Building a Front stage from scratch

solacedagony · Post by **solacedagony** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 4:52 am

Speak of the devil.
http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/sho ... #post92737
Also, if you decide to electronic crossover, you'll have to decide if you want to go with a 3-way stereo HU or use external processing. The Alpine H701 is definitely a looker for doing a 3-way stereo + sub setup.

subster87 · Post by **subster87** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 11:54 am

o i have looked at those sites alot when i was in to building a home audio set but got stuck on cross overs
i am going active it seems easier just a little more expensive, who makes a good active crossover? i found kickers 3 way to look alright

solacedagony · Post by **solacedagony** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 12:46 pm

check post #10

solacedagony · Post by **solacedagony** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 12:58 pm

Like my previous said, you need to decide if you want to use a 3-way stereo HU and use your sub amp as the sub active processing or find an external processor that has 3-way stereo (plus sub).

subster87 · Post by **subster87** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 2:17 pm

i foudn the one by kicker it is three way and ill allow the sub to crossover on the amp. the kicker takes the front and rear rca and converts them to high mids and low for i think $140. Id was gonna run my current 4 way for the mids and highs, Then buy a 2 channel to run the midbass's. Does that sound like a decent way to go about it?

subster87 · Post by **subster87** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 2:18 pm

wait are you thining about going with a complete processor? or just an external active crossover?

solacedagony · Post by **solacedagony** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 2:32 pm

When you say a 3-way stereo crossover, that means 6 separate channels, not 3 channels. A 3-way MONO crossover would have only 3 channels.
I would personally want some kind of EQ or T/A with my active processing, since it's a huge benefit of going active.

Jonathan · Post by **Jonathan** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 6:30 pm

One thing I would highly recommend is a good book on crossover design. I put a post up the other day about the fact that Madisound is selling the Loudspeaker Design Cookbook for 11 bucks and only $2 and some change for shipping. Great deal.

I too would highly recommend a processor like the Alpine H701. Full control of your system with that one and a pretty nice unit.

The big thing to consider is what kind of money we're talking about working with. The second thing to consider is personal taste. You obviously can't have everything be perfect in a system, but you can pick and choose your favorite characteristics. Would you rather have something geared toward tonal accuracy, precision? Would you rather have powerhandling and dynamics, smoothness at high volume levels? Things like that. What you prioritize will highly affect what your best choices would be. And equally important is the vehicle itself. Certain combinations work best with certain types of design theories. What kind of car do you drive, where do you intend to put the speakers, etc?

Last, that tutorial is not yet finished. I've been pretty busy with work the last few months and haven't written the last portion (which, ironically, is in line with what you're wanting to do now). Somebody PLEASE PM me tomorrow when I've got some time and a fresh mind and remind me to FINISH WRITING THAT TUTORIAL

subster87 · Post by **subster87** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 9:15 pm

solacedagony wrote:When you say a 3-way stereo crossover, that means 6 separate channels, not 3 channels. A 3-way MONO crossover would have only 3 channels.
I would personally want some kind of EQ or T/A with my active processing, since it's a huge benefit of going active.

ok sorry for sounding stupid but if i run one crossover with one rca output for highs, mids and lows, and send one of the channels for each to left and right. Being back set of channels would run say mids, i run the rca to the mids to the rear output on the amp and run the two sets of speakers? that wouldnt work?

solacedagony · Post by **solacedagony** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 4:46 am

When you run active, every driver needs its own channel of amplification. So it'll also need its own signal (RCA). Since we run in stereo, each way will need 2 signals, 2 channels of amplification, 2 driver.
A 3-way plus sub would consist of: Tweeter left, tweeter right. Midrange left, midrange right. Midbass left, midbass right. Plus sub. That's 7 channels of amplification and 7 signals.
I don't really understand what you're message was saying. It's morning too. I don't wake up until lunchtime. Haha.