don't play overlapping frequencies, their impedances and power handling do not combine.

I'm sure they would do well with an active setup. Your best bet may be to get two 4 channel amps and have one amp power the mids and the other power the tweeters. I only say that because your other alternative would be to wire the mids on each side together, but you'd get a net load of either 1 or 4 ohms per side. I'm not sure how difficult it would be to find an amp that puts out about 300 watts per channel at either 1 or 4 ohms.

[Lucky 76 5]

so are you saying each mid will handle 150 and each tweeter will handle 150? or are you saying mid and tweeter ... what is attentiation ... is that when the tweeter senses distance apart?

[Lucky 76 5]

so i talked to re and they said xover at 3k ... they said 150 rms / mid and around 35 rms / tweet ... my question is what to do for another sundown amp ... i want to keep everything sundown ... what are my options here ... i dont really want to wire the tweets to get a 4 ohm load because it would screw up some features in the radio that i like ... i cannot go a 50.4 according to jacob because channels 3+4 do not have a hpf x10 switch ... should i just get another 100.4? ... will i be able to tune the 100.4 down so that it will be doing 35 rms at 2 ohm x 4? and will just the amp be fine to use as my xovers?

Edited August 13, 2009 by Lucky 76

[KU40 173]

Attenuation, as in limiting power. Sometimes they do it through resistors in the tweeter signal path inside the passive crossover, or maybe the tweeter is just a higher impedance. If the mid can handle 150 but the tweeter can only handle 35, and they rate the set for 150, something has to lower the power going to the tweeter.

Tweeters can't sense anything.

You can always limit power output of an amp by just turning the gain lower than the input signal voltage from the head unit, instead of matching it for maximum, unclipped power.

[Lucky 76 5]

Attenuation, as in limiting power. Sometimes they do it through resistors in the tweeter signal path inside the passive crossover, or maybe the tweeter is just a higher impedance. If the mid can handle 150 but the tweeter can only handle 35, and they rate the set for 150, something has to lower the power going to the tweeter.

Tweeters can't sense anything.

You can always limit power output of an amp by just turning the gain lower than the input signal voltage from the head unit, instead of matching it for maximum, unclipped power.

i think the xover has a tweeter protection device on it so it must be the attenuation ... will the amp go down to 35 watts? my old jbl amp was tuned all the way down and it was putting out some serious power ... the guy at re said anything over 35 to the tweet will be extremely loud for your ears and will sound out of place ... he said tweeters are very efficient and that is why so little power to them

[KU40 173]

How much power do you think your amps are putting out when your head unit is at volume 1?

[///M5 2,833]

lol, just turn the gain knob down. you could put a 1000w /chn amp on those tweeters and they'd be fine if you used the gain knob right.

[MKader17 332]

If you are using 2 sets of components I wouldn't worry about going active. I don't see any real benefit in it.

[Lucky 76 5]

the only reason i am doing active is to get more output out of my speakers ... i cant make n e more room for speakers as i do not want to cut apart the doors more than i already have ... they need to keep up with my 4 18s im putting in ... obviously "sound quality" is not what i am after by far ... i just want them to keep up with my low end portion to some extent ...

and for the whole gain thing ... i understand if the h/u is turned down to 1 the amp will put out very little power ... the problem is when it gets to the higher volumes ... i dont know if it is on just my old jbl amp and infinity amp (pretty much same company) but i had my gains turned all the way down on my amp and they were powering my comps with easily 50 rms of power

[KU40 173]

Well then I guess you just have to adjust the gain on the sub amp as well to compensate. You won't use as much head unit volume bandwidth, but oh well. Apparently your head unit puts out a lot of voltage, so set the gains with the volume lower to reduce signal voltage and you'll have more play with the gains.

[Lucky 76 5]

no it wasnt that ... i set my gains on my rf t8004 and it was almost the opposite lol ... would you recommend going active? ... is it better for my situation?

[Lucky 76 5]

the reason lies in my rca outs i believe ... the pico fuse is blown inside and ever since then everything has been screwy ... im getting the new kenwood dnx9140

[///M5 2,833]

That has nothing to do with your pico fuse and your amp did NOT put out 50wrms with any Pio deck at zero gain unless you had some other setting jacked.

Is active right for you? Probably not as I'd bet the net effect is that you blow something up. If you want more out of your front stage the first step is to determine at what frequencies this is necessary. Keeping up is something you will not want at all otherwise you will go deaf in a matter of minutes, 150dB at 1kHz will curdle your cream and damn fast.

It is hard to understand when you type in ellipses, please don't.

[///M5 2,833]

Oh, and Pio >> Kenwood

[Lucky 76 5]

pioneers double dins dont offer as much audio features as the new excelon ... the 50 watts was not from the h/u but the amp ... when the pico blows the rcas get all fd up in pio decks ... why do you say i will blow something up? if i put intended power to it w no clipping it will be fine wont it?

[///M5 2,833]

Has nothing to do with intended power, but the realization of how it will be set up. If you truly want to run active neither the Pio nor Kenwood have the settings you need, you are going to need a single din deck for that unless you want to use a double din and an offboard processor. When the pico blows the rca's don't get all effed up, but they do get noisy. The pico only blows though if you connect something incorrectly.

[Lucky 76 5]

ya the pico fuse blew because it was grounded through the harness ... what do you mean by the realization of how it will be set up? ... i guess the 2 100.4 amps will be fine because i will be able to bi amp them