Calling all audio gurus!

[RANDY P]

Originally posted by lateapex911
Lets see some pics of the door speaks, please!

closest pic I have at the moment are my interior shots on pcaronline, there is a shot with drivers door open.

6.5" and it's basically a bolt in fit.

rjp

[WydRyd]

OK fellas, the ALpine CD-Tuner I have has a built in Active X-Over 3-way setting. I'm told it'd be better to use the inbuilt active x-over instead of the passive Focal X-Overs, so I can fine tune and adjust the x-over points in the actual head unit itself.

I'm told to wire it this way:

Front RCA HU -> Front RCA Amp -> Tweeters
Rear RCA HU -> Rear RCA Amp -> MidBass's
SubW RCA HU-> Infinity Basslink

In the above configuration, I can then fine tune the x-over points in the head unit for more control over sound quality and imaging.

What do you guys think?

Originally, I was going to bridge the 4 x 40W amp to a 2 x 100W setup and just run the Focals off that setup, but I'm told by an audio guru that the passive cross-overs will rob a lot of power (approx 25%) and drop speaker volume by up to 3dB!!!

Although the Focals still will be a little underpowered, they will be less underpowered by that amp in Active than they would running bridged and passive. The Active setup gives me much more tuning options, and gives me the ability to take full advantage of the head unit's features.

Advice?

[superhighperf]

i would still recomend using the passive x-overs. expecialy for the tweeters. i don't think the active ones in the hu have the right freq for mids and tweeters. check it out in the manual. for the mids you would need something like 250hz hi pass on the hu and then a 5,000hz low pass on the amp. the tweeters should have a 5,000hz high pass? i'm not sure exactly what your speakers want but that is a good estimate and 12 db/octave or more is a must

[WydRyd]

Hmmm, this is what I was told by an audio guru who knows the Alpine Head Unit I have:

In the deck, press and hold the setup or menu or whatever,go into crossover, set High to 24DB (which is setting 4) I think using the source button, and use the slide bar to set at 3.2khz. On the Mid High, set the same 4 / 3.2khz, on the Mid Low, set 4 / 80hz, on the low (sub) set 4 / 80hz. set the gains on the amp equal, you can turn your tweeter up and down on the deck, start with negative 4 compared to the mids.

Do not set any Crossovers on the amps, including the self powered sub, (if the self-powered sub permanently has a X/over, set it higher than 80hz, so the alpine x/over is doing the work).

Once this is setup, you have separate time alignement for your mids, tweeter and sub, which is a great thing to have, as it gives you more mounting options with your mids, in regards to tweeter placement. The 5 Band P Eq is great to sort things out after the rest is setup.

[superhighperf]

i just checked out the manual for your deck and it is sweet. it has all of the adjustments you need. those adjustments you mentioned look ok. they should be specific for your speakers. in my experience a 80hz mid freq is a bit low for my taste. if you notice that the mids are distorting try using a higher freq like 120+. from the look on the responce graph it looks like the fs of the driver is 80hz and you should have a x-over freq 1 to 2 octaves above that, 160-240hz. it realy depends on how you listen to your stereo.
good luck with the install.

[RANDY P]

whatever you do, if you bi - amp the front end (delete the passive x-overs) -make sure you install in series a non polarized capicator on the tweeters to protect them from turn on thumps and spikes.

Typically (assuming a 4 ohm load) you want to install a cap that is 1/2 the crossover point you have assigned - so, 5000HZ at 4 ohm shoud correspond to a 2.5 microfarad cap in series.

Installing something against DC shorts wouldn't hurt as well - LED in parallel for instance.

rjp

[RANDY P]

Frankly, given the environment you're listening in, just running two channels, and using the xover boxes will be plenty good.

avoid spending hours tweaking this thing, lots of extra wiring, and with your power you'll be plenty loud enough to make your ears ring for hours just installing it as the speaker designers intended. If you're unsure about how to set it all up, it's a real time consuming affair, esp. if you have a bi- amped setup with slopes - if you get the slopes wrong between mids and highs, you'll get cancellation in certain frequencies and funky imaging.

Like I said, my recommendation is to use a strong two channel amp for the front, xover boxes (which will also provide protection against pops and spikes) and a crossover in the deck- use the deck to filter signals between mid/highs and sub only coupled to the powered sub with NO CROSSOVER built in as a setup. Less wiring, better longetivity and less hassle. Doubt you'll hear the difference.

Also, if you decide to bi amp the front, at 5K hz I'd reccomend a 24Db / octave slope, from what I've played with in the past, 12 is too gradual at that frequency - check what the speaker is rated for in response range

Just my $.02

rjp

[WydRyd]

Originally posted by superhighperf
they should be specific for your speakers.

Yeh they are, he looked up the specs on the Focal 165K2P's and that's the settings he recommended for my setup. I gave him all the model #'s of the amp, subby, deck and speakers I'm using, so ???

All I can really do is give it a try and see how it all pans out.

If it turns out to be too much hasstle running in Active X-over mode, I can always fit the passive x-overs in the trunk with the rest of the hardware and just bridge the amp to 2-channel mode

I do want the best sound possible, since it is a Cab, and I want the best imaging I can get out of the setup

Doesn't maTter which way I go (active VS passive), in the end, it's GOT to be better than the factory Nokia ***** that's in there currently