err umm simply what is active?

i keep hearing that ppl are going active, i wanna go active how?

i did a search here and turned up nothing and im at work and the mcafee poofter **** wont let me look at caa or anything else

Active is ditching the crossover found with "split" speakers, and running them all off an amp. So if you had a typical two way (tweeter and woofer) setup and a 4 channel amp, you'd run the tweeters off two channels and the woofers off the other two.

I don't know much more than this though :P I'm under the impression that if you don't know what you're doing, there's potential to make your speakers sound worse, but if set up properly, you should see (hear?) noticable gains.

actively controlled speakers, mean they are electronically (software), controlled, to tell them what crossover points and slopes they will operate on.

passive, is when they are hardware controlled, capacitors and what not (a crossover), determining the controlling of a speaker.

active is an easy/cheap way to potentially gain quality and control, whereas a high quality crossover (which will cost upwards of $10,000 to design and build), is the best way to go. it will allow for ambient temperature, coil operating temp, crossover component operating temp, and a billion other variables :D

Active really means putting the crossover before the amplifier and having an individual amp per driver. It can be computer controlled but doesnt and isnt usually done that way.

so basicaly i can use my 4ch amp with 2 canels to drive the mid bass and the other 2 to drive the tweeters... and somewhere fit in the x over before the tweeters...


i have response splits in the front and the tweeters are a lil bit harsh, i have had to fiddle around with the eq to get it sounding nice...

i think maybe going active is for a better system than what i have

so basicaly i can use my 4ch amp with 2 canels to drive the mid bass and the other 2 to drive the tweeters... and somewhere fit in the x over before the tweeters...

I think the point is to use the crossovers/filters in the amps, instead of the ones that come with the speakers... correct? :confused:

I think the point is to use the crossovers/filters in the amps, instead of the ones that come with the speakers... correct? :confused:

You can do that but ideally you would use an outboard electronic crossover.

I think the point is to use the crossovers/filters in the amps, instead of the ones that come with the speakers... correct? :confused:


yeah but my front amp is highpassed already anyway so that wouldnt make any difference to the 6.5" driver only to the tweeter..... which would proably try playing more range and blow up lol

very (emphasis on very!) basically, its one channel per speaker.... ie LH tweeter has its own channel, LH woofer has its on channel so on and so forth... basically taking out the factory provided crossover and custom tuning in your own db/octave slopes, cut off points etc... its a bit tricky at first but is very rewarding.... the midbass and smoothness of the tweeter i gained when i went active was so so worth it, i couldnt beleive how much better it sounded with very little tuning, that said i did have some of the best tools on hand to do so (cda9835 and eclipse xa4000... well i think theyre top notch anyway) be warned if your are going active its often a case of 1 step forward 2 steps back i found, but stick with it, when you finally get it sounding right you'll see how totally worth it it was :D
happy tuning :P
tom