Head unit cross over or cross over that comes with component speakers?

Orestp

Thanks - using the active crossover in my head unit with a multi channel amp IS what I want to do (I used to do sound for bands, set up PAs, etc. - that's where I got this idea).

So what I'm trying to acertain is whether using the active crossover in my head unit rather than the crossovers that come with the speakers will result in poorer sound quality - some sales people have said it would.

Thanks,

OP

bigaudiofanat

I missed the part about you having a amp already.

However once again, there're pros and cons to going both active and passive. If you go active and mess up your crossover points you could blow your tweeters and or your woofers, tuning takes hours even days to get everything sounding just right.

So once again I say if you want ease of install and setup go passive and use the speaker crossovers, if you want more control and have the time to tune everything from octave, to crossover frequencies, and so on go active.

Go to DIYmobileaudio and search active, there are tons of threads explaining what you need to know.


I will be running a 3 way setup. I must be crazy!!!!

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RonRizz

Absolutely not. I think your "sales people" got it all wrong... I would go active 10 times out of 10, and your head unit provides you the perfect tool for it. There are differences in every cars acoustics, as well as speaker placement options and a passive crossover is not going to provide you with the ability to make adjustments to compensate for all the little nuances you are bound to encounter. Being savvy with a soundboard tells me you are comfortable understanding frequencies and crossover points, and should be more than capable to tune your system on your own.
Hook that badboy up, and get rockin'

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SouthArk370Z

I gotta agree with the others - a tri-amped system is much more complicated, but will provide you with a lot more flexibility. You seem to have the knowledge to make a good start; the rest is just a little research and a lot of tuning. They make a meter (can't recall the proper name right now) that will tell you how loud your system is at a certain frequency, which can be a big help in custom setups (feed the system some white noise and measure output at different freqs).
The main function of the xover in the speaker is to provide a balanced output from the drivers. A fixed, passive xover does not allow you to tune the drivers to your listening environment. Your proposed setup will allow you to fine tune the system at the cost of a more complicated system (shouldn't be a big deal for you). As others have mentioned, just make sure you keep your amp/xover params within the driver specs. (As a rule-of-thumb, drivers can handle frequencies higher than spec, but freqs lower than spec can burn up a coil. DC, especially to mid-range and tweeter drivers, is a big no-no.)