I'm gathering the last few parts I need for a 3-way active setup. I just wanted to see what anyone who has experience with active setups thinks about my current plan....

I have two amps:

5-channel: 4x80 + 1x350 -OR- 2x160 + 1x350
4-channel: 4x100 -OR- 2x320

I have two active crossovers:

ARC MX-1: 2-channel HP/LP, each fully independantly adjustable at 55-6000 Hz
PowerBass XEX-23: 3-channel LP/BP/HP, only adjustable up to 500 Hz for LP, 30-5000 Hz for both ends of BP/HP

Speakers:

midbass: CDT ES-06, 6.5", 160wRMS, 10-4000 Hz
midrange: CDT ES-04, 4", 50wRMS, 50-7000 Hz
tweeter: CDT HD-2, 2" 40wRMS, 400-18000 Hz

My currrent plan.....

AMPS:

The sub in my trunk will be powered by the 5-channel amp at 350w

6.5" midbass powered by bridged 5-channel amp at 160wRMS each

4" midrange powered by 2 channels of the 4x100 amp

tweeters powered by other 2 channels of 4x100 amp with gains adjusted down as needed

CROSSOVERS:

Option 1: my original thought was to split the HU front channel signal and use both. MX-1 would have HP going to tweets and LP going to 6", then use XEX-23 as BP to supply only the 4". This would allow me to play with the overlap at both speaker crossover points.

Option 2: use only the XEX-23 as a true 3-way LP/BP/HP. This would be the easiest, but I'd be at the mercy of the XEX-23 for how the slopes affect each speaker.

For crossover setpoints how does this sound...

<100 Hz to the sub (controlled by HU)

100-500 to 6.5" (low end controlled by HU, hi end by MX-1 crossover)

500-4000 to 4" (both ends controlled by BP on XEX-23)

>4000 to tweeters (controlled by MX-1 crossover)

Comments

 

I would recommend trying your XEX as a true 3-way system first. If that doesn't satisfy, then consider upgrading to the ARC IDX.

 

60 subs
80-350 6.5s
350-4k mids
4k tweeters

is where I would start... try it 2 way though, might sound better

Seems kind of pointless to use midrange speakers as your midbass. They are built with top end extension in mind. you would be better off with an actual midbass (SLS for example)

 

That's the way I'm leaning right now.

My numbers were close. Thanks

If I can't tweek in the 3-way setup I'll give just the 6" and tweets a shot with the MX-1.

I'm mostly working with pieces and parts that I had sitting around, or stuff that I got a great deal on recently. If I can't make an active setup sound as good as I think it should I'll probably end up getting a high end set of components and selling off the pieces I currently have.

Thanks guys

 

also try underlapping the xover points. I run 2-way and all my xovers are gapped, even on 24db slopes.

 

My initial try will be with the XEX23 only, so I'll be stuck with whatever overlap it gives me, if I don't like that I'll add the MX1 to split out the tweet and midbass and use the XEX23 for the midrange (giving me complete control of both over/underlap points), if I still don't like it I'll switch to just the MX1 and go 2-way with the tweets and 6.5". If for some reason I'm still not happy I'll go back to components.

Hopefully I'll be doing the install this weekend, 11/19 at the latest.

 

Near what Kale suggested, I try and get as much out of the midbass as I can (80hz or less) and let that dictate where the sub needs to be.

I would go a touch higher on the midrange, maybe somewhere in the 5k range and let the tweets come on where they need to.

My 3 way is 63hz sub 18db / 63hz 24db - 315hz 24db midbass (wish I could go lower, but can't due to the ..) 3" dome midrange 350hz 24db - 5khz 12db / 7khz 12db tweet (might actually be 6db been a LONG time)

Power seems right, and with a limited outlay of cash for true midbass units I think that could be pretty damn nice. The more vocal range you can keep in the midrange speaker the more accurate your soundstage can be in most instances (single source is your friend).

Spend some time with the tuning of each pair, take notes, then work on tweaking when the entire system is on sans sub. Then blend the sub as needed.

G'luck man
Fej

 

So somewhere between...

Kale <60 : 80-350 : 350-4k : >4k

- and -

fej <63 : 63-315 : 315-5k : >5k

Sweet Those are the numbers I wasn't too sure of.

My HU has independant Sub and HPF selections at 50, 63, 80, 100, 125 Hz. Hmmm.... this just might work

 

You may be able to actually go lower with your 4" cone midrange, down into the 250hz range which would be ideal, pulls basically all of the vocals out of the midbass, and ups the efficiency of their playback. I would guess that you would need 24db slopes at minimum, and may actually need to run both the electronic and the amp crossover together to get a steeper rolloff (maybe a net 34-36db).

Worth playing around with for sure, the lower the crossover on the midbass, the cleaner and more accurate the midbass range will play. The tradeoff is to not overtax the midrange since all of your vocals (and your best hearing range) will come from it. The tweet can get very efficient and clean when not asked to attempt to vibrate at 3khz as well (unless designed to do so, think big home tweets)

The 50/63/80/100/125hz are actually octave ranges just an FYI.



G'luck man. My 3 way taught me a lot. Still pales in playback to my $1.2k custom home system

Fej