amp crossover amp crossover wt*, mate?

[kami240sx]

I know my system has a lot more potential than its sounding right now but tuning it is tough stuff.It seems that my music passes through 3 amps and 3 crossovers before I actually hear anything.How would I go about tuning? Should I turn off the amp on the headunit and tune the speaker and sub amp?

The tougher question is it seems I blew out my component speakers (with those crossovers that came with the speakers) I thought crossovers are supposed to prevent those blowouts? Aren't those HPF and LPF on the headunit supposed to work like crossover?

Some help would be greatly appreciated. I'm a student so I'm trying to save money by doing this myself

[Looneybomber]

I know my system has a lot more potential than its sounding right now but tuning it is tough stuff.It seems that my music passes through 3 amps and 3 crossovers before I actually hear anything.How would I go about tuning? Should I turn off the amp on the headunit and tune the speaker and sub amp?

You're using 1 amp for the sub, 1 amp for the front speakers and 1 for the rear? If so, you're using the preamp outputs from the headunit correct?

The tougher question is it seems I blew out my component speakers (with those crossovers that came with the speakers) I thought crossovers are supposed to prevent those blowouts?

Crossovers prevent frequencies from being reproduced by certain drivers, they do not however prevent "blowouts" due to a clipped signal or over powering them.

Aren't those HPF and LPF on the headunit supposed to work like crossover?

They are crossovers.

[kami240sx]

I have 1 amp for the sub and 1 for my 4 speakers. Preamp, i know mine has a built-in amp, i set it to "IC Off" right?

so I have those little boxes that come with the speakers. I do not need to set the crossovers on my headunit, right?

I know my components only is only good for mid/highs but it seems its trying to put out some bass. Any idea what's going on?

[audtatious]

How many RCA pre-outs do you have for the amps? Do you have the headunit speaker-level outputs connected to anything?

What headunit, amps and speaker sets are you using?

[kami240sx]

I have an Alpine 9853 (3 pre-outs i believe)500W JL mono amp and 10 inch JL subinfinity 6010cs speakers and 200W alpine amp (from best buy)

the 500W JL says - 2-channel (independent active filter, parallel with amp filter or pass through)

and the 200W alpine. . .it has high and low pass. . .http://www.bestbuy.com/site/ol...97748

link for jlhttp://mobile.jlaudio.com/prod...d=252

any help would be great

[Looneybomber]

Ok, so you're not using the head units amp, which means you can take that out of the equation.

Ideally you want to set some sort of high-pass x-over on your components, typically a few hz above what your sub is x-over'd at. If you have a sub, you do NOT want to send bass signals to your speakers to lower the risk of blowing them...too late for you.

Now, when you say "tuning" what are you referring to? You don't have an equalizer to tweek, so all you're really needing to do is set the gains on your amps and x-over settings correct? In a car, I'd set your sub x-over at 75-85hz and your components at 80-90hz.

[PoorManQ45]

I know that Alpine unit has a built in HPF for the mains and a LPF for the sub.

Set both of them to somewhere between 80hz and 120hz.

This will prevent the mains from playing bass.

With this done you could potentially set the crossovers on the amps to their highest position to let the HU do the work

[audtatious]

Front+rear channel RCA outputs to the Alpine amp. Set the HU high pass Xover at 80 or 120 (Those 6010cs mids simply can't take much bass). On the Alpine amp, set both filter switches to HP and set both filter screws to 75hz (I'm sure it is notched, if not, have it set around 80hz). Do not turn the gains up all the way.

Sub-out to the JL amp. On the JL amp the Preamp Output section is meaningless in your config so leave it. Turn on Infrasonic Filter and set cut-off to 15. Leave bass EQ off for now. Set Amp LP Filter Slope to 12dB and adjust frequency screw to 65Hz. The amp Input Section should have the Input Voltage set to low and Signal Sensing off. Do not crank the input Sens.

Give that a whirl. If you decide to use the Bass EQ, get the system sounding good without it, then read up on "Q" and "Center Freq" before toying with it.

[kami240sx]

Thanks audtatious, looney, and poorman. Having you guys say similar things gives me a good baseline for tuning my system. I'll go try it out

[Looneybomber]

Thanks audtatious, looney, and poorman. Having you guys say similar things gives me a good baseline for tuning my system. I'll go try it out

What I meant to say was put a low pass on the components at 550hz, then adjust the gain of the sub so that it's inversely proportanal to the square of the tweeters upper roll off frequency.

[PoorManQ45]

WTF?

[kami240sx]

What I meant to say was put a low pass on the components at 550hz, then adjust the gain of the sub so that it's inversely proportanal to the square of the tweeters upper roll off frequency.

everytime i read it, i fee like i'm getting hit with a ton of bricks

so looney says components hp 80hz-90hz; sub lp 75hz-85hzpoorman says components hp 80hz-120hz; sub lp 80hz-120hzaudtatious says HU should be hp 80-120; components hp 75hz-80hz; and sub is infra on, cut off 15, LP filter 12db at 65hz, input volt low.

Aud, wouldn't the HP filter on the components and headunit do the same thing? why have two and at different... er, hertz?

Looney, i'd like to know about that inverse proportionally to the square of the tweeter's roll off freq

[audtatious]

Aud, wouldn't the HP filter on the components and headunit do the same thing? why have two and at different... er, hertz?

The answer is: Not necessarily. Depends on the slope you have selected and the slope of the passive Xovers. On my Pioneer, I do notice more bass from the front at 50hz HP vs higher HP settings. This is regardless of the passive Xovers I am using on my mids (Both MB Quart MusiComp and the JL XLR's).

No reason not to set both, IMO. You can adjust the slope from the HU in order to further fine-tune it.

[kami240sx]

hmmm, ok. here's another one. I'm replacing my mb quart components with the new infinity ones. The crossover on the mbquart looks beefier with larger copper coils, and has a fuse vs the smaller infinity crossover. Do brands have to match or can I still use the mb quart one? i think the mb quart x-over would work better

[PoorManQ45]

Wow!

Why are you downgrading to Infinity components!

MB Quart is one of the best in car audio!

[audtatious]

What MB Quarts do you have? Regardless, if you are going for Infiniti Reference seperates they won't hold a candle to the MB Quarts.

Yes, the Quart MusiComp Xovers are great.

[Looneybomber]

Looney, i'd like to know about that inverse proportionally to the square of the tweeter's roll off freq

Ignore that. I was just playing around.

Also, keep your MB Quarts. There is no sense in buying new components when the ones you have are just fine right?

As for crossover settings between your sub and your components, you can uses stacked crossovers if you really want to. For example, on your sub amp you could have your lowpass set at 100-110hz, then have the headunits (HU) lowpass set at 80hz, ultimately giving you a 24db/oct slope at 100-110hz (which ever is selected on your amp). That would really help keep the upper bass from being reproduced by your sub to keep your cars system from "groaning", but would initially start off with a soft rolloff to help blend the components blend in with the sub.

On the flipside, you could also use 2 different crossovers on your components to keep bass notes from being reproduced helping protect your mid-bass's from blowing.

I'm assuming you have selectable x-over settings on your HU and also variable settings on your power amps correct?