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

Hi - I'm considering using the 3-way crossover that is in my head unit (Pioneer DEH-80PRS) and outputing the head unit to a 6 channel amp to run a 3-way speaker system with left & right highs, mids & lows.

I plan on buying a component speaker set and not using the crossover that comes with the speakers, but uning the crossover in the DEH-80PRS instead.

Some sales people have told me that they would only use the crossover that comes withe the speakers, and would not use the crossover that's in the head unit (although they did not explain why).

Doea anyone have any advice?

Are there reasons why using the crossover in the DEH-80PRS would not give results as good as using the crossover that comes with the speakers?

Thanks,

OP

If you use the crossover in your head unit your going "active" and will require a external amp and a lot more time and effort to setup. Where as a passive crossover "the one that comes with your speakers" will require just one channel per side.

Active 2 way will require a 4 channel amp. 2 outputs for tweeters and 2 for the woofers.

My advice, unless you know about octave, and frequencies. Stick to the passive crossover. Also you may want to go with a lower model because you will not need all that the 80PRS can do.

If you want to learn more about active head over to the DIYmobileaudio site its a lot to take in.

Since it sounds to me like you already own both the head unit and the amp, I would definitely run it active off your head unit. It is, as BigA said, more labor intensive to tune this way, but the benefit of having so much more control over your crossover frequencies, and slopes, as well as db levels for each driver is a definite advantage over the passive crossovers.
One thing I do recommend is to find out what the high pass freq. is for your tweeters on the passive xovers, and stay at or above that level to prevent damage to your tweeters.

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

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!!!!

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':ughdance:

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.)